3 days & 470km out from Kashgar, hot, drink, drink, drink. Basic stops, the temptation too great for rest day here in Aksu, 3 star hotel, luxury, $10 a night! Have a big menu decoder in the back of my phrase-book, any dish i point to, they can make, and was truly delicious after 3 rough days on the road. Unexpected bonus of buffet banquet breakfast included in the price, so am now truly stuffed. It must be what a camel feels like carrying all their supplies in their humps for weeks on end. Someone else's desert photos from Aksu back to Kashgar. More...

Kashgar, China, 1st internet since completing Tajikistan and Pamir Highway, Kyrgyzstan and entering China. We cycled 7kms through no man's land to Chinese customs, big sandy hills with the occasional marble type ripple. Nice grand buildings too, and all signs, statues and everything now Chinese, like suddenly arriving in your local 'China Town', except we are in the extreme west of a vast country yet to cycle. Incidentally we're planning on taking the Northern Silk route across the huge Taklamakan Desert, the other route to the south having less facilities and frequent sand storms blocking the road. Kashgar is a major junction, an oasis of civilisation, and from here you can cross into Pakistan, or head off to Tibet, Nepal and India. More...

Kyrgyzstan customs were a breeze and we received a hearty welcome, before rolling downhill to Sary Tash on thankfully smoother roads, the scenery now changing to big rolling green hills, locals herding their horses in this well pastured area, yurt tents dotting the landscape with snow capped peaks in the distance. More...

Leaving Khorog to continue the Pamir Highway, remote dirt track through the Himalayas. We climbed up to Jelandy where we got a room at a health spa, comfortable quarters in this harsh landscape. The Lonely Planet refers to this place as a sanatorium, because people come here to fix their ailments, no evidence of loonies, but then who are we to talk. Lucky to get beer from a group of German voluntary workers, who'd had their accountant ship it in from the capital. The effects of higher altitude now and I can feel the heart pumping hard when trying to sleep, we've gained 1500m today, sleeping high at 3800 metres. Bodies adjust to altitude given time. More...