return, recount
I have arrived home to no internet connection and a still dripping toilet and as yet it’s not particularly irritating, as I’m still basking in a bit of a glow from my sojourn into central china. (though the jack daniels I procured doesn’t hurt either) you may remember a vague outline of destinations back in january. well, my nose (and occasionally my erstwhile travelling companion) led me differently and I headed east and north instead of west and south, successfully following, as it turned out. the path of a rainstorm for fifteen days through muddy middle of nowhere locales. yet there is something immensely pleasing about wading in mud with a big ol pack, or smiling peacefully on a bus at 1am still an hour from your 10pm destination sitting in a traffic jam caused by an accident on a neigh one lane mountain road. difficult to quantify, but it feels good.
gear
wearing: long underwear top, sweater, windblocker fleece. fast dry fleece thick thermal bottoms, pants, socks, hiking boots. hat. scarf. gloves.
pack: sweater, long underwear top, 2 short sleeve wicking tshirts. lightweight thermal bottoms. 3 pairs socks. underwear. pack towel. toothbrush, soap, shampoo, razor, comb, hairclips. toilet paper. camera, ipod, cell phone and chargers. journal. seraphita by honore debalzac. instant coffee packets. maps. travel water purifier. cribbage board and cards. dictionary, phrasebook, my chinese notebook. bandana. sunglasses.
the only thing I didn’t use was the purifier. sans yunnan the tshirts did well as a second layer over my long underwear and I wore both pairs of thermal pants under my pants. it got damned cold in hunan and hubei ;-)
linear motion
(kms are approximate)
1.22 afternoon: overnight train to Chengdu, 17 hours
1.23 morning: arrive Chengdu
1.27 afternoon: overnight train to Kaili, 15 hours
1.28 afternoon: arrive Kaili, evening: 10km bus to Langde
1.29 afternoon: 110km bus to Leishan
1.30 noon: 160km bus to Rongjiang/Congjiang, evening: 5km mototaxi to Piasha
1.31 noon: 15km bus to Luoxiang, afternoon: 6km walk to ZhaoXing
2.1 morning: follow the man with the mattress : ~10-15km, 952m vertical, Xiage and Tongan
2.3 morning: 90km bus to Liping
2.4 noon: 160km bus to HuaiHua, night: 95km bus to Fenghuang
2.6 afternoon: 10km bus to Sanjiang, evening: 95km bus to HuaiHua, night: overnight train to Wuhan, 13 hours
2.7 noon: arrive Wuhan
2.9 evening: overnight train home, 17 hours
total 62 hours on trains (often sleeping), 850km on busses (always awake), 1 mountain climbed, 0 villiages arrived at in sunlight, 9 rivers, 1 lake, 15 places, 11 explored, 19 days.
filed under :: winter 04-05 :: annie carr @ 5:58 pm