The road to Xiahe promises to be short and suite.
The beautiful day warms up my body and my soul.
I am ready to go to one of the holy places for tibetians bhuddism. A place of pilgrimage and misticism. A small tibet. A place that does not really belong to China. It is a tibet for the tibetains outside tibet.

The road from Linxia leads right away inside the walleys towards the high mountains. At certain points far away I can see snow covering the peaks.
The road goes on well even if construction of a new road on top of the old one makes certain parts quite bad.

The more I go deep into the valley the more the presence of monasteries on the mountains around the valley and the smoke of constant wood fire coming out from the monasteries and the houses along the street give the scenery a mistic feeling.
A shiver rises along my back and a smile marks a bit of exitment in me.

The road to Xiahe promises to be short and suite.
The beautiful day warms up my body and my soul.
I am ready to go to one of the holy places for tibetians bhuddism. A place of pilgrimage and misticism. A small tibet. A place that does not really belong to China. It is a tibet for the tibetains outside tibet.

The road from Linxia leads right away inside the walleys towards the high mountains. At certain points far away I can see snow covering the peaks.
The road goes on well even if construction of a new road on top of the old one makes certain parts quite bad.

The more I go deep into the valley the more the presence of monasteries on the mountains around the valley and the smoke of constant wood fire coming out from the monasteries and the houses along the street give the scenery a mistic feeling.
A shiver rises along my back and a smile marks a bit of exitment in me.

Even if I was told that it was a 100k ride the road, now more and more Interrupted by road works becomes quite tireing and I make several stops.
Tired and quite sick of bad roads I slow down and take it easy when suddenly, for the second time in this trip I see coming in the opporite directions two bikes of the China motorcicle assotiation (cmsa).
I wave and I can see they eyes becoming round as the europenas.
They suddenly stop, turn around and come toward me.
I get off and with a big smile I tell them I am happy to see other two of their club members.
They are quite in desbelief but very happy to share this moment with a biker from another country.
We exchange some news about the roads ahead and about their trip during the chinese May holidays.
Then when I tell thewm I am gopig back to Italy they start laughing in desbelief.
In a few minutes they become serious when they undestand I am for real. "one only. only one man and one bike??".
We share ideas for a while and we take a few picture. They are very cool guys and they ride very small 125 bikes with outfits and equipment worth a rally over the Sahara.
They are indeed very organised but a little funny. One of them tips its bike over while preparing for a picture.....

As predicted another 5km and I enter Xiahe. The presence of monks all over the place and of peregrins gives this little town a unique atmosphere.
Found a small place to stay with a place for the bike I right away go for my tour of the monastery.
Like in Tibet there is something really personal and deep about tibetian monasteries and the peregrins going there.
This monastery is very large and surrounded by a long square wall. All around on the outside of the wall the cilinder prayers.

I chose a starting point and I join the outer circle of prayer. One faster then the other the peregrins walk by making the cilinder spinning at each touch. In their hands the bhuddhist rosary ("rosario"), their faces dark, marked by the constant cold of the mountains they live in.

One ofter the other I make each prayer spin entering the spiral of misticism surronding me.
Along the walls I start to share smiles with the people around me . Some of them walk with me along the walls. Some monks ask me where I come from and others just look a little in disbelief seeing a foreigner making the circle of prayers with them.

One after the other large cilinders are made spinning on themselves. One after the other.....
a long line of prayers that speaks for all the ones that makes them spin.

so I spin on and on.
It is hot and the cilinders are quite heavy to move. I am surprised to see how energetic and determined are these old ladies that came here for pilgrimage.
At one point I hear a strange noise. Quite different from the sounds I had becomes familiar with walking around the temple.
A deep noise coming from besides the river in front of the temple.
I stop.
Everytime I ear strange noises I am always tempted to go and see what they are.
Step after step I walk away from the wall toward the river. The noise seems to arrive from behind the mountains across the river. The more I walk toward the river the more the noise becomes strong.
There is no need to cross the river.
The noise comes from a small groups of monks practicing by the river. Each one of them holds the long tibetian horn and they practice under the direction of a master. Seeing me approaching the master comes toward with a big smile and a welcome.
I love tibetians monks. They are always very friendly, curious and intelligent.
The scene is quite funny. There are about 4 monks practicing music by the river.
All of them seem playing the same note over and over and the whole exercise of the day seems to make their longs strongher an stronger....

