Hohhot to Chengdu

[futianshenzhen]

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Welder/chef #2

[futianshenzhen]

27th

Left Wuli Jisumu at 8 to tackle the Gobi. In fact it was fairly straightforward, the road was under construction in places but excellent most of the time, hardly the deserted highway we'd imagined. In fact, it was the busiest stretch of road so far and we'd covered 200 kms by 11.30. We rode through Yinchuan at about 2 pm and then pushed on to Xingrenxiang, a tiny town which luckily had rooms available. We first fitted my new heated grips, it was cold today and I rode with one hand on the engine at times, then had a fantastic hotpot. The last 100 kms into Xingrenxiang were great, the first twisties of the trip. I really needed that as the endless straights of inner Mongolia had bored the shite out of me. Tomorrow we hope to be towards the western side of Gansu.

610 today, 1500 total.

[Mfpthebronze]

Stopping for a map check. Should we go straight, or straight?
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I think we should continue straight
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Stopped for a break in a court-yard of sorts with apple and date trees, and this fellow stopped for a stare. As soon as Tom lifted the camera, he was off like a shot :)
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The end of the day, putting on the heated grips. They are worth their weight in gold (or 50rmb on taobao), and they would continue to prove their worth on the plateau.
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Tom's elfin fingers made short work of the delicate wiring
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[futianshenzhen]

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The road heading South through the Gobi


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Now that's a set of bullbars


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Off road detour in Ningxia


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A fantastic hoptpot in Xingrenxiang

Anyone would think we have a peeing fetish!

[futianshenzhen]

28th

Left Xingrenxiang shortly after 8 having had one of the best hotpots ever the night before. The roads were good and the scenery better, a almost alien kind of landscape that looked as if someone had sliced off the tops of the jelly mould style mountains. At the first fuel stop I put in 55 to Joe's 34 and later on the it was 70/45. My bike will only do about 250 on a full tank when usually it will do the best part of 400. Things will get worse at altitude so hopefully there'll be plenty of petrol stations!

We stumbled upon a Buddha carved into the mountainside in southern Ningxia and then headed west towards Gansu. We arrived in Gongjingxiang, after a rollercoaster of a road, at about 5. While I had an oil change Joe went off to find a hotel, and what a hotel! 10 quai a room! That is a bike trip record, the previous best being 20 quai for a room in Guizhou, but we had to share. The hotel is basically a nice courtyard style farmhouse, the rooms very basic but fine by me. The only problem is the dog who won't stop barking, my boot impacting his backside is on the cards.
450 today, 1950 total. Tomorrow Qinghai.


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Jelly mould mountains

[milton]

Good stuff, Tom, as always, even with the out-of-proportion amount of bike troubles along the way. Well, what is Chinamoto without mechanical problems?

Your route intersects with ours (Motokai and I, Changsha to Urumqi) almost perpendicularly and displays quite a bit of different terrains. It looks very interesting, something to explore next time.

Look forward to seeing more.

[futianshenzhen]

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Joe taking a snap of the local kids



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The 10 quai a night farmhouse we stayed in

[futianshenzhen]

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A solar kettle near Gongjingxiang, takes an hour to boil apparently

[futianshenzhen]

29th


Left Gongjingxiang at 8.15 and the undulating road got worse and worse, until it stopped completely and we had road under construction hell for about 50 kms. Just when things started getting better it pissed it down for the whole afternoon. Progress was slow, we only covered 370 kms today. Soon after it started raining Joe noticed his legs were wet so we pulled over under a bridge and found that the 200 Pound over trousers that Dan lent him are about as waterproof as a sponge. Luckily he had some old Chinese ones which work fine together with my gators. We didn't think much of Gansu, maybe because of the weather, but it was pretty dreary compared to Ningxia. We stopped for excellent Muslim noodles, bread and to take a break from the rain just before the border with Qinghai. After the noodles and a readjust of the rain gear we headed up a near vertical road into the fog and snow. It was pretty nippy but we had enough gear on, without heated grips it would've been very tough going. After stopping to take a photo in the snow the road started to descend into a stunning high plateau valley and it warmed up a bit.

We arrived in Xunhua at about 5 and took some photos of more amazing scenery. Found a hotel with an underground car park, very few things make me happier than that.

On a more depressing note I'd had my carburetor and air filter cleaned last night in the hope of improving fuel economy and was quietly confident of at least being equal with Joe. It wasn't to be though, I put in 74 quai to his 45. Bugger. I'm going to change the ECU and spark plug tonight.

After changing the ECU we found a leak in the fuel line plug, we then walked around looking for a place to eat and some leak plugging stuff. Every restaurant in town, including outdoor barbecue places, was completely dry and wouldn't even let us bring in a beer. After initially quite liking Xunhua we now can't wait to get out of here. We just fixed the leak with some ptfe tape, a self tapper, some epoxy and tape. Hopefully I will triumph in the fuel economy competition tomorrow.

[Mfpthebronze]

I was behind on the uploads so there will be quite a few pics here - for two days. Bandwidth beware :)

28th

Heading through Southern Ningxia.


This sure beats relieving yourself 3 feet from the road onto a concrete slab like we had to do at the farmer's house!


The Temple


Our 10 RMB rooms. Cockroach free, so I was happy.


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29th

Fantastic little petrol station where we stopped in the morning. I don't think it has been mentioned yet, but in most towns and provinces on the way, you cannot simply pull up to the pump to fill up. You must park on the outskirts of the station, grab a leaky, rusty, half welded can, and have it filled up. You must then slosh your way back to the bike, by which time you have more petrol in your clothes than in the can. You must then Close your eyes, tilt up the back of the can, and attempt to keep some of the petrol going into the tank all the while praying that you don't spend your last seconds on earth as a flaming testament to Chinese bureaucracy. When asked why we must go through this ritual, the attendants always responded, "for safety." ..... yeeeeeaaaah

So needless to say we liked this little station where the guy thought we we idiots for asking about a can.


Buying noodles in the same little shop that had the solar stove outside.



We went from sunny and cool to cold and wet in about 10 minutes. Even with heated grips, I was freezing. We had come through rain earlier, and my gloves were saturated. From this...



...To this. Just as the fog cleared from the high snow pass, we were greeted with an UNBELIEVABLE view - Miles of switchbacks descending into a valley shouldered by rocky mountains on either side. And my phone died. NO PICS. The camera was packed away, and Tom was bombing off into the distance. I regret not getting that picture.