June 4,  Location:  Xiji  35° 58’N 105° 44’ E, elevation 1882 metres, riding day #16. 1,600m climbing, 141 km today, 2082 total to date.

A hard day today, due to the route change the day was long, lots of climbing, one very long climb with a hard wind against – tough!  But the good news is that we are in a very classy hotel tonight.  Need to enjoy it as our first camping night is tomorrow.  It will also be a harder day than initially planned, some 140k and 1,800+m climbing, hopefully no headwind.

Another 1,000k complete, so in distance we are about 20% of the way.

For the first time since I signed up for this little ride, I think there is a good chance I will complete it, slowly all my worries have been resolved and are falling away.  I think I am physically able to do it, obviously something may happen, but at this point I am starting to believe I will actually get to Istanbul!

Whilst I am writing this, as is typical in most Chinese towns, the central square is the evening gathering place – right now I hear loud Chinese Disco music – thump, thump, thump – a good beat to write to…

A few pictures from the day…