My presence seems not to disturb the atmosphere and the master shares his time between giving some instructions and by talking with me.

'where are you from?"
- italy-
" i am from Tibet" he tells me.
" you know , Tibet. the Dalai Lama...?. I am in china but China is very bad." "China..... [crashes] Tibet" He shows me with his hands.
"yes, I know. he is in india now" I reply.
"yes, India. ...."
We both smile with the sad feeling of a sad reality.
Then our attention turnes back to the other monks.
One of them is lifting his heavy instrument and he puts it into the water.
I look with chinese curiosity and I ask the master sitting next to me what he is doing.
Before he can even reply I see the big monk blowing the horn inside the water. This is an exercise to make their longs strongher and stronger.
It is very interesting to live this moment around the monks. Like everybody else they conduct quite a normal life and they are very open to talk and share information with people from the outside.
Confirming the fame of their curiosity the master monk asks me to lend him my camera an he starts taking poictures of me an the other monks.
lessons over we spend sometime to joke around with the camera.
On the way back I thank them for the time and I restart the circle of prayers from where I left it.

Back to the hotel I sit outside on the main road and once again I look and the world passing by.
Monks, beggers, pilgrims and passer by stop by with mix of curiosity and desire to talk.
They are all unique moments and a good chance to obseve and interact with other people.
Many take my camera and smile with surprise when they look into the long zoom.
A bagger stops and stands in front of me. This time I decide not to turn her away. I want for once to see who is asking me for money. I stare at her and look into her eyes for a few long seconds.
She is not sincere....

The next day I decide to go see Takkar, a place near Xiahe that the guys of the cmsa told me not to miss. I start of in the morning.
"Go to the edge of town and turn righ to the first off road path you see."
"Go straight for 25 km then turn right and follow the road up the mountain."

"Not again!!"
I think. No more off road.....!!

So I ride on.

The road very quickly passes over small moutain and opens up into a very green high land.
The scenery is impressive.
In front of me I can see miles and miles of green high lands and millions , millions of sheeps!!!!
It is all very beautiful and worth the hard ride.

At one point , the roads ends....well, .. yes.
again....
All around me only high grassland.

Well, I think , I guess I have to go straight.
So I ride on onto the grassland among the sheeps.
The feeling is histerical as totally histerical is to see the faces of the sheeps suddenly turning up to stare me coming!

image

Soon the road starts again. I find the right turn and start climbing up the mountains surrouding the high lands.
The green gives a beautiful contrast with the white snow topping the mountains surrounding the grasslands...

I feel small but extremely free.
There is no soul around me..only sheeps and occasionally a bunny!

A couple of hours and a small high valley opens in front of me.
Behind I can see the entire grass lands I came from.
In front a small range of rock peaks surropunding Takkar.

Takkar.

A small Tibetan village, it is made of brown mud housed and a small bhuddist monastery towers over it.
I ride through the village. At that point there is not clear roads and the village is steep along the side of the hill.
I see the opening to the monastery. I ride to the door of the monastery, turn off the bike and get off.
The entire village is strangly desert. There are just a few people around. 3 small kids come out from the monastery door and in a second they disappear again.
After a minute a big monk wearing an heavy cape (mantello) slowly comes out.
I smile and he smile back. "Ni hao" (hi in chinese) I say.
"Ni hao" , he replies.
He is very serious , looks and me with seriousness and gives a good look at the bike.
The kids in the meantime came out to surround the monk and they are making a lot of noise.

I ask the monk if I can go inside to see the monastery and he give me a serious consent.
Inside I find the entire village!
Here you all are! I think .
All the villagers are crowding the entrance and the inside side corridors of the monastrery.
In the middle, parallel lines of low benches host lines of monks in prayer.
Everyvody is in silence.
So many people inside the monastry and the continuous deep chant of the monks give a mistic atmosphere to the place.
I sit next to the big monk that in the meantime came back in and for a second I forget where I am.
The chants of the monks are very slow and relaxing.
At regular intervals, while the ceremony goes on some monks come out to distribute sweets to the villagers.
The villagers are all dressed in tipical tibetian clothes. This is either becasue today is a special occasion or just because here modern clothing has not arrived yet.
The more beautiful clotehs are the ones wore by the women and by the girls. They all have a heavy coat made with very colorful fabrics and embroidered with beads and gold threads. Around their waist they all have big belts. Some more sophsticated than others. Some with strange pouches hanging from the side.
Their 'lineamenti' are very beautiful. The youg girls have very beauftiful faces and the old ones show how cold temperatures can shrink your skin into a miriade of lines.

