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Adventure goes through China and Tibet

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Through China to the north face of Mount Everest on a motorcycle was like National Geographic live for Ted Kierstead.

The Point Edward resident spent three weeks on the 4,000 kilometre trek with seven fellow riders including his daughter Robin.

“It wasn’t a holiday. It was an adventure,” said Kierstead who retired from the Chemical Valley in 2000.

When they arrived at a viewing point for Everest, it was a clear day but snow was being whipped around the summit.

“It nearly blew my mind . . . a sacred mountain,” said Kierstead.

It took a year of planning including obtaining of three travel visas. Arrangements had to be made to secure a bike for his journey in China and working with fellow riders to secure “fixers”.

Fixers, a more hands-on person than a guide, included one Chinese person and one Tibetan. Fixers literally fixed things as in bike repairs and finding a person who could do the work. In this remote part of the world fixes were needed for a bike with wheel bearing problems and a broken alternator.


Riders on the road to Mount Everest (Submitted Photo)

Rather than delay the ride waiting for parts, the wheel with bearing problems was removed at the roadside while the bike was propped on a rock. It was carried into a village aboard another bike. In the village a machinist, described by Kierstead as being like a blacksmith, had a press to put spare bearings in the wheel, a 30-minutes process.

The alternator repair was handled by a fixer equipped with a spool of copper wire. New wire wound onto the alternator got the bike back on the road. It would be an unheard of repair at a typical bike repair shop.

The trip was hard on the riders as well as the bikes.

In many spots, the winding two-way road was a lane and a half wide with a lengthy drop on one side and a rock mountainside on the other.

“It was the most challenging ride,” said Kierstead who has also ridden through Cambodia and the western Sahara.

Winding roads are the only way for vehicles to scale the mountain terrain. On one mountain pass there were 92 hairpin turns and 1,000 curves. Road repairs to handle missing sections are done with heavy equipment pounding around the adjacent ground leaving a dusty dirt detour.

Many times riders would be faced with transport trucks emerging from a cloud of dust at these detours.

On longer detours riders would be taken through roads that were rock-filled creek beds.

With all of that effort Kierstead remained smilingly descriptive of it as a “fabulous trip.”

That description came from the charming people and different food Kierstead experienced.

“I have never eaten so well, everything was garden fresh, prepared by street vendors,” said Kierstead.

There were many times Kierstead was not certain what he was eating as items like dried caterpillars are considered a delicacy.

Whenever they stopped the riders were surrounded by curious villagers unfamiliar with westerners and big motorcycles.

One weathered Tibetan woman initially scowled at Kierstead who replied with a smile and a wave. She reacted immediately by pulling her iPhone from her cloak and snapped a photo of the friendly visitor.

Kierstead also got many people photos including those who wanted selfies with the visitors. They wanted to sit on the motorcycles and try on the riders’ helmets.

In the cold of the early morning and straining for air in the higher altitudes Kierstead would hear himself breathing in his helmet. Through the frost he felt like he was looking out on a different planet.

“You’d swear you were on Mars,” said Kierstead.

Mars might be a big leap for the next trip but Kierstead doesn’t know the where or when of his next adventure.

But he said there will always be one.

nbowen@postmedia.com

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