Hami to Jaiyugunan

Day 45 monday 14th September 615 km ( 14963 km total)

Long straight desert ride, who needs google translate?, bayonet selfies & toll booth quick step

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The plot on my satellite tracker is looking pretty impressive now - have I really ridden that far? As you can see I have now started turning south, so its all downhill to Thailand from here .. It's still going to take another 16 days or so to get to the China-Laos border through, such is the size of this country.

More of the same today, unfortunately, pretty empty lanscape for most of the 8 hour ride.

Strong cross winds creating chellenging riding but pretty patterns in the sand ... Sometimes we had to ride for miles at 20 degrees off verticle to combat the wind.

Occasional respite Came in the form of a few nearby hills

& what looked like a sand castle competition entry, but was almost certainly somethimg much more serious than that!

There are more informative signs in this part of China, Its a shame they have blocked google though, as they could sure use the translation app in the road signs ministry ...

I passed a lone cyclist travelling our route - you have to respcet these guys, it must take them weeks to cross the desert, and with those winds too!

Another police checkpoint, this one with soldiers carrying very sharp bayonets on their guns.

This soldier came after us with his phone to take some selfies with the bikes, so we got one too.

Next up was the toll booth - this one was a 'quick-step', a wide enough gap by the barrier to just ride thorugh

But for most of the way it was wide open desert plain, so a good thing I still had 5000 songs left in my ipod to listen too!

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Day 46 Tuesday 15th September 0km (14963 km total)

Today was a planned rest day in Jaiyugunan following the long series of desert highway days.

I took the opportunity to do some washing, catch up on the blog (which is why you have had 3 to read today) , do a few jobs on the bike & generally chill. I also discovered that something had been eating me in the night and am now sporting some bright red lumps the size of watermelons ( a slight exageration for effect ;-) )