The two lines of benches in the middle of the temple host youg monks of about 18-20 years old.
The two lines on the right side where I am host only very joung monks.
I cannot see the two lines on the left but I can hear from there the openings of each chant.
In the center at the end of the temple I can see a portrait. It is so real and vivid that for a moment I cannot figure out if it is a portrait or a real person.
The entire monastery is well and carefully decorated. The side walls are covered with paitings and tantras. From the wall and the side high separations draps of all colors decorated with gold hang on the monks' heads.
The ligh is very deam and the smoke of the incents creates a light myst.

It is lunch time and in front of many monks little breads are piled up. I quite cannot figure out the dymanic. the monks are chanting but not eating. Some of them have piles of little breads in front of them. Some have nothing.
At times a young monk goes around the benches. He drops some breads and he pick up others from other monks.
It seems he is the messanger between the villagers and the yougest monks and it seems this is one way for the families to exchange something with the youngest monks.

One in a while the big monk that welcomed me stands up and walks very serious in between the two benches of the yougest monks. they all look at him with a mix of fear and respects. He seems to bring back dicipline where noise was born.
For a few minutes he stands in the middle of the banches: his presence larger than life in that small room....

Out of the monastery a crowd of monks have in the meantime surrounded the bike. Two of them are sitting on my bike and ask me to take them for aride. Thank good I took the keys away with me , I think....
I would have found the bike and two monks at the bottom of the valley with smoke rising up from the explosion.

They are funny and I canot get upset. I take a picture of them and I tell them I will take them for a ride... ... ... ... another time!

As it happened other times me and the bike are surrounded by the locals.
One time it has been the maoists.
Another the muslims.
This time the monks.
It is like seeing the world changing like in a screen.
It is a very funy feeling and a unique opportunity for pictures!

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Time comes to say goodbye and as I go down the steep path I see a long line of purple red monks lined up on the edge of the monastery watching me off.
I wonder what they think....

sqm..
Instancabili Viaggiatori

"One of the best feelings is to know that I am on the right way....."

The morning I woke up in Wudu, besides having all my bones in pieces I really did I not want to look outside the window...

... rain.

Rain was coming down again. That morning it took me a few hours to get out of bed and believe me, a lot, a lot of determination.

Somehow I made it downstairs for a very long leg: 450km estimated.

Already in a bad mood, I also felt upset to leave so late in that I knew would have been a very long day.

So I rode on, as usual asking here and there the way. The road out of Wudu was surprisingly nice. It was going all along the valley along the river.

This time the river was flowing in the opposite direction. Very good sign since this meant I left the huge mountain range of the day before. The scenery changed a lot. Instead of the green and very steep mountains of the day before very brown and naked scenery was all I could see. All was brown and the river surrounded by very green rice fields was giving an incredible contrast to the world around.

One of the things I found interesting to notice was how from one valley to the other there can be so much difference.

The villages and house made of stone and bricks leave the place to houses made of mud. Typical Chinese roofs made of tiles leave the place to quare, essential unidimensional houses often surrounded by walls of mud. All the villages, understandably are build high up in respect to the river and they seem fortresses. The atmosphere is again very relaxed and still a lot of Maoist uniforms!

Happy to have a good road to start I say it too early. I should stop doing this, because every time I think it is a good road the road becomes bad right away. The road becomes the usual irregularity of potholes but the biggest worry seems to me a big white cloud far ahead. Soon sun turns in clouds. Hot in cold and fog welcomes me at the bottom of a steep road. This time I cannot estimate how the climb will be. Thick fog doesn’t allow me to see anything. All I do is to ride on.

