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We were up super early today to get going to the border, but not before we said a very sad goodbye to Rosie, who is leaving us (but may be rejoining later in the trip) and also Enid, who has been advised not to go to high altitude because of low blood pressure. She's going to try to get an individual Chinese visa to join us in Xi'an.

The road up to the border followed the river up a gradually steeper and deeper valley. At places the road was gravel and at one point there was such a sharp corner that we all had to get out and move rocks for about 20 mins to shore up the road so that we could get around it. At another point we had to get out and move some big rocks from the side of the road, but we got all the way through, squeezing through the town of Kodari to the border crossing over the Friendship Bridge. We arrived about 9:30am, got through the Nepali side pretty easily and then even the Chinese side went smoothly. We were all through with our bags and truck by 3pm Chinese time (GMT+8), which is amazing considering last year they didn't let them through for 4 days and Steve says he has waited here for 2 weeks another time. On the Chinese side we met our Chinese guide Sisi, and our Tibetan guide Dopjar. We continued up the windy road up and up the mountainside, waiting for a while when we reached a landslide, until a big machine came and moved a huge rock out of the middle of the road.

It took ages to drive through the town, winding up and up in switchbacks clinging to the side of a mountain. Our original plan was to stop at this town for the night, but they were doing works to the Friendship Highway ahead and it was only open for traffic for a short time each day. There followed the most terrifying drive I have ever had. It was pouring with rain, and as we got higher we got into the clouds so it was impossible to see the drop into the abyss to the left of the truck. We went onto an unpaved section then across a loose landslide section that was held back by steel netting. We drove past a couple of trucks parked on the right by driving so close to the edge that we couldn't see any road on that side. It was very, very scary, but we got through it and onto some paved road with a barrier, and all thanked God (and Adam) that we were alive. We drove on and on and up and up into the dark, eventually reaching a more shallow valley and onto the start of the Tibetan plateau. We stopped for the first night by the side of the road at an altitude around 3600m, which is a bit fast to be ascending but there wasn't anywhere to stop before that. It felt like everything was a huge effort and you get out of breath very easily.

The next morning we headed off and up towards the first pass, but we had to stop while workers laid a section of road. There's a lot of roadwork going on up here - nice new paved sections followed by bumpy roadbase sections. The pass was about 5000m, and a lot of people were struggling with the altitude. I just felt hungover and a bit feverish. The countryside was amazing though - barren hills with only a little grass and in the distance, high snowy peaks. As we dropped down the other side of the pass people started feeling better, and we stopped for the night at a hot springs hotel at about 4300m, close to Tingri. This was still a little high so most people had a pretty bad night tonight. Shane was cooking so I put the tent up as storm clouds rolled in. I must have put it up a bit fast for the altitude because by the time I had finished banging all the pegs in I was completely stuffed and had to crawl in and lie down for a while. Fun times.