Second day in the desert

This morning, I woke up for the first time at around four o’clock, and it was already light outside. I pulled my sleep mask back over my eyes and went back to sleep. Around six o’clock, I woke up again and heard rain. I’m in the desert and it’s raining—nothing new ;-). I thought I would sleep just a little longer, but the next time I looked at the clock, it was already almost nine. I certainly hadn’t expected that, but it was fine. I hadn’t even unpacked my sleeping bag; I simply lay on my sleeping mat and covered myself with my jacket. That was warm enough until early morning, when I put the jacket on properly. By shortly before nine, it had become fairly warm despite the relatively low temperatures for this region, which was probably one of the reasons I woke up.

I had something to eat, packed up all my belongings, and set off at 9:50 a.m. Once again, I faced mostly headwinds—poor Wang, who was riding in the opposite direction, really had my sympathy—until about ten kilometers before the second service station. From there, the wind shifted to a crosswind. Once again, whenever a truck came toward me, the gusts nearly pushed me across the lane. And there are a lot of trucks out here.

At almost exactly 2 p.m., I arrived at the service station and once again took plenty of time to eat and recover.

According to Wang, there would be no more mobile phone reception between here and Dunhuang. Up to now, mobile communication towers equipped with solar panels had appeared every few kilometers. Yet even this evening, right in the middle of the desert, I still had reception.

After the long break, things continued much as before: very strong crosswinds for about another 25 kilometers. Then the road made a 90-degree turn, and suddenly I had a powerful tailwind. Even on the gently rising road, I could cruise uphill at 25 km/h with ease. I did not ride much farther, as I had already found a place for the night. A few meters beyond a truck rest area—where one truck driver even handed me two small bottles of water—I found a larger underpass than yesterday’s, one spacious enough to fit my tent. Because of the wind, I decided to set it up. The road bends again shortly afterward anyway, and I was happy to avoid any more crosswinds. Tomorrow morning is forecast to be almost windless. As a result, I will have a few more kilometers to ride tomorrow than today, but I have spent most of today climbing to nearly 1,700 meters above sea level, and tomorrow I will descend those accumulated elevation meters again—Dunhuang lies at about 1,150 meters above sea level.

Once I had finished setting up camp, it soon grew dark. While eating dinner, I could see the moon as well as a long chain of truck lights from vehicles still traveling along the road—made visible, of course, thanks to the 90-degree curve ahead.