Soon the fog is so think that I can only see about 10 mtr ahead. The more I go up the more the fog become dense and wet. The more I go up the more the fog become water and makes everything wet. Suddenly the paving stops: clearly designed to stop there. The road becomes off road. The more I go up the more it gets cold. I stop for a picture and to wait for a truck to pass by so I can follow it.

From the fog 3 kids appear like in a fairy tale. They are shepherds and they just stand on the edge of the grass above me staring. They look very funny. Very small, overdressed and with very red faced touched by constant cold weather.

They smile.

I just have one second for a click and here come the truck. I stick to its back at 20km/hr until the top of the pass. If the temperature would be a few degrees lower it would surely snow. Very glad to see the road going down I stay behind the truck until it gets too slow and I pass it. I still cannot se anything so I have no idea what I am crossing or what is ahead. All I know is that I am on the right way. In fact this time I just had to follow road 212 all the way to destination.

The other side of the mountain holds heavy rain. Not happy at all I decide to keep on riding at least until I find some sort of roof where to stop for a second. Unfortunately the way the houses and villages are built here doesn't offer any such a place. I have no choice but to ride. The rain keeps on quite heavily so I decide to stop and to cover the saddlebags and the tank bag. Whoever designed the saddlebags I bought was either NOT a genius or NEVER USED these bags on a rainy day. The covers of the bags are plastic bags with an elastic at the edge. Something like a shower cap. The only problem is that they made them way too small and they cannot cover the whole bag.

Arrive into the next valley rain stops and I can maintain a faster paste. I am worry about time. I cannot see the sun so I don't know. Here we are on a different time zone even if China keeps it all as Beijing time, so the watch does not give a good reference point.

Arrived in a small town I decide to stop for some rest and some chocolate I have in the bag. I am in no mood to deal with the locals so I chose to stop at the end of the village. The escamotage lasted only a few minutes. Suddenly I find myself surrounded by 50 or more people. Most of them are either old or very young. All the people of 40 and up still wear the Mao uniform. The minutes that follow are simply priceless. I start talking with these people and playing with them and my camera. One after the other they want a picture to be taken, they want to be part of the moment, they are curious but polite and they are just a lot of fun. I smile with them for a good 1/2 hour. The mood went up to the stars and I seemed to have forgotten all the rain. When it is time to go I sit on the bike. I put my helmet on and when I turn up my head I see them all.... They are all around me, very near. They are now all serious and attentive. All so different in their faces and yet all so alike in their expression and outfits. I cannot resist. I take out the camera and I take another shot!! They all burst in laugh, seemingly happy.... "What a moment!" I think.

After one hour I have to cross another pass. Same fog, same road but no rain. On the other side I discover I am still 100 km from Lintao. Not a good situation.

When I arrived in Lintao is already 6.30 pm. The weather improved. I have 100km to destination and about 1 hr of light. I sit on the bike for a few minutes. I ask what is the road like and if there is any other mountain to cross!

I make my choice. I ride on. From that moment onward I am a man in a mission. I am determined to get to Linxia before dark. The road is good and I can drive like a mad man at 110 on a busy road.

For anybody that cares about records here is one. I think I settled the world record for fastest time ever made to cover Lintao - Linxia at sunset.

As soon as I turn off road 212 to go to Linxia the whole world around me changed. Completely changed. I am crossing Muslim towns one after the other. The Maoist disappeared and all I can see are white Muslim hats on everybody's head! I cannot believe the drastic change so quickly. At regular intervals I see now mosques. These mosques are made with a typical Chinese structure, the typical Chinese shape of a temple and the typical Chinese roof. But there is the moon on top, the moon....

No time to stop and not time to look too much either. I make it to Linxia in less than 1 hour. Exhausted, I am happy to have covered all the 460 km and to be able to crash on the bed.

One more task... I have no food with me so the only choice is to go down and see what to find. I am too tired to even think and I let the security to take me to a Muslim restaurant.

I look at the guy and tell him to give me what he wants. "suibien....." (in Chinese) and if there is a god he was around at that time. The guy arrives with a plate of spaghetti on one side and with a plate of beef made with a tomato sauce and onions on the other. He explains me that I have to pour the beef on the pasta.....

"che mito!!" I think. " che mito!!!!"

sqm.. instancabili viaggiatori

"life is made of choices.
YOUR life is MADE OF YOUR choices".

