I have posted a few photos of the last few days to try and portray the variety of landscapes I have cycled through from Lijiang to Deqin but they dont seem to do them justice but then again photos rarely do, on that same note here is a picture of me. This was on top of my first 4000 metre pass, 4267 metres to be precise after 2 nights of camping in torrential rain and a 52km (20 of which were on cobbles), 2300 metre vertical ascent from the gorge of the youthful Yangtze river which unfortunately due to its force there were no cormorant assisted fisherman, nor cormorants, nor fishermen so maybe my childhood books were telling me lies, best not to think about it. Excuse the rambling I believe only the members of my insular family will have any idea what the hell I am talking about so back to the importancies. The Himalayas of this particular region seem to go up in very different phases of climate and flaura, not wanting to over simplify this immence natural beauty I believe it the best way to describe:
2000-3000- arid desert like river gorges with very little greenery to note but towering walls of varying dusty browns surrounding you at every angle.
3000-4000- depending where you are this altitude is either huge plains inhabited mainly by yaks, lucky blighters (that is unless they are dried then they are very tasty blighters) aswell as a beautiful collection of wild flowers and the inevitable grass. the other option is Alpine slopes covered in various types of pine trees but also with a plethora of different coloured wild flowers, I believe this to be your favourite altitude mum, also the campers due to the large amount of desirable pitching areas.
4000-5000- Coming out if the Alpine reaches and in to big mountain stuff, I have seen mountains today the colour of which nearly rival those of the Andes, bright copper reds, oranges and for the first time metallic silver alot of them look straight from Mars, or perhaps Mars looks like it comes straight out of the Himalayas, a rather pointless argument.
4500-6000- Finally reaching the white stuff, glaciers, glaciers and more glaciers, they make the Tignes glacier look like something that fell out of my freezer.

These last descriptions are all a little blazee and I am sure anyone who has been to this area before can nit pick a fault in every single altitude category but I am rather rushed for time and posess a limited capacity for the english language so by no means is this descripion gospel.

I have so much more to tell of the past week besides the scenery but I will finish with a farewll for the timebeing as I am about to cross the border in to unchartered waters well illegal waters to be more precise so like some kind of western fugitive i have to avoid towns during day for the next week or so, so the federales (PSB) dont catch on to me. I am sure it is not that bad but it adds a bit of excitement and saves the hassle of being sent back to Kunming with a fine lightening my pockets. So my last night in a bed potentialy untill Lhasa so it shall be enjoyed. If you want to conclude this e mail by humming "man on the run" by wings I believe, by all means do so, because it is what is going through my head at the moment.