Made it into Xiahe, Gansu this afternoon. It's an amazing little place. The weather has gotten a bit dicey, but if it holds, I'll be heading for Xining tomorrow.

Thanks for camera tip Euphonius, I took some shots today in 'P' mode and am eager to get them on the computer to see how they look. I was able to download an English manual on Canon's website.. now just need to find the time to read it!

Day 7 - Inner Mongolia: Dongsheng to Ningxia border

After only making it rougly 150 km the previous day, I was eager to cover more ground. I jumped on the G109, the same road I had taken out of Beijing, and headed west out of Dongsheng. The terrain was flat and arrid. I spent most of the day riding through desert areas - not pure sand - but with some vegetation.



At times, the G109 was great, and at other times, it was great, but for some unknown reason closed for (nonexistant) "construction." At these points, I had to jump off the road into dusty bypasses:



Here and there, the road was blocked by cones (or more often stacks of rocks), which were easy enough to simply go right through. Although ignoring the cones on one end meant I may hit one of these on the other end:




Fortunately, there was usually *some* way around:




When I couldn't find a way around, I had to take the bypasses. Often which required riding through half a foot of dust. They didn't teach "Riding Through Sand" at my Chinese motocycle license "classes" - and while riding through loose dirt, the bike would slide all over the place. At one bypass, the dust was especially thick, I was in the wrong gear, and all of the sudden I found myself standing with the bike lying on the ground below me:




I tried to lifting the bike - first with my legs and then with my back - all to no avail. I walked down to the road and the first car I waved at pulled over. Two men jumped out, we climbed back up to my bike, and the three of us picked it back up no problem. They helped me push it down to the road and went on their way. I looked over the bike, didn't see anything wrong, and jumped back on the road.

I continued to hit bypasses, and started taking them as slow as the bike would let me. On one particularly long bypass, I went past a taxi cab driver trying to shovel his stuck taxi out (in the distance:)





I'd rather slalom through rocks than leave road for the dirt, even with the all-to-familiar oncoming trucks and plumes of dust in their wake. Here, I stopped to brace for the coming dust storm:




Eventually I hit the S216 and happily left my old friend the G109 behind. A bit worn out, I stopped for lunch in the next small town. While eating, the sky turned from blue to gray as a band of storm clouds rolled in. The waitresses assured me that in this area when it rains, it quickly passes. I sat and watched the storm clouds from the restaurant window.. but despite the ominous look, it didn't rain. Still wanting to make up ground, I decided to chance it. And sure enough, after not 20 minutes on the road I felt a few sprinkles:




I could see clear skies in the distance, and so I raced on, hoping to dodge the weather. Luckily, I was able to get clear of the clouds before it really opened up. The terrain continued to be flat and arrid as I made my way towards Ningxia.

Sheep crossing:




Closing in on 400 km for the day, I hit a small city on the border with Ningxia and decided to spend one last night in Inner Mongolia before entering a new province. Ningxia could wait for tomorrow!