(30.7.2012)
This blog is going to be a short summary of the last days. It just too hot to eat, too hot to cycle, too hot to think and too hot to write a blogpost. It is 47*C.
Paul and I have decided that cycling against the hot, strong wind is like suicide. Better rest in the shadow of the first tree we saw in the last 80 km. It is not a big tree but we share the little shadow it gives with each other. I wonder how this tree can live here. Exposed to the wind and sun and hardly any rain. But I am glad that its seed hit the ground here. Probably we are not the first travelers accompanying this tree. Maybe it even grew from a seed a traveller brought here in the sand of his shoes.
Enough about the tree.
We are in the desert now. Huge sand dunes surround us and as far as I can see, no civilization besides the road. In the last village we filled up our water reservoir. 40 liters of water stowed in canisters and bottles in our bike-bags.
This part of our trip is supposed to be the hottest so we don’t want to run low on water.
Since the last blogpost we cycled nearly 500 km, on one day we even broke our all-time-record of kilometers in on day: 200,02 kilometer.
In the morning of this day we had a sandstorm as tailwind which carried us the first 50 km. then the wind turned against us an despite the fact that we went to a huge bazaar in hotan we made over 200 km. Well, we were quite tired that evening.
On our way we also met three Russians from Novosibirsk, Siberia. They had chosen to cycle directly through the desert, about 700 km. Crazy guys. We had lunch with them and in the evening, they stopped earlier and we still drove on to get to the mountains again as fast as possible.
The places we stayed at were all about the same. Dusty nights on sandy ground. Yesterday night we slept next to a river with brown muddy water. We washed our clothes, cooled us down a little and filled our water canisters. In the morning the mud had settled on the bottom of the canisters and the water was tasty and clear enough for drinking.
We also started a series of oven-experiments. Our plan is to build a small , light and efficient oven that helps us cooking faster an even when it is raining or to windy for normal fire.
The last oven we finished (see picture) has an telescopic chimney and is build from an old oil canister. When we tested it we were surprised to find it working perfectly. Our noodles were finished even faster than on a professional gas-cooker. The big advantage is that we can burn anything in this oven for the fume doesn’t get in contact with the pot and its interiour any more. Now we started building the same model, but with a foldable body. We’ll see how it goes.
Last night we slept on the foot of a huge dune. Getting our bikes there was quite exhausting but still worth the effort. In the morning we had the most fantastic light and sunrise ever. The sun came up under the clouds above the dunes and the warm rays hit our tent. Against every logic, there were Mosquitos in the desert. These little beasts are everywhere. What the f*** do they do in the desert.
Up to now we have cycled about 70 km, today we want to reach 150, so no more time for writing blogpost.
Ahm,one more thing. You probably wonder why the title is “bright light”.
Today the light in the desert is so bright that the darkest glasses in my sunglasses are still not enough to keep me from twinkling.
Imagine the difference between day and night here. In the night it I so unbelievable dark and in the daytime brutally bright. If eyes of humans wouldn’t be able to adapt so well, we wouldn’t be able to see anything at day or at night, only with sunrise and sunset.
And that’s what I thought is so fascinating.
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