We took a group of 10 clients -international school teachers in Hong Kong – on a Fall Break trip to the Tibetan Plateau. It was an absolutely amazing experience! We spent 3 nights in Kangding. We visited the beautiful, snowy mountains of Yajiageng. We hiked to Dacaoba, a 3-hour journey filled with stunning views. In the evening, we had a delicious Tibetan dinner and joined local Tibetan dancing at Kangding square.
On the fourth day, we drove to Zhonglu, a village in the mountains above Danba county town. On the way, we stopped to ride Tibetan horses in Tagong. The teachers enjoyed the fascinating grassland scenery as we trotted alongside Yala Mountain and Tagong monastery.
We spent 2 nights in Zhonglu. It is such a breathtaking and peaceful place to visit. We explored the village, and visited an 800-year-old local house where we learned about traditional Tibetan architecture. We hiked to a nice hillside from which we could see a view of the whole village. We also enjoyed fresh and organic fruits. Staying in Zhonglu was a highlight of the trip for all the teachers.
The final 2 nights the teachers explored Chengdu, where they saw the pandas and got a feel for the city through a bamboo bicycle tour. It was their first time to ride a BAMBOO bike and they were so excited about it. We had Sichuan HOT POT and local beer during our farewell party the last night.
Everyone felt it was the trip of a lifetime, and they kept telling us that Extravagant Yak is such a gift to them. We felt honoured and overjoyed to show them various unique and beautiful cultures and places.
Jim and Abu were out in Eastern Tibet’s backcountry earlier this month for some route development work. Sometimes it's hard to believe we get to call this work! This is what Jim had to say about the trip:
Due to an intriguing inquiry last fall from a group of 30 mountain bikers interested in an 8-day backcountry ride through Eastern Tibet, Abu and I spent a few days last week in the Kangding area checking our favourite routes and exploring a few new ones as well.
Some of the lower valleys were already being touched by spring as we enjoyed green meadows and the opportunity to see the trees just beginning to bud. This is one of our favourite routes that access the backside of Yala mountain, an alpine wonderland of peaks, forests, and tranquillity.
Despite a little bit of inclement weather, the most exciting discovery this time out was some ridge riding up around the Tagong area. After some hard work pedalling up over 4000m we were thrilled to find some fabulous single track formed by local traffic: yak, sheep, nomads, and motorcycles!
The great riding was complemented by distant views of both the Yala and Minya Konka (Gongga Mountain) mountain ranges. The only human encounter we had this day was a friendly chat with a local monk who was out in the hills herding his yaks.
A representative for this large group of riders flew into Kangding for a few days to see what we had to offer. For a guy representing a group looking for a week of fantastic riding with minimum encounters with civilization, he was not disappointed. We look forward to hosting this testosterone-heavy fraternity of riders in October this year!
