Life gets more interesting on the G312: But someone needs to hurry up!

October 9, 2014

There was still a headwind coming at me the next morning but thankfully it wasn't as strong as the day before and as soon as I could find a gap in the fence I was back on the G30 to try and make up some ground. Before too long I found traffic slowing to a standstill because of an accident and with the road ahead clearly blocked I was once again carrying my bags back through the fence to return to the G312. In Xinjiang getting off the G30 had been much easier, but in Gansu they evidently took expressway-fence-security much more seriously, and gaps in the barbed wire were small and infrequent, and required multiple trips carrying bags through before reassembling on the other side. Still, at least I had the option to move onto the other road and continue around the accident, unlike the long queue of waiting traffic.

Back on the G312 almost immediately I met two Chinese cyclists on a ten day tour going the other way. They had funny names

Moving onto the G312 because of the incident, which as it happened was just a truck having caught fire without anyone appearing to have been hurt, had a surprising benefit for me. Because the smaller road was slightly to the south of the raised G30, that expressway was actually blocking out the wind that was coming from the north-east, thus meaning I could actually go faster now despite the imperfect road conditions. It was lucky for me that truck had caught fire, because my brain never would have thought of doing it otherwise. It was a good enough reason for me to stick with the little road, and, although it soon crossed to the north side of the G30 rendering the wind-blocking benefit null and void, it did get even better as I entered an area of trees. The simple sight of these trees filled me with joy, evidently I was coming into a place with water, there must be a river here, which meant irrigation, crops, and people.

Amazingly I saw another group of five touring cyclists heading the other way on the G30. As we were on different roads I didn't get to speak to them, although they looked like a Chinese group on a short trip. Even so, that made a total of NINE other touring cyclists that I'd seen going the same way as my Korean friend Dongey, all within 24 hours of meeting him. And he'd told me that he'd met no one going his way in his entire tour across China! Little did he know that there were so many just behind him. It got me to thinking that perhaps there were lots of cyclists just behind me too. Perhaps even gorgeous female ones. Perhaps even Rod Hull and Emu. The possibilities seemed endless. It made me want to stop and sit and wait at the side of the road and see who would come. But my brain said I didn't have time, and correctly pointed out that Rod Hull and Emu were as likely to be just ahead as they were to be just behind, so I kept going.

As I began to pass more farm buildings things got more interesting and it began to dawn on me that I really was missing out on things when on the expressway. For example I saw a man skinning a goat. I wouldn't have seen that on the G30 now would I? And there were less gruesome occurrences too, mostly involving corn farming, clearly the main crop in this part of the world.

And then things got even better when I found a village. I call it a village because of its size and atmosphere, although truth be told it was all big modern buildings and looked more like a city street. Still, it was wonderful, absolutely wonderful. I wanted to try and use wifi for a minute and so I asked some men if there was any, and they were really lovely men, and showed me a connection and one of the men even made a phone call to get the password for me. I didn't know where the connection was coming from, I only needed to use it for a minute to check the map as the G312 had moved away from the G30 and I wanted to make sure I wasn't going an excessively long way. I wasn't.

I sat for a little while in that village place and I should have liked to have had time to stay longer, the people were so nice. A woman with her baby came to talk to me, then a man walked over and gave me a bottle of soft drink, obviously. There were almost no cars, kids playing, people smiling. I fell in love with China just a little bit.

I continued on the G312 and it continued to be great. Fertile land with crops, more people, more interest. After such a long time in the monotonous desert it was an emotion bordering on euphoria for me to be here now. I decided I really wanted to stay on the G312 as much as I could from now on. And then it crossed the G30 again, and moved now south of it, and reached another new city. Now this was really a weird experience, because the whole city was still being built. I mean, the whole thing. It was truly bizarre. Huge tower blocks, one after the other, newly built and unoccupied. It was almost a ghost city save for the construction workers.

None of these big buildings were occupied

But I had the impression that it would be magnificent when it was finished

I found the new city fascinating, and following on from the interesting village and farmland it had been a great day, but I realised that I was falling further behind schedule and I really needed to get a move on if I was going to make it to Lanzhou on time to meet Dea. I tried to continue to follow the G312 as it headed back out into the desert once more, but I believe I must have made a wrong turn, and ended up on a gravel track. The condition of it got worse and worse, and, although I was close to the G30 and could see I was going the right way, I was losing even more time. Then I got to a point where railway lines were blocking me from going any further. I had to u-turn and got annoyed as I was wasting even more time. Luckily I had just passed an entrance point for the G30 so I went back and joined it, ignoring the shouts from the toll booth staff. To be fair they were probably thinking it was a bad idea for me to be going on the expressway now seeing as how the sun was about to set and all, but I had to get over the railway line and try and find the G312 again before dark, for I had a cunning plan (and I use the word 'cunning' here, quite wrongly.) After just a few kilometres frantic cycling I saw the G312 again to my right and I climbed over the barrier and, after some clever maneuvering of belongings down the steep embankment, I was back to it.

The G312 running alongside the G30, and just looking like desert again

Getting off the G30 again required a skilled method of sliding the bags down that steep slope one after the other. The bike went last, and didn't enjoy it much

It was almost dark and I got a rear-wheel puncture, that rear inner tube continuing it's relentless pursuit of the most-patches-record but the late hour forced me to just put a new tube in, much to the rear-inner-tube's dismay. I cycled a little further in the dark, but there were a few trucks about and so I soon stopped and set up camp. There weren't any lunar eclipses to enjoy, so I got an early night. I would certainly need one if my cunning plan was going to work.

Today's ride: 109 km (68 miles)
Total: 30,438 km (18,902 miles)

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