We had decided to rest and acclimatize an extra day in Subashi, so logically Luc and I rode our bikes up a small mountain close by in the morning and then later on to Base Camp and back (a two-hour ride up), just to see how badly we could make ourselves feel. Jim, Stijn and Peter tackled some of the 5000-meter mountains nearby. Martin had not yet arrived as he was still cycling the 204km between Kashgar and Subashi. Yes, the nut had decided that cycling from Kashgar to Base Camp would be a great way to acclimatize! Nevermind how tired he would be just trying to get here...

That evening, Luc and I went on our third bike ride of the day, this time to Karakul Lake (12km away), where we got confirmation that the camels would be at our camp the next morning. On the morning of July 29th, just before the camels were to arrive, we had our first and only major crisis of the expedition: Peter was showing all the symptoms of pulmonary edema, and was definitely not a happy man. He had to be brought down to a lower altitude quickly. Stijn, being his regular climbing partner, volunteered to accompany him down to Ghez, a checkpoint between Kashgar and Subashi at 2,600 meters. We agreed that the four of us would go to Base Camp first and wait for them there, if and when Peter recovered.

At around noon, we all took off. Jim accompanied the camels and the luggage on foot, Luc and I went by bike. However, about halfway into the climb the two of us got stuck in front of a river, which had become too fast and too deep for us to cross safely with our bikes; as you know, these rivers always swell in the afternoons because of the melting snow coming down from the glaciers.

So we waited for the camels, had the bikes roped onto them, and crossed on the back of a mule. Disaster almost struck when our mule nearly collapsed and could just barely keep itself from throwing us all into the gushing river!