22 July 2015
Some days I look back after a days walking and am amazed at how far away the previous day’s campsite feels. Between the changes in roads surfaces, the landscape and villages and all the numerous little details I notice along the way, it always feels that yesterday’s walk is but a vague dream, and it is only the photos and my own notes that I take are what help awaken the memories.
Some days I look back after a days walking and am amazed at how far away the previous day’s campsite feels. Between the changes in roads surfaces, the landscape and villages and all the numerous little details I notice along the way, it always feels that yesterday’s walk is but a vague dream, and it is only the photos and my own notes that I take are what help awaken the memories.
With a little backtracking, I returned to the village with the bus shelter to take the main road that would lead me back on to a primary road. About 2 km from the town I came across a dip in the road where a river was passing over a concrete ford. This must have been where last night’s self-appointed traffic warden was talking about in terms of the flooded road. Fortunately it was now reduced to a couple of inches of water. Not wanting to start the day with wet feet again, the socks and shoes came off and I crossed the ford bare footed with the cart, much to the amusement and encouragement of a passing truck driver. This road I was on was not on any of my maps but I had a hunch that I was only 7km from the S242 road. As I reached the secondary road, a constant stream of motorbikes and Utes passed by, all heading to the same mine to start their days work. Old men and young women alike were all decked out in blue overalls with flouro high vis bands on their arms and legs, and most greeted me with a friendly nod as they passed me by on their way to a hard days work. I later came across an interesting small town that was buzzing with activity. It was the first town that I had seen that had a traditional Chinese portal at the entrance of the town, similar to ones seen in the movies and China towns all round the world. I was to see a lot more of these examples of cultural architecture over the coming weeks. I was admiring the beautiful carvings and intricately painted details when a man from the village approached me to say hello. He was dressed in a pristinely clean white shirt and trousers but what drew my intention was his jade Buddha necklace he proudly wore around his neck. It was the first sign of the presence of Buddhism I had seen since I arrived in China. The guy was quite excited to see me and after a small bit of charade chatting, he headed back to the village delighted to leave with a bucket of photos to show his friends later.
The town lay beside the highway I was aiming for and before long I was back on the verge of a busy road with cars and trucks hurtling past me with not much room for error on both our parts. These busier roads were always the same, fast, ruthless and lacked any charm or interest. Fortunately I only had 14km of this to go before I I would finally reach the end of my detour and could start heading south once more. I was starting to get a little anxious as I was running low on vital supplies (toilet paper being priority number one!) The villages I passed in general did not have a shop, but relied on the mobile fruit’n’veg man for their groceries. Other than that I assume they must have made weekly commutes on their three-wheeled motorbikes and electric scooters to the other larger towns. The villages that did have a shop appeared closed down or shut when I passed by and I began to wonder how long would it be before I could restock. To be fair, I hadn’t actually followed my own rule of asking the universe for what I needed, so with the request asked, I carried on optimistically. Within an hour I was standing outside a shop in a small town. Great I thought, until I tried the door and found it was locked. Why would a shop be closed at 11 am in the day in the middle of the week? An old woman nearby shook her head and then appeared to shoo me away before walking away and shaking her head. I would like to say I calmly walked away and thought nothing of it, but I actually got pretty annoyed. I looked around the town and began to judge the dozen or so people lazing around in the sun to be useless layabouts you would rather watch me from a distance than help me. I began thinking that the shop was probably closed because someone could not be arsed to keep it open for the full day and started unfairly comparing poorly to the Mongolian hospitality I had previously experinced.
Half an hour later and my internal rage was gone. I was tired, cranky and realised that my anger and judgements was totally unfair and uncalled for. In hindsight I think my overall exhaustion was starting to affect my mood, but that was how I felt at the time. When I eventually calmed down I began to give in to the “sure, it’ll be grand” frame of mind once again. Sure enough, patience paid off and my faith in Chinese hospitality was restored when I reached the town where I was to turn south. At first I could only see a handful of restaurants but a young man at a local petrol station was extremely helpful when he gave me a bottle of water and offered to walk with me to the nearby town and show me where the nearest shop was. Being in the shop felt like it was Christmas and the shopkeeper and my new friend were highly amused at my excitement as I filled my arms with bags of biscuits, chocolate and fruit. In my eagerness I nearly forgot to buy priority number 1! If that young man had not helped me I’m pretty sure I would have missed that shop resulting in me not being a very happy camper.
With my shopping list complete I walked around the town and followed a track that I hoped would avoid 7km of busy roads. The track was one of those good old tree lined bumpy lanes where I most felt at home. These laneways were usually pretty quiet as the newer roads often bypassed the smaller towns taking a lot of the heavy traffic with them. I was spoiled for choice of beautiful mature trees to camp under beside the road. By 3pm the tent was up and was enjoying a cold beer as I watched the evening’s thunderstorm roll on in. As I laid against a tree near my tent, I reflected on today’s adventure, happy with its outcome and concluded that I still have a lot to learn when it comes to not allowing my mood darken my thoughts and turn me into a cranky judgmental fecker.