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23.08.2007
There was no bridge and our horses seemed to be totally unaware of that. Or they did
not care. Happily grazing on the other side of the river. Accompanying them was our
new Kyrgyz guide Suyunbay and our horseman Mahmut. The expression on their faces
was something else..
We left Tianshui after a few days of rest sorting out newly occurred problems.
The camp that we set up outside the town was ok but the spot for the horses was
not. At least according to one farmer who claimed that our dear Carl had stepped
on his field. As a consequence- he took the horse away. This while our crew was
watching. Two hours they did call us and said that there is a problem.
Needles to say – we got furious. Contacted the reluctant local police force. And
pressed them to accompany us to the crime scene.
This whole operation of first convincing that this was a police matter and that
they should act took many hours. One reason for this that the police officers
offered to our assistance had no car. Funny, since one of the most common sight
in every village or town is a police car. But this time – nope.
We finally optioned for a taxi. So all five of us - two policemen, our guide,
Kristian and me squeezed in to a minimal taxi.. Then the phone rang and we were
informed that after hours of “ negotiations” the farmer let our horse go – he was
obviously afraid of the police arriving.
And the next day we continued to the southeast.
Checking out another Taoist temple with sour looking monks and beautiful 1000-
2500 year old trees. The oldest has quite elaborate support structures.
A bit further is the famous Maiji Shan or “ Hay stack “ grottoes. This is another
fantastic example of Buddhist monk activities 1000 - 1500 years ago.
This is a kind of tourist trap - but not the so bad. In fact the place itself is
beautiful and sure worth a visit but the souvenir sellers and shopkeepers are really
a pain.
They follow you like swarms of mosquitoes – pushing and pushing. Many of them
are small children. It is really disturbing.
This is one of the big problems in places like these. One cannot avoid them and it
really is strange that they are allowed to be everywhere – inside, outside fenced
areas. It seems that they have a backstage pass that says, “ Access all areas (and
all visitors)”
But the actual cliff with its grottoes is both fun and interesting. Catwalks a spiral
stairways have been built around the cliff face, so it is nice to be able to look
around at your own pace. For that was slow, mostly because it is a bit scary to
walk on narrow bridges so high up. The view is great… gulp.
As we continue riding we pass a few villages with nice looking outdoor
restaurants. First one in China so far. So this must be a popular area for the
locals. And it is a beautiful surrounding. But our route is once again up and over a
mountain pass. Just as we thought that we have left the last village -an
enormous construction site appears ahead of us.
Massive machines and hundreds of men are working hard on building a six-lane
expressway on pillars! Huge holes in the lush mountains are drilled. It all looks
like from a sci- fi movie. But this is China. They are building and building.
And as we continue these activities continued and continued. One moment you
thought that this was a really remote area and around the next bend again a huge
complex of road building activities with a big workforce.
It had been raining here for the last few days so the road was really muddy. Lot of
fresh grass for our horses though. Very humid and hot – soon it was time to stop
for the day. A fact that we on the other hand, did not look forward to because
there was hardly any suitable dry place in sight.
But we were lucky – a few kilometers further we stopped at the gates of the
emperor’s old horse grazing land – now it was a scenic spot with a pompous gate
and some worn down buildings. These buildings were empty and the guards did let
us to camp in few of them. Nice. This is China too.
We were soon to leave the Gansu Province – it was about time. It is important to
have these milestones on a long trip like this. No matter how artificial they are… it
helps to keep on going. It is not always neither nice nor easy. But it was/ is too
late to stop now.
This, supposedly second last day in Gansu started out as quite pleasant – fairly
cool, cloudy. Up the hill, down the hill and up the mountain and down the
mountain. For a while we left the road constructions only to join them at almost
the end of this small road that on the map looks like a major highway. Then it
started to rain. And boy did it come down. We passed some villages and the
distance to the “border” to Shaanxi Province was only a few kilometers away. It
was getting late and we were getting wet so we decided to opt for a hotel in the
small town ahead.
WE found a god spot on the other side of the river – for the horses. A road with
a concrete bridge was leading there. Slippery and wet, but no problems to get
there. Besides, there was again an empty house, just right for our horseman.
Suyunbay, our new guide decided to keep Mahmut company while the rest of us
headed for a shabby hotel three kilometers away.
Tired and somehow content we checked in to this joint as the rain continued to
pour down. Hopefully it would be a fair day tomorrow
Sure was. – and no road to the other side of the river either. He river was three
times bigger than yesterday and the yellow muddy water came down with a
mighty force. No way around either. Our scouting was in vain.
One of the locals informed us that the water levels would come down within an
hour. It there is no more rain.
I looked up at the cloudy sky – it was hard to tell. But four hours later the clouds
looked the same. No more water coming from that direction. The river again …was
still strong and mighty. One hour …sure.
About four in the afternoon the levels had come down so much that we decided to
build a bridge of our own. Borrowing equipment from the road workers we had our
bridge ready one hour later and our horse could finally cross the river. It looked a
bit scary – but it worked. Just after six o clock we finally enter Shaanxi.
Accompanied by numerous big trucks…
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