Travel Day

Today was a travel day. We made breakfast in the parking lot of the hotel and departed around 8am. Once again a beautiful super highway lay before us with the snowy Tibetan Plateau to our west. Miles of cultivated fields stretched out to the horizon. At 5,000 ft elevation it was warm.  It was still desert, but with only short stretches of unclaimed land in between the developed areas. Every, EVERY, city we passed was a maze of cranes and construction. Apartment buildings going up dozens at a time, all within a few feet of each other, it seemed.

We continued southeast climbing finally onto the lower Tibetan plateau after lunch. At 10,000 ft the hills were green and we started to see the first small flocks of sheep and herds of cattle since leaving Kyrgyzstan. It's nice to finally be out of the desert. The temp was a pleasant 80^, and we guessed our camp tonight would be cool.

En route we passed a huge solar farm that must have had a couple thousand panels. Greenhouses started to show up, all facing south and built in a "lean-to" fashion, each having two covers, a clear plastic drape and a second heavier blanket on top of the plastic.

The small villages were a collection of similar designed courtyard buildings, all the same color (yellow or mint green) and all with the same painted border, Tibetan we surmised, although our guide said there was no special significance. Hmmm?  A quick Internet search proved him wrong once again.

Okay, okay...I can hear all of you from 14,000 miles away! 

So...we got off the freeway and began hunting for our LAST bush camp of this trip!  After an hour we settled on our favorite China location-a garbage dump, complete with a brown fast flowing river, :-)

We even had a chance to try out the new toliet commode invented by yours truly.

As a thank you Tao cooked us a traditional China dinner. What do ya know, finally something he REALLY knows how to do. Okay, okay, I promise...last time. This is a trip of patience and tolerance. I will begin that now.  BTW. The meal was really delicious.

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