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: