Hello this is Earle Lowe with the Around the World 1999 team with the journal entry report for October 24, 1999. This report deals with the first half of the trip from Golmud to Lhasa. Originally scheduled as a 3-day trip, we decided to drive the entire distance in 2 days from Golmud to Lhasa to pick up some extra time that we spent in Golmud. We left Golmud very early in the morning, preparing for our big drive over both of the very large passes. First is the Kunlun pass, which is at around 15,600 ft. The second is the Tanggula Pass, which is at around 17,000 ft. So we were going through some very high altitudes on this day.

The drive started out quite well on decent road with very little traffic on the way to the Kunlun Pass. After the pass, we reached the pass, the drivers and the rest of the team were doing quite well, and the cars were also performing very well over the Kunlun Pass. Once we reached the Pass, the rest of the next several days would be at over 15,000 ft, right up until the decent into Lhasa.

The plateau that we were driving on is obviously very high and is flanked on all sides by impressive snow capped mountains. We started seeing some nomadic Tibetan people herding sheep and goats and yaks. All the team commented that we had never seen so many yaks and sheep and goats in our lives, except maybe for those of us who have been to Africa.

We arrived at Kotohur around suppertime. This was originally the place we were going to spend the night. However, we decided to press on. We wanted to cross over the Tanggula pass into some lower elevations to spend the night because we were worried about problems with our health dealing with the altitude. By this time everyone was definitely feeling the effects of the altitude, mostly with headaches and several people with nausea. Everyone on the team was taking Dimox, which is an altitude sickness prevention pill. One of the interesting side effects of this pill is that you will feel a tingling sensation in your extremities and we were all experiencing this interesting phenomenon and commenting on it.

It turns out that our decision to continue would be a bad one. As we arrived at the start of the pass at night and hit one of the largest traffic jams you will ever see. Miles and miles of trucks stopped on both sides of the narrow snow filled road. The temperature was rapidly dropping and the altitude at this time at over 16,000 ft was really starting to affect everyone. The traffic jam was mostly caused by the diesel in the trucks becoming too cold to flow correctly. When this happens, the truck driver would stop wherever their rig was on either side of the road, and literally light a fire underneath the gas tank in an attempt to heat up the diesel fuel. We saw this on several occasions with fires burning freely underneath trucks and in cabs. It was the most amazing thing we had ever seen. We do not recommend that anyone try this at home.

Our guides who were with us, whom we met at Golmud, showed remarkable ingenuity in getting trucks to move so that we could pass by. However, at one point their efforts failed and we were completely stuck. We were now quite tired and cold and little bit scared about spending the night on the road at 16,000 ft. There was a solution to our problem, though, and that was to go off-road, down the ditch, onto the snowfield. And so we progressed in this manner. Getting down onto the side of the road was not a problem. However, getting back onto the road turned out to be a rather large problem. Our guides who were in an old Toyota Land Cruiser, got stuck in the snow, and this caused quite a problem. However, Nick Baggarly, managed to get the Alaska Land Rover, with the help of a rear locker, back onto the road. Once he was on the road, he managed to pull both our guide's truck out, and well as the other Land Rover, Hercules.

By the time we got the trucks back on the road it was now 10pm and we hadn't even reached the top of the pass. Several members of the team were feeling quite ill and we were all very worried. The Tanggula pass stretched out for what seemed hundreds of miles, although it is nowhere near that long. We managed to cross over the pass and on to some lower territory, but we were still above 17,000 ft. We were all very exhausted and stopped at a town called Pagnag. We all just crowed into the Dormobiles, which was the first time we slept in the trucks, at around 2am.

We spent a very cold night there at 15,600 ft. Doug had a very interesting experience when we arrived at Pagnag. All our gear was stuck into the guide's truck, but they had left in search of food late at night. So Doug went to find them. He found them in a restaurant, bar sort of deal, in a large room with 20-30 Tibetans seated at a large table with our guides near the stove. All conversation stopped until Doug said 'hello' at which point laughter broke out among the group. Several of the Tibetan truck drivers had been stuck in the traffic jam for four days. So although we were very tired, we were glad to be past our ordeal.

Nick Baggarly, our off road expert, would like to add some details of our off-roading experience during this section of the journey.

Hello campers. This is Nick Baggarly. I'll start off with a question that someone asked. 12-year-old Caliph Page of San Gabriel, CA asks, "What did you do to prepare the people and the Land Rovers to travel over the Tibetan plateau?" Well, Caliph, that's a very good question. We read the journals from the 1997 rally and we spoke with people who have done this before. We also watched the video from the 1997 rally again. Specifically to see how the teams were outfitted and equipped.

