Taklimakan Desert Rally , Start of a Great Adventure

Hi All

Well I made it back in one piece, a little bruised and bashed up; however no broken bones, this was the goal.

So much happened that I will have to post for a while to cover everything.

I will start with the PICS already on the pic web site.

I arrived in Urumqi the find the bikes all in good order, however the arrangements for the race not. This was par for the course as I was soon to learn.

The bike had been softly run in and it was time for my first ride, Evett, an American China girl that was part of the team also, had arrived early like me to get conformable with the bile, we did not want to fall off on the first group ride.

Our first ride out of town: Jonno, Max (the captain and main organizer for the team), Evett and myself headed out of Urumqi for our first ride and was immediately stopped by police and had the keys taken away from us, we were ushered to the side of the rode and a big crowd started to form as soon as it was known we were foreigners

Max was very well prepared and showed the policeman a piece of paper with a Chop seal on it stating we were riders of an international team here for the Taklimakan Rally and we were told very quickly to be on our way.

I ride out of town was then very easy and we headed out into the hilly areas just outside of Urumqi.

As you can see by the PICS, we came across herdsman and their sheep, amazing views and sites.

A great first day with the bikes, we only had the police drama, getting lost on the way back and falling off once….All in all , I felt happy with how things were going .

Hope you enjoy the PICS

Stay turned in for more

John
www.Travel-the-Real-China.com