September 13, 2016
to Valley Desert Camp: no rides today
We push back through the 300 meters or so of low desert grass and discover Rachel has a flat front tire. Another one of those little metal wires has found its way through. New tube and we are off.
Our plan is to ride the 23 kilometers of G216 to the junction with S320 that should take us to the border. Traffic is already heavy this morning, in fact the coal trucks have been trucking all night. Fortunately we were far enough away so it did not bother us. Once we reach the junction there is nothing there, just a road junction in the middle of nowhere. Most traffic keeps going north, but some of the coal trucks turn here. We decide to keep riding and try to find a ride, but not in a coal truck!
And so we keep racking up the kilometers, there are very few opportunities for a ride, most traffic are either small SUV driving Chinese tourists or coal trucks. The road gradually climbs and we have a steady headwind. For many kilometers the road engineers have placed bent metal poles on both sides of the road, about 3 meters off the edge with a curved top and an arrow pointing down that indicates the edge of the road. Rachel jokes, it’s to direct where to paint the white line because the arrows line up right at the line. The only logical reason for this could be to show the road edge when things are covered in snow, but why would they not just use the little reflective glass fiber poles you see in the rest of the world?
We reach a major junction where S238 joins S320, then a short but steep hill. We take a break and a car stops, asks if we need any help and gives us a much appreciated orange and an apple. We have had very few interactions with Chinese people, mostly we simply get ignored, probably because almost nobody speaks English, or is too embarrassed to try and we speak no Chinese. We have pretty much given up on trying to get a ride at this point. It’s become a nice ride with changing landscape and seeing camels on the hillsides.There is a nice downhill to a town that we were aware of but is not shown on any of our maps.
We find a restaurant, have a bowl of noodles and lots of cold green tea. After that we follow a river valley, but all land along the river is farmed and fenced off. After about another 15 km we find a fairly well hidden campsite in the rolling hills bordering the valley and set up camp.
Today's ride: 96 km (60 miles)
Total: 22,195 km (13,783 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |