As I left, the streets of Kuytun were being cleaned by an army of street sweepers neatly piling up the leaves for collection, before water trucks gave the place a rinse. The result was a clean, tidy city.
I spent nearly ten kilometres in cycle lanes as I edged out of the city, but when the lanes stopped, everywhere was dry, flat and desolate.
I was back on the familiar G312 running fairly close to the G30. Yesterday was really windy and really gusty. If I hadn’t had a rest day, this ride would have been difficult. However, today I had a slight tailwind to begin with and it would build during the day.
It didn’t make the ride any more interesting though. The G312 was full of trucks and had no shoulder for the most part. Luckily, everyone was well behaved.
I had the familiar snow capped mountains on my left and today, I had a few police escorts. I was stopped after 54kms and answered the usual questions. And as usual, the police were smiling and happy – just fantastic. Be careful, there are many trucks, they warned.
I was handed over to another crew in a choreographed seamless operation, and then to another crew who went past me. Whaaat ?
I followed them through a fairly complicated series of turns which dumped me on a fairly rough dirt road beside the freeway. I assume the whole exercise was to keep me off the G30. No problem there – I don’t like freeways (note from future self – well, when the dirt roads are really bad, I now like freeways).
I’d read that this road would improve, and it did. It went from terrible to just bad.
I went into a freeway petrol station for some food – pot noodles for lunch, via a small track. Then it was off again on the old road. I hadn’t got far before I met Reiner Mautz from Germany, who is walking from Portugal to Singapore.
Amazing. He’s a really interesting guy who’s been on the road for more than a year. We talked for some time before heading off in opposite directions.
The road did get better and soon turned into a nice road for the last part to Todok. It was quiet and untrafficked, and as I neared the end of the 122km ride, I went through the town and checked out some potential food places – as you do.
All of a sudden, a police van passed me and stopped at 45 degrees, blocking my path. Four guys jumped out, demanded my passport and started asking questions and making phone calls. The head guy seemed to be showing the others what to do and didn’t listen to me much.
I told them that my hotel was 609m away but that didn’t make any impression. A few questions and two phone calls later, one of them asked me where I am staying tonight. I showed him on the map, he K ew the hotel and muttered something to the others.
And with that they all said, thank you, sorry to bother you and left. It was as if I produced a get-out-of-jail-free card. I think they assumed that I wasn’t registered and would be wild camping.
Off to the hotel where I was immediately a celebrity with the 4 or 5 hanging around at reception. I later went for a walk around the small town and got some supplies for the next day.
At the hotel, I asked about where to go for dinner and their restaurant was open, so they asked me what I wanted. The head lady made a suggestion by acting like a chicken so I confirmed the order by impersonating a hen clicking around – and I was a celebrity all over again. They’re a very happy bunch here.
After the long ride, I was exhausted.