They had covered an altitude change of 5,600 m, from 5,300 m above sea level to 300 m below. The temperature had ranged from below zero to over 40 degrees Celsius. The weather had run a violent spectrum as cloudless clear skies turned to rain, hail and snow. Brutal winds blew as they crossed snowy mountains and scorching deserts, but for 15 days they ran on and covered 3,200 kilometers before they reached their goal. The only things they could rely on were themselves and their machines. Their motorcycles brought them to new encounters, and in the end they will remember the deep excitement and satisfaction, the Kando they found every day of the journey.
The support staff also talked about their sense of achievement when the tour was over. There were plenty of uncertainties and worries along the way and the pressure of their responsibilities was great. When the tour ran into snows in the Tanggula Mountains and the riders were succumbing to altitude sickness, they say that they were honestly thinking of ending the tour. Then, during the violent windstorm between Turpan and Urumqi, there was added pressure when their sense of responsibility clashed with the expectations of the people around them.
But, what always drove off these concerns and gave them pride and confidence was the welcoming crowds of people who gathered around the riders at every stop of the tour. And the unfailing reliability and toughness of the YBR125 Tianjian machines were another source of confidence that kept them going.
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Still, there was always the possibility that one mistake could cause disastrous results. Dr. Ji, who came along as the tour doctor, said, “I think there may have been some lack of preparedness and not a serious enough attitude about the dangers of the high altitude, the cold and the rain and snow.” During the toughest part of the raid while crossing the Tanggula Mountains from Yangbajain, there were doubt and tension in the riders and some of them got sick. Although in the end there were no serious illnesses or accidents, Dr. Ji feels that, “We were lucky that fortune was on our side.”
The roads that the tour followed under the deep azure skies were at times tough and rough, and at other times benevolent. And, no sooner had the tour reached its final goal than the members began to talk about the next challenge to plan. In those high-pitched excited voices, you could hear the sense of achievement this raid had brought them.
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The team who ran this touring raid together met many people, and they experienced much and in their encounters with nature in the great outdoors they had opportunities to look at themselves again. The experience of “riding motorcycles” this way had broadened their vision. It had been an intense 15 days of rediscovering things that they normally didn’t notice in daily riding, things like scenery and the lives of the people, the towns, mountains and all aspects of nature in the great outdoors.
Everyone was anxious to get back to their own towns and ride there with these new eyes. The possibilities for encounters and discoveries are always unknown. And it is the unknown that makes the heart fill with emotion. That’s why this challenge is sure to go on and on, as boundless of the great outdoors of China. |
