Shock and Awe 2

Tianzhu

I guess all these town names that mean something to me are quite meaningless to you, they probably go in one eye and get forgotten before they can get out the other.

But one day when you come here the names will feel subconsciously familiar, and you won't know why exactly.

In the morning my dream had come true.

And I can't believe how much better I felt after a good solid sleep.

Heading out of Yongdeng was quite tricky as it was quite trucky.

Beautiful temple on the outskirts of town

Hilltop temple. It was blaring out beautiful traditional music.

Random wall art

As I photographed the art, this guy photographed me, so then I photographed him, and so on .... it could've gone on forever, so I left. He was sweet.

These two places, an incredible temple in Zhangye, and the famous Buddhist grottoes at Dunhuang, are on my route. I'll be there in no time, you'll see.

Another dead village.

I stopped for food along this dusty strip, at a little place run by a lovely Muslim family.

The road was pretty bad today actually, in a lot of places. Heaps of roadworks.

These guys were comedians. They couldn't stop laughing at me, and what I was doing.

Long freight train

Stupa just outa town.

The outskirts of Tianzhu

Lift education. Thought I'd translate it for you so you can get the vibe. The translation apps are really bad sometimes, but consistently hilarious.

The scene above my bed tonight.

This, my friends, is a white gourd, and looks like a ginormous zucchini. I put my large bananas next to it so you could get an idea of the size. It was bigger than a huge watermelon. The fruit and veg lady was selling it by the slice.

Market street in Tianzhu. Or is it Hollywood Boulevard? The paparazzi were out in force, I should start charging for pics.

I had my usual quota of conversations with incredulous locals, wanting to know every detail about me. I had a lotta fun.

Mini mangoes. I bought some, they were sweet and delicious and so small.

Red dates. They're yummy.

Snackattack weapons

Shock And Awful

Wtf!! What a fucking day.

What a bloody fucking fucking day.

I'm finally resting and warm, after being brutalised by a combination of the most intense weather, a hugely long ride, and a climb up a pass with an elevation of 3000m, which, when I got up there, was so cold that my whole body was shocked, and I couldn't stop shaking.

Headin' outa town

A burst of colour on this bleakest of grey  and cold days

It started out fine, as I headed off from Tianzhu. The road was full of trucks for awhile, but then the traffic seemed to ease, and, although cold, it was sorta nice being out there. As I rode on, however, the cold breeze, which I was riding directly into, seemed to get colder and colder, and started to pick up in intensity.

It was quite beautiful riding through these trees, they hugged the road for a long time.

Workin the fields

I stopped for a fruit snack at this spot, and, amazingly, three Chinese cyclists rocked up. They were lovely guys, we chatted for awhile, until the biting cold and the wind sent us on our way. They're all from Sichuan province, and have been riding around China for the past 9 months. They don't have an end date in sight, and suggested that they needed about 5 years to properly see China on their bikes.

I have to agree with them. China is so incredibly huge, and there's so much to see.

They have an online video channel, and that's how they finance their trip.

As we were chatting this little guy came and said hello. I realised straight away that one of the cyclists was travelling with him - he was pulling a little bike trailer, which was set up as a dog mobile home. So cute!

It was so great to meet those guys, I may see them again, as we're generally headed in the same direction, at least for the time being.

See the doggy trailer?

As I set off again, the seriously bitterly cold wind had really picked up, and was still blowing straight into me. It basically stayed like that for almost the whole day. It was brutal.

Mosque

The road started to climb, and just kept going up and up. The wind kept getting stronger, and as I climbed the temperature dropped. Soon I was really struggling up that hill, as a result of the combination of the gradient, the wind and the cold.

My weather app said it was 4 degrees when I finally made it to the pass, but that doesn't take into account the wind chill factor, which wasn't just chilling me, it was killing me.

Temple shrines at the top of the pass. There was no view to be had, visibility was low, and it was snowing in the higher hills around me.

And thenas I descended and picked up speed, the wind, of course, picked up proportionally, and it became torturously freezing. Of course I'd stopped pedalling as well, and without the physical exertion of climbing, which had been keeping an iota of warmth in my body as I chugged up the hill, I began to really freeze, and wondered what on earth I could do about the situation.

My fingers became icicles, to the point where I couldn't properly change gears, and braking was very painful. My feet turned into 2 of those big rectangular blocks of ice that we used to buy in the peak of blistering summer from the ice machine around the corner in Walton Street, when I was a kid in Adelaide in the 60s. You know the ones?

Yes. I literally had become an Icy Pole.

Of course, I tried to rug up on the bike, but being totally unprepared for today's icy snap, my cold weather gear, (which doesn't include woolen gloves, as I'd lost them in Nepal), was packed right at the very bottom of my large panniers, and to access it I'd've needed to stop in that unforgiving tempestuous place, and completely unload my bike, and then totally empty out the panniers. There was no shelter whatsoever from the brutal icy wind, and my things would've flown all over the hellish place.

So it was just impossible to do that, and I realised that if I rode down as quickly as I could, pushed through the pain, it would be warmer about 1000m lower down.

So that's what I did, and the temperature rose a couple of degrees.

But it was all pretty traumatic, particularly as I really hadn't seen it coming. I was shocked at the intensity. My first experience of higher altitude riding in the severe cold was a cracker alright. Now I know.

For the rest of the day it was no longer unbearably freezing, it had warmed to very fucking freezing, even after I'd rugged up as best I could.

Tourist spot

I followed this beautiful river valley for awhile.

Monumental

There was hardly any traffic about as I got further down the hill, except where my back road occasionally met the expressway entrances and exits, and then it was a shitshow of trucks.

There was a little industry about, but not much. Mainly farms and fields.

I stopped at another Muslim place for a very late lunch, and warmed up, temporarily.

And then, when I had about 10 clicks to go till I finally got to a town and got out of the cold, it started to rain, didn't it.

Yep, not content with just being freezing cold, I then got wet. But luckily it didn't really pour down straight away, and I made it to a hotel before getting totally drenched.

They had trouble sorting out the electricity at the hotel, so I just waited in a nice golden vase for awhile, until I could get a room.

Which I eventually did.

And that's where I am now.

Lift education. So bloody hilarious. And it wasn't from my translation app, it was the real thing. It was hard not to strut by the door, I can tell you, especially while I was grilling it.

What!? No slapstick, no beats?!!? What's the world coming to? Luckily I didn't see any tingmen blocking the doorway.

Lift ad.

So I've been out to snack, and the world's a different place. I'm comfortable and warm again. It's amazing how much I'm appreciating it right now.

Yeah, today was one of those big days.

And now it's over.

Ancient Marvels

Tomorrow I'm gonna head off for a couple of hours in another direction, to check out some amazing Buddhist grottoes.

Yeah, this whole province is packed with ancient Buddhist, Mongolian, Islamic and Han sites, including some of the westernmost portions of the Great Wall. And of course, there's the most incredible landscapes around, and some stunning national parks.

Yeah, there's so much here, and I've now learnt, the hard way, to make sure I'm prepared for all of it. Including the sometimes suddenly extremely hostile conditions.

Yeah, out here it can get mean, but I'm still keen❤️

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