...and today it has been one of my choices to take me in a very eventfull, scary and yet unique day.
Would I have known what my choice would have taken me into I would have taken a different one, but hey!, this is another topic worth a debate.

From the map and the available roads, I knew that this was to be one of the most difficult parts to cross and one in which crossing was not the only problem, choice was the other.

[...]

The river water in the meantime has become green and blue. (In china rivers are usually brown!) A wanderful color in a valley that seems being forgotten by men and kept pure by god.

[...]

Once the sun passes its pivot point and starts goind down a sense of fear wraps me.
Fear is not exactly what it was, even if I cannot find now a better world to define it.
I felt small, powerless and in the hands of the mountains. Yet, I felt I was part of all of this as much as all the forests around me.

"life is made of choices.
YOUR life is MADE OF YOUR choices".

...and today it has been one of my choices to take me in a very eventfull, scary and yet unique day.
Would I have known what my choice would have taken me into I would have taken a different one, but hey!, this is another topic worth a debate.

From the map and the available roads, I knew that this was to be one of the most difficult parts to cross and one in which crossing was not the only problem, choice was the other.

I left guangyuan early morning sure of the direction and of the first part of the road to be taken.
Detination : Tianshui.
The firt part of the day the roads are not too bad. Paved even if very uneven. The ride goes well and I just follow the plan I made. My main reference point was the next town and the river. I had to follow the river all the way up the valley and I should be ok.

So I went, and asking here and there I preatty much follow the river. A big dam after 50km confirmed I was on the right way even if there were no signs or indications of the cities I wanted to go to. Usually on state roads, as bad as they can be there is, once in a while, a sign indicating the name of the next town. In this part of china though these signs are not frequest and often major intersections have not indication whatsoever.
As usual, I often ask and I soon find out that nobody knows the fisrt town I am supposed to hit. They all know the second one though... Wudu......

All seems reasonably correct to me. Everybody I ask tells me that I am on the road to Wudu and I am following the river upstream.
After not too long the roads becomes quite bad. This is usual so I go on until in a small town the military jumps in the middle of the road and stops me.
It is a small town on top of a small montain and the main conjuction between 2 roads.
I pull over and I start to ask IN ENGLISH how to go here and there without leaving too much time to the guards to ask me much.
In front of a foreigner and not been able to speak english they start to feel a little enbarassed. A few smiles and they decide it is too much effort to try to even start a discussion. They indicate again teh direction to Wudu I leave very quickly.
At that conjuction I am still not sure if left was the way I was supposed to go. I get a further confimation from some locals that I was indeed the way to Wudu.
The road goes up for a few hundred meters until the next split. There from what some people tells me, I recognise some how the point on the map.
I turn right and move on.
The roads keep goin up and off road conditions take over very soon. In about 1/2 hour I am in front of yet another split. At this point I am confused so I decide to stop for a second to try to figure out more.
Among the people around there is an old guy that speaks well mandarin. He seems to know well the area and he tells me that both the roads take to the same place..... Wudu.

The choice:
The road on the right was about 120 km. He said. very bad road that goes up and up and down and up and down and so on. But I would have arrived today.
The road on the left would have taken me about 240 km but the road would have become nicer. According to him this way will take 2 days.
Not that I ever trust chinese giving estimations on time. In fact they usually are totally off. I trust though their knowledge of the roads that so far proved quite good.

I think about it for a moment. If i am luky I can get to Wudu early enough to have time to reach my final destination.

I go right.

For a while off road conditions remains the same and soon I find myself to a left turn.
Roads in China are strange. Often you find yourself on a beautifuil road, new, and suddenly it ends into mud.
Sometimes you find yourself into mud for km and km to find yourself in a second on an highway.
Used to this magic of roads I didn't mind it too much, until .... ..
..
.
.
.
.
.
.
I turned and there it was.... a river.
but not a bridge.

I drive along the road that leads to the very edge of the river.
This time the road did ended... that was it. That was the end of the road. In the river.
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
.
A littel confused and definitely courious I ask a couple of girls there waiting for something near a boat.
They confirm this is the road to Wudu....... but they are unable to tell me where the road is.
A lady comes out from one of the boats along the river and starts asking me where i go.
"the road to wudu is there...."
her finger pointing the otehr side of the river. Soon we agree on a price and she agees to boat me on the other side. She has a passenger boat and again I find myself to find a way to let the bike on a passenger boat.

