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I wasn’t going to walk very far today. At least that was the general idea when I set out:

The road was quiet and nice:

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…until I had to switch back to the freeway:

I didn’t like walking in the realm of rushing vehicles, so I spent most of the time looking at the green landscapes around me:

Sometimes there were vineyards:

And sometimes there was a bridge under which I could rest:

One time, a police car stopped next to me, and the driver told me to get the hell off the freeway.

Then I reached my last tunnel:

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It was loud and it was hot, but the curb was wide enough for me to walk on. Also, there were funny scribblings on the walls:

Passed a dude who was forever waving a flag next to the road:

And then I left the freeway, because I didn’t want to run into the police again:

And also, because my feet hurt like hell and I really didn’t want to walk any further.

I tried finding a place to sleep in a small settlement:

But it didn’t work out, so I found myself back on the road again:

I didn’t know how far I would have to walk until I would find a guest house of some sort. That’s when I recorded this video:

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Obviously I wasn’t in a very good mood.

But life has its humorous ways.

It goes like this: you look down, and you feel sadness. You look up, and there is a watermelon in your hand:

See the people in the background? That’s the Uyghur uncle and his wife gave me the fruit, smiled and drove off.

My feet still hurt, but the world looked completely different.

I noticed big fat apples all around me:

And these weird trees that I had seen somewhere before without quite being able to remember where:

People were selling fruits and vegetables next to the road:

And even though it took me forever to reach the next settlement Regiment 66, it wasn’t just as bad as I had feared it would be:

I took a self-portrait of the Caboose and me:

Then we slowly walked down the quiet road that led to the regiment:

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The place wasn’t asleep yet:

I found a hotel room, took off my shoes and fell on the bed. Then I got a call from Jia Li 贾力 and his friend:

I had met them on the way down to the regiment. They were operating a mine a few kilometers up north, and they were inviting me to have dinner there. They would come pick me up in a car.

So to the mine we went:

I had dumplings that night. They were hand-made, and they were good.