Day: May 30, 2006

Dust, sweat and danger.  There’s no risk of taking the wrong road, you just have to follow the yellow line against an azure sky.  Serge is surely the first to take this toll road, which is still under construction.  The surface has been  tamped down, which means that Serge can run unhindered rather than take the detour for traffic which is a veritable hell: full of pot holes caused by trucks that are driven like rockets, that road is particularly dangerous.

The halo of dust, which is ever present above the track and which extends for kilometers, indicates that the day will be difficult.  The temperature has risen to 35° Celsius in the vehicles and we can’t open the windows without risk of being asphyxiated.  The windscreen wipers allow us to sweep away the sand in order to have some visibility.  Our clothes stick to our skin and with pores that are clogged by sweat and sand we are particularly filthy.  Serge, on his toll road, slightly higher than we, somewhat escapes our condition.  Feeding has become complicated because sometimes his road moves away from where we are.  In the afternoon, a strong wind came up at our back.  It isn’t unusual to see Serge disappear in a cloud of dust.  These difficult conditions don’t keep the Chinese truck drivers from keeping their foot to the floorboard, in spite of flat tires and cargo that sways madly from left to right. Attention, Danger!

At kilometer 25, Lac Shangta came into view on our right.  This mass of emerald green water in the distance gave us a terrible yearning to take a good bath.  This lake is known especially for its good fishing.  It is used for irrigation and also provides electric power, thanks to its dam.

At kilometer 62, the ruins of the village of Qiaowan are testimony of the history of this small town, which has a museum of pottery and painting.

We took refuge in a village under construction: Bulongji, 2 kilometers from route 312, or what exists of it for the moment.  The small, narrow road we are on is paved and, according to Rémy, will enable us to go to Jiayuguan, thereby avoiding the hell of the works on the 312.

Serge is exhausted this evening and can dream of only one thing: sleep.  At 20H00 he is in bed.  Daniel is trying to write up our log for the day but in vain because all the women of the village have come to our camp and clustered around Daniel they keep turning the pages.  It’s impossible to write in such conditions.  Daniel put away the table and stool and like the rest of us took refuge in his tent.