The October National day rolled around again and once again, all flights/trains/buses/horses out of the country had been booked. I decided to go and investigate a different side of China. In my travels so far, i have climbed mountains, visited scenic areas, wandered about "ancient" cities of all ages, boated on rivers, swam in lakes, ogled at waterfalls, hiked through jungles and tried just about every type of food available. One area of China that I hadn't even been close to was the desert region in GanSu.GanSu is a long skinny province in the northern middle part of China. It borders Mongolia, SiChuan, the Tibetan Plateau and Qinghai. Parts of the northern silk road ran thought GanSu as well as the Yellow River. In terms of geography and scenery, its incredibly diverse which made for an interesting trip.
There aren't any direct flight to DunHuang, which is in the north west part of the province, so I stopped in LanZhou airport for a few hours before getting the short 45 minute trip to the top of the province. During my second flight, we flew over the start of the sand dunes, which the old couple next to me were kind enough to photograph for me. It's weird, there is literally a flat brand new city that goes right to the edge and then city and roads stop, sand and camels start. The old people were very friendly and we arranged to meet for dinner than evening. (Donkey noodles and BBQ)I was staying in one of the only hotels in the area that had the license to have foreigners stay with them. The pictures looked nice so I didn't mind paying the extra money. The pictures lied! The hotel may have been nice, once but it was a long time ago but it did. October in DunHuang was all baking hot days with sunburn and freezing cold nights with frostbite, no matter what the time of day, i was dressed wrong.
The hotel, as run down as it was, was in a fantastic location. Behind it was the biggest food night market I have seen in China. Harry had told me that food is a way of life here, he was not exaggerating. The food in generally is very comforting and almost familiar, its all breads, meat, potatoes, onions and flavour without the need for spice. The night market was the whole of three large city blocks with one long road connect them selling souvenirs and touristy type things. I could have stayed a week just for the market but I was there to sightsee too. I wandered around for hours trying everything that took my fancy before filling my pockets in preparation for the following day.
I had planned to get the bus out to the Crescent Pool Oasis before heading to the camp site I had booked for that evening. It was an easy bus journey that left form across the street from my hotel.
The bus drops you off near ish the park but it is pretty obvious where to go. Its basically a newly built road that stops at the bottom of a sand mountain. I bought my entrance ticket, left my backpack and wandered in the general direction.
From the ticket office to the pool itself is a short walk along a planked walkway. It was busy but not to the point of being crowded.
The pool was looking a little thirsty (I heard the spring that once fed the pool has long since died, so it needs filling up every now and again) but it did its job of adding to the weirdness of the setting.
Next to the pool is a small building, the honestly I still have no idea what it was for. Looked cool though. To the front, and sides of the pool building complex are steep dunes that I decided was a really good idea to climb. Now I am aware the I have never tried to climb a mountain of honey but this is exactly what it felt like. Every step my feet were sinking to nearly my knees, I took of my shoes long ago and tied them to my bag.
Someone had helpfully put a rope ladder up the side of the dune to make it easer to climb and give you something to hold on to. The whole route, about 200m long, was littered with people who had bailed out to catch their breath. It was tough! Although only 200m long it climbed nearly 300m so it was tough, steep and exhausting. The top looked like a battlefield with people who had just dropped to rest.
Now that I am looking back on it, the view was worth it but at the time it was much harder to tell.
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