day 245: 清泉 (qingquan) – [somewhere in the desert] = 35km

I’ve had some problems with my Internet connection during the past few days, so I’ve only been able to update the Google Earth file with the track log.

So here’s the blog version, four days later.

Today’s summary: some of the most stunning landscapes I’ve ever laid eyes on.

I think it had to do with the weather, too.

…

We came past a little lake that was just there, somewhere in all that dust, and 谢老师 (Teacher Xie – June 18th 2008) said its water had come from the snowcapped mountains nearby:

It was sparkling clear and icy cold.

A flock of sheep greeted us as we made our way through the heat:

In fact it was so hot the road had melted in some places:

(Note the imprint of my shoe!)

Not that we cared much.

Especially not my good old 谢老师:

He is what I would call a happy man, I believe.

…

So here are a couple of sceneries we passed by today:

I really don’t know what to say:

It was all so beautiful:

…

…

This is really not about some fancy photography techniques.

It was all right there in front of me, and all I had to do was point and press the shutter button:

…unlike this picture of 谢老师 with his cart against the sunset:

Taking this photograph required some serious effort on my part, because I had to find angles and match out exposure settings.

In the end I had to lay down on the asphalt to be able to get the frame that I wanted.

Luckily, the asphalt wasn’t melted anymore.

…

We made camp again later that night:

Looks all black doesn’t it?

Well, if you click on the picture to get the full resolution you will be able to see the amount of stars.

I still didn’t enjoy the camping thing all that much.

But the view…

Soundtrack: Genesis – “Jesus He Knows Me”

—total: 3244,7km