There was a wedding at the hotel I was prescribed to use.  As I was checking out, there were fireworks right outside of the reception. It was so intense that ALL the people inside held their ears! A fun way to celebrate and looked like all the children (Including me) were enjoying it.

After walking about 20 kilometres, I came to a small village. I asked a woman if there was anywhere to get a meal and she pointed Northwards and said it wasn’t far away. I walked to the place and as I was turning a corner met an old man who was leaving the restaurant, plus three loose dogs.

One of them started making a foul noise and it basically attacked me! I had the walking stick at bay, and used one to pin it down. It didn’t give in so easily, so I whacked it with the other walking stick. I also tried to keep an eye on the other two dogs, as I thought they may be wanting to join the party. The old man walked over to the dog and picked it up. The two other dogs turned out to be friendly.  I guess the dog that attacked me was scared to see me and wanted to protect his owner.

The people that owned the restaurant were very friendly. Particularly the son in the house. He was ten years old and offered to sell one of his puppies to me. He started with a price of RMB 50 (Kr 50 / $8) I turned down the offer, although the dog was great! He asked if I wanted the dog and I said truthfully that I would like the dog, but I couldn’t. The young boy changed tactics and went for RMB 80 (Kr 80 / $13) I didn’t quite understand his move, but said no again. Then he resigned and offered it to me for RMB 20 (Kr 20 / $3) Yet again I had to say no.  By this time the food had come, so I started eating.

I would like to have the company of a dog on this trip, but walking for days in scorching heat in the desert and knowing that a very cold winter is on it’s way, it would be too much hassle to have to cater for the dog as well as myself. Many places, the Great Wall is very steep also and the dog would need help to follow me.

I walked on. As it got dark, the mosquitoes came out in large numbers. It was still very hot, so I had the choice between rolling down my sleeves or being eaten by the mosquitoes. A pretty hard choice to make. There was no wind, so the flock of mosquitoes managed to follow me. Every time there was a slight gust of wind from behind, they blew in front of me, and I had to take on a full frontal assault. At this point I decided to make a mosquito net when i got back to Yinchuan.

It was completely dark when I came to a small village and asked if there were any guest houses. At first I was told there weren’t. After looking and asking around for a while a man I had previously asked, opened a door to reveal a room with four beds. He wanted 5 RMB (Kr 5 / $1) for the bed. After a while I went out to thank him and found him sitting on a bed by the road. It turned out he made his living by washing trailers 24 hours a day. I told him a little about the walk I was on and thanked him for letting me stay the night. The next morning I left an additional RMB 10 in the room as RMB 5 seemed too little for such a nice man.

32 kilometres today