Today’s distance / ???????: 50.4 miles / 81.1km
Average speed / ????: 7.5mph / 12.1km/h
Time on skateboard / ????: 6h 41m
Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 6282mi plus 386mi (?) / 10,111km plus 622km (?)
Ascent / ??: 800m
Descent / ??: 85m
End-of-day GPS coordinates: N33°55′26.8″, E109°33′08.7″
The celebrations began early in Xian today. Today was the Closing Ceremony day of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. These drummers were outside a big screen at the entrance of a big shopping mall in downtown Xian.
Onwards it was for me however. I had a slight tailwind and the day was fine.
As I was rolling out of Xian, it struck me that with just over 1500km to go I had absolutely no idea of what lies up ahead from here to Shanghai. Interestingly my image of the terrain from here to Shanghai is all flat. This is often the case with me. If a country is totally unknown, I usually expect it to be flat. Dunno why.
In any case, flat it was not. The whole day I was pushing up a slope. About 10km out of Xian, I once again found my way onto the under construction G70 super expressway. Needing not to worry about the road surface or traffic, I was free to enjoy the quiet picturesque surroundings.
The hills in this area were truely stunning. I was happy to be on a gradual gradient.
The expressway passed through countless tunnels, the longest for the day being over 5km long.
Towards the end of the day, I gave up to the fact that I would not be finding a convenient inn to stay at tonight. About an hour after dark, I stopped in a tunnel for the night.
Did you seriously sleep in a tunnel???
Heather, yes, I did sleep in a tunnel. I could lie and say it was a hardcore hair-raising night with semi-trucks roaring past, me almost getting sucked off the side of the road due to the violent vortex of air…but…that would be a lie. It was under construction, so there was no traffic. A nice quiet night.