day 340: 鄯善 (shanshan) = 0km

罗先生 (Mr. Luo) had agreed to give the caboose a general makeover today:

But first we had to go to a bike shop…

…and get a new set of wheels:

I asked for old steel frames with thick ball bearings, and I think we managed to find something durable this time.

Then 罗先生 got to work…

…and a thorough job he did.

People had been telling me that he was professional at what he was doing, and when I looked at the new & improved caboose 1.1 today, I thought the results seemed very satisfying indeed.

Thank you, 罗先生! May your weld seams travel with me all the way to Germany!

…

Why is there no picture of the new caboose? Well, her looks haven’t really changed that much, so I thought I’d rather show you this instead:

Yes, it’s the REAL desert!

This is the second time that I’ve walked past big old sand dunes and everything (July 31st 2008), and it still shocks me when I see it.

I mean, here is the oasis of 鄯善 (shanshan) on one side…

…and here, just a tiny bit to it’s south, are the mighty dunes that are towering over the land…

…making life impossible:

Oh, don’t let them fool you - the desert dunes can seem so soft and nice…

…they want to trick us into thinking that we can tame them and live in them:

But eventually we must realize that we will be all alone in this nothingness…

…and that there are only these little flags that can lead us back into safety:

Well, it wasn’t all that bad:

…and at sunset, the scenery became even more beautiful:

Later that night, when I was just getting ready to go up to my room and wash the sand off from my body, I ran into this group of rally drivers from all over China:

Cool dudes, very outgoing and friendly.

We almost had dinner together, but then I realized that I had too much work to do.

So it was a lonely supper in front of the notebook again.

Soundtrack: Chemical Brothers - “Galvanize”

—total: 4321,8km