Tarkshken the last town before Mongolia, I left Urumqi and Susanne on a cold morning, well all the mornings are cold at the moment. It was hard and a relief to be on the bike again.

Enjoy the photos in the gallery Urumqi to Tarkshken

I had enjoyed Urumqi with Susanne and we had celebrated new years there. Urumqi had also been hard on us as I was sure that I wanted to cycle on and Susanne found the cold too darn cold. That meant a time apart. This was a hard decision to make after 11months on the road. Could write more about how and why maybe on a later stage.

Plans were set and I was ready to cycle north to Tarkshken the border town of China some 570km from Urumqi. The first day was more of just getting out there as I got further away from Urumqi the temperature dropped and I had chosen some secondary/service roads, so from being in a city to completely nothing was a hard change. As I stopped by a small village to buy toilet paper, as I had forgotten to buy this in Urumqi, I had a “chat” (sign language) with some men in the shop and as always a photo. I cycled out of the village and down the road a car came the same men from the shop with a gift a bag of cookies 🙂  I camped at night, had to be fast as being alone all tasks are on me now. Normally we share the tasks but now all was on me, nothing new but it has been a while since i have camped by myself. I was tired so just tent, cooking and then off to sleep.

The next morning getting up was hard again, just there all by yourself and it was cold. I pushed myself to get changed and ready for the day! Cycling through small villages and entering a big Oil field in true “James bond style” with pumpjack’s, cycled through the check points no problems, found a small restaurant and had a great laghman 🙂

The following days were on the main road most of the time, camped one more time and for the rest I was lucky to find a room for the night. The days were mainly focused on cycling and pushing myself in the cold. Had temperatures ranging from -24 to +9 so a wide range. I really enjoyed the road though as it was a mix of nature, massive factories, hills, mountains, snow, sand, horses, camels and nice people.

The people along the way have been kind, in the small villages they are Kazakh and in the towns you find Chinese so a good mix of cultures which Xinjiang is known for.

I have now had time to rest a bit here in Tarkshken in an okay hotel with good internet, which will be the last time for a while with good internet connection.

In Mongolia I will do my best to make some updates, not sure how often at least the towns should have internet.

The route from Urumqi to Tarkshken (Takeshiken).