EFI No More

15-Oct-08: Too Much Chocolate
China: Jiayuguan – Rest Day

During our time in the ‘stans we developed a habit of stocking up on rarely found chocolate wherever and whenever we came upon it. Now that we are in a more civilised country chocolate is in relative abundance and yet the habit of stocking up remains and so results in gorging on chocolate...I have made a mental note to start kicking the habit or I will explode once I get home and am not burning calories at such a rapid rate!

We found a smaller restaurant for lunch today and had much more success ordering from pictures, so much so that we decided to stick with a good thing and went back to the same place and ordered the same food for dinner!

16-Oct-08: No Boring Bits
China: Jiayuguan to Yuanshanzi
134km, 5h 35min ride time

The scenery drought seems to be breaking. From the moment we set out this morning our surroundings were notably different from that of the past few weeks. The primary difference being that there were many signs of life. One town seemed to just roll into another as the road remained active with scooters, bicycles and tractors and the roadside developed with rural crops and housing. The major crop of the day was corn which had recently been harvested from the fields and was laid out to dry on the front yard of every second house and even on some rooftops.

To our right for most of the day was a snow capped mountain range which we gradually rode closer to throughout the morning until they towered up beside us. The snowy peaks behind trees and crop fields in Autumn colours made for some very pretty and much appreciated scenery. The afternoon was less populated and markedly less scenic but no less interesting with a raging tailwind blowing us into camp at a speed that negates any scenery as the ride is too much fun to consider stopping for photos anyway!

17-Oct-08: Dry Nights to Come
China: Yuanshanzi to Zhangye
111km, 5h 02min ride time

Our penultimate night of camping did not go by without memorable activity. After settling in to our tents for the night we were startled by and a little apprehensive at the sounds of a not so happy group of animals in very close proximity to us. Most of us stayed in the relative safety of our tents too nervous to investigate where the noise was coming from but a few ventured out to discover the source of the murderous cries was a truck load of not so happy pigs. Thankfully after about 20 minutes of torturous squealing the truck moved on and left us in peace to sleep.

During the night the clear blue sky clouded over and brought rain with it. We have had our fair share of riding in the rain but in all this time we have yet to have been unfortunate enough to have to pack up in the rain. Unfortunately this morning broke that drought! Although not heavy the rain had been consistent enough throughout the early hours of the morning that everything was thoroughly wet and even the small amount of rain still falling did not help improve the situation. The one saving grace was the knowledge that we would be staying in a hotel tonight and so even if we were to remain wet we would at least have somewhere dry to sleep.

Starting out wet is never great but combine it with a temperature of about 5 degrees and an immediate fast 5km downhill stretch and it was miserable...freezing cold...I thought the blood in my legs was going to freeze. To our relief the sun did eventually break through the cloud to dry and warm things up a bit...finally being able to feel your fingers and toes brings so much relief.

With the aim of finding a sheltered location, lunch was set up in the covered forecourt of some type of public building. We drew an extreme amount of attention and within a matter of 15 minutes there were about 30 men standing about in a group just staring at us. I try to understand the mentality of incessant staring but fail to see how we can possibly be interesting enough to captivate an audience of so many for so long!

The afternoon was a battle once again against a headwind determined to slow down our arrival into our hotel for the night, but we did make it and I for one was well pleased with the piping hot shower which washed away the day. Once again I am convinced that there is very little a hot shower cannot improve!

18-Oct-08: Out With a Bang
China: Zhangye to Fengcheng
106km, 5h 35min ride time

The challenges today started at about 20km when we tried to make our way on to the expressway and were turned away by some overzealous toll gate guards. Ordinarily the highways have had big signage clearly indicating that no bikes are allowed, but regardless we have been allowed to pass onto all of these roads. This expressway had no such signage but the guards would not let us past...go figure!

And so after waiting through a short moment of indecision we carried on along the secondary road resigned to attempt getting on to the expressway at the next opportunity. The opportunity came 15km further on where a new on ramp was being constructed and was pretty much complete with exception of the large pile of dirt to stop traffic and the absence of toll gates...the pile of dirt was not an obstacle for us and the absence of toll gates a sign that we were meant to be on this road after all. And so back on the direct route we made our way steadily towards lunch which ended up 10km further than expected due to the confusion with accessing the expressway.

