Vue de l’hotel de Kashgar – crédit photo Thomas Brégardis
LAURE conduit les nouveaux suiveurs , direction Serge et le Paris-Tokyo – crédit photo Thomas Brégardis
Serge à midi – crédit photo Thomas Brégardis
Serge à 15h – crédit photo Thomas Brégardis
Serge à 16h – crédit photo Thomas Brégardis
Serge au péage…. gratuit – crédit photo Thomas Brégardis
Jean-Marc, renseigne Ludo et Daniel sur le fonctionnement du GPS – crédit photo Thomas Brégardis
Serge et Laure recoivent des nouvelles de leurs amis par le facteur nommé Daniel – crédit photo Thomas Brégardis
L’ancienne equipe de suiveurs et la nouvelle, vous saluent bien – crédit photo Thomas Brégardis
Dernier "ravito" pour Jean-Marc et Benjamin – crédit photo Thomas Brégardis
et un ensablage pour finir…. merci pour ton aide Benjamin – crédit photo Thomas Brégardis
Le soir au campement laure et Serge lisent un livre d’or apporté par Daniel – crédit photo Thomas Brégardis
L’oeil du tigre… – crédit photo Thomas Brégardis
D135 – 75.2Km
MONDAY, MAY 1, 2006
N39 45.934 E76 16.691 (1251m) – N39 49.592 E77 06.244 (1181m)
75.2 km – 10H05′
38° Celsius and 17% humidity
It was a full day for everyone
This morning Serge left with Jean-Marc and Ben at 7H45 to reach the departure point 40 minutes later.
The new team got a slow start, due to jet lag, and left at 11H00 to join Serge, whom they met 1 hour later at the 27th kilometer. It was hot, very hot and the sun stung the white skins of the newly arrived. It didn’t keep Ludo from baring his chest, in spite of Liu’s good advice not to. Rémy picked up the newly filled gas bottle, which is always a feat and we received a small refrigerator for the 4-wheel drive, which our very efficient agency had ordered for us — thank you, Li.
Jean-Marc and Benjamin went over the organization of the 4-wheel drive and the feedings for the experienced replacements, since Daniel was present from Monéteau to Munich and Ludo has participated in all the crossings since Australia. The briefing was quick. Thomas, the photographer, has come mostly to experience the adventure and he will treat us to photos until Lanzhou. François will replace Mathieu behind the video camera. This new team had little time to adapt: big wasps that had been pestering us all day stung three people: Laure, François and Liu. Then in the midst of the afternoon a violent wind came up and raised so much dust that visibility was difficult. It was in that hostile environment that Laure stalled the camper in the sand. SOS camping-car arrived to tow us. Finally we decided to go back where we came from and take refuge in a bronze foundry. There we were protected from the sand but not from the wind. It was better than nothing.
We organized our camp, surrounded by a swarm of workers from the foundry, who were intrigued by the strange crew. Jean-Marc and Benjamin must leave us after dinner to return to Kashgar and fly out tomorrow to Urumqi, then Beijing. It will be a long trip for them too, since they will only reach their home in Vichy on Wednesday evening, after having spent the night of their layover in Beijing.
It was a day of surprises for Serge and me, for whom Daniel and Ludo were messangers. Thanks to my parents for the mail, to our dear neighbors Jean-Yves, Brigitte (and their daughter Marie), who have adopted our cat while we are away, for the beautiful photos and the sprig of lily of the valley, which we will keep with us all the way to Tokyo. Thanks go to Michel for having got together a guest book signed by a lot of people from Upper Normandy, especially my colleagues from the office of Gruchet-le-Valasse (the photos are great), thanks to Séverine and Lionel for the candies, the massage oil and the perfume (it hides the bad smells). Such a concentration of attention and so many emotions are really too much!
It’s 20H30, Jean-Marc and Ben are leaving so there are some tears. There have been too many emotions for one day, we’re going to bed.