A long day along the Yellow River


I got up at five o’clock today and started walking just as the sun rose over the desert dunes to the East. The mosquitoes were gone and man that had let me stay for the night was sleeping.

I was glad that it was cool. As the dawn grew to morning, a lot of farmers started their day. It is harvest time now and I can literally see how the farmers are joyful because they can harvest their crop after a long summer of hard work. I took a break when the sun got warmer. Sitting on an elevated irrigation channel, I watched a family harvesting corn on the cob. The summer is definitely on it’s last verse. I noticed leaves hitting me when the wind blew them from the trees. Some leaves have turned yellow.

It is strange to be on a walk that will last a whole year. The small signs from nature become big events because they mean a lot to my well being. After walking though this desert for the last four months, I am looking forward to the Autumn. I long for temperatures that are below 25 degrees C. In three to four months, it will get very cold indeed, but until then, I hope to enjoy good walking conditions.

Towards the end of the day I met some women by a tourist attraction. It looked like an old fortress that was rebuilt, but they told me it had nothing to do with the Great Wall. I bought some water and Ice Tea from them and then headed toward the desert to set up my tent, but first I asked them if the desert had any scorpions.  From what I could understand they said: No – this part doesn’t, because scorpions don’t like… A word I could not understand.

33 kilometres today