Hin's 2nd C.O.U.N.T. 1,000,000 steps (Sep 3rd – 26th, 2010)

​

5. 3 days covered in Gobi

Thean Hin Ooi <ooithin@gmail.com>   Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 6:55 PM

The email should have gone out last night, but like most things in China, the Internet access in the room was shut down by 11:00pm.
 

16/09/10.  07:45 – 12:45.  Bianqianghao – Zhengluwan. (11.9km).

Sep16: Started quite late today at 7:45am as we enquired about transportation to take Andreas to Yulin in the afternoon. Another mountain - 1,660m to start the day followed by a river which took us an hour to cross. Yet another mountain awaited us and after that, a huge river loomed in front of us. By then, the left ankle and toes were complaining badly, and I realised that I had been walking non-stop for the last 9.5 days. Decided to listen to the body and by then it was 12:30 noon, to take the rest of the day off. Spent some time figuring out how to cross the large river the following day. I'm expecting another torrid day tomorrow. Send Andreas on his way and re-check into the same inn. Only did 22,492 steps (11.9km), went over 2 mountains, with total ascend of 537m.

When I returned to the inn, I checked and found that to my horror, I now have 2 tears, each on the seam of my 1Timberland walking shoes, 2 more on the back of the left and 1 on the right. I hope and pray that it holds together for the next 2 days of mountain hiking.

My 1Timberland hiking pants also have 4 tears. It's amazing what duct tapes can do. The only challenge now is that I have run out of tape.

To make matters worse, rain is forecasted for the next 3 days - life is getting challenging.

I shall let you know the outcome when I next get the chance.

Pray for me and all the best to you.

Regards,
Hin

================================================================

Surprised, I was able to send this from a small inn in the middle of nowhere in China.

Now on the Yulin track and the last 3 days was covered in Gobi - Gobi means dust, and you will be surprised to learn that there is no such place as Gobi Desert. It's just a general term used by the Chinese to describe the barren land almost filled with Loess dust/sand. And you may like to know also that this "red dust" originates from Siberia during the last ice age. In fact 300m were deposited in China.

The last 3 days I have been on this track I have been covered completely with Gobi.
 

13/09/10. 06:45 – 17:50.  Nanyuanzi – Xinjizhuang. (23.8km).

Sep13: It was tough start to the day - I had to cross a river (where the wall falls down to, by 30m) and approached a farmer for the best place to cross. He mentioned there is no bridge and the best crossing was by the electric pylons about 1km away. Well I was no Tarzan to swing over the pylons neither do I fancy ending up as fried steak, so decided to just wade across the river (it was only knee deep - I had crossed river chest high last year).

As I was taking off my shoes and lower half pants, I noticed a flock of sheep just 20m upstream merrily rushing thru. Decided to be a sheep and followed suit. Had to hike back up the canyon and followed the path down to that point of the river. Saw another flock crossed and I managed to go over with just a muddy pair of shoes.

The day got tougher as I had to climb up and down 3 mountains up to 1,740m. Ended the day with only 45,125 steps and was lucky to find a villager's place to stay with a simple 1 dish dinner. Noticed a little boy of 3 with a crushed left thumb with no medication at all. It was so pitiful, I had to use a moist tissue to clean the wound, put some anti-septic cream but the plaster was too painful for him. Left early the following day hoping that the little boy's wound would heal better.
 

14/09/10. 06:30 – 16:40.  Xinjizhuang – Xuexinzhuang. (16.7km). Stayed the night in Niujuanwan.

Sep14: Started the day climbing up a mountain (1,580m) and met a goatherd happily smiling on top. Struck up a small conversation and as usual, was asked where I came from. "Malaysia" I said, blink, blink...he asked whether it's in his country, China. I had no cigar so his statement was deflected.

He then said all foreigners are rich, and I answered that some are and some not. I said right now he is richer than me. To prove the point, I asked him how much each of his goat was worth - 500RMB, he had 100 goats, so that means he has 50,000RMB in hand, excluding his loose change in his pocket, whereas I only have 492.50RMB and can't even afford one of his goats. He was happy and smiled and invited me over to his place for lunch. I said if I go down the mountain, I may not be able to climb up again.

The day got better, my German angel, Andreas (the one who help prepared my tracks), flew from Frankfurt to Beijing, took 3 days of bus ride and caught up with me on my walk right at the highest point (1,759m) where a huge sentry tower was. It was a great day and I was stumped by the amount of knowledge he has, on not just the Great Walls, but the culture and history of China as well. We went on over another couple of mountains and managed 34,749 steps for the day.
 

15/09/10.  07:15 – 14:00.  Xuexinzhuang – Bianqianghao. (20.5km).

Sep15: Another even higher mountain to climb - 1,758m - this one at an incline of about 55 degrees. Andreas and I huffed and puffed, and eventually reached the top. This is just one of seven by the end of the day. Difficult as it was, we had a wonderful day enjoying each other's company - learned even more from this expert on China's great walls. By day's end we cleared 7 mountains, with total ascend of 880m, and managed 38,316 steps. Considered extremely good in this type of terrain.

I'm told that the next couple of days would still be mountainous but would be less taxing on the already supported right knee and left ankle. After that it would be a breeze thru the dessert sand dunes.

Let's hope he's right. Andreas leaves tomorrow afternoon and shall accompany me for the morning track.

Till I get the chance to write again, wish all enough.

Regards,
Hin

​