Urumqi - getting there  10-11 May 

looks a bit like the Oz outback

At this station - larger than the others, food vendors lined up to serve passengers.

What a night! After struggling up 3 flights of stairs with our luggage OMG and an hour with police, them trying to understand why we had bought all the berths in the 4 berth cabin and us wondering what in the heck was going on, we spent a night intermittently plucked from restless sleep by strange clunks and jolts as the train rushed through tunnels and over mountains. We rattled along through countryside which at times was reminiscent of Oz in its dry vastness. Passed wild Bactrian camels, horses and shepherds with small flocks of long haired sheep, passed cultivated fields of rice and vegetables. And as we travelled further into the desert, the white skeletons of wind farms crowded the horizon for hours. The further NW we travelled the more desolate it seemed to us and then we hit mountains. We travelled between mountain ranges topped in the late afternoon with rose-tinted snow - quite lovely. The lowland between however remained dry - we were travelling through part of the Turpan basin one of the hottest places here abouts, but of historic significance as it was once an important oasis, a resting spot for caravans travelling the old Silk Road.

A fascinating trip - dun coloured land pockmarked with slashed of green cultivation and snaggled clusters of mud brick buildings (away from the larger towns). It was a journey where we felt quite at home. We arrived 36 hours later in Urumqi in the province of Xinjiang, formerly the Western Regions, somewhat sleep deprived - at the wrong station. You’ve got to laugh! Language, or rather a lack of the right one, ruled the day! But we did get picked up - in the end!

the mountains were capped pink as the sun went down - beautiful!

The view from our hotel room in Urumqi - we made it!