the wild

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This post is about a 32km walk from Taianyi to Yuci. Temperatures have dropped. I see canyons and young men repairing big trucks.

The last 100km have gone by pretty fast. They were all about the patience of walking.

Walking through several different kinds of landscapes:

This part of China is called Shanxi 山西, which means West of the Mountains. It can be very beautiful at times:

Sometimes it reminded me of Bryce Canyon in a way. Of course it wasn’t quite as spectacular. But it seemed rugged and wild.

I didn’t climb down into the beautiful wilderness though, and I didn’t camp out either.

It got a bit cold these days. So far I’m okay, and I haven’t even had to put on all of my winter-wear yet. The act of walking heats up the body quite well.

Sometimes I even take off my gloves to take a picture:

A picture of a deserted house or an empty road.

Small engine, big exhaust.

After about three fourths of the way I ran into some kids who were sweating in truck repair shop:

It looked like heavy work. Each one of those tyres pounds in at more than 100kg, they told me.

I hung around for a while, asking foolish questions and messing with my camera, then the owner invited me into the back of the shop to warm up:

There were a couple of older gentlemen, a stove and a television set. They were chewing on sunflower seeds. The good life.

I couldn’t stay long, though. It was already getting dark, so I put on my headlamp and got on my way.

You can probably imagine how nice it is to see the city lights glow in the distance, knowing that the way ahead can’t be much more than another 5km or so:

It feels like being out from the wilderness and back in the city:

It feels good.