A storm was rolling through all day…even a few raindrops.
Xinjiang
Saturday night scenery.
Eastern edge of the Taklamakan
A-yi
We chit chatted in my room before bed and she made me breakfast. The American gal I am, I went in for 2 goodbye hugs…and she returned them very warmly.
I never did meet the Russian couple that stayed there the night before.
Near Korla, Xinjiang
Strange and excellent cavernous landscape. Xinjiang is not disappointing and it’s getting better and better the further South I go.
Aiding Hu
-162 Meters.
I have now visited the highest (and in the world) and lowest salt water lakes of China.
For the past 4 days I’ve been camping under the G30 and getting over mountains with a headwind. My face is so chapped and windburned – bad.
LOOK MA! I’m not an icicle anymore…look at the exposed fingertips!!!!!
I’m writing this from under the G30, 20km shy of Turpan.
FINALLY!!! Although I was blasted with side and head winds all day. Gotta keep this short…but, damn, it feels good to be a gangsta!
Tailwinds (Approx 80km SE of Urumqi City along the 314)
Lowpoint: Nearly eating shit in the am because of the snow and low visibility. I was fortunate to not wreck, and those split seconds I knew if I wrecked I would have a good chance of getting hit by traffic behind. Also, little point and shoot camera not working because of cold.
Highpoint: A tailwind I’ve never experienced in my life. AMAZING!
Tomorrow’s Banana: Maybe past these mountains.
Food Craving:Hot, homemade bread, by my momma, with butter…sliced really thick….mmmmmm, or maybe with some fresh apple butter.
The morning, first few hours, were hell. Snow. Low visibility. At 1 I stop for lunch, finally my jiucai and ji dan ban mian was the price it should be. I ponder my sanity and drive as I look out the steamed window…moisture rolling down the glass and drops from the ceiling.
The first few hours I’m still in snow but I can see the faintness of a blue sky. A few little climbs over big hills.
I see camels grazing…there is less snow on the ground…the sun is shining and I’m picking up a pretty good pace.
And then…WOW! Talk about a tailwind! I was easily hitting 32km/h on level ground. As trash comes flying behind me and an occasional tumbleweed across my path.
Not only that, the road is mostly a slight descent…some ups but the tailwind pushes me over with great ease.
But, I got hit with the side wind going over train tracks. I had to get off to walk the bike and still was nearly blown over. The wind is ice cold and freezes your face to the bone.
I started my day at noon and ended at 6 (40min lunch)…with a little over 80km in today. This is the kind of riding I’m talking about! Especially when I slept like shit because my legs were in so much pain.
My “luguan”…well, laoban wanted 30 and I said it’s too expensive. As I lift up the bike in the biting cold, he opens the door and tells me to come in and agrees to my 20.
Laobanniang is on the phone and when she gets off to come look at me she is ALL SMILES. Adorable little old lady. She points at herself and says, “Wo shi zhongguoren” (I am a Chinese person). I return a smile, bigger than hers and say, “Wo shi meiguoren” (A am an American person). Then she says, “Zhongguo he ….(I continue with her in unison because I know this line)…meiguo pengyou!” (China and America are friends).
They tell me that last night 2 Russian (man/woman) stayed the night. She told me they are walking. I told them I will probably see them tomorrow.
This may be the quaintest place I’ve stayed yet. Super cute. My table is an old, brown, steel sewing machine. No tv…it’ll be a book this evening.
I did wise up and the past 3 days I’ve been carrying my water in my jacket pocket. It’s useless to be carrying blocks of ice. Also, I think my Ortleib hooks are getting pissed at me for getting so cold. Yesterday I wrestled with one on the ground, and again today.
Notes for cyclists: Maps say it’s 312 but the road markers say 314…be aware of this. Not a lot of directional road signs either, just stay on the road that looks well traveled. There are about 3 turn offs from Urumqi that are questionable.
There are little ghost towns/rows of concrete buildings along the way…could make a good place to camp/squat/get out of the wind. I didn’t examine too much but some places had open doors. *The wind can get insane. I’ve been warned over and over about it…so be cautious. I was being thrown all over the road when it was coming from my side.
