Chapter 14: The Chinese Chase – Act 1 (Almaty, Kazakhstan to Lanzhou, China)
Winter had already taken hold of the the countryside east of AlmatyThe snow-scattered landscape between Almaty and the Chinese borderI was going to miss the grimness of toilets in the ex-Soviet hotels! The wobbly plank propping up the sink was my favourite feature here.The view back down the valley from my tent. The traffic was lighting up the sides of the valley making for an interesting light show.The Milky Way and a plethora of stars visible above the valleyMy freezing wild camp which had afforded me such great night-time views down the valleyThis impressive suspension bridge which spanned across the valley I had been climbing up all morningLooking down from the suspension bridge at the road I had been climbing all morning and the river I had camped besideThis whole road was an incredible feat of Chinese engineeringReaching the icy shores of Sayram Lake, sitting at an altitude of nearly 2,000 metresCycling alongside Sayram lake, eager to descend to a lower altitude before night fell and I had to set up campFailing to descend far enough meant I woke up to a freezing morning after temperatures dropped to -4°C overnightMy nose to the grindstone as I pedal through the smog on the G30 expresswayOne of the more sinister looking wild camps of my trip, hidden inside a thick clump of bushes outside UrumqiOvernight snowfall leaving an imprint of my bicycle on the groundLooking back to a gorgeous red sunset as I pedal on into the late eveningA sample of my many wild camps in drains beneath the G30The blade of a wind turbine being transported across the vast desert plains of western ChinaBlckle Up people!This section of China made for some tough cycling, but the bizarre signs always cheered me up!One of my favouritesA restored section of the Great Wall of China just outside of JiayuguanThe barren landscape, smog and power station which you would not expect to be viewing from such a famous landmarkBriefly breaking my no selfie rule to show how much fun winter cycling on the G30 was! At this point there was a cold headwind blowing snow into my face.The ghostly drum tower of ZhangyeThe Great Wall of China, just a meagre, sunbaked mud wall for much of its length in this region of ChinaClimbing carefully up the slick ice from Anyuan to the top of the 3,000-metre passStarting the long descent out of the mountains to LanzhouThe sun dipping beneath the horizon behind the thick smog of LanzhouArriving in the centre of Lanzhou, the halfway point of this long race across ChinaThe tranquil hostel where I could rest up for four days before the second half of my race across China would begin
Irregular Adventures 