It took us one longer day of cycling to get from Shaxi to Tiger Leaping Gorge Town. Clara was still with us and we planned our hike through the gorge together as well. We could leave most of our stuff and the bicycles at Jane's Tibetan Guesthouse and started into two amazing days of hiking through the gorge. We had the perfect weather conditions to enjoy the view into the gorge and up to the snowy mountains. The path was nice and rather small and in the beginning we had to climb up quite a bit. Thanks to the off season right now, we were almost alone at all the viewing points and could enjoy them even more. We stayed at the Half Way Hostel for the night (it's not half way though) and had a fantastic view towards the mountains while dinner. After some problems finding the right way, we managed to finde a great path along a crystal clear river the next day. We had to have a quick swim in the freezing cold water (probably around 5°). Around noon time we finished our track at Tibet Guesthouse at Walnut Grove. We were lucky to find some locals who took us to the beginning of the gorge and the hostel where all our stuff was, instead of waiting for the bus in the afternoon.

We spent a great last evening together with Clara as our ways would part the next day. The time together was really great and she could teach us some Chinese for future food orderings. Early next morning we started cycling up the mountain towards Shangri-La. It was around 1500m up on 40km, but we followed a valley in the beginning and the incline wasn't too steep. Still, it took us 5 hours to the top and after a quick noodle soup we kept going for another 4 hours until we reached Shangri-La. The scenery on the plateau was so amazing and different to what we had seen so far that the day didn't feel that long at all. In Shangri-La we had a nice, little hotel right in the old part of the town, where we had a stroll around to find some food for dinner in the evening.

Cold greetings from Eastern Tibet,

Joni, Droni and Vroni