3 days & 470km out from Kashgar, hot, drink, drink, drink. Basic stops, the temptation too great for rest day here in Aksu, 3 star hotel, luxury, $10 a night! Have a big menu decoder in the back of my phrase-book, any dish i point to, they can make, and was truly delicious after 3 rough days on the road. Unexpected bonus of buffet banquet breakfast included in the price, so am now truly stuffed. It must be what a camel feels like carrying all their supplies in their humps for weeks on end. Someone else's desert photos from Aksu back to Kashgar.

So, it's desert, then desert, followed by desert. The km's fly past, at least it's flattish and maybe the headwinds will turn into tailwinds soon. Can buy a cool drink every 50/100km or so, wow, which is like heaven. Into iced tea now, pretty hard to stay hydrated properly, mustn't drink too much either. Resting in shade, occasionally, in the tunnels under the road, tipping water on my head. Water gets hot on the bike, Keith is putting tea bags in his water bottles, may follow suite later...

Have train-line for company! maybe 3 or 4 trains a day. Some light traffic, no danger of dying of thirst, but carrying lots of water anyway. A few tall towering tornadoes drifting across the desert plains, have to keep an eye on them, not sure what they can do, but tis a grand sight from a distance, 3 or 4 twisters in the same view.

And riding in a cowboy hat been real swell mam, those dog-arn crazy locals here, keep picking my hat, wearing it and coming up to me smiling. 3 times in 1 day, darn horse-crazy, no respect for a man's property. In fact, Keith, walked up to someone else, removed their hat and stuck it on his head, good response!

Keiths spent a morning fixing punctures, 3 in one tube, the patches stick better in the cool air-conditioned room - a good excuse for not camping in the desert!

More Desert...

Now at Luntai 800km into the desert (from Kashgar), had a few lovely non-scorching, non-sunny overcast days, easy riding, yes mam, cooler... Stayed in some basic places, a few mud shacks on one street dusty towns, toilets in the desert past the crazed guard dog, its not everyday you watch a train coming out of the sunset whilst on the toilet.

All this is sounding very hardcore desert, but surprisingly, there are good stretches of green along the road, irrigation from the mountains, fields of sweetcorn, melon & green things we call veg... Even better, there are some very decent hotels in the bigger towns, and we're aiming for these whenever possible. Should be camping in the desert, but didnt bring a fridge...

What its like on the long sandy stretches? Boring is not the word, its more like being in a trance, striking out the rhythm on those pedals, gazing hypnotically at the white line on the side of the road, like zen meditation mam, don't fight it, let the desert become part of you, but don't go crazy either, yes mam, ye-hah, my lucky vegetable is a turnip, and the song Hotel California keeps running through my head, "on a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair, ..."

Then there's eye-candy, by this I mean, seeing something not made from sand. A Chinese advertising hoarding great entertainment from 2km out, 1 rabbit/hare, there's a bend in 10km, and wow, look the railway line is crossing the road. See how long I can ride on the white line, 50 metres, lost interest, play that game again in 2 hours. OK, its meditation time again, there are no distractions. Look there's a dude with a ruck-sack bouncing along on a pogo stick, "round the world trip" he says, and I reply, "isn't it hot in that white bunny rabbit outfit".

Mileposts

We turned east out of Kashgar, along road 314, just 1500km till it ends at a T junction, navigation isn't a problem, and we get a milepost distance marker every kilometre, lest we forget. Some of my favourite mileposts:-

• 1500 - T-junction ahead
• 1000 - the time i used to get up for work
• 911 - my next porsche
• 888 - for good luck
• 747, 767, 737 - planes, how exciting, time to empty the mind again, meditate...
• 699, 696, 669 - requires three willing participants
• 501 - jeans i never bought
• 0 - ooo pretty T-junction

Look there's something ahead in 5km, a service station, cycle in anticipation of a cold drink, strange looks from the locals as i park the bike dressed in lycra shorts and cowboy hat, ... what F**K, no bleeding fridge! For some reason the Chinese don't chill their drinks, preferring tea. At evening rest stops, we sometimes have get the shop keeper to transfer beer bottles to his fridge.

People often ask how far we cycle in a day, the longest so far is 175km, am looking forward to a 200km when there is no head/side wind. Medium days are 100km, and a shorty maybe 80/90km. We time our progress by assuming we'll average 75km per day (including rest days), so we're doing well at the moment, earning our rest days and making it to Xian to extend the visas.