What would YOU do at the “Center of Asia”?
I made yellow snow…well, not on the center…about a meter away. When nature calls…and well, there is an opportunity to say, “I pee’d at the Center of Asia!” – how can you resist?!
Both cameras are non-functioning in the cold. I was able to warm up the Nikon D700 to get a couple of shots and the point and shoot wouldn’t let me use the timer. Every time I would turn it off, and then back on, it would be reset.
Couldn’t help but think of my artist pal, Stephen Talasnik.
It was a ride down (then a climb) to the “Center” and even saw a frozen tear on my eyelash. No, I wasn’t that moved by where I was going…the wind was being mean to me.
I’ve been riding UP for the past two days, along the 216.
Yesterday was rough, I realized how out of shape I was.
Today, well…um.
So, after visiting the Center of Asia I continue South and I know I need to cut off to get off this route. There is no way I’m going to live through a 4000m pass in the middle of February. I am pretty sure I would freeze to death. My cameras can’t even handle this cold.
I got in close to 60km today and a hearty lunch and I’m looking desperately for the turn off. Something is very strange. There should be signs but I see nothing.
After a couple of baby climbs today, and then watching a crazy ass looking dog run a kilometer down the mountain to come eat my face off, I pulled over to the police checkpoint.
I gave in. The sun was setting an my options were bleak. I saw nothing ahead…except one or two dump trucks with coal. Not even locals.
“Excuse me, I need to find some accommodation tonight. Ahead or behind and how many kilometers.”
“Ahead, you can’t go, the road is very very bad. It’s not safe. You should go back.”
“How many km behind.”
“40”
Quick math…shit, that’s taking me back where I slept LAST NIGHT!
I can’t freeze to death…I don’t know if I could make it through the night.
“Okay, thank you.” Now, if I wasn’t freezing I would of gone on and said screw it…but this is my life I’m talking about.
As I begin to turn around.
“If you wait a moment, you can put your bike in the back of the pickup truck and we can give you a ride.”
Oh hell yes!
The bike gets thrown over some frozen vomit and I pile in with an officer and his two adorable children. Something is different about their appearance. The boy has brown hair. His name is Jerry and he is 6…Alice is 10. Their English pronunciation is fantastic and Jerry starts chatting in English from the beginning. Dad is giving Alice a speech in Chinese about how she needs to practice and she says she can’t and he repeats, very gently and even loving…”yes, you can do it yourself…you can.”
It turns out he is Hazu (Kazakh minority) and his wife, their mother, is Russian! Beautiful children.
We pass the road I should of taken to cut over and he tells me the road is bad. Still mountains and the roads are not paved. These are the roads I LOVE when the weather is warm and the locals spend their free time sitting about.
In winter…no one is around, no one to ask for directions, no one to sit with and have a picnic with. Right now, my mission is to get out of this cold. Especially when my camera is malfunctioning.
He gets me to last nights town and he offers to take me back to Urumqi…as the other route is “fangbian”.
It takes me 2 minutes to “cut my loss” and I say, “okay, lets go!”
So, here I am, on the Southern tip of Urumqi…where I’ve lived for the past 2 months.
I’ve been thinking all day if I should just cut my losses and turn back and do it. From the maps, it was showing no towns of any kind. Little villages along the way but not even restaurants.
I HATE backtracking…it’s probably my #1 of stuff I DON’T DO. But…I guess, we can say it takes more guts to cut my losses and realize I could die if I were to continue on that insane road up and over the Tianshan mountains.
Shepherd. He was looking at me strangely so I flash my big ol’smile and give him a nice American “Hello”. He returns the smile and “Hello” from his amazing 5 o’clock shadow.
I thought boys on bikes made me weak in the knees…Uyghur cowboys are a whole other story. I’ve told some people I can’t buy my naan from handsome men because I blush too much. Yeah, I need to get a hold on that one.
This is where I should of turned off to head East…this was across the road.
And, see, I told you “zhusu” walls are the best. This was next to my head. I’m trying to figure out if it’s homegrown porn and then what’s the deal with the foot print like 1 meter from the ground? Click on the photo for a larger image.
Maybe they were stomping the Hepatitis out!