please stop me when I get into a frenzy

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Since I was recently feeling somewhat invincible with my newly acquired Caboose, I chose to take my time in the morning and got up for a late and comfortable start.

…that’s when I ran into Carlotta from Italy and her Dutch friends Marc and Jan:

Carlotta, Marc and Jan had breakfast with me

The three belonged to yesterday’s group of cyclists who were riding from Athens to Beijing.

We had cold drinks under the parasol of a small restaurant, chilling in a gentle breeze that seemed to fan a bit of the heat away from us.

I got into a serious talking frenzy. I think I talked their ears off actually.

Well, they were really nice, and I found it hard to leave them behind.

…but then the road was still there, and it was calling for us all:

long road

There was some kind of cone right outside the village, but I was too lazy to go and check it out:

thing in the desert

Shame on me!

Then, somewhere in the great wide open, I ran into a shepherd – much to my surprise:

shepherd

“Where do your animals drink?” I asked him, because I couldn’t see anything around that resembled water.

“Up there” he replied and pointed to the little village I had started out from. It was roughly 5 kilometers away.

…so the desert wasn’t really as deserted as I had originally expected it to be.

There were even ruins of some kind of settlement:

ruins

I couldn’t make out whether this was rather recent or maybe a couple of centuries old. My guess was that it had been deserted only 20 or 30 years, though.

Once, a car stopped on the road, and a lad from Shenzhen 深圳 and his girlfriend got out to stay for a chat:

This friendly couple from Guangzhou stopped over for drinks and watermelons

We were having watermelons, and we sat there talking about this and that – and I think I got into another talking frenzy right there, with the possibility of bleeding ears on their part.

Anyways, they were very interesting people, the two. The hours just flew by for me.

When I got back on the road later, it was already getting pretty late:

tree and hut

I got another surprise visit from my friend Paul (Paul says: constipation is bliss), which not only slowed my down considerably, but also made me feel very much like the opposite of invincible.

…but I made it to the next settlement, and that’s all that counts now.



  • Florian (Flo Li Anh)

    Hey hey hey, das geht ja richtig gut voran jetzt!

    Reply

  • Barry aka Ba Lli

    Find ich auch. Erst spät losziehen und dann noch lange und viel Pause machen und trotzdem so viele Km. Nicht schlecht. Wenn Du meinem Vorschlag folgst und erst zu teatime losziehst, schaffst Du wahrscheinlich die 50.

    Btw, das Loo- und Darmthema scheint Dich ja nicht mehr los zu lassen 🙂

    Reply

  • Doris

    Hallo, herzlichen Glueckwunsch zu Deinen 3.000 km und den Freudentanz. Ich verfolge Deine grosse Wanderung schon lange, seit ich in der Stuttgarter Zeitung darueber gelesen habe. Ich freue mich jeden Tag ueber Deine Berichte und die Bilder und bin gespannt, wie es weitergeht.

    Wuensche Dir alles Gute
    Doris

    Reply

  • Christoph

    Florian (Flo Li Anh): Macht auch mehr Spaß, weil ich nicht immer so fertig bin vom Laufen.
    Barry aka Ba Lli: Mit der Hitze kommt das Sanitätsproblem…
    Doris: Willkommen auf dem Weg! 🙂

    Reply

  • Hermann

    Glückwunsch!!! Auch an Paul…

    Reply

  • Momo

    Hey Christoph, ich hab gerade im Stern das Interview mit dir gelesen und bin beeindruckt. Gratulation zu deinen ersten 3000 km auch von mir. 🙂 Deine Seite ist gebookmarkt, ab jetzt bin ich zumindest virtuell auch mit auf Deiner Reise!

    Reply

  • Becci

    yeah! 3000! fast 40km gelaufen, du bist gut! 🙂

    Reply

  • Freddy

    Without your hair you'll be an old Buddhist monk…

    Reply

  • PAUL GDX

    LaoLei,

    I am extremely interested in what you said to the young lover, also what you talked to the French cyclists the day before this day!

    Reply

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