September 29th
134km (291m vertical)
The temperature here on the outskirts of the desert changes dramatically throughout the day. Last night I needed all of my thermals (in addition to my pathetic sleeping bag) to stay warm, and today the temperature rose to 93F in the afternoon.
Another dull day scenery-wise. There was a white haze over everything – probably another sandstorm. Korla is a large city, and the terrain got noticeably more green as we approached. (Again, thanks to water from the mountains.)
Staying in a hotel tonight. It only cost the tour company US$10 per person, and it is pretty nice. For the next few weeks, we should get one hotel stay during each riding stretch, in addition to the hotel stays on rest days. In November, we will only stay in hotels.
We tried to buy some more tubes from the local bike shop, but they did not have the sizes we needed. Some people have had dozens of flats in a row lately, and are using heavily patched tubes that they've repaired at camp. I brought a lot of spare tubes, so I still have about 6...and have already lent one to Manon and one to Knut, who each ran out.
Big family-style dinner tonight at the restaurant across the street. We also found “real” chocolate (M&Ms) at a grocery store. This is exciting, since the Chinese chocolate is terrible.
Its a dull day when you resort to posing for photos with police manikins. (There were several of this on the road today...not sure why.)
This gas station had 26 pumps...and no customers while we were there:
No comments:
Post a Comment