This will be a departure from the normal travelog posts for the bike trip from London to Shanghai. All was going well this week for my tough deadline of crossing China from the Kazakh border to Shanghai within the 60 day visa deadline until two days ago when, completely out of my hands, the dream of making it across in 60 days was shattered…
Another week and another big chunk of mileage! Tough headwinds, crossing into our second Chinese province (Gansu), a plague outbreak as well as hitting the 8,000 mile marker have been the key features this week.
Another tough stint to Hami full of long days (five 80 milers in a row) with a bunch of mountains thrown in. On top of that some broken equipment and high temperatures (47C) have added to the challenge.
I’m in CHINA! It’s been an absolutely huge 6 day stint covering 511 miles, smashing through the 7,000 mile marker in the process, but I’ve reached my first big Chinese city of Urumqi, the capital of Xinxiang province.
Desert near Charyn Canyon.
Right, lucked out and ended up in a cheap hotel in Shonzhy (100km from the Chinese border in Kazakhstan) with Wifi so thought I’d throw together a quick blog so the next one can pretty much be dedicated to China!!! Still weird saying I’ll have cycled to China soon. The last four days from Alamty have been a nice stint of camping and visiting the scenic Charyn canyon as well as some horrible desert riding on poor trails.
James Finnerty 