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

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9. Black Friday again?

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Thean Hin Ooi <ooithin@gmail.com>   Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 11:59 PM

 

23/09/10.  06:05 – 17:15. LiuQiang – Caodi Liang. (28km). Stayed at Bolouzhen.

 

Sep 23: 06:08 - 17:12hr. After 4 days with the herdsmen, today I promised to make enough trek to find a "hotel" for the night. Relative easy walk and made 46,741 steps, reaching the "town" of Bolouzhen. We checked into a hotel, had our hot shower, and went round the corner for a meaty dinner.

It's harvest time and fields are packed with farmers (with their young children tucked in a corner) cutting their crops. Remember last year's 7-footer saluting corns and bowing sunflowers? Well, they have been standing to attention the whole summer and were rightly cut and laid down for a deserved rest. The blushing tomatoes, red drums of water melons, onions were picked too. The red carpets of buck wheat (yes, the red "noodle grass" plant?) were rolled up for the winter, so were the hiding potatoes dug out and the millets were sickled by hand. And would you believe it, this year I found the hallucinating marijuana plants. I had ran out of "Chek Hup"'s 2-in-1 white coffee quite some time ago and had been on pure adrenaline, but when I needed a lift, would take a long sniff of this fragrant "grass" - please don't tell IGP Musa. Grass and hay were cut and bundled in preparation for winter.
 

 

24/09/10.  06:40 – 20:00.  Caodi Liang – ZhuanYaoGou. (33km).

Friday Sep24: 06:48 - 18:58hr. After a real good night's rest, started on the desert stretch. Cleared a mountain ridge, came upon a wide river, which luckily had a bridge crossing but lost the trail of the "dragon" on the new construction side after. It took a while before I spotted the hump of the dragon again. Followed, and in no time, found myself surrounded by sand dunes and the dragon was hidden again. If not for the GPS tracker, I wouldn't be able to know the direction to take. Every time, I found the dragon’s hump after a dune, it seemed the dragon would do a wiggle and the sand dunes were completely changed and it had disappeared.

 

It was energy sapping hiking the dunes (you would take 1 step and moved half back). I had to pull out 1 of my "Power Bar"s, to continue the search. Towards late afternoon, I almost gave up and was wandering aimlessly when I stood on a raised path of the familiar dark mud-dried lane, and sure enough after advancing for some meters, the tell-tale sign of a beacon tower. I knew I had re-found the dragon.

 

Continued walking towards a large sentry tower and it was day's end - the sun has set, the night was falling, I was still about 3km from the nearest road access. Checked with CH and he designated a road point (near ZhuanYaoGou), which I hastened towards and hit a railway track which then led me to the road. Hello, hello, no CH, it was getting cold, waited and waited. There was a shelter for the railway guard but he wouldn't open the door and had no sympathy for shivering me. Called and discovered that CH had driven into a ditch together with another car. He said to find my own accommodation for the night and resumed the next morning when he shall catch up. I walked another 1km and found a nice "ping guan", sent CH a sms message in case he managed to come unstuck. Settled in with a box noodle for dinner, cleaned and got to bed. I was dead tired after the desert run and covered 51,584 steps. At 23:00hrs, CH rang and said he's out and would come over. Apparently, after retrieving themselves (he and another driver) from the ditch, they had gotten their cars into a small side stream. He had to summon a dozen farmers/herdsmen to pull the vehicles out. Another Black Friday (this is the 4th consecutive Fridays he's had troubles with his car). Bloody China man and his superstitions.

Oh, I'm dead tired but Yulin beckons.

Good night and God bless.

Regards,
Hin
Oh, I'm tired and ...

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