The journey west begins

well its been an eventful few days. I am currently in Luoyang, probably about 900k sw of Beijing. I say probably because I haven't done all of it on the bike. Have been having a few teething problems, not to mention the motorway I inadvertantly ended up on (yes that is possible). So I did about 300k on the train and about a hundred in a blue 3 wheeler that I flagged on the motorway (always wanted to go in one of those!), and the rest on the bike. I am now headed west and it is nice to know that so long as the sun is on my back in the morning I'm headed home!

Yesterday in an effort to camp in the hills I turned off the main road and headed up the mountainside. Only the mountainside was covered in houses. Those bits that weren't inhabited were cultivated. I never did find the "Mountain Flower watering hole scenic area" which I thought might be a forest of some description. I did find this little lady

(she was very small) and her lodging house. It was absolutely hysterical, she treatd me like a small child, making sure I washed my face and my feet and behind my ears and gave me some strawberry face cream. All this while she watched me intently and shouted very loudly very close to my face. This morning she came in to wake me up (as if her rooster's incessant crowing from 1am hadn't already ensured an early start...) and proceeded to watch me dress and pack - privacy clearly not an issue.

Saw my first hills today, and some very strange gathering with a marching band, stage, lots of official looking black sedans and lanterns, all at the top of a very big hill...my Mandarin clearly doesn't stretch to - what is this? - and even if it did I doubt they'd understand me. They have a distinctly west country lilt down this way.

Other than that I'm battling the dust. Not sure this photo quite does justice to the "I forgot to take last night's mascara off" look that I seem to have all the time.

I'm less concerned about me than the bike, or at least the bike chain...which means I'm trying to clean it every couple of days at least.

Any luck I'll be in Xi'an next weekend. Till then...