TDA staff made more than expected effort in locating a place for our final night of camping, having actually physically scouted the route yesterday. Camp is alongside the remains of the great wall which we have seen frequently since Jiayuguan. The location is just outside a small village and our presence did not go unnoticed and before long we had many visitors, mostly children, from the village.

Our final night of camping is a big milestone and to celebrate we marked the occasion with a campfire party after dinner. TDA staff had supplied some nice big chunks of coal for our fire and everyone brought party food to share. Dr Joan marked the occasion by handing out awards to mark specifically notable characteristics, such as the ‘haut couture’ award for notable fashion and the ‘energiser bunny’ award for determination. After the awards came the fire crackers which were a bit concerning, given those in charge were not really very sure what they were doing! But the noise from the successful crackers had the children from the town running back down to see what was going on and join in for a while. The party wound up in preparation for a long riding day tomorrow and to escape the plummeting temperature...it was going to be a cold night.

19-Oct-08: Nonchalantly...
China: Fengcheng to Wuwei
145km, 6h 26min ride time

Having had trouble yesterday with accessing the expressway we set out this morning as a group so that we would all take the same route whatever it may be. We rode the few kilometres to the expressway entrance and stopped for further instruction...which was to ‘just ride nonchalantly through the closed toll lane...act dumb’...which somehow 20 of us in single file did without any trouble whatsoever despite the very obvious no bicycles sign!

The route started with about 20km of climbing, after which we descended for most of the day. Despite the downward trend and feeling as though we were maintaining a good pace most of the time, the day dragged on and towards the end felt as though it would never end.

As the hotel did not offer any, after settling in we went in search of a laundry service rumoured to be located nearby. After peering curiously into every shop on the street we found a small shop with a frontage of about 1.5m and depth of about 2.5m containing what looked like a twin tub in the back corner and clothes covered racks hanging around the perimeter of the ceiling. Having obviously been through the routine with someone else from our group the lady saw us and motioned if we were looking for washing...we said yes and what ensued was a physical inspection of our laundry to weed out the ‘I don’t do them’ items, specifically underwear and socks, followed by ridiculous charades about when we could collect them...in the end we had to just assume that 3pm the following day would be okay.

Dinner was another ordering disaster...we sat down and went through our we have no idea what do you recommend routine and not surprisingly they recommended the most expensive dish on the menu. But at $10 each we figured it was worth a shot...what a mistake. After another table of people left we were the only customers with 4 chefs in the kitchen and 4 floor staff all sitting about watching a Chinese soap opera on television. It started well with a soup and went downhill from there.

After having one large bowl of soup taking us 15 minutes or so to drink, literally, we were served up with a second bowl of the same soup, which we didn’t really want but took anyway. After another 15 minutes and a third offer of soup, which we declined, we started to wonder if we had just ordered bottomless broth for dinner. The staff could tell we were getting restless and tired as we laid our heads on the table whilst waiting and so brought us a bonus grated potato dish to tied us over before the main dish finally arrived, at least an hour after we ordered it. And it was terrible.

We felt so bad for the staff who had all slaved away preparing the gigantic roasted plate which contained a few potatoes, some noodles and some greens thrown about with every inedible part of a chicken carcass you could name...no meat to speak of but every bone, including the feet and this time the head! We picked our way through the edible parts of the dish which made very little impact on its appearance before declaring we could make no further impact and left the restaurant. We were barely 10m down the street as the staff locked up the restaurant and left...they had been about to close when we entered and for some reason had recommended the most difficult dish to prepare and we didn’t even like it...we felt terrible!

We now carry a little piece of paper on which one of our translators have written the following requirements: not spicy; meat with vegetables, no heads, feet or bones; noodles, no soup; eg. sweet and sour pork. I am told it works quite well, although have not had the chance to test it myself. On returning the hotel after dinner I started to feel quite ill and a night of sleep did not improve the situation.

20-Oct-08: Sick Day
China: Wuwei – Rest Day

I woke this morning feeling pretty lousy but did attend the hotel breakfast of which I managed to eat a bowl of rice slop made into quasi rice pudding by the addition of sugar. After breakfast I went back to bed and aside from two visits to Dr Joan two rooms down the hall did not move all day. I developed a fever which despite my room being at least 25 degrees and my wearing a down jacket under a blanket and a doona had me shivering incessantly unable to warm up.

