Braving Sandstorms in Inner Mongolia

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Day 155, 2nd November

Erlian - Km 55 marker

Had a decent sleep and this morning a hot shower in the piss-stinking toilet block of our first Chinese hotel. We went out to change money and have breakfast, another delicious and massive meal. The people in the small restaurants seem happy to serve us and are keen to wait on us. And the delicious food is so cheap too. Around midday, a taxi driver drove us to an internet club where I spent an hour reading my emails, some lovely ones from Kathryn, but I could only manage to write short replies before dashing back to the hotel to check out. It was a funny experience at the front of the hotel. We brought our panniers down first and attracted the attention of loads of rickshaw drivers vying for business. You should have seen their disappointment when our bikes appeared!

As we rode out of town we attracted more attention, especially as we had to repair Toby’s chain again at the roadside. The road out of town was brand-new, and got thinner and thinner until it was only 10 feet wide with sand either side, and hardly any traffic. To us, it was a luxurious, glorified, cycle-path. Every vehicle that passed hooted at us with their mega-loud horns. The landscape was flat and barred, except for our strip of road. After 30 miles we looked for a place to camp and had to head off into the desert well away from the road. The sun set at 5:30 and we were in Communist China, camping free, with no trouble from the people’s police up to now, and were on the road to Beijing…

Total Miles: 7762.66 Todays Miles: 29.22 Average speed: 12.0 Time on bike: 2:25


Day 156, 3rd November

Km 55 marker - Sonid Youqi

It was bloody freezing last night and to add to this there was an icy headwind from the south. Rory recorded minus 10 degrees in his tent this morning. Today ended up being 40 miles of worst cycling I’ve done so far on this trip. Flat deserted land with military fences on either side of the road, freezing wind in our faces, and sandstorms blowing up. My right leg muscles began to hurt like hell because my saddle weld had bust and was at an angle now. Then I became breathless, a bit like asthma coming on, probably due to the sand particles filling my lungs. Rory took one of his T-shirts and made it into a balaclava mask to keep the sand out of his face. Then Scott’s front derailleur sheared off completely leaving him with one gear, others could be changed by yanking on the cable and holding it there. When we reach the first and only town, we decided to stay in a hotel. I spotted one and got it for Y120 for the four of us. The hotels here have no heating but have the customary big flasks of boiling water which is great for making tea with. It’s also good as cold drinking water in the morning for our bike bottles, no need to purify pre-boiled water. We did a bit of snackie-shopping later then went for another great meal before crashing out early and knackered back at the hotel.

Total Miles: 7805.90 Todays Miles: 43.24 Average speed: 7.4 Time on bike: 5:50

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Photos

Sandstorm Hell !
The sandstorms in Inner Mongolia required drastic measures - here's Rory with a makeshift balaclava made from one of his T-shirts !

A Road at last !
We expected desert again - but the Chinese had JUST completed a brand-new road....

Chinese Visa
Our Chinese Visas which were obtained in Ulaan Baatar.

Inner-Mongolian Village
Everything looks the same colour here - sand coloured! Not one green plant have we seen for over a month.

Comments

[Mark]

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[Chris Tutt]

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