Tim Boelter

With about five hours of sleep Mike and I were up by 7:00 am. We're in the town of Wuwei, home to an ancient Han tomb and the bronze flying horse of Wuwei, discovered in 1969. Today we took a tour of the tomb and life size bronze horses and soldiers. But before we went on our tour I was invited to drive one of the other team’s Jeep Cherokee off road vehicle. Back in my military days I used to four wheel with my CJ-7 and I've owned many different Jeep brands of vehicles for years including a Cherokee. So it was great taking this decked out off road vehicle down the crowded streets in Wuwei. No one was killed.

I shot footage while Mike took photographs within the Buddhist temples and down in the tomb. The lighting in the tombs was very poor so my footage isn't great. Taking photos and filming is not allowed, but sometimes you do what you have to do. Needless to say the tomb footage is limited in quality.

After our tour we hooked up with two other off road vehicles and headed north into the Gobi Desert (Tengger Shamo desert) to do some sand dune driving. This was actually an amazing experience. As we drove north the road was pretty bad and very dusty. Although there was foliage and agricultural land, you could sense that it was all going to change simply because small sand dunes were everywhere.

We reached a fairly nice tarmac road lined with huge poplars. These poplars and the ensuing rows in the distance had one main purpose and that was to stop the desert from encroaching on these small villages and their farm fields. Just beyond the natural green fence of poplars the horizon was a yellow sea of mountainous sand dunes, the kind you see in the movies.

It was like a line was drawn and there it was, this spectacular desert that went on in every direction beyond the horizon. And then there is us, in our 4X4s heading out into this land of death just to have fun, and that we did. Mike and I jumped out of the vehicles and took footage of the vehicles carving tracks in the sand.

But as luck would have it, one of the trucks busted a radiator hose, loosing quite a bit of fluid. After about 20 minutes the hose was repaired and water added. We all made it back to Wuwei safely and went to the local garage where the owner (also friends with everyone in this well connected group of off road enthusiasts) took care of all the vehicles including our’s. Since our incident with loosing the wheel, the mechanics gave the vehicle a good maintenance check up before continuing our journey west on the Silk Road.

Once finished at the garage we had another ten-course meal and then made one more stop at a friend's bar. Here we had coffee and I signed a picture taken of me featured on the front cover of a Chinese outdoor magazine. I've never had anyone ask me for an autograph, but they wanted mine. It was quite flattering. Now I know how professional athletes and famous people feel. We finally got on the road at 4:30 pm, which is quite late.

Today we drove 450 kilometers to a town called Giuquan. We are staying at this town because our driver Lao Bei has a friend here and with the late start it took over five hours to get here.

We drove on a modern expressway in the middle of a valley flanked by the Qilian Shan to the south and the Mazong, Longshou, and Heli ranges to the north. As we traveled northwest through the Hexi Corridor the landscape was very flat and barren. Occasionally we would travel through a green zone (oasis) but for the most part it was desert. As our luck would have it, it started to rain and continued to do so for quite some time. But what was even funnier is that a brief sand storm mixed with the rain to create a muddy downpour.

Today we also I caught our first glimpse of the Great Wall. For about 10 miles the wall paralleled the highway before crossing over to the southwestern side. It looked like it was made out of clay and reached to a height of 15 feet in places. Every 1/8 mile or so there was what looked to be a tower built along the wall. What I thought was amazing is that there was really no attention drawn to this incredible structure except one sign that said in Chinese "Great Wall" and this was where it crossed the highway. I was truly impressed and felt privileged to see this amazing structure so far from where most people usually see it (Beijing).

Once again it is getting late and my mind needs to refresh before continuing.

Cheers from Giuquan, China.

—Tim Boelter

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