Phew, Not a Scorcher!

Kashgar

Not very exciting! The wide valley continued until the road ran East when it went through a gorge. That's about it!

Saman Hotel, Kashgar: n39 28.232 e75 58.044

Hotan

The guide car got a flat and we couldn't extract the spare so the wheel went into town to be repaired. They told me to go on ahead except the bike didn't start. After "a while" we found that one of the two wires connecting to the starter switch has de-soldered itself. Cue being towed 17km into town to be resoldered.

In the end, a 12 hour day for 480km. Phew!

Mu Shi Ta Ge Hotel, Hotan: n37 6.676 e79 55.712

Niya

Visibility down to 1km all day except when the dust storm got really bad when it was less than 30m. Ended up with a bright yellow face of sand for my troubles. It was only 27C under the clouds/storm.

Messed around by police as officials doing a visit to Niya and lunching at our hotel.

Ni Ya Hotel, Passu: n37 3.942 e82 41.529

Taklamakan

The weather cleared but stayed overcast meaning the trip through the desert was only ever about 30C max. It was hotter on the main road round the top! Still took us 12hrs for the 690km.

Ku Che Hotel, Kucha: n41 43.162 e82 57.420