June 16th, 2008 | categorizilation: all categories,China
Today’s distance / ???????: 42 miles / 67.2km
Average speed / ????: 8.7mph / 14km/h
Time on skateboard / ????: 4h 47m
Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 4979mi plus 377mi (?) / 7853km plus 606km (?)
Ascent / ??: 180m
Descent / ??: 60m
End-of-day GPS coordinates: N42° 33′ 38.60″, E094° 08′ 45.60″
I woke to a hazy, smoggy pale that hung over the sleepy city of Hami. I was feeling well rested after two days in the city relaxing and getting some good long hours of sleep in. “Money in the bank, Rob. Money in the bank.” That’s what Steve Dewhurst, the skipper of the yacht delivery I assisted on across the Atlantic would tell me whenever we arrived at a port. I made sure that I put many a deposit in over the weekend.
Hami was only just starting to wake up as I rolled out of town. People commuted to work on bicycles, butchers were carting their haul into town.
As I skated towards my old friend National Highway 312, I stopped to take a photo, and a sprightly elderly gentleman glided up on his bicycle. He told me that he had seen me going past as he was getting ready to head out for his morning bike ride. “You are very fast!” he spouted as he eyed up my longboard. He asked me where I was going, and told me that it was the same direction as his daily bike ride, so he would cycle with me for a while.
In the end he accompanied me for 15km. We parted ways near the beginning of highway Z501. This 35km long road runs more or less parallel to National Highway 312, but passes through a beautiful tree-lined area with many spots along the road to eat water melon and get supplies, whereas the main highway 312 bypasses the towns.
My cyclist friend drew me a map in the gravel on the side of the road to explain that Z501 was actually shorter than the main highway, and it would be much better for me to go the Z501 route.
I am glad that I took his advice. It was a very pleasant day of skating, with very few ups and downs, and well sheltered from the wind due to the many trees.
Huangtian was a very pleasant town. It is about 30km east of Hami on Z501. Pleasant locals. Pleasant architecture. Very rather lovely and pleasant.
The Uyghur influence in the town was obvious not only from the above mosque, but also advertisements in Arabic here and there.
I pushed on past Huangtian, and around 1pm felt the heat of the day getting to me. It was almost 40 degrees celcius, and time to get shelter for the rest of the afternoon. Conveniently, there was an old deserted mud house off the road. Next to it was a flowing irrigation channel. Perfect.
It was cool inside the dark hut, and I slept well for almost four hours. At 5pm I made my way reluctantly out into the heat again and pushed on.
Wanting to test the carrying capacity of the longboard trailer even more, I bought a water melon and hauled it about 20km to Lotojue, the town I would end up staying at for the night.
The poor melon didn’t handle the bumping around however, and was a little mushed by the time I got there…
Near Lotojue, by the way, there appears to be a town full of soccer fans…
I checked into a 10RMB (1 Euro) a night truck stop, filled in my logbook, and hit the hay.
Hi Rob. It's good to catch up again on what you've been doing. My computer packed a sad Saturday week ago and has only been back in action since yesterday. Great photos.
