Bad news.....

I don't know the details, but I fell off my bike badly. I was about 1 block from the hotel at the end of the day.  End result was that I woke up about 5 hours later in the hospital.  Two, maybe three broken ribs, broken collarbone, a bit of fluid on the outside of my left lung and all sorts of road rash, all over - left cheek, nose, right cheek, right jaw, left shoulder, left hip, right wrist, left knee etc.,  I have no recollection of the accident and have no idea what happened.

The end result is that it will be two months before I can ride again.  That and the (albeit in remission) hernia problem means I'll be going home.  Sorting out details as I write this.  The next running of this ride is in two years,  I think I know where I'll be in two years time.

Needless to say I'm terribly disappointed, just starting to get to the sections that really interest me - but life's not fair get over it.  The good news is that I have a blank slate for the next three months.

...Ron

June 22,  Location:  Turpan  42° 56’N 89° 11’ E, elevation 30 metres, riding day #33, 100m climbing, 96 km today, 4264 total to date.

We are in the “Death Valley” of China, it can get extremely hot here in the summer.  Part of our ride today had us below sea level, down to -50m elevation.  Luckily it was an overcast day, hence didn’t get really hot.

Turpan seems like a wonderful place, we rode in down some 6 long blocks that were totally trellis covered with grape plants, both the center street and walkways on both sides.  Had (2^nd) lunch today at John’s Place, a place that caters to Westerners, English menu, includes things like coffee (instant), fries (quite good) and burgers (didn’t try, but don’t think that good).

The tour medic wanted me to see a doctor re the Hernia, so along with another "patient" off to the hospital we went.  We both had to buy "tickets" to see a Doctor.  The ticket cost 2.5 yuan, i.e. $0.50, then advice of the doctor was the same as the doctor that is riding - no heavy lifting, but other than that carry on.  So whilst being very careful, I will carry on.  The other patient has an ankle problem and it involved a scan - happened immediately with the doctor watching and cost approx $24. 

A couple of pics:

Our dinner at a street vendor:

Wine tasting in Turpan, two were excellent, one awful:

I love the colourful dresses - in the Turpan market:

Very common, father driving the small farm truck, wife, grandmother and child in back:

This is a raisin factory, i.e. these are grape drying sheds, 100+ of them.  With irrigation, there is a large amount of land under cultivation, I sense this is the grape centre of China.  All the dried fruits I have been getting at the markets have been wonderful, many kinds of raisins, dates, figs, apricots, and a lot of other things, all are really good, but not sure what they are. 

Yes, eating French fries with chop sticks:

June 22,  Location:  Farmers field camp/Hotel  42° 54’N 90° 13’ E, elevation 420 metres, riding day #32, 500m climbing, 149 km today, 4168 total to date.

I rode the full ride today, felt absolutely fine, no hints of a return of the hernia.  Yes, I need to be very careful, no heavy lifting etc., and I think I’ll be able to use this to get out of doing camp dishes…  Very hot, when we got to our camp site, even though I waited till after 5:00 to set up my tent, I was just dripping in sweat, then…

Around 5:30, the police arrived, various conversations, another car with police.  We were told to move.  Due to the recent problems between the Gov’t and Uyghur’s, it appears the local police don’t want anything that would attract anything to there area, so “move along…”.  So we had dinner, then packed up, still really hot, dripping in sweat, a truck for the bikes and 8 taxi’s arrived and off we went.  The good news is that we are now in a very nice 4 star hotel, in a town called Shansan.  The rates were much more reasonable than I expected, 288 Yuan or about $45CDN/room.  Appears to be the centre of a lot mining activity, lots of heavy equipment around.

June 22,  Location:  Cricket Camp  43° 23’N 92° 03’ E, elevation 1591 metres, riding day #31, 250m climbing, 73 km today, 4019 total to date.

Bad day today.  First thing in the morning, I had packed up and biffed my heavy oversize duffle bag onto my back, then grabbed my bike and started to leave the hotel room – rear tire on the bike was flat – crap.  Hustled the pack and bike down to the lobby and took off the rear tire, then scrambled back to the room to use the sink to source the leak, then fixed the flat.  Somewhere during that period I felt a small twinge in my lower abdomen.  Had a partial bad breakfast and got on the road, all was not well, lower gut pain.  I persisted for the 73k to lunch – something was wrong.  Initially I thought some sort of bug, however whilst sitting at lunch, not really eating I happened to put my hand on my lower abdomen – egg size hernia!  Shortly after, Sylvie, the anesthetist from Montreal arrived – after a bit of antics she worked the hernia back into me.  So at this point I am mostly OK, actually feeling very good, however I am not allowed to lift my bag or anything heavy.  The plan at this point is to simply carry on - normal bike riding should not be a problem.  We’ll see how things go over the next while.

Will keep you posted.

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.

  

End of Phase two:

June 17,  Location:  Dun Huang  40° 08’N 94° 40’ E, elevation 1142 metres, riding day #27. 100m climbing, 141 km today, 3534 total to date.

