What a day !

I will not serve you my usual weeping, like heat, desert and wind. Although yesterday’s headwind (of course) was by far the strongest wind we experienced so far.

For some stupid reason we decided to use the expressway to Jiayuguan.

Big mistake.

Chinese truck drivers seem to use their tires to their outmost limits and probably far beyond. There were thousands and thousands of little rubber pieces covering the emergency lane, where we were battling against the wind (sorry, the wind again). These were the remnants of innumerable truck tires, that fell into pieces, exploded or died another heroic motorway dead. But inside these little pieces hided some treacherous small iron wires….

And these little wires drove us mad, and brought our honorable and veneered Chinese guide Jason on the edge of committing suicide.

On one single day we had THIRTEEN punctures, an absolute record. We even had three at the same time. Of course there were not so many spare tubes, so we (i.e. honorable guide Jason and honorable driver Chen) had to start repairing on the spot, gluing patch over patch, and losing enormous time. Several times, when everything was fixed, we noticed that in the meantime, another tire had surrendered and expired.

With all these unexpected and unwelcomed interruptions it took us 10 hours to reach Jiayuguan.

Poor Jason is getting mad!

Parc in Yumen