MY BONES ARE ACHING../ Somwhere in The Gansu / 1.7. 2007

Every bone in my body is aching. My neck, back, arms, feet, joints, muscles. Must be the long time stress. Also the stomach feels strange. The heaviest part, both mentally and physically are physically should be long behind.. But, obviously my body has another language – this must be the true body language

To get out of Zhangye was not easy. This part of the Gansu corridor is green yes – but it is all farmland. Every small piece of land is farmed. That means it is a no- no zone for animals - only option is the heavily trafficked roads - either paved or mud roads. The condition for both is the same- horrible. So we decided to spare our horses and take them on short truck ride to the outskirts. A detour towards the mountains and supposed grasslands was the plan. Easier said than done – what was supposed to be a twenty kilometer + ride became over seventy. After all the hassle…wheeling and dealing with local truck drivers We finally did arrive to something that looked like free grassland. This was just before sunset and we camped beside a big “China Telecom” ad These ads are everywhere – painted on houses, walls and concrete constructions made just for this purpose. The weather next morning was fair and the terrain looked quite good for riding. Not so many fences in sight. After two hours of riding it was another story. Back to the road again…but it could have been worse. Lunch break in a small and once again dusty village – luckily we found some trees that gave a comfortable shade. Chinese Army’s Horse farm was supposed to be close - worlds second largest horse farm with over ten thousand horses they say. After an hour-long truck ride along a very bad road we finally arrived to this famed place. Total disappointment. The nature sure was grand and the fifty something horses looked great. But the everything else was/ is in a state of deterioration It is truly sad sight and not so uncommon in China. Fantastic surroundings and possibilities – but everything that is touched by a human hand is more or less a disaster. In this case awful concrete house blocks mixed with mud/sandstone shacks that have not seen any maintenance for years. And all this in a truly beautiful setting. Besides this is not the world’s second largest horse farm. Nor has it anything to do with the army anymore. And when it did it was a series of horse farms – most of them abandoned. This is now controlled by the local authorities – which obviously have no idea of what to do. Horses are for sale –wonder who gets the money.. We decided to leave as soon as possible. Two hours later we were on horseback again. Yet another country road with the same scenery and wondering faces, honking rusty vehicles. Lot of kind smiles too. But my amount of this was about to be enough. The Gansu corridor was sucking out all my juices and not giving back much. Maybe it is my own fault….because if one looks close enough there is always something of interest. Sure.. Yet another camp by the road and a lot of curious locals with questions and opinions. The come so close to you that they probably can see the size of your shirts collar. Tiresome, but one almost gets used to it…not really. Next morning we did have a problem – two of our horses, Motor and Carl did not want to move. Something was wrong. Motor looked sick – poor retired racehorse. This was not his cup of tea. Exhaustion is evident, but with him it seemed to be something else. A vet was needed. So we had no other option than to put these two horses on the truck and take them to the there. Where ever that is.. Wuwei was the destination - a larger city supposedly 80 km away. That was what our local guide said. We sent them off in our truck – the local guide, driver, horseman and two horses. The driver was then supposed to come back and join us at a spot 20 km further up the road. Good plan and our reduced troupe continued on horseback. . A sudden shower of rain late in the afternoon was a nice as a variation to what were used to. Our meeting point was close to another very common land mark in this country – China Petrol gas station – so we decided to wait there. These stations are enormous in pure size – never seen so high gas station structures – one wonders what kind of vehicles is supposed to stop here. And this station was more or less in the middle of nowhere. At a junction close to the expressway..But anyway. Good for us though. The young boy who worked there was a very kind person who did let us use his kitchen, sofas.. Yes they have big sofas in these stations. So we where quite comfortable. Just waiting for our truck to come back with some news about the horses and all our gear – tents etc Ayken- our crazy little Kazak guide called a few times and yes they were on their way back. The horses were in a good place and almost waiting for the vet to arrive. Hmm Hours went by and no truck. We sat on the big brown plastic sofa watching Chinese soap operas from the TV At 11 pm we started to get a bit nervous – the truck had now been on its way back for four hours. A distance of 80 km! We tried to reach the driver by phone. No connection. We tried and tried. No response. After the sixth episode of this oh so dramatic soap opera - the sister of a stunningly beautiful police woman had killed her husband because she was in love with a devious crook that this male police officer was chasing. He had a hunch that the sister had something to do with it. When the other police officers came to the place of the crime…then the whole thing switched to slow motion. Seven uniformed police officers were taking of their caps in honor of the dead. This lasted for at least five minutes. When this episode was over my watch showed 2.30 am Slow motion was definitely the speed of our truck. At 3.00 am they finally arrived. He driver did feel tired and decided to take a nap. And not to be disturbed he switched of his telephone… We just grabbed our sleeping bags and crushed down on the gas station floor. Three ours later we had to wake up – this station was again open for business. So here I am sitting on this tiled floor – trying to get my act together. Difficult though because every bone n my body is aching. And I think it s not just lack of sleep last night. It is tiredness from a longer period. MY body wants desperately to communicate with me. I better listen…but Wuwei is waiting.

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