Best Bits and Bandannas

The Good Photos

This is the Xinjiang - Qinghai border near the western end of the Qilian mountains. It's just about as good as a road can ever look.
This moment captures so many elements of the trip: a mystery slow puncture; changing from five layers to one; charging phones; eight-tone tans; the milestone as a leaning post; wind; Cynthia; being filthy the whole time; responsible litter management; and that f***ing bandanna.
Gansu wasn't my favourite province, but the small villages between Zhangye and Jiayuguan were something else. If the 10% of the UK who can afford property were going to do-up a farmhouse in China, they'd do it here.
The best rest day was a trip to Danxia. Lived up to expectations.
Sunset on the Gansu-Qinghai border, I didn't know where I was going but you can't complain at that.
Carlos Vanderrama and High Speed Rail: Oh modern China is so full of contradictions darling.
Modern technology, making things look better than an exhausted human could ever manage.
Some attractive road works.
Camping: occasionally rubbish but often beautiful and brilliant.
The food; with the exception of pot noodles, always brilliant.

The Bad Photos

It's the way he would coordinate the bandanna and outfit that would really get me.
The smell of rotting animal carcasses by the roadside; this particular bridge was the worst as it followed the night we camped in a rubbish tip.
The pannier snapping on a day where I'd already had five punctures.
Accepting the death of the pigeon.
Hebei's air
Foamy foot day in Wuhai
Looking like this at the end of every day for the first two weeks.
Getting locked in the bathroom.
No explanation necessary.
The big bonk.
Being evicted from my hotel at 23.05