Today’s distance / ???????: 41.7 miles / 67km
Average speed / ????: 9.6mph / 15.5km/h
Time on skateboard / ????: 4h 19m
Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 6051mi plus 377mi (?) / 9738km plus 606km (?)
Ascent / ??: 515m
Descent / ??: 1150m
End-of-day GPS coordinates: N35°32′34.7″, E106°39′50.8″
A bit of a blur today. I was feeling the effects of the last four days of skating hills since Lanzhou, and was keen just to get to Pingliang for a day or two off.
The start from Londe on China National Highway 312 was a long steep climb of about 7km up to the tunnel near the top of the pass. At the toll gate near the entrance of the tunnel, officials stopped me.
“You cannot go through the tunnel on that,” an officer told me. “You can hitch a ride in a car.”
“I’m sorry, but that will not be possible,” I explained. “I cannot go by car, I must either walk or skate.”
They told me that there was an old road going up over the pass, but it was at least 8km out of my way. “It is far too far to go that way,” the officer said apologetically.
I was almost about to turn around and go for the old road, when I tried another angle. I pulled out my bright yellow windbreaker, my head torch, and showed them my helmet. I will be OK with these, I reasoned.
I also mentioned the Guinness record, and that seemed to change their opinion on my ability to survive the horrors of the tunnel. Smiles all around, a picture taken of me with the officer in charge, and I was off.
The tunnel was hair-raising. All downhill, I had to footbrake constantly to keep my speed down. At times, lights in the tunnel would not be working, and I would be skating in complete darkness. I had my headlight pointed backwards, attached to my trailer, so I had no idea of the road surface up ahead. I just hoped that there were no massive cracks in the surface. A good sized crack would be enough to tear the trucks off my deck with all the weight I am pulling.
I survived the tunnel unscathed, however my sunglasses did not come out with me. I have no idea where I dropped them, but even after hitching a ride back through the tunnel and searching for them on foot through the tunnel, I could not find them. Gutted. They were great Smith sunglasses, provided for me by www.funboxx.cn. Just goes to show further that a relationship between a pair of sunglasses and me does not last long.
The tunnel was at 2,200m, and it was a fast descent down from the tunnel.
When I have a really steep hill, a headwind is always welcome. It makes air-braking so much easier, and saves on the soles of my shoes. With arms stretched out, into a stiff headwind, I can keep the speed down to 30km/h max. See this article I wrote on www.skatefurther.com for other considerations for skating downhill on a trip like mine.
As I was cruising through a small town on the way downhill, I spied another shoe repairer. My repair from a few days ago was getting thin, so I decided to get another chunk of rubber attached.
This repair more than lasted the distance to Pingliang. Pingliang is a medium sized city, so I decided that I would take at least one day off there.
I checked into a small 30RMB a night inn, and sure enough, within an hour of checking in, the police arrived.
“I’m sorry sir, you cannot stay at this inn…” blah blah blah.
I tried to reason with the officer. How much is the hotel that I am supposed to be in? At least 100RMB a night, he replied.
Well, that is too much, I said resolutely. I cannot afford 100RMB a night every night. I have been travelling for 2 years. Look at my passport, you’ll see the visas. Surely you understand that I cannot afford to be forking out 100RMB a night for hotels.
Thankfully, reason prevailed, and I was permitted to stay in the small inn.
Hope the rest of your stay in this town goes well!
You say Pingliang is a medium sized city. Is that around 40,000 people, 400,000 people or 4,000,000 people? After all, you're talking about Asia in general and China in particular. It's all relative.