Listen to Tim's audio dispatch (1.5 MBs)

Tim Boelter

I'm somewhere at about 10,00 feet in Gansu (Province). We broke our axle coming down a very steep hill. We're in deep because every single lug nut sheered off. We were coming down a hill and the vehicle - we almost rolled over. Unbelievable.

Our driver did a fantastic job of maintaining the vehicle. It just started swerving all over the road. We almost got sideways. And we were coming down a steep incline.

We've got the car on a jack and I think we're going to have to call for help because this requires getting a drill and a screw extractor to take the studs out of the brake assembly and axle.

Anyway, it's very cold here. Talk about a difference between hot and humid Beijing and this place. We are certainly in the desert now. The landscape is no longer what it used to be. It's not at all green. In fact, there's very little vegetation here. I'm looking over a village right now and everything is made out of mud.

Don't worry about us. We're OK. We just don't know what we're going to do at this point. We could be up here on this pass for a while. Hopefully we're going to get this thing fixed. It could be a while.

So there's our dispatch. We do have stuff we're going to get out to you as soon as we find a reasonable place to stay.

—Tim Boelter

EDITOR'S UPDATE: May 5, 2006

At 1:00 AM local time, Tim and Mike arrived at their hotel in Wuwei. They were able to get help and repair their vehicle’s axle. Upon arrival in Wuwei, they were treated like kings and taken to every major bar and restaurant where their photos were taken. They are now settling in for some much needed sleep. (Refer to the interactive map for the location of Wuwei. It is situated between the cities of Lanzhou and Zhangye.)

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