Mini Neverland by the Yellow river
A friend called me today. He got married in Turkey the day before. Congratulations John!!! Enjoy your Honeymoon!
John talked about the big day and towards the end he said: “By the way – Michael Jackson is dead”. Wow – somehow I didn’t think that he was ever going to die!! So sad.
I went on walking along the road parallel to the Yellow River thinking about Michael Jackson. Then I saw a building on the banks of the Yellow River. Looks like a miniature Neverland…
Mini Neverland by the Yellow river
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At seven o’clock I woke up because it was boiling hot inside the tent. There was not a cloud in the sky, so I knew it would be a warm day. I got up and started walking to get as far as possible before it got too hot.
There wasn’t much to take my attention from the road and the walking. Although there was a nice view of the desert, I had left the camera with the 5x zoom lens in Jingtai to save some weight.
As it got close to twelve o’clock, I started looking for a suitable place to have a siesta, but found nothing. So I carried on walking. When I got close to the Yellow River I saw some spruce trees like the ones we have in Norway. It was perfect to lie below them and the slight wind helped cool me down. Also, it made me feel a little closer to home. I miss the Norwegian forests and trees.
When I got to Shapotou after more than 30 kilometres in the heat, I decided enough was enough. From Shapotou place, I will starting walking in a north eastern direction to find the Great Wall again. I got a lift to Zhongwei (not Zhongning – the map has been updated) and left my sleeping bag, mattress and tent there. Then I took a three hour ride to Jingtai to collect the laptop and other things which I had left there.
The “Neverland” is a mosque. Be aware you entered the Ningxia huizu ziqu (Ningxia (muslim minority) autonomous region). You should not wonder to see mosques there and you very probably have seen some earlier in Gansu Province.
The “spruce” tree should ba a kind of tamarisque. This is the plant which provided the wood which was used to build the Han Dynasty Great Wall. A typical desert and to a certain extent salt resistant plant.
Don’t miss the temple in the centre of Zhongwei. It is a very nice place.
-chinoook
Should be “Ningxia huizu zizhi qu”. This blog needs an “edit” option …
-chinoook
30 kms walking in the dry and hot landscape must be tough on your body. When you top it up with a 3 hours hot ride to collect stuff left behind in the last town, it must be gruelling.
Pity there is no logistics solution to the parallel travel of your back up stuff. Or is there? (a solution to save you all the bussing to and fro)