4280

Quiet morning at the hotel. Did get a bit late to bed after KTV and then midnight Skype with Mikkel's parents. Breakfast at the hotel with the usual funny Asian/Western mix of cake, noodles, congee, sprite and stirfry.

Left the hotel for a drive to Urumqi to visit a museum with mummies and then directly to Heavenly Lake for a yurt camp. Or that was at least the plan. 

In order to short cut a 550 km highway drive our trusted guides chose an alternative route. In the beginning it was just a nice drive and we enjoyed a very good lunch next to a river. Beautiful setting. The idea was still to continue and be in Urumqi in the afternoon to visit the museum. But the road started to turn into a steep mountain road and in the afternoon we were looking at snow covered peaks, the tarmac turned into gravel roads many kilometres ago. When we got to the top and crossed the mountain pass - at 4280 meters! - a little snow was falling. Going down was at least as impressive (or scary) as going up. At least ten switchbacks. Let's just say some were very excited about the ride - it was beautiful - others were scared (including one of the M's writing this blog) because the road was very narrow and the valley was far far away. 

After many turns and at a lower altitude we had a break to enjoy the impressive mountain view – and then there was more fun because we were nowhere near “down”. The gravel road continued for 50 kilometers at least driving through an impressive gorge. Traffic picked up a bit with other trucks going up and down, but the drive continued to be impressive and beautiful. Occasionally there would be smashed trucks or cars at the bottom of valley for those poor unlucky guys that forgot to turn at the right corner. But it was maybe the most fascinating drive of the whole trip (One of the M's would still have liked to be without the short cut).

We finally arrived at a hostel in Urumqi at 21:30 in the evening. Not according to the itinerary since we were supposed to yurt at Heavenly Lake but it wasn't possible to reach it that day. A long driving day done. Overlanding is full of surprises.

View from hotel

Asian breakfast

Nice valley drive

A bit of snow on the mountains in the distance

Closer to the snow on the mountains

That's the road we're aiming for

Looking at the mountain road half way down