There is no constant on an expedition trip
N 27°53'30.2'' E 102°14'14.0''
Date:
05.05.2016 until 08.05.2016
Day: 313 – 316
Country:
China
Province:
Sichuan
Location:
Liangshan
Latitude N:
27°53’30.2”
Longitude E:
102°14’14.0”
Total kilometers:
16,524 km
Total altitude meters:
32.288 m
Sunrise:
06:28 a.m. – 06:26 a.m.
Sunset:
7:47 pm – 7:48 pm
Temperature day max:
30°C
Temperature day min:
20°C
(Photos of the diary entry can be found at the end of the text).
As we are running out of time and still have a few kilometers to go, we want to set off after a day of rest. When we wake up at 5:00 a.m., Tanja is shaken by coughing spasms. “It doesn’t make sense to drive over the South China Mountains like this,” I say, which is why we decide to cure Tanja’s cold first. Relieved, she sinks back into the pillow. The next morning, our arm computers wake us up again. “All right?” asks Tanja as I move as if in slow motion. “Oh my throat,” I moan and am now also tormented by coughing spasms. “Now I know how you’ve been the last few days. I’m surprised you even made it over this 3,300-metre-high pass with this cold,” I croak. “We can’t leave, can we?” asks Tanja. ‘Not a chance,’ I reply, pulling the covers over my head.
In the afternoon, I use the time of our forced stopover to carry out a service inspection on the bikes after the bad mountain gravel road and to better fasten the spacer bracket of the drawbar bracket of Ajaci’s trailer. But for this I need a drill, metal drill bit, round file and screws. “Where am I supposed to get a drill here? I don’t even know the Chinese word for it?” I ask Tanja. “Why don’t you ask the hotel manager? Maybe he can help us,” she suggests. Mann actually takes care of my request immediately. He has installed an app on his smartphone that converts spoken Chinese into English and vice versa. In this way we manage to communicate, which makes us laugh heartily at times because of funny mistranslations, but in the end I can explain that I need a drill. “Our hotel runs a small machinery business. It’s not far. I’ll come with you,” I hear and can hardly believe my luck. Just ten minutes later, I’m standing in a specialist store where you can buy everything a handyman and DIY enthusiast needs. I can even borrow a drill. “The hotel pays the rental fees,” says the manager with a friendly laugh. Although I feel quite weak because of the cold, I am overjoyed. I never thought I would find the tools to do my metalwork in the middle of downtown Liangshan. After a few hours, the spacer bracket is bolted down bombproof and the drawbar bracket is modified for special use on Chinese farm tracks.
The next day my cold got worse. I spend a lot of time in bed. Tanja’s cold also rears its head again. The increasingly limited time to reach Vietnam on time makes us a little nervous. We still have 800 kilometers to go and if the roads remain as bad as they have been over the past few days, a lot of unexpected things could happen. There is simply no constant on an expedition like this. Anything is possible. But isn’t that what makes an adventure? If everything goes according to plan and there are no challenges of any kind to overcome, we could go on a cruise. Certainly an appealing thought, but to be honest, I prefer the adventure of such a journey…
If you would like to find out more about our adventures, you can find our books under this link.
The live coverage is supported by the companies Gesat GmbH: www.gesat.com and roda computer GmbH http://roda-computer.com/ The satellite telephone Explorer 300 from Gesat and the rugged notebook Pegasus RP9 from Roda are the pillars of the transmission.
