We
are heading towards the border and thoroughly enjoying the trip. Yesterday we
visited the Great Wall and walked some distance up the sections, an amazing
structure. This is in the mountains north of Beijing and we drove through them
to high plains beyond with many thermal power stations and large wind farms
(which weren’t there last year)
Watch
the news!!!!!! as John Key popped into the Embassy to see us off from Beijing,
reporters, TV and the press were there. Tea and scones on the lawn! Fabulous.
Our
drive yesterday to Jining was on good 3-lane road, the only problem was there
were no areas to pull off, it was all very fast highway. So as we wanted to
wait for the Unimog to catch up it was hair-raising. The drive itself was
like dogems, changing lanes to pass slow trucks using the three lanes,
adrenalin country. Quite exciting to drive in these conditions. This city of
Jining you probably haven’t heard of (neither had we) has a population of 7.8
million with very friendly people. Temperatures have been in the thirties and
in Beijing in the low forties.....
.....Hi
folks from Ulan Bator capital of Mongolia. We have now been driving for about a
week, and have travelled about 200kms. We crossed the border into Mongolia 4
days ago and the comparisons were immediately obvious. The roads on the Chinese
side were generally 6 lane highways. The last 380kms up to the border were
brand new – built by the Chinese for strategic purposes. As soon as you cross
the border you change to a dirt track heavily corrugated for the next 400kms.
We left the main dirt track for a detour to a Buddhist monastery and to stay a
night in the traditional Mongolian ger (a circular tent made from woolen felt
and wooden sticks). 47% of Mongolians are still semi nomadic herdsmen who live
in these gers and mind herds of cattle, sheep and horses (with a few camels and
yaks thrown in for luck). The Gobi Desert is just vast and often flat for a 100
kms. There are very few trees or even shrubs just low lying grass. You can
drive in any direction you please which may explain why we got lost for a
couple of hours. We eventually got back on track because one bloke had a
GPS/Laptop map which showed us where to go, also there are no road signs at
track junctions. The Gobi has had a lot of rain so we had a few problems with
mud, and the desert was unusually green.
On
the second day in the Gobi Desert we came to a village where their traditional
celebrations were in progress. These involve horse racing for all ages from
about 6 years up, wrestling and archery for the men. We were the only “long
noses“ present so we were a great curiosity. Carrying on the journey we came to
an abandoned modern town, once home to Russian Army units. They were housed in
6 story apartment blocks which now have no windows. Apparently the Russians
just walked out in 1993, and further down the road we came to another abandoned
airforce base with runways, office buildings and even the rounded bomb proof
air raid shelters for the fighter aircraft.
Later
that same day we drove for 100kms across a beautiful green plain, dead flat and
we saw gazelles (they can run for kilometers at about 65kms/hr.) We came to a
river with a rickety wooden bridge with a 3 ton weight limit. As the Unimog
travelling with us weighs 8 tons he had to ford the river where he promptly got
stuck. We winched him out using 3 landcruisers as an anchor.
The
next day in the Gobi included a visit to an authentic 13th century village
where we were able to dress up in traditional armour, wolfskin clothing and see
traditional crafts. We then travelled to a large 40meter high monument to the
Great Chingis Khan (often called Gengis Khan in the West). This brand new
stainless steel statue is very impressive - you can climb up internal stairs
and look out from the horses head. We then drove through mad traffic into Ulan
Bator, a city of about 1 million people. We now have 2 days rest and regroup
time. Our truck is going well, but the specially fitted security alarm is
causing us a few problems. We are currently both well. There is usually at
least one member of the party with the diarrhoea each day, so that adds to the
merriment.....
.....
18 July 2010
Hi
everyone,
Leaving
Ulan Bator we drove north through the Northern Gobi desert. It gets gradually
wetter and more fertile and then you get into wheat belts with huge grain silos
etc. The next day we crossed the border into Russia. All told about a 6 hour
procedure and the guide says that is a record. It can take up to 10 hours to
get through the queues and paperwork.
We
are now in Irkutsk about 70kms past Lake Baikal. On leaving Ulan Ude this
morning we drove through open silver birch forests in gently rolling country.
The road surfaces vary from excellent to awful and the driving is only awful!!
Passing is often onto oncoming traffic and on the brow of hills with no
visibility at all. Apparently Russia has an annual road toll of 34,000 and many
may possibly be head-on collisions. Many houses have decorated windows and are
made of wood that often needs maintenance. Women with head scarves, roadside
stalls selling strawberries or smoked local fish, tall smoke stacks belching
smoke and trucks and cars that loose steam on any sort of hill. We passed lots
of grassy meadows with very little sign of stock to eat it. Joe McDowell would
be green with envy at all that spare grass. We did see a few people cutting
small areas of grass and carrying it in a trailer back to their house, probably
for a pig or a house cow. We didn’t see a hay bale or silage all day. We saw a
lot of peasant type farmers with impressive home gardens, lots and lots of
potatoes being hoed.
We
had a swim in Lake Baikal, cool but refreshing and ate smoked herring, from a
roadside stall, from the lake. Very tasty. Their road surfaces are generally
bumpy/broken up tarseal. I don’t know if it’s a problem with lack of sub-base,
freezing winters or too many heavy trucks but the roads are generally very
rough by our standards. We are staying at a very nice hotel called the Delta
for two nights. Tomorrow will be a river cruise maybe or walk on the river bank
of the river that flows into Lake Baikal (which has 20% of the world’s fresh
water. It is 1400m deep and about 160km long with it’s own kind of seals!).
Past club trips 
