From ITALY to CHINA, on the SILKROAD and MOUNT EVEREST BASE CAMP

I did not remember so, ten years ago. Same place, Terminal A of the airport of Brussels, same destination, Milan.  But different conditions. This time is harder.

Because after a year and a half of discussions, planning and estimates, exciting adrenaline takes over, suddenly the emotion, the one that takes your breath away, that prevents you from answering your friend over the phone that says "Good bye, enjoy and have fun, be careful "," how I envy you "...

And you stand, with swollen eyes, unable to answer, wheezing just a" Thank you ... I'll write you... ".

The first leg, the longest in terms of kilometers (960kms), has passed.

After the trip from Borgo San Giacomo to Ancona, and the ferry crossing to the Greek port of Igoumenitsa, at 6 am we are on the highway heading the border with Turkey.

The leg to Tehran was pretty exhausting ... 650 km, with the final rush on the ring road to enter the city, with traffic and imaginative race between cars, whose only target is to be the first in the only available space, pedestrians attempting to cross multiple lanes boulevards, crazy scooters, old trucks spewing clouds of naphtha powder.... and a temperature of 46 degrees at 4pm.  At half way we stopped in Soltaniyeh, to visit the imposing mausoleum Öljaitü, whose dome, finished in 1312, is the oldest double dome in the world.

We travelled over 5000 km in eleven days, and this morning we crossed the border between Iran and Turkmenistan along a beautiful road at 1800m of altitude, almost never meeting a car. 185km of curves, climbs and descents in a wonderful landscape.

We arrived at 9.30am to customs, prepared to face up to five hours of formality.

The Iranians, always friendly and welcoming, have closed all formalities within half an hour.

We left Ashgabat at the end of the morning to travel the approximately 260 km of a line of asphalt in the middle of the arid desert of Turkmenistan and arriving in the vicinity of the Door to Hell, a crater about 70m in diameter created by accident by the Russians in the search for deposits gas. After several attempts, the authorities have refused to turn it off and set fire to prevent an environmental disaster, convinced that it would be sold out in a short time. I'm 40 years burning.

Located at the centre of the main Asian trade routes, during its long history about 2,700 years old, it was part of the Persian Empire, then was under Arab influence, then the Timurid, Uzbek and, in more modern times, was first under the Russian Empire and then part of the Soviet Union until 1991. In the morning we visited the Registan complex, really impressive masterpiece of Islamic architecture dating from the fifteenth century. Also, the spectacular "avenue of mausoleums" adorned with some of the finest works of the Muslim world.

For several we passed through the beautiful Pamir, very remote area, with several villages with whom we've been completely free of electricity, and thus cut off from any form of digital communication. We stayed in guest houses, where people warmly welcome you for few dollars, offering dinner and breakfast. The facilities are really minimal, but very clean. After the Pamir and its mountain pass border at 4600 meters, we passed in Kyrgyzstan, Sari-Tash, a village lost in the middle of the desert, inhabited only by pastures and herds, at 3200 meters of altitude.

We left the big city of Kashgar and its thousands of electric and silent scooters that have replaced bicycles to travel 260 km in the direction of Yecheng, where we arrived for lunch, along a sandy road and particularly soporific. We had to spend the afternoon in the hotel waiting for the police permission to continue towards the border with Tibet. The problem lies in the hours.... We are in the extreme west of China, but all government offices, transport and hotels run under the Beijing time, ie the local time + 2 hours ....

The Kingdom of Guge

In the morning we visited, and climbed not without a great effort, the wonderful site of the Kingdom of Guge. From the 10th century to the early 17s century, Guge was a powerful kingdom in Western Tibet. With its civilization, the kingdom played an important role in Tibetan history in the promotion of Buddhism and resistance to the invasion, particularly by the Kingdom of Laddakh with which he was involved in a fatal war in 1630.

The stop in Lhasa has allowed us to recover a bit, and especially visit the majestic Potala Palace, construction started on the 7th century, residence of the Dalai Lama. We then worked on our motorbikes to  tackle the next 5000 km. Today we continue our journey that will take us in the coming days to the east and then south of Tibet, and then get out and get in Yunnan.

Since two days we are in Yunnan, a region in the southeast of Tibet, much lower and with more summer temperatures. After a night in Deqin, home of the sacred mountain Meili, we went to Shangri-La, where the Tibetan guide greeted us. We continued in Baishuitai National Park, 150 km of green valleys and curves, so many curves, to get to the Tiger Leaping Gorge. At a maximum depth of about 3,790 meters from the river to the mountain peak, Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of the deepest canyons with river and most spectacular in the world.

We stopped at the Centre for Research and Breeding of Giant Pandas, the largest in China. Here they are bred panda cubs and they are studying the characteristics to preserve the species. The Giant Panda in fact it is very easy-going and lazy, basically eats and sleeps, and has fun with his fellows. It is so lazy that needs even to be assisted for reproduction, and the death rate in the first few months is very high. Hence the many care and precautions taken against him. It remains definitely the animal that elicits more sympathy of all.

The ancient town of Pingyao

Maybe I'm not fully realizing what we have done ... Since 53 days we are on our motorbike, we travelled almost 18000 km, now we are having a quiet walk on the Great Wall ...... Tomorrow morning will travel the last 215 km to the port of Tianjin, where we will leave our motorbikes to the shipper, then we will have a few days left to visit Beijing and finish our trip. We start already thinking about how to fix your luggage, spare parts, then return home. It will all be so fast, compared to the frequency we have to almost two months.