The Wilds of China

May 1st-7th is a National Holiday, so no school for a week. Amazingly intricate plans to go to the south were semi-formulated, then tossed aside as I remembered what a horror travelling was last May holiday. Everyone goes everywhere, either home to their families, or just to wander about. The trains are somewhat similar to cans of sardines, and of course we would get that extra special 'happy holiday' special friend price for everything from a hostel to a bowl of noodles. So, we went camping.

We tried to persuade David and Cecelia to come with us, as they had been adamant that they would enjoy it. But when it came to the crunch, various mumblings about the fact they didn't have the right egg-carrying contraption were heard from behind their beers. Jocelyn and Joakim said they would come, but would have to join us on the Thursday, as they had a very important wedding to attend (plus free food). So, the weekend was spent buying our own egg-carrying contraption, packing and repacking, finding the lightest of everything I have.

Tuesday morning, I was a bit nervous. Not of the hiking, but of the trying to get to the place to hike from. There's a little village about three kilometres outside Tang Yu (where we went last weekend), and from there we have to persuade someone to take us up into the hills, near the farmers house where we went for our daytrip into the countryside with CCS, all those many moons ago. When we got to the bus station, there were about 200 people queuing up for the Tang Yu bus. Well, they call it a bus, it's a ten-seater rusty old minibus that they squeeze 27 people onto. And we had Artemis, who kept on getting kicked in the ribcage by little boys who don't know how to treat animals. They really are terrible with pets here, all the girls are terrified of dogs, or at least pretend to be in order to increase their femininity. All the grown-up business men whistle or shake their keys at them, then get angry when the dog goes up to them, and poke them with their dusty, pointy pimp shoes. The little old ladies feed them constantly, especially dates. Which is very exciting when the dates are unstoned, Artemis feels great after those. At least that should teach her not to be so greedy, but it seems to have had no effect just yet. And most of the kids try and push them over with their feet. Most of the other dogs here are yappy, snappy gits, but this is completely understandable when you see how they are treated. Even their owners are jumpy around them! Anyway, Artemis was being fed and kicked simultaneously, as we shuffled through the dust inch by inch closer to the bus. Luckily, the buses come one after the other, so we only has to wait about 15 minutes for the mass of people to disappear. When we got the the front, the very important man who counts the people as they get on recognised us from last week, and gave us big smiles. Luckily he was on our side, as there was a bunch of people trying to queue-barge. Even though the busman was physically pushing them back, there was no way they were getting on the bus, they were still trying to force their way through my backpack onto the bus. In preparation for the Olympics, there is going to be a 'polite queuing day' held. I don't think it's going to work, but I may try it for my final exam in school. So, we scrambled onto the bus, found a place for the backpacks, and settled in for the hours bumpy drive to the country.

We managed to explain to the ticket lady where we wanted to get off, which worked. We saw an empty tuktuk (or bingbing as they are called here), and asked a little boy who owned it. He ran off to get his dad. Despite the fact this place is only an hour away, they could be speaking Russian for all I know. It's a local dialect, so strongly accented, but they also used the same sounds to mean different things. Like 'cat' for 'how much'. Still, we asked to get taken to the tiny village up the mountain. Four more old men gathered around, discussing. Whatever could they mean? A village, here? Bleedin' foreigners. They probably want to go to Tang Yu, probably fly, that's what foreigners do. I dunno, they have backpacks on, with lots of water. They have water in Tang Yu. Do you think they mean 'tiny village up the mountain' (it's actual name in Chinese). Maybe, let's poke the dog with our pimp shoes and see what happens. DO YOU MEAN TINY VILLAGE UP THE MOUNTAIN? Why, yes, smiley man. OK, umm, 15 kuai ($1.80). Alright. Hah, overcharged you by 3 kuai. Bleedin' foreigners, know nothing.
As this was the only tuktuk for miles, there was no need to haggle over pennies, I decided.

We got to the farmers house, and set off, awfully pleased with ourselves for negotiating this quite complicated journey. One of the comments on a previous entry was that someone hoped I had figured out the train station/airport problem, and that if you don't know the tone, you don't know the word. I think differently. The train/plane problem was caused by me being a foreigner, it is assumed you can't speak Chinese, and even if you can, that you don't actually know what you want. The better thing for you will be decided by the wise and venerable. And tones mean nothing when you're in Shaanxihua (dialect) country. I have found a smile works wonders for comprehension. But, not a single hitch so far, not even asked to repeat ourselves. It made me happy, anyway.

