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Published: July 18th 2008
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Monday 16 June - Jarkent to Quingshuihezi, 69 km. Entry into China.
Didn’t eat much breakfast. Collected a camelback and filled it with water as we will not have the blue drinks van after the border. Collected my passport from Brigitte. We stopped twice on the way to the border to wait for the vehicles. They had to take Karl for an ultrasound and it took longer than expected. Fortunately it showed he just has an infection, he will be off cycling for at least two weeks.
At the border we crossed out of Kazakhstan quite easily, as did the vehicles. At the Chinese frontier we had to fill in forms but it wasn’t too complicated except that Jean-Jacques had some irregularity with his visa and had to wait behind. We ate our picnics at the frontier while we waited. The vehicles all got held up, as predicted. There is a two-hour time difference for China so from 12 noon it became 2 pm.
We pedalled off on an awful road; the Chinese are building a new motorway and both this and the old road are just tracks with gravel, stones and holes.
On arrival we had a terrific reception with
banners, women playing drums and men playing odd instruments. There were the usual speeches and exchange of gifts, Unfortunately a big wind came up and blew some of the banners down. We are in two hotels on opposite sides of the road. Liliane and I are in the second; we have a reasonable room with a not very good bathroom, but at least there is a hot shower. There is a kettle and we made tea.
Dinner was at the first hotel, and it was a feast! We sat at round tables with a turntable in the middle, and dishes just kept appearing. There were loads of different vegetables, some very spicy, some cooked with meat, I had to eat with chopsticks which I am not good at, but managed. We have six weeks in China so I should be expert by the end of the trip. There was free beer and also sake, which was foul. For the time being we are being looked after by our Chinese contact Gaston, who is a bit of a wide boy but does cycle and does seem to get things done. Jean-Jacques arrived by taxi for dinner, but has to go somewhere
else tomorrow for his definitive visa.
Tuesday 17 June - Quingshuihezi to Lake Sayram, 87 km plus climb of 1480m
Up for 7 am breakfast - a bit hard because with the time change it felt like 5 am. Breakfast was a bit like dinner, lots of vegetable dishes to eat with choipsticks, also various kinds of gruel (black rice, white rice and maize) and hardboiled eggs and steamed buns. At least there was coffee, and I had my own honey.
Filled my camelback with water, but the damn thing leaked all down my back and I eventually abandoned it in the water truck which accompanied us. After that, of course, I was short of water and later borrowed some from one of the other women.
The road was awful almost the whole way due to motorway construction work which went on for 60 km all the way up to the col. The road was gravel, stones and dust and there were lots of big lorries passing and kicking up clouds of dust. I put on a dust mask, as did quite a few people, but it was horrible. There were horses and flocks of sheep still using the road, and a lot of beekeepers selling honey. Goodness knows where the bees find nectar, I saw no flowers but only trees.
After a long climb I had a few minutes’ rest and sat and ate some bits. Shortly after this the road was so bad, and I was so tired, that I walked for a bit. I came upon a lot of people sitting around a small shop. They said it was nearly the top and they were waiting for word of where we were sleeping: it should have been a bivouac, but without the equipment in the lorries we would be sleeping in yurts. I bought some fruit drink and water and a packet of fried broad beans in the shop.
After a while Joel arrived in a vehicle and said the yurts were only a few km further on, so we set off again and arrived near the lake - another big mountain lake. We found the yurts as described and some of the guys had a go on the locals’ horses. A big thunderstorm came up and we moved into the yurts; I went to sleep as I was extremely tired after the climb on the bad road. When I woke up there were only 3 of us in the yurt: apparently these were the wrong yurts and we had to go on a few more km. Altogether 10 of that were left set off, but after 10 km had found nothing, but then Francois the doctor turned up in a vehicle and said it was another 10 or 12 km further still, past the end of the lake. I was still very tired and this was bad news, but eventually we came to a very smart yurt camp and got settled in.
The yurts are big and clean, there is a big low table for meals and stacks of bed pads and covers. I am sharing with the Reds, 17 of us with Jean-Jacques when he arrives. There is a toilet block with flush toilets! And outdoor sinks to wash in. Dinner was served in the yurt, we squatted or knelt on cushions round the table. The food, again, was copious and excellent. Jean-Jacques arrived very late by taxi, he only has a visa for a month.
Wednesday 18 June - Yurt camp to Jinghe, 137 km
I didn’t sleep very well - the floor was hard, and I kept waking up a bit cold. I had not been prepared to sleep at high altitude, I had assumed we would descend after the col. It was very cold when we got up, bare legs in shorts and sandals was not suitable! I had a thin fleece pullover and my rain jacket, but this was not enough. Breakfast was served in the yurt: hardboiled eggs, cooked vegetables, coffee, bread and honey. Unfortunately the bread was the same flat bread we had in Kazakhstan and Kygyzstan, very hard and they seem to keep it for days.
At this point the motorway is finished and we set off on the descent on excellent smooth road. It was quite hallucinatory, flying down on a smooth road between the mountains in the freezing cold early morning. The descent went on for 20 km or more. The scenery was beautiful, snow-capped mountains and quite empty of human habitation. We re-grouped at a petrol stati0n - the only place to stop offroad - I got some biscuits and a sort of peanut halva in the shop, and a so-called nutrition drink which is quite nice and seems to be based on milk or soya.
Arrived at the hotel about 5.30, lay down and slept a while then showered and dressed for dinner. The food was again excellent and varied, served as a buffet. The news of our lorries is that they have all been allowed across the border but there are still some formalities and we don’t expect to see them yet, Claudia had her hair cut at a local shop and promises to take me there tomorrow. There is an internet café, too. Marie had a bad fall today and has a lot of nasty grazes and bruises.
Thursday 19 June - Jinghe
Liliane’s alarm went off at 6.45 and I was not pleased, as breakfast wasn’t till 8.30. Quite a good breakfast, but curdled milk for the coffee. I’ve bought a packet of milk for tomorrow.
Claudia took me to the nearby hairdressers and a smart young man cut my hair very well. It was washed before and after, and the whole job cost 15yuan - about 1.5 euros. I tipped him 3 yuan. We walked round a small market and a couple of shops and I got some useful things in a small supermarket - yoghurt and juice. After lunch I had a snooze then went out round the shops - all small shops, some up steps and some in basements. I found a pair of over-the-knee trousers but not a lot else.
Had a drink with some of the guys for Jean-Pierre Decouty’s 69th birthday, then dinner, excellent again, two kinds of tofu and sprouted lentils were good. After dinner I went to a huge internet café and did email. Still no sign of the lorries. It would be nice to carry less luggage as tomorrow is a long day.
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tomato egg
chu zeng
hello!
I have seen your group in Xi'an, I am very happy to see you again on net