What an absolutely atrocious day we have had. 7 hours of bone jarring traveling in minivans, Simon sick as a dog and the curse of the camera striking again.

It started out with Sim waking up with some sort of flu in the middle or the night. By morning it had developed into the worse case he has had in years. He was feeling horrible, but we were desperate to get out of Litang so instead of bundling Sim into bed for the day we chose to move on. It must have been from the bed – The sheets did not look clean and possibly the previous tenant on Sim’s bed was a day away from death.

Change of plan with the mini driver telling us he could only take us to Yajiang. We would have to transfer to another bus once we got there. It took us 3.5 hours to travel along 140km of very bumpy road that rollercoastered up and down mountains. We are getting bored describing how bad the roads are in China – let’s just say that in a mini-van with ‘go-kart’ sized wheels they feel far worse than in a bus. About an hour into the ride the driver took on more passengers so in addition to us and the two monks already in the van 4 more people plus luggage were added. The 4 of us sitting on the back bench made the remainder of the even more uncomfortable and cramped.

When we arrived at Yajiang we were bundled into another minibus controlled by the most sadistic madman in transportation and sandwiched between 6 other passengers plus a toddler. So again there were 4 of us on the back seat. But his time there was no room for our packs anywhere except on our laps. I cannot describe how awful this part of the trip was, more so for poor Sim who was already feeling like death without having a further 2 hours of what I can only call torture.

We bounced over every bump, lump and pothole in the road, our bums repeatedly leaving the seats and heads frequently hitting the roof. The driver didn’t give a damn about slowing down or trying to avoid any of the sharper jolts and indeed seemed to take delight when our heads hit the roof of the van. Sim, who had been quite all day with his eyes closed save for the odd groan, broke silence swearing loudly at the driver every time he crunched full tilt into an obstacle. We hope he understood the English. He deserved every curse. [Sim: I would loved to have smashed his stupid little face through a windscreen by the end of the trip]. We passed through towns along a vicious raging river that was frightfully at at eye-level from time to time. The kind of scenes you see on CNN when there is footage of an apartment complex collapsing into a river. Along sections the military where out rebuilding sections of the road and reinforcing the dykes as traffic continued to weave past. It was a very bad experience. By the time we reached XinduQiao it felt like our someone had pulverized us with a jack hammer. We would have been in better shape if we had spent 4 hours in the ring with an angry Mike Tyson ! Plus we were severely dehydrated as it was impossible to do anything except hold on for dear life. By far the worst part of our journey so far.

We sat on our packs on the pavement barely a metre from where the driver dropped us off and had to gather ourselves, eat and drink before searching for a ride to our final destination. Simon was by now feeling completely knackered but the end was almost in sight. Just another 30 or 40 km to go to Tagong.

This time thankfully there was some recently constructed super smooth concrete to drive on part of the way. It was bliss. I even managed to enjoy a little bit of scenery along the way. Lots of hills with thousands of colourful prayer flags, beautiful looking houses. It was just pretty.

Tagong is a bit ugly but a vast improvement on Litang. About 5 minutes after arriving Sim realized he didn’t have the camera on him. Usually it gets clipped to the day pack but he had unclipped it to take a photo and somewhere between getting in the van and taking our jackets off neither of us thought to clip it back on. Both knackered from the long drive neither of us noticed we had dropped it in the van until it was too late 🙁 The driver had carried on along the road and we spent about 2.5 hours waiting at the side of the road hoping to spot him on his way back. No such luck 🙁

We think we have backed up all the photos up till Shangrila and we don’t think we took too many of interest after that. It’s just so depressing to have gone through 3 cameras in just over 3 months. Sim feeling so sick is feeling particularly bad about losing the camera this way. I guess we are going to have to buy another camera, in Chengdu probably. We are both annoyed and saddened over this.

Sim is finally in bed dosed up with whatever meds we could find in our packs. The hostel, although better than Litang’s, is very basic and not really comfortable. No Internet, no electric blanket, shared bathroom. We will see how Sim feels in the morning. If he feels up to it we will try to move onto Chengdu as quickly as possible where we can be guaranteed some comfort for him to recuperate properly (and me if I catch whatever he has by then). If he is still really bad, a solid day in bed will be better for him.

Taking a loop north to get back to Chengdu has been a total disaster. The places are supposed to be amazing for views and day walks but we have been plagued with terribly cold and wet weather. The travel time and conditions are also so bad that you need time to recuperate in between each leg but we are on a tight schedule and can’t stop long. Add to that getting flu at over 4000m and losing our camera – you see what I mean !

[Pictures: Prayer flags on the hills above Tagong – construction cranes in the foreground – typical]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi