Shufu

After keeping out of trouble in Tashkorgan for the next 24 hours, and spending a day wandering out on the grasslands, it was time to head back to Kashgar.

Two days earlier we had arranged with a driver of a ute to give us a lift back to a spot on the map (couldn't really call it a town) called Bulungkoi when the time came. Bulungkoi is about 130 kms back down the road towards Kashgar and as our travel plans had now changed somewhat, and there wasn't a lot of point in cycling over the same ground again, the ute seemed like a good option.

On the day of our departure the driver did not show up at our hotel at the agreed time so after a short wait we loaded up the bikes and went looking for him. He was easy enough to find as, like many of the utes and trucks up here, his was a vehicle for hire and he would take us pretty well anywhere we wanted to go for an agreed price. We'd find him either at the local bus station where we found him in the first place or somewhere nearby. He was in fact half way between the hotel and the bus station in the town centre and was glad to see us when we eventually showed up.

Originally we'd agreed on a price of 200 yuan to take us to Bulungkoi but, as expected, the asking price changed to 300 when we arrived already packed and clearly keen to get going. 300 was actually a pretty reasonable price, and one we had been quoted by a number of different drivers in the last few days, but we argued the point anyway and quickly settled on 250.

With the gear loaded in the back of his Mitsubishi Pajero (he wasn't driving the ute we had seen previously) we were on the road in no time and Tashkorgan was shrinking into the distance. It was an enjoyable feeling speeding over a road we had slogged along just a few days ago - a kind of guilty pleasure that could have been very easy to get used to. Had the road between Bulungkoi and Kashgar been a thigh burning climb rather than the screaming descent and flat that it was, we may well have given in to temptation and offered up the extra 300 yuan it would have cost to drive all the way.

The day was clear, much clearer than it had been on the ride up, and Mt Muztag Ata dominated the view from the front of the car for most of the trip. As Neil and I repeatedly oohed and aahed over the splendour of the site before us our driver saw his opportunity and offered to take us off the main road for a closer look for and extra 50 yuan. The opportunity to see Muztag Ata's many glaciers from a closer vantage point was too good to pass up so we readily agreed and our driver ended up bagging the 300 yuan he'd been asking for just an hour ago. He'd have done very well upselling at McDonalds.

A little further on, at the top of the 4000 metre pass we had dragged ourselves up a few days ago, we turned off the road and drove over a rough dirt track for about 6 or 7 kms in the direction of the mountain. A few light flakes of snow were drifting around and heavy clouds were starting to close in but the view from this point remained clear and was well worth the extra money. Muztag Ata is probably the most walkable (though I am sure that is a naive understatement) 7000+ metre peak in the world. One side of it, the side we were looking at, has a gentle slope that climbs evenly and uninterrupted from the valley floor all the way to its 7546 m top. In Kashgar for the right money (plenty of it) anyone can arrange an ascent trip up Muztag Ata and we had seen photos of people skiing its massive slope and even mountain biking on it. It left me wishing for tons more time and cash.