Graydon Hazenberg, 2021
424 pages
Amazon Description: In 1998, Graydon Hazenberg, his sisters, and their partners set off on a youthful quest. Seduced by the romance of the loftiest peaks on earth and a road claimed to be the world’s highest, they pedalled out of Islamabad, Pakistan headed for Tibet’s holiest mountain, the pilgrimage site of Mt. Kailash. Had they known how hard it would be on their equipment, their bodies and their willpower, they might have thought twice.
Calling themselves the Xtreme Dorks, the five cyclists pedalled, pushed and hiked their way around, over and through the world’s highest mountain ranges. For three months they persevered despite a frequent lack of food or anything resembling a real road. They followed in the footsteps of previous pilgrims, explorers and mountaineers, passing through remote valleys and wind-scoured plateaux. Along the way they had the privilege of meeting members of some of the cultures that call the Roof of the World home: the Pakhtuns of the Northwest Frontier; the Kalash people of Chitral; the Baltis living around K2; the longlived Hunzakut; the Kyrgyz, Tajiks and Uighurs of western Xinjiang; and the dokpa nomadic herders inhabiting western Tibet.
It was not a straightforward journey. Plagued by frequent equipment failures, recurrent illness, abysmal road conditions and efforts by the Chinese Public Security Bureau to stop them cycling to Tibet, it required real determination to keep the pedals turning in the direction of Kailash. Initial exuberance gradually acquired some of the resolve shown by hardy Tibetan and Hindu pilgrims as the Dorks approached the far-off mountain with glacial slowness. Even once they had reached Kailash and nearby Lake Manasarovar, their troubles were not over, as their onward travel by vehicle towards Lhasa proved every bit as challenging as cycling had been.
Graydon Hazenberg has taken the account of this long-ago pilgrimage and brought it to life in the present, interweaving it with stories of the history and culture of the places encountered along the way. The result is a compelling tale that will entertain seasoned adventurers, cycle tourists, history buffs and armchair travellers of all descriptions. As John Keay, the distinguished British writer of numerous books about the Indian subcontinent’s history, says of Pedalling to Kailash, “It was a brutal marathon, but it makes for an engrossing read.”
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I get a lot of review requests and I turn most of them down, but when Graydon emailed me about this book I hopped on Amazon, read the sample, and had to say yes. This book is so unlike anything I’ve read or experienced for myself. Never in a million years would I dream of doing what this group did! And that was part of what made it so interesting to read.
I learned a couple of things from Pedalling to Kailash. The first thing (y’all don’t laugh at me now or I’ll never be honest with you again) is that Nanga Parbat is a real place. If you’ve ever watched the tv show Arrow you’ll hear them refer to a place called Nanda Parbat(fictional), and I had no idea that there was a real life equivalent at the western end of the Himalayas. I’ve never been good with geography but this realization was pretty embarrassing.
Another thing I learned is how different and yet the same neighboring countries/cultures can be. I haven’t had much opportunity to travel and so it was interesting to read about some of the similarities and striking differences that can be seen just by crossing a border. I did skim over some of the history sections because I was really more interested in the journey itself, but the descriptions of the locations the group travelled through were fascinating.
I really liked the tone of Pedalling to Kailash. Despite the many perils (sandstorms, intense cold, intestinal distress, and countless bike breakdowns) encountered on this journey, Graydon presented the story with humor and represented it as an overall positive experience. I especially liked the origin story of the group’s name:
‘”The Extreme Dorks! That’s what we’ll be!” And the name seemed to fit our mixture of ambition to achieve great feats of cycling and mountaineering and our inability to carry them out without displaying gross incompetence. The name stuck, although with a spelling change, and the Ancient and Fraternal Order of the Extreme Dorks continued through several more Expeditions of Ineptitude.’ – Graydon Hazenberg, Pedalling to Kailash
While I didn’t leave this book inspired to bike across many miles of foreign soil, I did leave it feeling inspired to challenge myself to try something outside my comfort zone. If you are in the mood for a funny travel memoir with lots of beautiful descriptions of scenery and culture, pick up Pedalling to Kailash.