Nomad "New Style" - Pilgrims - Prohibted area - Dead road - Sandstorm

These are some of the key words of the last days.......


In Tibetan area

After Xining I entered the Qinghai region and took the G109, south of the beautiful Qinghai Hu Lake.

Qinghai region with the beautiful Qinghai Hu Lake

During a short stop I met a local store owner who spoke perfect English. He gave me a short explanation about the history of the Tibetan empire. He also explained that I was actually in former Tibetan area and warned me that weather in Tibet could change very quickly and very often…something I experienced a few moments later.

The weather went from blue sky to very windy, to hail, to snowstorm, to nice sunset. All in a timeframe of less than 5 hours.



Nice weather with at the back the Qinlian mountains

Then it started to hail.....

.....followed by snow....



......to end with a nice sunset!

Due to that snowstorm I decided to stop along the way with a kind of “Modern Nomads”. These friendly people were owning sheep and cows, 2 horses and a donkey. “Modern Nomads” means: living in a pre-fab container, having solar panels and driving a Chevrolet car.

They offered me a pillow and a place to sleep which I grateful accepted. What I didn’t know….”Modern Nomad” also seems to mean: allowing your kid to do a pee (and the other thing…) in the middle of the living room. Lucky I was sleeping somewhere else!

Pilgrims

The next morning, I almost called 911 when I suddenly saw 2 women laying on the ground in front of me.

In fact it were pilgrims making a tour around that same Qinghai Hu lake.
The way they did was: 3 steps forward, hands up, hands down, a little pray, kneeling and laying on the ground.



I measured: 1 cycle took them around 3 meters and they did it in 15 seconds. I was thinking: “What should it take to do this from here to the world city of Dessel, Belgium?” and quickly calculated: 4 million times falling on the ground and about 700 days…..realizing that I am happy to do it by bicycle!

Continue westbound, I had to cross the Xiangpi pass @ 3870 meter.

Hallucinating?

As you might know, riding at high altitude can have some physical consequences like difficulty to breath, fatigue, headache and in worst case hallucinating…..which I did, seeing road signs with opposite directions for the same city…..

A lot of accidents also on that same road….

It just happened a few moments before......lucky the tank was empty!

On sale......

Prohibited area

After a long day I was happy to arrive in Delingha. That joy only lasted for a moment….
After check-in and paying the room, they suddenly changed their mind and told me that I could not stay. I started to question the reason which they could not give. The police and translator came explaining that I was in a prohibited area for foreigners. Of course I heard about this, I only did not realize that I was actually in this kind of “no foreigner” zone.
However, as mostly in China, they helped me out, offering another (better) hotel but telling that I had to leave as soon as possible the next morning!
Knowing that you are in a prohibited area and that you have to leave ASAP did not gave me a nice feeling!



Good that the other "homeless" man didn't came home that night

The next two days were though. 87km. before Dachaidan I stopped because the wind was too strong. I slept that night in an abandoned container like a homeless, tired man.

Back to pathfinders time

The next night, as Yuka city was a dead city, I found some construction workers where I could stay overnight in their tent.

 

Cities are no-cities, roads are no-roads and no-roads are roads

My next stop was planned to be Chalengkou, laying on the G315. Although not given on my map, that road suddenly split. I had to make a choice: 40km ahead to Chalengkou or 172km. SOUTH to another city. Sure I choose for the 40km. Unfortunately, that was a wrong decision as this road ended in a sand road where even a 4x4 sometimes should have had difficulties. I had to turn back and slept that night again in a tent with very friendly and welcoming workers along the road.

The road that ended in no-road.......

April 23rd. …. A day to remember (or quickly forget)

I started a little late, around 10 am. It went all well in the beginning: Nice weather and favorable SLW (=SuperLiesWish) wind. I was riding in between the beautiful salt lakes.

Beautiful salt lakes near Chalengkou

I also saw the end of the G315 that I initially wanted to take to go to Chalengkou two days ago and realized: If I had continued that road, it should have been suicide.

After the salt lake, the weather became overcasted with again a lot of wind. I had done so far already 160km. and needed to do another 49km. Due to the wind, the speed dropped as low as 7-8km/h. The road also went uphill. It even went worse when the strong wind transformed in a sandstorm.
Good that I got some support (VERY GOOD SUPPORT) from the Changchun basecamp telling me that a little further, after a sharp curve, there should be a place to stay.  I reached the curve but was disappointed when I saw only an abandoned factory. I ended after midnight completely exhausted and with more than 200 km. in the legs and with nowhere else to go, I decided to try my MacGyver skills and broke in (Don't tell my mother!). It was cold but I slept relatively well.

And guess what: the next morning, I discovered that  there was a truckstop around the other curve.....300 meter further.


The so wanted place to rest, just a few hundred meters around the other turn....

 

SINOPEC City

The following 2 days, although still in the middle of the dessert the road became more and more busy. Soon I realize why: I am riding in the middle of the oilfields owned by SINOPEC (a big Chinese petrochemical company). But very strange.....most of their equipment seems not to work. Should it be because they were mistakenly drilling in the wrong area or was it because their equipment is "made in China"......???

Oilfield with a lot of idle equipment.......

While nearing Huatuguo, a car stopped and we talked for a while. Afterwards I got a 6 km. personal escort to the center of the town.

After 1 week of dessert, you can not imagine how happy you get being back to civilization and seeing the first traffic light and beautiful women (sorry, beautiful women and traffic light.....).
I am wondering why they don't call Huatuguo "SINOPEC city" as everything (buildings, banks, apartments,...) seems to carry their yellow-red PetroChina logo....

My personal escort insisted to pay my hotel and later that evening we had some nice time......