Jiayuguan To Wuwie

Here we are yet at another milestone in our expedition. The first being that of our celebration in Kashgar toasting our success of making it through six countries (flying over Georgia which would have been seven) and into our seventh and last country China!! The half way point. The other night we celebrated our second milestone and thoroughly enjoyed what was unfortunately our last camp site on the Silk Route Expedition, but I can guarantee that it was one that none of us will ever forget.

Our last night’s camp was 3km away from any roads making for a very peaceful and secluded evening but the highlight, other then that of remoteness and solidarity of the desert plains, was the company of the spectacular Great Wall of China which we all pitched our tents within 15 feet there of. The Ancient wall built of mud bricks and clay stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions. We enjoyed beautiful clear skies and warm sun all afternoon after a perfect days ride, a short one at that, only 105km!! Miles cooked up yet another amazing meal (chilli and mashed squash), the last of Miles dinners unfortunately, and then the festivities began.

We had a nice bonfire in the company of the Great Wall under a brightly lit starry sky and celebrated with cookies, chocolate, candies marshmallows and a variety of different drinks including some local Chinese wine which was a favourite with Graham!! We also had a small, just for fun, awards ceremony around the fire, a few nice songs were also sung by Joost and thanks to Louise we topped it all off with an interesting array of fire crackers and fire works. This light show caught the attention of some beautiful little kids from a small village 3km away. Although they were to late for the fire works by the time they arrived they were just in time for a whole lot of roasted marshmallows which I’m sure left them with a belly ache that night. We sat around shooting the breeze as the almost full moon rose up from behind the wall and as the coal slowly burned out, so did the riders one by one as they took shelter in the comforts of their tents one last time on this expedition.