Crossing the border, part 1

May 8th: The sole border crosser....

That morning, I was on the way already around 9:30am. So, with only 10 km. to do and the border opening at 10:30 am., I was well on time!

It was a beautiful morning, nice temperature, no people and no traffic at all!
"It seems that out of the 1.3 billion Chinese people, only a Belgian guy wants to cross the border today" I thought.....
Great! "This is going to be a quick peace of cake".....

However, the more I approached the border, the more something seemed not to be right!
And indeed, that day, as well as the previous and the next 3 days, the border was closed.
Reason: on Kazakh site they were celebrating the "end of the West War", which is the same as the end of the second world war.

Bad luck: border closed....

Sayram Hu paradise

I had to stay for  another 3 days in Korgas. Too much!
Then let's move on to plan B!

I was told that there was a nice lake, Sayram Hu, some 90km. North-East.
And what can you do if you have a bike, tent and cooking gear: camping!

There I went.  But what I did not check was that the lake was at an altitude of 2000 meter, so I had to climb for about 1500 meter.

A little bit Holland in China. Broken windmill with chimney

 

I was biking in 'relax mode', which means arriving 11 hours later, having a lot of stops for the nice scenery along the road.

Arriving at the lake gave you just another amazing view:


Sayram Hu lake

Yurt camping

I saw a man which offered me to sleep in one of his yurt....which I gratefully accepted. 

No tent camping but yurt camping....

 

He gave me 2 blankets for the night and the next morning I knew why! I woke up with -9.6°C!!!

Inside the yurt

After breakfast, I went back from where I came the day before. And as it was all downhill, I arrived 3.5 hours later....


Tomorrow the border is open again......let's see!