wolfberries

A perfect night: quiet, peaceful, relaxing.

I woke up to a breakfast of cantaloup melon and a dish of noodles. Then the owner’s little nephew and I took a bunch of action photos:

Mainly he posed, and I took the pictures:

The sky was blue, there was laughter in the air.

I was happy.

Then I said good-bye to the owner, a young Hui from the far West:

His family’s hospitality had moved me deeply, and I was a bit sad to be out on the road again.

…

But there were good things about walking as well. For example, I successfully marched in my flip flops for a whole day! And I managed to stay away from the freeway as well.

There was a perfect little road right next to it, apparently just there for me to walk on.

So many details to notice everywhere:

“Let’s get moving and start to work hard for the next 100 days 积极行动起来，迅速掀起大干一百天高潮“

Okay, I’ll be sounding a bit like Beavis & Butt-head here, but that last word gaochao 高潮 means “climax”, and just like the English word climax, it can be interpreted as orgasm. So this banner is basically saying “blablablabla… 100 days of ORGASM.” Yay!

Anyway, I came through small villages:

…and I bought many a cold beverage on the way:

I was happy I didn’t have to walk on the other side of the freeway though:

Because the road was peaceful and it was mine:

Only sometimes I would run into a flock of sheep:

And I liked it very much.

Please excuse the lack of proper clothing in the next video:

I was trying to get a tan.

…

When it got unbearably hot at around two in the afternoon, I found a perfect spot for a nap:

Really, words cannot describe how good it was to lay down under those trees and do nothing for four whole hours.

And then I walked some more:

Sometimes I would walk through danger zones:

(The little boxes are homes for thousands of honey bees, though most of them seemed to be empty.)

And sometimes I would see large areas covered with wolfberries 枸杞子, the local produce.

The berries are tiny and are often put into tea:

When I talked to some of the farmers about this, I figured out two things:
1) they pronounced it goujizi, not gouqizi.
2) the market was apparently very bad this year.

…

I reached the settlement of Shashanzi, which is part of the 83th Regiment 83团 (a working brigade just like Tuotuo) early in the evening:

It seemed like a fine little place, and I was able to find a hotel with a shower that allowed me to stay for a couple of days, so everything was good.

And another thing had caught my eye.

Just behind this little settlement…

…sand dunes!