A fantastic ride today, other than a bit of construction, it was flat desert, smooth pavement, hot, and a strong tailwind.  Rode at 45 to 55kph for most of the ride.  For about 10+ k I drafted behind a large truck at 50 to 55k – an almost no effort day!

Now in DunHuang, seems to be a really interesting place.  Much cleaner than most places, even though the same dust storm that hit our camp two nights ago, also hit DunHuang.  The main attractions appear to be the sand dunes (I’m expecting to see a fair number), also some very large Buddha caves.

June 16,  Location:  River Camp  40° 32’N 96° 03’ E, elevation 1228 metres, riding day #26. 175m climbing, 132 km today, 3393 total to date.

Hard day today due to a poor sleep last night and stronger headwinds for the final 60k.  There seem to be continuous wind turbines for about 150k, I was told there are 20,000 in the area – no wonder there are hydro lines running in all directions.

The staff found a gorgeous river side campsite for the night, after desert all day, we are in a bit of an Oasis, river, trees and a small community across the river.  I washed myself in the river at the end of the ride, really nice to get properly clean.  I was expecting quite cold water, however it was almost warm.

Tomorrow into Dunhuang and a rest day.  That will be 7 days riding in a row – muscles are good, however my backside definitely needs a break.

Yes, this is my home for about half the nights from now till late September.

June 15,  Location:  Wind Farm Camp  40° 11’N 97° 11’ E, elevation 1586 metres, riding day #25. 470m climbing, 110 km today, 3261 total to date.

A relatively easy day, some very rough sections.  Max about 30 deg.C. 

We are camped near a Wind Farm, however thankfully very calm. The major railway running to western China is close outside our camp – dual tracks with long trains running in both directions probably every 5 minutes.  The amount of goods and materials being moved around China each day s phenomenal.

My cell phone plan expired last night, so until I get to somewhere, I’m cut off from the electronic world.  Actually, I rebooted the phone today, all is still working.

Interesting night last night.  At about midnight we had a serious wind/dust/rain storm go through the camp.  Lot’s of chaos, lost/mangled two of the shelter tents, a couple ripped tent flies and sand everywhere.  I had the screen mesh zipped up in my tent, but I could smell and taste the dust, when I put on my flashlight there was a dust storm inside my tent with little sand dunes.  Quickly zipped up the soldi covers for the doors and vents, that stopped the intrusion.  After the storm passed and things were cleaned up, I had trouble getting to sleep, too close to the highway and train tracks.  Made for a hard day the next day.

June 14,  Location:  Jiayuguan  39° 48’N 98° 16’ E, elevation 1429 metres, riding day #24. 470m climbing, 120 km today, 3151 total to date.

A wonderful sunrise in camp, very flat desert, snow capped mountains to the South.  The first half of the day involved riding through the flat desert, then to quite lush – the irrigation systems are working very well.

The main feature of the town of Jiayuguan is the mostly restored Jiayu Pass Fort. At one time the Great Wall extended West from here, however this was the most Western stronghold of the Empire. 

My first time seeing camels – they are not the prettiest of animals.

A thought:  In the long past, China had huge manpower resources to do things like build the great wall, today they are applying those huge resources to massive building.  In every town/city we have been in or passed through, there is massive construction, seeing 12 large 30 story apartment towers all under construction at the same time is very common, similarly 8 lane highways, expressways, fast elevated train tracks and every village has all sorts of construction.

We are now more than half way across China and just over one quarter of the way to Istanbul – the days are starting to mush together, I have no idea what day of the week it is.

Some pics:

I managed to sneak past some construction workers and get to the top of one of the guard towers - was chased out shortly after I took the pictures.

I like the framing of the nuclear power plants in the castelation of the old fort.

June 13,  Location:  Desert Camp  38° 56’N 100° 28’ E, elevation 1706 metres, riding day #23. 550m climbing, 127 km today, 3031 total to date.

Relatively easy day, heavy wind and rain for last 20k.  Starting to get used to the camp routine.  The wind and rain died off and it made for a very pleasant evening of sitting around and talking.  As I write this in my tent, one of the guys plays a good harmonica which is a bit off in the distance – sounds wonderful.  Although in a desert, I still occasionally hear cuckoo birds.

Now into the very flat desert, snow capped peaks to the south.

Remnants of great wall are just mud piles.

Some pics from the day:

June 12,  Location:  Zhangye  38° 56’N 100° 28’ E, elevation 1510 metres, riding day #22. 470m climbing, 125 km today, 2904 total to date.

Redemption!   

It continued to rain all night, thank goodness for the pee bottle I had with me in the tent!   Still raining in the morning.  I left camp as soon as I could and retraced my steps back to the point I was picked up – I went about 12k, and of course seriously up hill and very rough in places.  But did it, my EFI status is still intact!  I’ve now added about 65k of extra “bonus” km to the trip.

Easy day to start with then it started to get really muddy, really muddy.  Too make things more interesting I took a fall in the middle of one mud patch, luckily it was soft, made an absolute mess of everything, but nothing hurt.

Some pics:

June 11,  Location:  Great Wall camp  38° 32’N 101° 24’ E, elevation 2180 metres, riding day #21. 1,100m climbing, 129 km today, 2779 total to date.