Caronte.

This is all I could think of at that moment and isterically I started to smile forgetting all the ordeal I already went through to get to this point.

This was it.
This was travelling in the unknown.

Still not sure that the road across the river (if there was a road) was leading to Wudu I settle and we manage to put the bike on. The two girls jump on as well and we cross the river.

image

The day is beautiful and sunny. The sun is still not in the center of the sky. It is still morning and I think I have still enough time.

On the other side of the river I find the road.
Still totally off road it soons becomes a little path along the river bench steep rising in the montains.
All I could see in front of me were mountains. Higher and higher, one after the other, one behind the other. higher and higher ... ... ... and beautiful.

Off the boat the two girls confirmed that ths is the road to Wudu, they too are going there. On the side we left they got off a bus and on this side they jump on another one that supposely completes the second half of the trip to Wudu.

In a beautiful day, would I have had an off road bike this would have been a ride of total fun! Hundreds of km off road up and down an entire mountain range.
I have my chopper and I have to be very carefull on these roads. Yet, the scenary and ride is unique.
Ther is no soul around. There are no cars, no trucks, no bus, no people, no animal.... there is no road!!!

I go up and up and up and the mountains in front of me are getting higher and hiher, denser and denser.
I am getting into a montain range.
I am sure by now this is NOT the road I marked on the map, but it was following a river and it seemd to be leading to Wudu indeed (so THEY said).
I go up and up and the scenary gets nicer and nicer. I am alone in the middle of these montains. alone.......

I am not sure where I am going and if this is the right road.
Yet, I fell free.
just,
simply.... free.

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The more I go up on this road the more my mind leads me to all kind of thoughts.
Soon I find myself to analyse the risk of this istuation.
The first concern is day light. The sun is just at its peak. I still have a good 8 hours of light ahead.
Worst goes to worst I have a tent and some food. My water purifier can get me along well and there is plenty of water around here.
I have two taks full of fuel and this will help just in case...

The river water in the meantime has become green and blue. (In china rivers are usually brown!) A wanderful color in a valley that seems being forgotten by men and kept pure by god.

I think about the bike. With this road and all these vibrations it might just break apart. What then?
And I think about bandits . Funny as it might sound a bunch of peasants might just as well jump out....

After a good hour in the moutains I start to see the first houses. One or two here and there , one of two persons, some cows here and there. All is so peaceful that I find impossible to keep these worries in my mind.
I smile and I think that if I get stuck I might as well aks for shelter along the way.
So i ride on .
The road keeps going up and I am getting deeper and deeper in the range.
At one point I see some activity.
On my right, on the other side of the river a bunch of workers are building a bridge.
I smile and I think aloud: "I wander what this bridge is for in the middle of nowhere... I guess I will find out soon.."... I say.....

As I spoke I don't even have the time to ride for 200 mtr that the road.....
well...
yes...

ends.....

I stopped and I started to laugh!
This was funny, believe me.
I found out what the bridge was supposed to be for...!
The only difference this time is that caronte was not there!

At that very moment I remembered that one of my thoughts before leaving was to carry a tube to connect to the bike exausters in case I had to cross high waters so that water would not go in. Then I thought that I was not going to Africa, ...so.... I left the thought alone.

In front of the river I admire the beauty of the world around me.
Then I look at the river.
at the bike.
at the bridge (that will take still months to finish)
and at me.

no turning back. This is for sure.
As I thought from there on everytime I had to cross one of the many rivers i stumbled across that day:

"When crossing a river of all the options I have along the crossing points if I get on the other side well and with no damages to the bike that choice was the right one to make."

very simple.

The montains in the meatime get bigger and higher. Tor the next 3 hours I go up and down crossing 3 passes finding very few souls around me and nobody along the road.
I am alone in this world trying still to find out which world is it after all.

Once the sun passes its pivot point and starts goind down a sense of fear wraps me.
Fear is not exactly what it was, even if I cannot find now a better world to define it.
I felt small, powerless and in the hands of the mountains. Yet, I felt I was part of all of this as much as all the forests around me.

