18th - 19th July
I spent one more day in the secluded woods, partly due to tiredness and partly due to a big storm that was blowing over complete with thunder and lightning. For the two nights I was there I befriended two sheep herders who passed through and found me in my little hideaway. They were first surprised to find me in their wood but soon became friendly and chatty. One evening I offered one of them my umbrella (his friend already having one) but he declined saying he was happy with his light coat and standing under a tree instead. The next day I decided to start letting go of some of my unnecessary baggage. I no longer needed to carry 50 litres of water due to the frequency of villages I was now passing and so said goodbye to one of the 20 litre drums. First I tried to give it away to a few passing locals who seemed pretty intimidated by me and ran away. I later left it by the road of another village hoping that someone would be more likely to pick it up if it appeared to fall out of the sky rather than it come from a strange looking foreigner.
I spent one more day in the secluded woods, partly due to tiredness and partly due to a big storm that was blowing over complete with thunder and lightning. For the two nights I was there I befriended two sheep herders who passed through and found me in my little hideaway. They were first surprised to find me in their wood but soon became friendly and chatty. One evening I offered one of them my umbrella (his friend already having one) but he declined saying he was happy with his light coat and standing under a tree instead. The next day I decided to start letting go of some of my unnecessary baggage. I no longer needed to carry 50 litres of water due to the frequency of villages I was now passing and so said goodbye to one of the 20 litre drums. First I tried to give it away to a few passing locals who seemed pretty intimidated by me and ran away. I later left it by the road of another village hoping that someone would be more likely to pick it up if it appeared to fall out of the sky rather than it come from a strange looking foreigner.
The road from here grew gradually worse as the surface grew a thick layer of mud acquired from the nearby local agricultural activities. In places, the mud had built up so much that the two lane road became a swerving snaking single lane track where cars and buses navigated at full speed swerving left and right trying to avoid the potholes and mounds of dirt. To be fair, I was finding that Chinese drivers were in one way reckless but always seemed ready to perform evasive driving techniques, be it to avoid potholes, cows or an Irish guy with a rickshaw. Even though speed is the priority on some Chinese roads, there were still the occasional drivers willing to pull over to say hello. One set of guys hopped out of the car for a chat and to pose with me for a few photos while offering some friendly encouragement. I often found it amusing that part of the photo shoot often had to include me standing by their car as if it were another family member that they didn't want to leave out of the family photo album.
By the end of the day another storm was brewing and so I headed for a discreet looking line of trees where I thought I would be hidden. On par for China, it turned out that I was not so well hidden. A local shepherd spotted me just as I finished setting up the tent and was eager to see what I was up to. The little details like how the tent worked and how my stove lit intrigued him so much that he made himself comfy and sat beside me for a while watching me set up the rest of my gear. I offered to share a beer and so we drank and did our best to communicate until my dinner of noodles was ready. He declined the offer to join me in dinner and left me to eat my meal and returned a while a later with another couple of herders – he seemed to be proud of the fact that he was now in the know and was explaining who I was, what I was doing and how my stove worked to his friends. They were also pleasant and curious, a man and woman both in their fifties who were herding a dozen cows nearby. Like my shepherd friend, they had a tough leathery complexion that gave the indication that they have weathered many a winters storm and scorching Chinese summer. It wasn't long before they had to leave as their cattle had moved on. The herders in China have a busier job than that of their Mongolian counterparts. Here they had to keep an eye on their flock at all times as the chance of them heading for the road or getting stuck into the local farmers crops were pretty high, and both instances would spell trouble for the herders.
Just as they left, what was now becoming the regular evening thunder storm started blowing and I gathered myself into the tent and hoped that the herders had access to better shelter than the plastic ponchos they carried. I concluded that being a herder is a tough, hard job which breeds tough, hard but thankfully friendly people.
Just as they left, what was now becoming the regular evening thunder storm started blowing and I gathered myself into the tent and hoped that the herders had access to better shelter than the plastic ponchos they carried. I concluded that being a herder is a tough, hard job which breeds tough, hard but thankfully friendly people.