Before we arrived in Beijing we stocked up on cold weather gear such as expedition weight polyester long johns, socks, down jackets, fleece sweaters, and that sort of thing. To prepare the vehicles, we had that extra rest day in Golmud. Since the road to Lhasa is mostly paved, we made the call to install a couple of Canan air filters to increase air flow to the carburetors. And yes, we did oil them. We also re-jetted the carburetors with .042 inch jets. That allows you to match the thin air with less fuel for a proper air-fuel mixture.

I'm not sure if Kalif is interested in vehicles. But, I'll give him the whole rundown of what we did. Also, if you're familiar with old Volkswagen buses you might know about Everspotcher heaters. This is a company that is still around under the name of Espar in North America. They have a line of vehicle heaters that run on gas, kerosene, and diesel fuel. We installed a couple of their 12,000 BTU petrol models before we left California. Doug and Todd's do-it-yourself skills came in real handy to pull off the installation, which was more technical than we imagined. We put Earle's electrical skills to the test wiring up the power and thermostat lead. He did a great job.

We told Espar, Canada that we were taking two of their heaters over the Tibetan plateau and they were skeptical that the heaters would work up here. Nevertheless they took our application very seriously, and we thank them for that, and they built two custom fuel pumps especially for this expedition. Espar Products is a Canadian company and we were glad to use a Canadian product on this trip because Earle is Canadian. We're happy to report that they work above 12,000 ft and they've worked up to 14,500 ft.

Now - South, southwest of Golmud, we crossed two major mountain passes that Earle mentioned, the Kunlun and the Tanggula passes, the highest of which was 17,000 ft. The highest pass at Nielum is yet to come. Three or four days ago this pass was closed due to snow and a landslide. But, we're several days off and our guide thinks it will be open by the time we arrive.

At the top of each pass, there is always a Tibetan prayer flag monument. Some of the passes resemble the aftermath of a ticker-tape parade. They are littered with millions of colorful swatches of paper containing Tibetan prayers. Although littered is a poor choice of words because it looks real cool. As Earle mentioned, we did something we're not supposed to do, we drove from 10,000 ft in Golmud, quickly to 13,000 ft and we ended up at the foothills of the Tibetan plateau. Our GPS read 14,000 ft for a while. Finally, we settled out at 15,500 ft where we stayed for most of the day, except for the times we went over those crazy mountain passes.

As Earle mentioned, the 1962 Rover is equipped with an ARV locker. Thanks go to my friend Matt Jackson for helping me install it. Hey Matt, we really used it. The Rovers did well, but I'm beginning to think there is something wrong with the carburetor on the Alaska Rover. It made it though both passes without using low range, though we had to use low range a couple of times to start from a stop when it wasn't safe to pass a stopped truck. Before we left Pagnag our vehicle preparation genius helped me with some vehicle performance calculations. According to his calculations, when the carburetor is at an elevation of 6,000 ft the vehicle would experience a 20% reduction in horsepower, at 12,000 ft a 40% reduction, and a 58% reduction at 17,000 ft.

This had me real worried in Golmud. I didn't know if the Land Rovers would make it over the pass. They are under powered to begin with. They only have 80 horsepower and a 4-cylinder engine to carry an estimated 5,900 lbs. That's what we weigh when we're completely full of fuel, people and gear. Fortunately, it wasn't as bad as I thought. The Canan air filters were a good choice. Although the horsepower is less than half, we simply select a lower gear and keep the revs high, around 3,000 RPMs. That would get us over. One of the gentlemen from the 1997 rally, Andy Mann, gave us some great advice about jet size and timing adjustments as well. Thanks go to Andy for giving us all that advice.

Along the way, as Earle said, we saw lots of trucks preparing to drive over the big pass with fires lit directly underneath their fuel tanks. One man had set fire to a blown out tire because tires stay on fire, as we know from the Modesto tire fire. He moved it underneath one of his tanks to warm the fuel for the Tanggula pass. Diesel fuel has a tendency to gel in cold climates. I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but back home, most diesel stations provide diesel #1, which has anti-gel additives. But here they make do with what they have and you have to admire that. What's funny is that we had to come all the way to China to find vehicles that we could go faster than. The Land Rovers aren't the fastest thing on the road, but here in China we're kind of peppy. We spend the day carefully passing other vehicles.

What else did I want to talk about... We did all that off-roading before the Tanggula pass. That was very exciting. We should have some pictures and video to share when we get home. Hopefully we can share some stuff on the web site. I also want to mention that the Tibetan people are just the friendliest people you've ever met, although Jeff and Doug often talk sarcastically about how mean they are.

This is Nick Baggarly, Around The World 1999, signing off. Thanks for tuning in. Bye bye!