Day 239 (China): km marker 1880 on G312 - km marker 1738 on G312 (decision time)

daily distance: 121km
total distance: 13,997km
riding time: 7h

I essentially had a lousy night, there simply wasn’t enough space. Despite having lost so much weight it seems that I need some space at night.

I also had two bad dreams last night, one dealing with the local people finding me and stealing my cycling shoes and a bunch of other things. As it turns out though they looked decidedly Southern European rather than Chinese. So much for that. The other dream dealt with completely banged up rims front and back, but the image that I had in my mind was that of completely flexible rims, entirely wobbly. Nothing nice to think of … so it was time to get up. Only to realize that things were much colder outside than under the protection of the greenhouse. A nice snug 2C was replaced by a -5C once I was outside. Brrrr …. and riding into the oncoming wind didn’t make things much better at all. But what brightened my mood was the face of the guy who turned me away last night and gave his dogs some fun while doing so when he saw me pedaling past him in the early morning.

In Longde I warmed up with some more food and talked to the guy who made them. He was tickled to have the foreigner like his daudse - and they were delicious and when he saw the map, he was even more tickled to find Longde on it and tell me where I was.

Then came a long and sometimes tough uphill. Tough because it was decision time. I had been pondering the route for a while. Remain on the G312 until Xian and then turn to the G310 and on to the Yellow Sea or stick to the old idea of getting back to the G309 and head East that way. I pretty much had made up my mind to do the latter, but wavered given the terrain that was awaiting me, the altitude and with it the temperatures. It was getting really cold, every day seemed to be colder than the last. Especially the early mornings. And then there were the constant ups and downs all the time. I was already feeling a little sick and this wouldn’t be getting any better soon. The last straw were the temps on the downhill … it was not just cold. And so I passed the turnoff to Guyuan and stayed on the G312.

I will thus be heading to Xian and then follow the Yellow River for a while. Or at least its valley. Call me chicken for all this, but it seems to make good sense to me. Sure, the other one would have been more off the beaten track and less crowded and I liked that, but there were lots of reasons that mitigated against taking that route.

So, on past the now almost regular pollution as I descended from 2300m to just above 1000m at the end of the day.

In Pingliang there was more food waiting in store, a long internet session and then came a ferocious two hours on the bike. I covered almost 50km in just over two hours, aided by a massive tailwind. It was great and it was a bit warmer than the previous nights.

Taking the easy way now means that I might have more time along the route though I must say that I am a bit anxious towards the end of the trip. And there really isn’t much to do in the towns. But for the remainder you will continue to get more episodes of what one reader has called the soap opera that he is hooked to. Thanks … I do take it as a compliment.

Note: The picture quailty is lousy … I cannot change that for the time being. As I am posting this I am in Xian and couldn’t find an internet cafe which even allows me to access the flickr site. This is hopefully temporary and I will try to remedy the situation as best as I can once I have access again.