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Published: June 19th 2010
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It took us an age to leave Urumqi , for some reason there were visits to the bank and post office that we didnt have time for in the 19 days we spent twiddling thumbs ,waiting for a visa that was never gonna happen.19 days!Thats along time to hang around the Kazak consulate,what a joyous place.I bet Juddith Charmers never had to go through this.
Well Tati has a two month visa and I have one month,which basically means we both have one month,what a waste of time and money.No more ranting about it from now on though,its a change of plan,a train here a bus there,nothing that cant be fixed.
Stopped on the way out of Urumqi to reinforce my new 'made in China' rack.The pins that held it onto the bike were little more than meccano pieces and may of lasted a day if luck was on my side.Got a young arrogant metal worker to make me two solid pieces which fitted well,shame he got all bravado in front of his mates and tried to charge me 50RMB,I wasnt having any of it and he soon backed down to local price, a much more reasonable 10RMB.There
seems to be a rule in China that states you must not loose face in situations,unless of course it comes to ripping off the foreigners,then its ,forget morale and fill the pockets.He was a rare exeption,the chinese are an honourable lot and being fleeced is a very rare thing in China.This young fella me lad of a scamp was after a quick buck but he didnt know im a fucking expert when it comes to broken rack pricing.
Its 640km to the border and with nine days left on the visa we had plenty of time to make it up and over to Korgos and the Kazak border.At times we had too much time,with it getting dark at 22 30 we would have our days distance done by early evening.Unused to camping in broad daylight ,we found it odd at first but soon got comfortable with less riding.Theres books to read,ive always got the rack to tinker with and not forgetting my back wheel that was also 'made in China'.Its got spokes flying off left, right and centre.Upto now its lost 11 spokes since Kunming,so 30% of the total so far.Theres alot to be said for the 'made in
China' logo,what with my back wheel ,tire and rack all chinese made im waiting for the whole rear end to implode one of these days.Looking at my bike theres not a great deal of it left that began the trip back in summer 2008,its become a real international junk shop.Tatis getting in on it too with a manic looking yellow and blue rear tire(3 euro or 500km)Nothing but the best!You can keep your german made moon and back swiberwobbers,were going Kazak....and theres another puncture.
Very diverse landscape on the way to the border.There were the oasis towns full of fruit and veg,the desert came back again,it even threw in the odd dune here and there for good measure.We also had amazing green moorland full of sheep and camels,what with the drizzle we had at camp that night we could of been in Wales,just not with the camels or the gold toothed nomads that turned up on a yamaha at 2300.Nomads can sniff you out from far away,its a canny ability.
Somewhere after Jinghe,which,by the way is a lovely green town, we met Megan and her friend Val.Megan is riding horses from Beijing to London,between olympics for charity.Val is
out to help finish her long journey through China.Amazing stuff!Megans 61 ,my mums age,inspiring stuff.Really nice to meet them and exchange a story or two.Good luck to them.Her web site is called www.thelonghorseride.com ,check it out.
Out on the road we have met no other foreigners,funny that it should be two horseriders from the mountains of Wales about a two hour drive from Gloucester.,hey! you couldnt make it up.
We set a new personal record of 9 different lorries on a mamouth truck surf upto lake Sayram.Real pick and choose stuff.Set another record during our record by surfing on the motorway,well there had been no other road since Daheyanyiquangluduan (a village with literally more letters than houses).
Sayram lake was the best way to finish our time here in China.Took a day off and camped by the clear cold waters with a back drop of snow capped mountains and a blanket of yellow buttercups on the meadows which was full of cows,sheep,camels and wild horses.Camped on the calm shore the first night,we werent sure whether the lake was tidal or not.I mean when does a body of water become big enough to have a tide?Theres not one in a cup or puddle,duck pond or swimming pool.This particular duck pond DID have a tide though.Luckily for us it was in the day where we had time to evacuate our gear to higher ground and mix it up with the cows.Lesson learnt!
The downhill to the border was mainly an off road experience,the road has fallen apart and is neglected in favour of the new road being built from Qingshuihezi.There were alot of trucks and dust but no matter ,down beats up in any disguise.Down at the bottom it was hot,is this the start of a long hot summer?Weed grew along the roadside giving the air that coffee shop smell as we headed down the motorway and into Korgos.
Theres alot of white faces here in the guise of russian kazaks, another sign of our approach towards more familiar terrain.With 99 days and 4450km covered in China it has become our longest and furthest country travelled in so far.And definitely the best.
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