There is a deep sigh and an attempt for a morning motivating talk. Cold, always cold.
Load up and I’m on the road around 12:30. View of YiWu from the Southern part of the city.
Continuing a descent down the Tianshan Mountains. I can feel the weather getting a little warmer and skies clearing. Early afternoon I find myself in the desert with the snow capped Tianshan behind me.
It’s beautiful smooth tarmac but falls off at one point and I’m on gravel and dirt and dust. I kind of love this because it could mean I’m going off the grid but another half hates the dust in my eyes/lungs/mouth and the far from smooth ride. Some locals give me a strange look, I ride through an area of trees, brown and barren for the winter. In my mind, I imagine the Spring, the place filled with green and life. Their is a small creek winding through the valley. After a couple hairpin turns in gravel, I find myself back on tarmac. Far off, I see smog, a town, and a straight road leading down into this basin. All reminding me of my straight ride to Erlianhaote, the border town to Mongolia…where it seemed to take forever, straight and against the wind.
Edge of town, industrial with coal trucks, oil and gas trucks, and some sort of plant pumping smoke into the hazed sky. I find an over priced bingguan, eat, and pass out after carbo loading on some pre-packed bread from the market. This leg of the tour feels very sluggish, can’t I just hibernate through these months.
I am on the edge of the Gobi, that’s kind of cool…and I guess there is some sort of petrified forest a little West of town. The photos advertising the place shows a vivid blue sky with orange twisted trees. I have a bit of doubt, but I’ll check it out tomorrow.
Naomaohu Xiang is historically the first stop where traveler’s coming from Mongolia via the Great Gobi and Eastern China via China’s side of the Gobi could find water and rest. It’s just a little outpost, a little more than a village, less than a town.