Day: May 23, 2006

After an exceptional day yesterday, we had an exceptional awakening today.  At 6H45 the alarm went off and the wind was just as violent.  We decided to go back to sleep and put off departure for an hour.  It was a good idea because at 8H00 the wind seemed to have subsided somewhat.  Serge got up very, very slowly.  His pet aversion these days ios his swollen knee, which he can’t bend as he would like.  Getting going in the morning is torture and he makes terrible faces.

In spite of everything it was a good day (less than ten hours): there was a light and favorable wind the first half of the race, which was all down hill.  Since Turpan we have been able to count on one hand the number of villages we have crossed.  Huge construction sites for the highway bring a bit of life to this desert of rocks and stones.  Far to the North we can see snow capped mountains.

After Ludo and Daniel yesterday, Laure has diarrhea and is nauseated.  We can’t think what we could have eaten to be in such bad condition.  One thing is certain, we are beginning to dream of baguettes, butter and cheese (a huge platter of cheese)!  But what’s the use, since in China there is neither butter nor cheese so we stop dreaming… But just the same, what we wouldn’t give for a good piece of bread with salted butter and Camembert!

Many of you have asked us where Serge will go in China and most of all how he will reach Fukuoka from Shanghai, because Serge still can’t walk on water.  Our itinerary in China is the following:  Hami, Lanzhou, Xian, Shanghai.  He will fly across the Chinese Sea: The flight between Shanghai and Fukuoka lasts 1H30 and at the end of the afternoon will not keep him from running the day of the flight, or the following day in Japan.