..
.
.
.
.

Finally the road starts going down. I can see that they are opening and I have a sense of reliefe. The sun still high in the sky gives me a lot of energy.
I stop to get some water from a natural creek crossing the road and I take some time to think about life.
Life is bautiful and we restelss travellers are here to live it and not to let our life to live us.
I think about the emails from some of my friends. Their comments.
I know they are all with me in this very moment.
And i understand once again that one of the reasons of this trip and of the meaning of restless travellers is also not to let our daily routine to take control.

I ride on......

The ride becomes a game. Everytime I see the moutains opening up as soon as I go around I see more and more coming up
They seem never ending...
Moments of hope for an opening into a flat valley alternate to moments of discouragment in front of jet more and more mountains.

I keep riding on. At this point my goal is to reach Wudu and spend the night there.
Indications that I gather around tell me that it is stil 68km to go. But... who knows...
who....
knows.....

The valley opens up and i stumble across a village.
The village developed around a bridge that leads to another road.
I stop in the middle of it.
The village is composed of about 6 houses and laong the bridge there is what seems the weekly market.
About 100 people are busy around buying and selling.
They seems to know each others and some welcome each others like they haven't met for a long time. Lots of smiles and a lot of funny faces.
People selling pcs of modernity.
People selling what they made and people coming down from the mountains with what they grew in they fields.
I stop there.
I don't get off the bike. I don't take out the camera.
People seems not to notice me.
Suddenly I am lifted outside reality.
I am in another world.
I look around me like walking in a dream.
The people, the sounds, the characters and the valley...
This is indeed another world.
This is their world.

I decide not to disturb all of this and I take off after a few seconds...

My hope of the valley ending in Wudu are soon ended by yet another huge circle of mountains in front of me.
I think this is not possible, that there must be another way out somewhre along the valley.
but not.
I soon realise that I must cross the mountain.
The roads clinbs up and up very quicly and in about 1/2 hour I find myself on the pass on top.
the view is unbelivable.
a feeling of uncertaintly wraps me.
I take some pictures and I move on.

The other side of the mountain opening up is a very steep and rocky valley.
I look down. I can see the road I have to go through.
It seems like a cartoon. something unreal.
"do i have to go there...?"
A small narrow pass (some call it road) cuts into roks and along the edge of the montain to find a way to get through. The shape and the immensity of the mountains it cuts through tells all about its very struggle of road.

As fast as I went up I went down.
There is a valley in front of me.
and a village
and people.
and fuel.

I stop and I am welcomed very warly by the villagers.
Not with strange looks, not with nasty ways.
but simply.
with smiles.
By people not crazy about seeing a foreinger but just pleasently surprised to see someone different than them and to welcome it.
From the time I crossed the river on the boat to now I am sure to have crossed roads that no foreinger have walked on before and that I met people that most probably have never seen someone of a different race than theirs before.
Yet, all the people I stopped to talk to were very friendly, courious but nice.
I am sure along the valley a lot of people will be now talking about this guy that rode through the valley today....
They will do it with a smile.
Tomorrow it will be anothr day....

There is time for pictures and jokes. I feel good among them.
They confirm once more that Wudu is ahead and that the road will become good.
Leaving I hear one of them telling me to go slowly.
I smile....
How fast does he want me to go on these kind of roads!!!!!!!

I reach the intresection they told me about.
"turn right" he said.
"not left. left goes to another place".
"turn right!".... he said.

At the junction the road crosses the river and becomes a nice paved road that leads me to Wudu in about 1 hour.

Entering Wudu I stop at a mecanic by the entrance of town.
We fixes a few damages occurred to the bike and we weld back a piece of the frame that came off.
at the back of the hotel I fix a few more things and do a couple of modifications to reinforce frames, and to better balance the cargo.
I am gald I brough with me a lot of stuff like screwn, "fasciette metalliche" , metal wire and so on.

and now I am writing from Wudu. In the middle of nowhere.
a small town with perfet internet connection.
I write and listed to radio 105 from the net.
I love technology!!!!

It has been an beautiful day.
I am now in the very middle of china, and I almost got lost in it.......

sqm..
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