What a Ride!!

Where to start, where to start??

It was one intense and bloody hot week.

I still have sand in my ears and belly button.

It was full of daily challenges, on the physical and emotional level.

It was unpredictable and full of interesting 'changes' that made up a large part of the (lack of) daily organization.

We met a lot of nice and friendly people from all over the country who were doing the course for the love of cars and motorbikes and rally racing.

We ate too many cucumbers, nan (Uyghur bread) and vacuum-sealed beef to keep count. All of that was washed down with warm bottled water (we had at one point 72 bottles in our car), with little sand particles for good measure.

I don't know when I have ever been surrounded by such a high level of testosterone for an extended period of time.

Having said that, being the only female competitor didn't really make much difference, except for the mere fact that whenever i had to dispose of any bodily fluids, it had to be done with a little more effort and caution.

There were a lot of TV crews and newspaper/ radio reporters following us the entire week.

Being the only foreigners, there were a lot of lenses and mics in our faces, Matt's especially.

He takes it all in stride and with the uncanny ability to speak Mandarin, it makes things a lot easier.

As for me, it took me a while to get used to all the coverage, i'm not sure i did in the end.

I still like my privacy and although i can't blame them for doing their job, it got to me too many times than i really wanted it to.

We saw some very stark and bleak scenes, beautiful in a raw kind of way. A lot different faces, Uyghur and so on, so unlike the north of Xinjiang.

Each night we had to make sure that the Jeep was ready to race the next day, and so we spent most evenings in the local garage shop, whereupon we met some of the most interesting people on our trip.

I learnt a lot about car maintenance and patience.
The night we were in Qiemo, a dusty little town, we spent about 5 hours fixing our radiator and suspension.

This place was run by a Chinese man who had travelled abroad (mainly in Europe), and was telling us the key to China's success was to empower the people and make them realize the long-term effects of their present actions.

Blah blah, we knew this but it was interesting to hear this man from a small little desert town express this so passionately.

He was trying to convey this message to his employees, but was finding it tough and tiring to lead them out of their 'lazy state'.

He even had lists of things his employees were allowed and not allowed to say to the customers, all things that Matt and I have heard from the mouths of sales people in China who at the end of the day, only try to look busy at their job, if that.

An interesting evening to say the least, and in the end we got some brand-spankin suspension and a newly-fixed radiator fixed by a tough-looking Uyghur woman who had her own little room full of tools and defected radiators.

I can't say i wasn't surprised, it's great to see a woman be respected for her skills!

Some of my highlights of the week:

-stripping down to my underwear and swimming in this little oasis in the middle of one of our desert stages. Gorgeously cool water and exactly what i needed to feed my swimming craving, not to mention cool off for a bit.

-playing with a little baby lamb who had strayed away from her mother and was picked up by a few local fellas in a truck, don't know what is going to happen to her as she is very young and requires milk still. A bitter fact of nature.

-seeing the different people in each town greeting us alongside the road, waving, hooting, shouting, and even saluting. I felt like i should have been handing out candy or something.

-campfire at night, millions of stars, hot soup for dinner.

-becoming more familiar with the GPS and LOVING IT! Don't say it, i know, i'm such a geek.

-Uyghur dancing and feasting with one of Matt's auditors whom we literally bumped into in Hetian. What a nice guy he is. We met his brother and sister-in-law, wife and 7 month baby also, the cutest darling ever.

But most of all, I will remember the long distances stretched out in front of us, the unknown that was to come, the excitement that was around every corner, the tough people who lived in such a harsh environment and the simple beauty of the fact that Matt and I did it together, crossed the 2nd largest desert in the world in our Chinese-made Beijing Jeep, as a team.

What a ride it was. We've already talked about doing it on motorbike next time!