For the balance of the day I ate half a banana and had so little energy that the process of packing for departure tomorrow went very slowly. The mere act of rolling up a pair of socks required a 10 minute nap to recover from. For the first time since Paris I conceded that I would be physically unable to ride tomorrow. Dr Joan agreed, having a viral infection was not worth the risk of over taxing my body.

21-Oct-08: EFI Status Lost
China: Wuwei to Tianzhu (Huanzangsi)
135km, No Riding

After having maintained my EFI (Every Fabulous Inch) status and battled through illness before now I thought I would be more upset at having to ride the ‘bus’. But I think the harder thing to do was to make the decision to quit rather than continue when the risk of continuing outweighed any benefit. And so feeling a little better but still extremely weak I rode the bus today with Trine who also has the same illness.

It took the van about 3 hours to do the journey including stopping for half an hour to help set up the riders lunch stop. Seeing the background works in motion was quite interesting...at every turn in the road the driver stopped without instruction and Miles would jump out of the van and flag the turn...at lunch the 4 Chinese staff and 2 TDA staff went into a flurry of silent activity, each undertaking their own allotted tasks...Mr Mu washed the apples while Frank purified the water and made up the Gatorade, Zabi cut the tomatoes while Shanny boiled the water for noodles.

On arrival at the hotel I went back to bed and slept for another 2 hours and have finally worked up the energy to sit down and catch up on my diary. We only have one more riding day until another rest day and so I have made the decision to skip riding tomorrow in favour of letting my body recover and effectively getting 4 straight days of rest by only missing 2 riding days. The stretch of riding out of our next rest day is likely to be a long 5 or 6 day run and to push it too early would risk my not making it through that stretch.

22-Oct-08: Snowy Start
China: Tianzhu (Huanzangsi) to Lanzhou
150km, No Riding

After seeming to be on the improve my well-being index, like that of the share market, plummeted last night as I spent 50% of it in bed with painful abdominal cramping and the other 50% in the bathroom. And so I ‘woke’ exhausted and certainly unable to ride making my decision to take it easy for another day the correct one.

On an up note, more so for those of us not riding and for those of us from sub-tropical climates (i.e. me), it had snowed overnight and was snowing when we set out. I did not envy the riders in any way as they set out in the cold and wet for what would surely be a long and uncomfortable day. The morning temperature was minus 2 degrees and by lunch it had only warmed up to zero degrees and reached a high of 10 degrees by late in the afternoon.

Once again the van stopped and helped set up lunch, this time in the front yard of someone’s house. As everything was wet the lunch truck got stuck in the muddy ground and had to be towed out by our other support van before we got back on the road towards Lanzhou. Lanzhou is apparently one of the world’s most populated cities and is certainly the most developed city we have seen since Western Europe. It is built around the shores of the ‘Yellow River’ which gets its name from its muddy complexion caused by the amount of suspended silt. By comparison to the notoriously polluted Nile river, which has 1.4kg of silt per cubic metre of water, the yellow river carries 25kg of silt per cubic metre of water.

Having started to feel better during the journey and having not really eaten much for 2 days, both Trine and I were absolutely starving and craving some ‘normal’ food. So the news that Lanzhou had a KFC was music to our ears and we made a beeline directly for it as soon as we had put our bikes and luggage away. On our walk to find KFC we passed a couple of other ‘fried chicken’ vendors selling a selection of fried chicken parts, including bucket loads of fried chicken feet...disgusting! We had a short moment of despair thinking ‘I hope this is not someone’s idea of KFC!’...but then we saw the shining neon sign a hundred metres down the road and we were saved!

After inhaling a chicken burger and fries I went back to the hotel and caught up on some much needed sleep before braving the cold and heading out again to find a supermarket for some lighter and healthier dinner food. Our hotel is about 1km from a major department store containing the biggest supermarket we have seen in China so far with just about anything you could want. So I stocked up on some supplies and returned to the hotel and watched a few English language cooking programs while eating my DIY dinner.