Advertisement
Published: August 25th 2008
I feel like I've just completed an epic journey, worthy of multiple references to Lord of Rings, and various other epic journeys through the wilderness. Mostly because our last few days have been filled with nerdy, geeky literary and cinematic references, and the scenery just happened to match.
On Wednesday we got a ride (hired a jeep) out of Urumqi at the relatively early hour of 8 am. By 12ish, we had passed deserts, coal drilling, and highways and had turned off on a dirt road that crossed and re-crossed a river. Our guide, Harry, pointed out the valley we'd be hiking in. Armed with maps printed off of google earth, and some directions Alex had written down, Harry left us.
The first few hours of the hike was along the river, but the valley looked like a desert. Honestly, I felt like I was in Arizona or something similar. Also, the beginning altitude was around 10,000ft, and my breathing was strained at best. I was also carrying my pack, my tent and my sleeping bag , plus a few liters of water. It may not sound like much but I struggled for the first day. The hike
itself went from desert to slopey green farmland, and we continued hiking in the valley, next to the river. I felt every step was harder than the last.
I should mention that , yeah I've done a lot of hiking in Alaska, but every time I climb a mountain, I go through this mental dialogue with myself. At first, I'm positive, happy, ready to conquer. Then, as the climb gets steeper, I start getting a wee bit negative. Then, when I can't breath and have to stop every few minutes to catch my breath, I start cursing in my head. I start berating the stupid mountain for being to freaking high, and cursing the ancient glaciers that SHOULD have worn it down to reasonable height. I begin to wonder why I say mountain hiking is one of my favorite activities and then I make really serious plans to NEVER EVER DO THIS AGAIN. Finally, I start chanting "I hate this! I hate THIS!" with every step until I'm so zoned out I can't think anymore.
This gives you a picture of my mindset on the first day of the trek. The hike began to get steeper as we
left the valley and went up the side of a mountain. Finally, everyone esle started getting tired too. We started taking breaks every 15 minutes, then every 5 minutes, until we were taking a break after every few feet! I think this must have been when the altitude change kicked in, because we all start laughing hysterically at anything.
I think it started with jokes about us being near Kazakstan and someone vaguely remembered a place called Islamastan, which opened the door for jokes about Christianistan, Amishstan, and Mormonistan. I know, hilarious, right? Seriously, I was so tired I couldn't even BEGIN to think about hiking over the pass at the top of the mountain, which at this point was only a 20 minute hike up! We made the mistake of camping in a huge bowl at the top of the mountain.
The mistake was revealed when the sun dropped behind the peak and we started FREEZING. I had on 2 t-shirts, a long sleeve shirt, a hoodie, and a jacket plus long johns and I was still cold! Plus, because of the terrain, there was no wood for a fire! We did have a tiny camp stove
to cook on, though. I retired into the the tent, at around 9m and tossed and turned until dawn.
The next day after breakfast we finished what should have been the last part of the hike from the day before. We went up the pass and then down into another valley. It took the better part of two hours to reach a big river. After a 45 minute "scouting mission" by Alex and Colin, we kept to the maps and hiked along the side of the mountain for another hour before reaching a gorgeous green slope that overlooked the river. We decided to camp there for the night and BONUS! The guys found abundant firewood so we had a roaring fire that night.
I could see every star in the sky. The Milky Way was so easy to see. And of course, being miles from city, we had absolute darkness and absolute stillness, except for the river rushing below us. People DO live out there, however (hence all the farm animals). We passed yurts and men sheparding sheep and cows on horseback many times along the way. In the morning a group of Kazaks passed on horseback, and
you could cleary see how surprused they were to see us!
We started back the next day around noon, backtracking our previous day's hike. After we made it up the pass again, we made camp on the slope of the moutain. This time, we camped right in the middle of the animal highway. We were surrounded by yaks, horses, cows and sheep until dark, and they weren't very shy. Many of them got quite close, expecting food, I guess.
Now, we were expecting the hike back to the road to take about 3 hours, and it took 4. We didn't arrange for a ride back, because the dude who set us up mentioned that we'd be able to hitch to a small town that had hourly buses back to Urumqi. So the plan was to hitch a ride to this small town. We dropped our gear on the roadside and waited. For an hour, I didn't see a single car, motorbike or truck. Nothing. Alex suggested we start walking along the road, because if we didn't get picked up we could presumably walk to the small town in about 7 hours. Somehow this didn't sound like a bad
idea.
About 15 minutes after we started walking a sheep truck pulls up. Alex asks him if we can hitch and I think he said yes. Coin immediatley chucked his bag in the back and pulled himself up and then the busdriver said that he was heading in the wrong direcition if we wanted to get to Urumqi. No good.
We DID get picked up one more time, but they only drove us about 10km before dropping us off and inexplicably driving back they way they came. So we walked. And walked. And walked. Along the way we had a random encounter with a tiny old Chinese man in bright red pajamas who laughingly tried to talk to us. He was either trying to demonstrate some Kung Fu, or give us directions, I'm still not sure.
The the rain started. Nothing big at first but the wind picked up and I ran under a tree to put my pack cover on my backpack. Just then, two really nice looking cars pulled up and we waved them down. Alex asked the very nice couple in the first car if we could get a lift to the bus
station and they happily said yes. Colin and Jose hopped in the first car and we got into the second car ( they were all friends) , and planned to meet up at the bus station. Total walking time from breaking camp to getting picked up : seven hours.
OK so here's the part of the story that reinforces my belief in the general goodness of people. Alex talked a little bit to the couple driving us (his Mandarin is WAYYYYY better than mine!) and when they found out we were getting a bus back to Urumqi, they offered to drive us! All four of us! BTW, it's a 2.5 hour drive from where we were. True, they were headed there anyway but really, who does that? I was so suprised! This meant the difference between us getting back at 9 pm and us possibly camping out one more night by the roadside.
THEN, after Alex asked them about their favorite food in Urumqi, they offered to take us out to dinner. All four of us! We got dropped at our hostel, and they waited while we put our bags away. So, this was Saturday night, and I
hadn't showered since Wednesday. STINKY! But since they were waiting, I had no time to clean up.
We went out for XinJiang food, which is like lots of meat and potatoes and bready things. So different from Chinese food and just what I wanted after that looong day. Our new friends then refused to let us pick up the check. So they picked us up, drove us all the way to Urumqi and then took us out to dinner. Remember there was also a huge language barrier, and I couldn't really say much more than "Thank you! Thank YOU!"
On the way out , one of the women pulled me aside and said "We are friends now. You are happy, I am happy."
These people didn't want anything, they weren't selling anything, they were just interested in being friendly. We didn't exchange email address or anything, because really, what could we have said? We said our goodbyes and that's the last we saw of our new friends.
Really, who does that?! I have a lot of good karma to repay.
But my story doesn't end there, oh no! I will write another exciting blog in
the next few days to tell you about THE MOST CHINESE THING I HAVE EVER DONE!
Here's a hint: you know those nightmares you have where you walk into a room full of strangers and they are all staring at you and then you notice you are buck naked? Well, that's sorta what happened to me! More on this next time!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.157s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 56; dbt: 0.1117s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
jake
non-member comment
great story
thanks for this lovely blog!!