Part one: Days 1–3 Urumqi to Turpan by Bike
250 very tough kilometres
The following events are based on a true story. None of the details have been changed, none of the names have been changed and everything written here really happened. Three of us collected our bikes in Urumqi, NW China and capital of Xinjiang with a plan to ride four and a half thousand kilometres back to our homes in Guangdong, SE China
It was a worrying time: we were in Urumqi and waiting for the delivery of some bikes we had had shipped from Zhongshan in Guangdong Province up to Urumqi in Xinjiang. We had been told it would take 5 days but here we were on the 7th day:
29th August 2019- the day before we start
A day and a half late, our bikes arrived, four hours later they are assembled, a further two hours and all the clothes, camping equipment, tools and accoutrements required for a long ride have been packed. We plan to set off tomorrow morning and ride to Dabacheng, 91 kilometres from here. The weather has cooled to under 30c and there’s a chance of rain.
There are three of us. Myself a retired English teacher, aged 61 and slightly overweight, but a capable rider who has ridden many times over 100km and lived to tell the tale. My wife, a slightly younger, fitter and stronger Zhongshan girl who has had the misfortune to be my partner for the last 12 years. She has only been riding regularly since last Christmas when I gave her a bike as a Christmas present. Her English name is Ann, and, even in her own family, she prefers to be known as Ann rather than her Chinese name, Liang Yu Hua, so for the rest of this story, she’s Ann. She’s a capable rider, but has only ever done two riding days of 100k. And, finally, a friend of mine from Australia who is secretive about his age, but I suspect is slightly older than I am. However, I’ve ridden many times with him and we get along fine and are both capable of 100+km days, several days in a row
Each rider will be carrying about 15–20kg on the bike or in a backpack so we expect our average speed to be no more than 17/18 kilometres an hour. Our first day is going to be a longish day. But we are glad it’s finally starting.
30th August, 2019 — the day we leave Urumqi
We are under way! A very long day climbing hills in hot weather, we are camping tonight after travelling 75 kilometres in over 9 hours. More tomorrow as we are all on low battery power and definitely low energy levels
For those friends of ours who are sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for an update. You’ll need to wait until the morning, sorry.
31st August, 2019 — Day one and two, we ride from a campsite to Turpan
After breaking camp this morning, we started well and travelled 33 km, in about 90 minutes to Dabacheng. We stopped and enjoyed an early lunch.
We had planned to be in Dabacheng last night, but the day got away from us. here’s what happened:
We attempted to set off early, but being the first day, we had to make sure all the gear was correctly stowed on the bikes, we wanted to take a few pictures and we also planned a video, but even that was a little difficult to arrange as the hotel car park became a circus sideshow with so many people wanting to discuss what we were doing. Finally, over an hour later than scheduled we got under way and headed South to leave town and then East to travel 4,300 km home.
We travelled about 20km and met our first obstacle, a very friendly, very nice but also very secure police checkpoint and, after explaining, sharing tea, having photos, eating fruit for the next hour we got back on the road.
A little about this checkpoint: Most people are checked and drive through, but I noticed face recognition cameras and many police, some with assault rifles and, because we thought the checkpoint was a weighbridge and tried to ride straight through it, we know they are prepared to use their guns. A stern shout from one guy and a raised rifle from the other. All smiles when they realised, we were just ignorant foreigners. Our passports, Ann’s ID and, in this case, our marriage book were scrutinised and all the information entered by hand into a book. The police were extremely friendly, chatty and intrigued by our plan. They wanted pictures with us and couldn’t have been nicer. we were under way again, only to be told that we’d missed a turn and had to go back 5km to the turning to get us on the right road to Turpan.
We did that, the road took us away from civilisation and into some very mountainous gullies with terrible road conditions. Slow speeds because of the hills and the road conditions as well as pretty insane heat meant we weren’t going to ride as fast, or as far as we had hoped. The roads did improve, but we were already well behind schedule.
As light started to fade, we decided it might be more prudent to camp for the night rather than try to carry on for the next 30 km to the city. So, we set up tents in a graveyard about 300 metres off the main road, but only 100 metres from a train line. Slow trains and goods trains rumbled through throughout the night.
1st September in Turpan
Day three has arrived, we are taking a rest day in Turpan. From Urumqi to Turpan is 241 km, but allowing for a few mishaps along the way we’ve travelled over 250 to get here.
It hasn’t been below 30c at any time since we’ve been riding since we left Urumqi and I’d like to go back to the day before and explain why we stopped in a graveyard instead of riding all the way to Dabancheng.
We stopped for a long, recuperative break in a place I had stopped at in 2014. On that trip, the stop was the last of our long journey into Urumqi so it was a strange feeling to be there at the beginning this time.
