June 21,  Location:  Hami (Kumul)  42° 50’N 93° 31’ E, elevation 745 metres, riding day #30, 150m climbing, 144 km today, 3946 total to date

Hami (Chinese name) or Kumul (Uyghur name) is a relatively new city.  Previously the Western most province of China, Xinjiang used to be 90% non-Chinese – mostly Turkic speaking Muslim Uyghurs, and is a semi autonomous region, in fact a huge region 4 times the size of Japan and strategically important as it borders 8 countries.  The Chinese Government has invested heavily in the region, also moving in large numbers of Han Chinese, such that now Han Chinese form the majority.  Cities like Hami/Kumul are a result of the Han Chinese “invasion”.  Also, note the difference in size of lettering on the road signs (see pic below).  F.y.i. we have been seeing signs with both Chinese lettering and Arabic lettering since DunHuang.

Quite a hot day today, +35C, good thing there was a tailwind!

The group has had probably 25 flats in the last two days, effectively all due to the truck tire wire bits I describe below.  I was lucky today, no flats.

Always nice to have a barbwire fence to lean the bike against.

June 20,  Location:  Rocky Camp  42° 01’N 94° 36’ E, elevation 1171 metres, riding day #29., 350m climbing, 146 km today, 3802 total to date.

Quite a hot day, but more wind behind than ahead, so relatively easy, for 146km.  Two flats today, both caused by remnants of fine wire on the road from trucks tires that have come apart.  The fine wire used under the tread gets broken up and scattered on the paved shoulder.  The bits of wire are a real pain to remove from bike tires – strong fine tweezers are needed, also hard to find.

It is now a lovely temperature, I’m sitting on a stool outside my tent writing this, the sun is just setting.  Flat rocky desert all around, some snow capped mountains just able to be seen to the north.  All other directions are simply flat. 

On our camping days, now about 50% of the time, the daily routine goes something as follows:

5:55 – awake, clean up, pack up tent, pack bike

6:30 – breakfast – varies a fair bit, porridge, fruit, muesli, bread etc.,

7:00 – start riding

10:30 – typical – lunch stop – it is usually located at about 60% of the days ride distance

2:00 – arrive at camp, have 2^nd lunch, usually some of my own food (dried fruits etc.,), then a hearty soup

pitch tent, bike maint and repair

6:30 – dinner

leisurely evening follows.

This is a really pleasant routine each day – other than the occasional sore ass days.

June 19,  Location:  Rocky Camp (a.k.a. Inukshuck (sp?) camp) An Inukshuck was created on a hill top by one of us Canucks in the late evening and “appeared” in the morning. 41° 03’N 95° 26’ E, elevation 1714 metres, riding day #28. 100m climbing, 122 km today, 3656 total to date.

I’m sitting on a camp stool outside my tent whilst writing this, keeping a close eye on an approaching thunder/rain cloud.

A relatively easy day, long slow climb.  The road was dead straight for about 100km.  I arrived at camp quite early (12:30), just before a thunder storm.  I thought I was supposed to be in a desert – isn’t it supposed to always be hot, dry and clear skies?  There were significant signs on the road that there had been some heavy rains, lots of sand/gravel washed over the road.

I earned my keep today, they have a fridge in one of the support vehicles that stopped working, spent a couple hours yesterday and a bit today and solved the problem.

I really liked DunHuang, it seems to be one of the tourist centres in Western China.  Warm, but not too warm, late afternoon showers.  Also located in the middle of absolutely nowhere.  Both approaching and leaving the city, it started/ended very quickly, then nothing for 100+km.

Recently our route has taken us below the Gobi desert and we are now starting to run along the top of the Taklamakan desert. The Taklamakan desert gets 1 cm of rain a year, it is the 2^nd largest sand desert in the world.   The desert is littered with old ruins. I’ve been told that “Taklamakan” means “ those who go in, never come out.  Maybe that’s why we are going around the top of the desert, also, there are no direct roads over the desert.

A few pics:

From around DunHuang:

Yes, those re sand dunes just on the outskirts of town.