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Richard. His Jones. Everest.

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Dear Jeff

I just wanted to say that I had a wonderful trip on my Jeff Jones across the Himalayas from Tibet to Nepal during September. I hope I’m your first customer to ride one of your bikes to the north face Everest base camp in Tibet. The bike was simply brilliant and I enclose a few photographs. It was a marvellous experience, on a marvellous bike – so thanks a bunch, Jeff.

Mr Jones at Base Camp

 

Everest Sunset
Returning from Mount Everest Base Camp
Rock strewn pass at Lamma La, northwest of Everest
Mr Jones at Base Camp (yes, Everest in the background – Truss-fork-framed)
Tibetan village boy proudly shows off his own bike
Above the turquoise Yamdrok Lake – one of the most sacred lakes in Tibet
Me (Richard) with my Jones at Base Camp
Heading toward the Himalayan plateau
End of the road – Kathmandu, Nepal

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We spent a few days acclimatising in Lhasa, Tibet, before we set out along the Friendship Highway, heading across the Himalayas bound for Kathmandu, Nepal. The full trip was about 600 miles with a sequence of 15,000ft passes at the biggest peaks – Kamba La (15,728ft), Karol La (16,551ft) and Gyatso La (17,217ft). It finished with the longest descent in the world – a 12,000ft sweep from Tong La down into Nepal.

The air was so limpid, the sun so intense, all the colours were rendered a super-saturated technicolour. Off-road we trekked across old glaciers, teeth chattering riverbeds littered with rocks. It was beautiful, stark, austere. Back on the road occasional convoys of 4x4s full of Chinese tourists charged past kicking up clouds of choking dust.

Truth be told, I’d chosen something of the soft option: nobody can get a visa to ride alone in Chinese-occupied Tibet these days, so I was part of a guide-led trip organised by Exodus Travel with 11 riders and a support truck, carrying the cooking and food supplies. Improvements to the Chinese highway now mean the trip is only 25% properly off-road.

The altitude was niggling at times but it only seemed to produce tunnel vision and a bit of a throbbing head. At night you might wake suddenly with heart racing. The effects eased if you drank three litres of water a day and as long as you didn’t race each other it was fine. Tibetans are a wonderfully hospitable people and most welcoming to any stranger riding the mountains. We slept in guest houses or private homes.

At Everest base camp (16,900ft) we watched horsetails of snow spume fountain off the peak and the sun set on the Tibetan north face, a deep custard yellow hardening into a dark bronze. Just behind us was Rongbuk monastery, the highest and most remote in the world. So, so beautiful. Thanks for getting me there, Jeff.

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