None of the roads are the same this time, and, after our lunch we set off on the G314 heading Southeast. It was a good road and led us in a good direction. The afternoon was fairly uneventful but due to the delays of the morning we were running quite late. So, after riding a total of 90k we saw a side turning to what looked like a quiet place. It was certainly supposed to be quiet as Ann explained, the sign at the entry was for the local cemetery and the mounds all around us were for the recently buried. However, the constant road noise from the trucks on the G314 and trains every few minutes heading into, or out of Urumqi, made it very difficult to sleep. Halfway through the night, the wind increased and our tents started flapping, making noises like someone was walking around us.
We woke up as the sun was rising and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of coffee and left-over dumplings from our leisurely lunch of the day before.
This brings us to yesterday…
yesterday was at times brutal and at times amazing. We started well, the wind was very favourable and we made great time riding into Dabanchang where we stopped for an hour and a half to have a lunch and plenty of drinks. The humidity is very low and the heat is very high. We have a 750ml water bottle on each bike and our Vaude backpacks can carry 1.5 litres each. Which is good, because, for the rest of the day, there was nowhere to buy water. Literally, nowhere at all.
Entering the town of Dabacheng we went through the ubiquitous police checkpoint and had no problems, very friendly, quite efficient and just a little slow for us. We didn’t realise it, but there were two police officers sitting outside the restaurant for the entire time we were there. Had we known about it, we would have bought them a drink, but when we went to leave, it transpired that they were our escort out of town. We were escorted out by them both on an electric bike and they were with us for at least 30 km. Not sure if that’s for our safety, or for theirs. We rode well for a while and had a good wind. Then we started to go downhill and the day went downhill too. The road conditions were atrocious, we were travelling fast through a desolate moon-like landscape and it was amazing scenery but we needed to hit the brakes hard all the time because of serious potholes. Unfortunately, I hit one hard and felt something bad happened to my bike. Looking at the back panniers, they had dropped and were rubbing on the wheel. I stopped and saw what must be, for every cyclist, a catastrophic event. My pannier rack had bent into a position where it was apparent it couldn’t be repaired. I am carrying over 20kg on the back rack and nowhere else on the bike to carry anything. Bevan and I worked on the problem, taking the rack off and trying to bend the struts back into shape. One of them broke. Bevan’s engineering genius came to the rescue. Using a chopstick he found, some tape he had and about 20 cable ties, we got the rack back in the bike, but it was obvious I couldn’t carry anything bigger than a light load. So, I put my tent in the front handlebars, Ann’s, Bev’s and my sleeping bags hanging off my handlebars and attached to the repaired rack and we got away after about an hour’s loss of time. Ann carried one of my panniers, Bev carried the other.
From there, we had good and bad. The good was great, REALLY GREAT! we found some good roads and with a tail wind we were travelling over 60kph. The fastest I’ve ever been on a bike previously was 59.8. Yesterday we hit 67kph and it was flat. The wind must have been at least 80 kph and going in the same direction as us. I honestly can’t remember a more exhilarating moment on a bike. But then it all changed again. We had to go across a road onto a dirt track to join the G30, a major highway.
We did that but not without difficulty as the strong winds were now cross winds, threatening to push us off our bikes all the time. And then, we had the next ubiquitous police check. The police concourse was so wide and the wind was so strong that it took two people to push one bike through it. We got through after yet another half hour lost to bureaucracy, only to find that Bev had a flat tyre. Changing a tyre in these conditions is one of the most difficult things imaginable, everything needs to be held, tied down or lost to the wind. After about 30 minutes we were under way again but only a few hundred metres away, Bev stopped. His load had shifted on the pannier rack and was rubbing on the back tyre. This is all because he was carrying an extra 10+kg of mine. We got that sorted under terrible wind conditions and then started riding again. This time the fantastic wind was a cross wind. With trucks passing us all the time and taking the wind away, it’s a constant battle to keep in anything like a straight line. I was riding behind Ann and watched as the wind was taken by a truck and she suddenly veered into the side fence, fell off and was blown straight back into the roadway with cars and trucks coming fast from behind. My heart was definitely in my mouth and I could see something serious going wrong. Luckily, she wasn’t hurt, but very shaken up. This wind was terrifying. We travelled another 20k or so and noticed Bev lagging a long way behind. Seems he had another slow puncture. Riding gets harder and harder.
Finally, we crested a long hill and started to go down the other side, the wind on this side was much lower and we were able to ride but every 10k Bev had to stop and pump up his tyre. With all my luggage as well as his own, the idea of changing a tyre in the blazing sun was too much. The temperature was 41 according to my phone. Something I’ve never seen in all my time in China. Finally, a few kilometres outside of Turpan we stopped at a truck stop bought some water and a melon and enjoyed a good rest, even though we could see the city. Finally, in the dark, we travelled the last 10km and checked into a hotel at 10:15pm. Totally exhausted after the hardest days riding I can ever remember.