Hot. It was really hot. About 37 degrees hot. And dusty. A lot of scrambling, a lot of avoidance tactics taken against the briars. But Artemis was loving it, I think her sense of smell finally woke up. She covered twice the distance we did, as she stayed with Joe up ahead, but kept on dashing back to see if I was OK and hadn't fallen off yet. She was also a pretty good pathfinder, when we got stuck, she could see the remenants of a path, and would start on it, looking back to check we were following. We got to our first designated peak, and set up camp. Campfire lasted for about 5 minutes, after we had burnt all the dead wood we could find. Luckily, we had also invested in a stove, and so had soup and dried tofu, which was gorgeous. A little bit concerned about the water situation, as Artemis had managed to knock over a bottle earlier. We still had three litres left, but up here is so dry, despite all the lush greenery (thieving trees). The moon was so bright, and I saw my first stars in ages (Xi'an's 'dust bubble'/pollution is too thick to allow stars). And it was hot. Up at 6, coffee and fried eggs with ritz crackers, and we were off to P2, picked out last night. Even though we're only a couple of kilometres from the 'tiny village up the mountain', it feels very isolated here. You can hear the dogs bark at night, but that's about it. Nice to get away from the constant thrum of the city.

As Joakim and Jocelyn would be joining us the next day, we only walked an hour in the morning, to a place we thought would be good to camp, also so it wasn't too far to go get them. We found another trail that led down the mountain, so called them and told them to walk along the path from the farmers house, until they saw us. Organised, or what?! We dumped our stuff, asides form the now empty water bottles, and wandered off to find some water. We found a little stream at the bottom of the mountain again, and so sat and filled up our bottles. Still very very hot, I have lovely pink arms, up til my t-shirt, when they start being grey and pasty again. Yummy.

So, after our feet had been washed, and water purified, we headed back to camp. Found a fantastic wood store, meaning a lovely fire tonight. Found a tiny problem with the flat bit we found, the ridge was slightly less wide than the tent, with a steep drop one side, and a less teep, but bramble-covered drop the other. There was nowhere else to camp though, these mountains are not kind and gentle and welcoming. The trees are all on 80 degree angle slopes, the greenery cover is about 99%. Still, we pegged it down well, then unpegged it as it had to be moved because it was too close to the fire pit we built. Had packet hot chocolate out of a tupperware container - again, the best thing I have ever tasted. As darkness fell, well, tripped ungainly down a couple of steps, the clouds came boiling in. I felt the first splash of rain on my poor burnt arms, and we catapulted ourselves into the tent. At least it wasn't as hot tonight as last night, I may get some sleep. I woke at 11pm, to find the tent flat against my nose. The wind was about 30mph, with gusts of 60. The tent held up excellently, not a rip, depite two pegs being lashed out. I was covered in sand that had been swept in through the breathable bit, but I ws so happy. I slept better that night than the night before, it was finally cool. 6am, and I was hoping the sun would calm things down a bit. Not a chance, the wind was here, it was grumpy, and it hated foreigners. We called Joakim, as it was too dangerous to head on up, especially with backpacks. These ridges had good drops on either side, and we didn't want to lose anyone in a gust.

Sadly, we packed our stuff up. Managed the tent in about 90 seconds, as any longer, and it would have been down the mountain well before us. We dug a little alcove into the slightly more sheltered side, and made muesli with hot milk. As we set off to go home, Artemis went bounding up the slope. When we called her back, she looked very upset with us. She was finally getting the hang of this camping and hiking thing, and now we weren't going any further! Not a happy puppy. When we got home though, she slept for about two days straight. We traipsed down the mountain, thankful that the temperature had dropped to about 24. No one in the tiny village has a tuktuk, so we walked to the first village, and found someone to take us to the bus station in TangYu. As we pulled up, he shouted 'I've two more for you' at the bus that was just leaving. We clambered on, making everyone shift slightly closer to the open windows as our smell hit them, and headed home.

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