Mick “Mekong” O’Shea Has Arrived At The Headwaters: He’s on the Tibetan plateau, 5224 meters above sea level and on the backside of nowhere, ready to attempt the first descent of the great river. First he has to recover from his backcountry trek, which included confrontations with killer dogs, a mighty stubborn yak, and a pit-stop to try and save the life of a herder who had taken a Yak horn through the mouth. Already it’s an adventure and here’s an excerpt from Mick’s dispatches, recounting a visit with some locals:

We sat around a stove of smoldering yak dung and heard of how wolves had taken some seven sheep the previous night and that bears would periodically come down from the mountains after the winter hibernation to terrorize locals and take livestock. With April being the end of winter I suddenly felt a little less paranoid about bringing a 14 inch machete for the nights alone in the wilderness. After thanking the herders for their time and the copious amounts of slightly rancid yak butter tea we pushed on and just as the sun sank behind distant mountains we arrived at a herders’ winter settlement on a vast plain covered in snow.

Ummm, “copious amounts of slightly rancid yak butter tea.” Mick’s really hanging it out there, isn’t he…?



“Christ, this yak stinks..And I thought the kayaking would be the hard part.”