Very hard day.  A long slow climb. The forecast was possible light showers.  We were also warned to carry at least 2 litres of water for the afternoon.  It is difficult for me to carry both my extra (3^rd) water bottle and my rain jacket.  It has always been warm enough that a bit of rain was not a problem, so I took the water bottle.  Big mistake!  The day started off warm enough that I didn’t need a jacket, there was some light overcast.  I had a flat in the morning which cost me dearly, it put me just that little bit later…   At about 80k it stared to rain, then got cooler, then serious wind against and a long climb to about 8,800 feet.  I knew the wind would stay strong as we went past a very large wind turbine farm.  I was OK to about 120k, the top of the hill, by that time is was quite cold and I was wearing only a light shirt, and to make things more interesting we were on a back road that was very rough, lots of gravel bits etc.,  At about 125k my hands were starting to get really cold and I was starting to have trouble shifting and breaking.  At 129k I met up with about 5 of the group, two had taken bad falls (one possible collar bone fracture), one guy was uncontrollably shivering, another was simply very cold.  They had called for the support truck which arrived just as I did.  I was rather annoyed with myself to say the least, for not taking my rain jacket.  Having stopped for just a couple of minutes I started seriously shivering, so made the obvious call of joining in the van.

Obviously several lessons from the day.

I’m writing this note whilst in my tent, now happy and warm and having had dinner.  Still raining hard.

Hopefully the rain stops by morning because this is a really fascinating spot.  The Great Wall is merely rubble at this point and we are camped on the North Side.   My understanding is that around places like Beijing, a lot of work has gone into restoring the Wall.

A few pics:

Yes, we are a bit of a novelty - I've never had my picture taken so many times.

Yup, feet.

And yes chicken heads:

June 10 rest day in Wuwei.  Tomorrow will be day 1 of 7 in a row, most about 120 to 130km.  I'm no longer concerned about riding continuous days, so looking forward to it.  Tomorrow night we camp at the western end of the Great Wall, should be a cool place - probably literally and also figuratively. 

June 9,  Location:  Wuwei  37° 56’N 102° 38’ E, elevation 1580 metres, riding day #20. 900m climbing, 142 km today, 2650 total to date.

Today we went over a pass of 2,966m or 9,700ft.  This will be the highest point we cycle in China.  I was feeling really weak today, I initially thought it was because I was tired from the previous 19 days of riding, but then realized that we started at 7,970ft and it was a continuous climb to the 9,700 highway summit.  A bit of training for the Pamir’s where we will peak at over 4,500m (14,750ft).

It was really nice to be at elevation, much cleaner air and cool enough that I rode with my light rain jacket on for half the day.

a few pictures from Wuwei and the approach:

June 8,  Location:  Tianzhu  36° 58’N 103° 08’ E, elevation 2429 metres, riding day #19. 935m climbing, 152 km today, 2508 total to date.

A relatively easy day, a steady long slow climb.  The countryside is getting much dryer, only the small valley bottom has anything green.

Some remnant bits of the Great Wall have been spotted on the tops of hills.

One really has to keep ones eyes open whilst cycling here, none of the dangers are marked in any way, e.g. missing manhole covers is just normal..

June 7, rest day in Lanzhou another town of some 3mil+ people.  Clearly there is a strong middle/upper class here, all the fancy stores are here, e.g. Gucci and all the very high end watches.  With the concentrated large population comes some odd rules,,

There is some very nice grass areas in some of the city squares, however only for looking at, do not go on the grass!

Also, the fenced off pigeon feeding area just doesn’t seem right.

June 6,  Location:  Lanzhou  36° 03’N 103° 51’ E, elevation 1594 metres, riding day #18. 1,200m climbing, 131 km today, 2356 total to date.

Went through a very scary tunnel today, totally black, big trucks roaring past in both directions, some unexpected very rough bits – glad to have survived.  I stopped at a Budhist temple at a later point in the ride – lovely grounds with trees and small lake and fountain, tea houses scattered in the trees, I sat in a Gazebo and rested and had snacks – really pleasant. .A lot of very rough roads, heavy trucks and a lot of dust.  Today I wish I had a go-pro camera running whilst riding into the city – dodging people, cars, bicycles, buses – the key is to assume that a car/truck/person walking onto a street has all the rights of someone already traveling on that street.  In other words I suspect the brake parts are really expensive here so everyone drives/cycles/walks like they have no breaks.

 All the hillsides around here have terraced crop fields right to the top of the hills.

June 5,  Location:  Clay camp  35° 39’N 104° 52’ E, elevation 1788 metres, riding day #17. 1,857m climbing, 143 km today, 2225 total to date.

Biggest climbing day yet.  We are on the second day of the detour due to the collapsed tunnel, back on the normal route tomorrow.  Awesome scenery ( see pictures below).  First night camping – seems to work OK.  Fell asleep to the constant cuckoo sounds of what I strongly suspect are cuckoo birds.  As always, the food has been excellent.

At first I thought I was seeing satellite dishes outside many of the very small huts in the middle of nowhere, but then I noticed no hydro going to the hut.  They dishes are very effective solar kettle heaters – see picture.