Day: May 3, 2006

Serge left at 8H00.  After an agitated night with gusts of wind that gave us no rest, the team is at last ready to leave.  Jet lag and several bad nights have given the new arrivals rather poor mien.  Dust is everywhere, it’s suspended in the air, the temperature is 41° Celsius, with only 12% humidity.  We are in the desert plain between two mountain ranges, which explains why the wind sweeps in.  We are going along the West flank of the famous Taklamakan desert, translated from Uighur “enter and never return,” where many 19th century explorers perished.

The territory of the Xinjiang province represents 16% of the People’s Republic of China.  It is 3 times the size of France.  Our route in this province: Kashgar, Aksu, Korla, Turpan, Hami, then we will leave Xinjiang to enter the province of Gansu, in a few weeks.  Until 1945, this province had a succession of sovereigns and wars before the Republic of Eastern Turkestan was founded.  It was only in 1955 that this region became the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, the name it is still bears today

On this beautiful route 314, the 3 vehicle caravan matches Serge’s rhythm and at every stop Ludo and François do push ups to stay in shape.  The others listen to music on their Walkmen, dance and take photos.  We made a lunch stop in the village of Sanchakou, in a Chinese, not a Uighur, restaurant which had a variety of dishes.  The Uighurs eat mostly mutton and you also find samsas like in Uzbekistan.  It was a joy for Rémy and Liu to find a restaurant run by their compatriots from the province of Sinchuan.  We ate delicious sautéed pork in a sweet sauce and sautéed beef with onions.  Even Serge had his share.

For the moment Serge is lucky because the wind is favorable and makes it easier to bear the overwhelming heat.

At 18H15, everyone was in the camp.  The vehicles formed a U to shelter us as much as possible from the wind.  Serge took his first foot bath, poor ill-treated feet which were red and swollen to the ankles; Ludo massaged them for a good 30 minutes, while Serge read the magazine UFO.  Lulu, Thomas, François and Laure even found enough time to play a game of pinochle while Daniel took his bath and Serge wrote his e-mail.  In short, camp life was organized.  The last important thing that  had to be done before going to bed was to secure the tents.  Daniel went searching for bricks and large stones because it’s impossible to plant the stakes in the earth.  At 21H30 everyone is in bed.  Let’s hope we will get some rest!