day 231: 张掖 (zhangye) - 沙井子 (shajingzi) = 30km

I had bought 6 large water bottles, a considerable amount of butter cookies and a massive water melon, and stuffed it all into the big white box, along with my backpack and a basic repair kit.

Then we finally made it out of town, me and the caboose:

You’ve probably guessed it: walking without all the weight on my back felt so good!

The fertile valley just kind of flowed by in a breeze:

I noticed that there were these rocks holding down some yellow papers on every bridge that I passed:

But there was no one to ask around, so I meditated on this thing for a while and then figured I might as well drop the thought and be happy with what I had: a day of gentle walking with my loyal caboose, caboose, caboose.

Once I passed through a little village, and someone asked me to take a picture of this little friend:

His eyes were so black and so big, I could actually see my own reflection in them…

This was not the only beautiful thing in the valley though.

There were flowers…

…tree-lined avenues…

…and the clouds, always the clouds…

I wasn’t too tired when I got to the little village of 沙井子 (shajingzi) later that day:

…you want to see the caboose in action?

Well, here she is:

黄黄 (huanghuang) the dog is her personal guard for the night.

Soundtrack: Snapcase - “Caboose”

—total: 2909,6km