I like China, very civilised and this 4 star hotel is a bargain at 5 pounds (10$),

Desert Oasis

Now in Korla on the edge of a nice big sprawly town, a centre for Chinese oil industry. In fact have seen a few oil refineries, 4/5 story flames out there in the desert. A rest day, freezing cold beer, milk-shakes, big cheap hotel room, .... Aiming for Turfan next, a major stop with a John's Cafe, where they cater to trekkers with great food/service, will get my laundry done there, which would be the 2nd time only on the whole trip (no, have been doing my own laundry too).

The major towns, maybe 5 or 6 in the last 1000km of desert, are impressive, these Chinese know how to build, construct and settle in. Nice long clean streets, with trees, some hectic places loads of people with little shops, pedestrian shopping streets with fashionable clothes shops, kiddies playgrounds, new things being constructed all the time, always a crane on the skyline,

The bikes been going well, tyres are fine, nothing needs replacing or servicing, very happy with that. Keith's new back wheel from Kashgar wasn't built too well by the shop's mechanic, we had to tighten some loose spokes, now it has a slight buckle. Also, his back block sometimes works itself loose and requires tightening. Keith has been very unlucky with punctures lately. I have been very fortunate so far, fingers crossed...

A Change of Scene

To my surprise we rode through stunning sandstone mountain scenery, particular yesterday, climbing to 2000m and descending to here, the 'Tarim Basin' well below sea level. Loads of pudding basin shaped hills litter the landscape, of all hues & shades :- red, brown, orange, yellow, grey, charcoal, "sing a rainbow". Brilliant views across the plains to snowy capped mountains in the north, eventually, the sandstone crumbling into sand as we descended lower.

The wind blows hard across the landscape, we had all directions, enjoying tailwinds on the flat & gradual downhills. Didn't enjoy the gale force on the final climb here, each passing lorry blew me side ways across the road, & on a few occasions completely off into the desert. actually i did get hit by a lorry, side-swiped when there wasn't enough room to pass, one of those things, not hurt, and now i have a "badge of honour" rip in my cycling top, will always treasure it. Have done about 1400km from Kashgar to here, and a total distance of 13,200km from England.

Lost our friend, road "314", been together for the last 1500km, and our new road, I forget the name, has distance markers starting at around 4000km (keith took photo). This is going to be really annoying, seeing a distance marker (milepost) descend by 1km, every 1km for 4000km presumably. Where does it end?

Luxury in Turfan?

An oasis town called Turfan, been dreaming of reaching here for a mini-holiday. Went straight to Johns Cafe, the best hang out: cold beer, steak, chips & ice-cream, yum yum. We haggled with 4 or 5 over priced hotels, people running after us lowering their prices, eventually settling for the 130Yuan (18USD) per night. After all, we are poor cyclists, still 13 times more expensive than our previous room, a dusty stop-over in the back of a store.

Turfan is the oven of China, the temperature in the 40C's, never rains and laundry drys in minutes. An ancient silk road stopover for camel trains, there are about 5000km of hand dug tunnels feeding water from the mountains to the north, all ancient.

3 new records, a distance of 217km in one day, and 401km in the last 2 days, and latest hotel check-in time of 11:30pm. We decided on 2 days to get here & stubbornly stuck to it, navigation was harder, distances/maps are all wrong, looking forward to a some well earned rest days.

Turfan is good rest (nothing can beat Kashgar though), temperature 41C today, forecast for 43C, hot stuff. Nice parks, everyone walks in the shade underneath the trees, and there's some wonderful walkways through tunnels of grapes, yes sounds weird, long walkways with huge quantities of over hanging grapes all support by wooden beams, etc... no one seems to be 'nicking' the grapes either. My 3 credit/debit cards only work in certain ATMs and different ones too, glad they eventually worked, phew! Still have some cash from start of trip, all pre-ordained as there aren't really any banking facilities between there Iran and China. Washed bike in hotel shower, de-greased chain in petrol,a messy affair and left the room spotless. I hid the petrol on the outside window sill, room service found it and disposed of it, cool. You'd never get away with this in England.

Still using the same brake blocks since Istanbul, amazing after all the mountains and heavy breaking. They're dual compound break pads by Koolstop, well worth the extra money, and I'm sure they prolong the lifetime of the wheels (ie, not wearing the rim out as the cheaper pads definitely do).

Summary

All in all, have made a sizeable dent into China, covering lots of ground, pleased when looking at the map, Beijing, Laos, Thailand, Singapore don't seem so far away now. This journal entry covers about 1500km of desert between 2 major stopping points, so this is the end of this stage, the next being.... dunna na na naaaa.... desert, but maybe it'll be different.... see next journal entry....