Jul
21
2009
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It is an awesome bus, very smooth and excellently driven. So once the tyre is fixed we make good speed and head high into the mountains – passing slower traffic easily and quickly. All of a sudden though we come to a roadblock and the bus slows to a stop again. There has been a landslide and workers are suspended in harnesses high above the road to hack away at the loose earth letting it crash to the road to be cleared away. Traffic is stopped in both directions while this operation unfolds. We all head up onto the grassy hill by the road and wait in the sun, we are there for about an hour until a siren sounds, the men haul their way back up their ropes to a makeshift platform they’ve carved out of the muddy hill and traffic is allowed slowly past this obstruction – we’re off again, Lijiang is only hours away. (On and off the bus again from Zhong Dian to Lijiang 21 July)
Rough Edge, Adventure, Logistics, Breathtaking, Wales,
DofE Gold, Expedition, |
Comments Off on The bus off and on | tags: adventure, breathtaking, Brecon, DofE, DofE Gold, expedition, Expediton, Gold, logistics, mountain, muddy, ropes, Rough Edge, Student, Wales
Jul
21
2009
Heading south from Shangri La about an hour into the journey there is a loud bang. The driver slows to a halt and his sidekick steps down from the bus to see what has happened. The bus has had a blowout on one of the rear wheels. Thinking about it now, I am quite glad it happened on the long straight flat road across the plain from Zhong Dian and not in the mountains through the pass down to the Haba range. Anyhow, there is much discussion, one incredibly small looking jack to hold the wheel aloft (people still in the bus and free to come and go both in and out of the bus throughout)… It takes about 20 minutes to fix and we are on the way again – heading south towards Lijiang and for me the place I am to be reunited with some of my travel baggage – left behind before Wenhai and the trek to Tiger Leaping Gorge… Onwards. (On the bus from Zhong Dian to Lijiang 21 July)
Rough Edge, Adventure, Logistics, Breathtaking, Wales,
DofE Gold, Expedition,
1 comment | tags: adventure, breathtaking, Brecon, DofE, DofE Gold, expedition, Gold, logistics, mountain, Rough Edge, Student, Wales