Steppeing on Sand

Well, as far as I can see Inner Monglia consists of the steppe, some stunning scenery and road works.

We set off from Datong after our day off feeling pretty fresh. I had actually already begun to miss sitting on the bike and seeing white centre lines rushing (or crawling) past me. To be honest so much has happened since then it's hard to remember even s far back as a few days. One thing that is impossible to forget though is the road we took out of Datong and in to Inner Mongolia. It was, quite simply, stunning. It wound itself precariously through some of the most stunning natural and man made scenery I have ever seen. Rolling hills and craggy peaks, dotted around with some of the oldest pieces of the Great Wall still in existence. Needless to say, Pryd and I got very, very excited. We were giggling like schoolboys who had not only been given double maths off because their teacher was ill, but at the same time found out that not only was the teacher ill, he had Gonorrhea.

Hohot itself, however, was a fairly unremarkable town. We stayed the night and left early the next morning.

The next day was characterised by soaring highs and crashing lows. Highs brought about the scenery, which was still breathtaking. The Mongolian grasslands at this time of year truly are a fantastic sight. Lows were brought about by road works, tons of roadworks. Sand, mud, gravel, stones, sand, mud on gravel, and sand. It really was very tough going and we made painfully slow progress. As has been pointed out to me, we may have felt like Genghis Kahn but we probably made slower progress than he did across Inner Mongolia that day. The denouement of this odyssey of road works was a puddle of muddy water about a foot deep under a bridge. We emerged with bikes and gear covered in mud. Our beautiful chrome finish which glinted so stylishly in the sun was well and truly gone.

These trials and tribulations were more than made up for, however, by the place we decided tp camp for the night. The middle of the Mongolian grasslands is a great place to pitch camp. Even the fact that I couldn't stand up to put my trousers on in the morning did not detract from it. A truly memorable night.

The rest of our time in Inner Mongolia has consisted of more road works and some incredibly heavy industry. The whole of Inner Mongolia after where we camped was grey from smog and dust. The problem in Inner Mongolia is that it is never meant to have been farmed, it is meant to be pasture, as it has been for thousands of years. Now, however, it is being farmed by sedantry Han Chinese which means that the thin topsoil, ater it has been cultivated for a few seasons and exhausted of its nutrients, is simply left to blow away. When this is added to the severe pollution in some areas the whole place is cloaked in a concrete grey smog which rarely lifts. It is a tragedy, as Inner Mongolia has the potential to be one of the world's truly beautiful places.

So, as it happens, we were quite happy to be out of Inner Mongolia, as I write this we are in Yingchuan, capital of Ningxia province, and will hopefully make it into Gansu province tomorrow.