August 24th, 2006 | categorizilation: all categories,China
Today’s Distance / 今日の走行距離：124.64km
Time on bike / 走行時間：6h 57m
Average speed / 平均速度：18.3km/h
Total distance to date / 現在までの積算距離：1519.9km
Woke at 6:30am for an early start to Yining, however the motel owners were not up, so I napped until 8am when I heard movement from inside the house. The owners give me a hearty breakfast of rice porrage (really yum and lasting energy for the day). Out of town by 9am, stop for watermelon at a watermelon patch at 10:30am and don’t get away until 11:30am. Wonderfully friendly Kazakh folks.
Very contrasting landscape today. On my left is a lush valley with a fast flowing river, on my right is desolate rocky hills. There were many fishermen along the river trying to sell me fish as I passed. Most of them kindly understood why I didn’t fancy carrying fish in my panniers.
Generally downhill and a tailwind all day, apart from some slow uphills halfway through. I was nervous buying watermelon in a town on the way for tea. I was half way through getting across the fact that I wanted a watermelon when I noticed a police officer eyeing me from about 700m away. The watermelon seller also noticed (they appeared to realise that this was a closed town), and just gave me the watermelon for free and told me to leave quick. Legendary.
I ate outside of town near a bridge, and seriously considered sleeping under it. In the end I gave up on that idea and ended up sleeping in an old disused brick firing kiln.
Your photos are great! Got tired of watermelon yet? Does it taste any different to the stuff we get in New Zealand?
LOvely images and travel tales here. Envy!
