Tag: Cycle Touring

Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring in China on Tuesday, 16th-October-2012. In Turpan. I decided to stay one more night here. Purely because I’m feeling lazy, but also because I’ve got an internet connection! Caught up with a few emails, surprising how you miss the internet when you don’t have it.

Still undecided on my finishing point, but I’ve still got over a thousand miles to go before I have to decide for definite!

I might regret not moving today as the wind has dropped, and it’s been a lovely, sunny, windless day. But it’s good to be lazy now and then!

Found a Chinese map in Chinese for the rest of China. So, hopefully, I’ll be able to find my way across ok now! Although trying to match the road signs and the map is like playing a game of mah-jong!

Please Donate

Don’t forget the main reason behind my ride. I want to raise as much money for cancer research charities as possible. After my wife, Josie, died of breast cancer in 2007, aged only 42. Even the smallest donation helps. You can donate to Cancer Research UK or the Australian National Breast Cancer Foundation. Click on either one to donate. Every little bit helps to rid the world of this cruel disease.

Subscribe to my blog and follow my journey around the world. Plus, you’ll receive news and updates on future tours. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.

You can also follow my progress and see where I stop each night by visiting the Where’s Garry web page; there, you’ll find a map of the route I’ve taken so far.

Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring in China on Monday, 15th-October-2012. Turpan to Turpan! 36 miles. Set off as normal this morning. Half an hour down the road, the wind started to pick up. Only today, it was blowing against me! I should have stopped and turned back then. Further down the road, all I could see was dust. But like an idiot, I carried on until it got so bad that I couldn’t ride against the wind or see anything for the dust!

Got back to the hotel and re-checked in, much to the surprise of the staff!

Had toothache for the past few days. So thought it was maybe a good time to try and sort it out. Managed to find a Dentist, and thanks to the hotel staff, the tooth was loose, so I knew, and so did the dentist know which tooth it was. So he said I’ll just pull it out. If it’s loose, which it was, there wasn’t a lot else to do! He gave me a slip of paper, which I had to take down to the cashier, who in turn, after taking payment (£21), gave me a slip to go and get the anaesthetic and antibiotics from the pharmacy. Once I had these, it was back up to the Dentist for the extraction! He was getting ready for a battle to get it out, with his knee on my chest, when it just came straight out! It was one of my implants, not a real tooth, and I think that where it had come loose, a piece of food had got underneath, and that’s what was causing the pain.

Please Donate

Don’t forget the main reason behind my ride. I want to raise as much money for cancer research charities as possible. After my wife, Josie, died of breast cancer in 2007, aged only 42. Even the smallest donation helps. You can donate to Cancer Research UK or the Australian National Breast Cancer Foundation. Click on either one to donate. Every little bit helps to rid the world of this cruel disease.

Subscribe to my blog and follow my journey around the world. Plus, you’ll receive news and updates on future tours. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.

You can also follow my progress and see where I stop each night by visiting the Where’s Garry web page; there, you’ll find a map of the route I’ve taken so far.

Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring in China on Sunday, 14th-October-2012. Urumqi to Turpan. 121 miles. Got lost coming out of the city this morning. I thought I’d be clever and go out a different way to what I came in! I eventually asked a policeman who got his phone out. He pulled a map up and then drew me a copy. He did tell me that I wasn’t allowed on the motorway, which of course, I said I knew. I wouldn’t do that! Anyway, directions in hand, I set, and found the road I wanted to be on. But it was closed, so ended up on the motorway again!

It’s All Downhill

Think I’ve been up on a plateau for the past week. This afternoon I had a huge downhill. It must have been forty or fifty miles! The wind had also gotten up, which was blowing me along. I hadn’t realised how windy it was coming down that hill as I was flying anyway. It wasn’t until it levelled off and I changed direction I felt how strong it really was.

The wind was now coming across me. Although still slightly behind me. I had to ride my bike at a 45° angle, I had a real job just staying upright. Each time a lorry came past, I’d have to stop or be blown off the road. Even stopping, I had a job to stand up! Once the lorry had passed, trying to get going was just as hard. I was just blown off the road. Once I did manage to get going again, after a couple of turns of the pedals, I was up to 30 mph, and this was on the flat, the wind was that strong. Never known anything like it. Finished the day in a dust storm, I was glad to finish today it was pretty scary stuff!

Please Donate

Don’t forget the main reason behind my ride. I want to raise as much money for cancer research charities as possible. After my wife, Josie, died of breast cancer in 2007, aged only 42. Even the smallest donation helps. You can donate to Cancer Research UK or the Australian National Breast Cancer Foundation. Click on either one to donate. Every little bit helps to rid the world of this cruel disease.

Subscribe to my blog and follow my journey around the world. Plus, you’ll receive news and updates on future tours. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.

You can also follow my progress and see where I stop each night by visiting the Where’s Garry web page; there, you’ll find a map of the route I’ve taken so far.

Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring in China on Saturday, 13th-October-2012. Shihezi to Urumqi. 98 miles. Decided not to ride on the motorway today. Although it’s nice, easy and fast riding, it is a little bit boring! Well, that didn’t work after about 30 miles. The road was closed with no obvious detour, so I just went back on the motorway!

A big city I’m staying in tonight, you’d think that finding a hotel would be easy. It took me ages. I suppose being a bigger place, they spread out more.

Finished the day off with a big climb that I needn’t have done! I missed my exit, and by the time I realised, I’d already gone uphill a fair way. When I got to the top of the climb, I saw a sign for a hotel, but they were full. So I decided to carry on down this road, which was going back down the hill a different way, though before I knew it, I was in the city where I’d intended to stop in the first place, just came into it in the opposite direction!

Please Donate

Don’t forget the main reason behind my ride. I want to raise as much money for cancer research charities as possible. After my wife, Josie, died of breast cancer in 2007, aged only 42. Even the smallest donation helps. You can donate to Cancer Research UK or the Australian National Breast Cancer Foundation. Click on either one to donate. Every little bit helps to rid the world of this cruel disease.

Subscribe to my blog and follow my journey around the world. Plus, you’ll receive news and updates on future tours. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.

You can also follow my progress and see where I stop each night by visiting the Where’s Garry web page; there, you’ll find a map of the route I’ve taken so far.