Today will go down as the best and the worst...
 
Setting off from Zhongwei the previous day i had decided to take a short cut; not going down to Lanzhou (evidently rated as one of the world's most poluted cities) and instead cutting across directly west to meet up with the Silk Road. This little short cut consists of mainly good roads and a few rural villages spaced quite a distance apart. Landscape varying from desertlike to just plain red sand and nothing else.
 
The day was the worst due to the fact that the wind was equivalent to day 19) yet a more dusty one. It was the best as i only ended spending 5 RMB the whole day for 5 bottles of water. Met 2 random truckers while frequenting a little supply station who treated me to breakfast. Lunch was spent in family owned restaurant and after a few hours of chatting to these guys, they decided to not charge for the meal.
 
the latter half of the day was going to be a hard one, in fact the family i just lunched with were keen for me to lodge with them until the next morning. The wind had picked up even more, requiring me to don my face mask for the first time, and up ahead loomed an irrepressible mountain range; called sabanbao (or something like that). It took me a long time to get to the mountain in the first place and the climb that ensued i'll... have bad dreams about. about 11 km into the climb, with headwind still gusting, the weather decided to turn even worse. Initially only a mist, thick cloud then engulfed the mountain top. to top it off, it started raining and visibility dropped to about 10 meters. the next 5km had me wondering for the first time in the trip: 'is this safe?'. Get to the top safe and sound, but due to the wind, still need to pedal downhill. Still raining, night time closing in and temp dropping very quickly i see a mud hut out of the corner of my eye. knock on the door and am greeted by a mother, father and son (later to find out - daughter, my bad...) The guys were awesome, feeding me tea, potato soup and fruit as well as a place around their stove to warm up. The girl then explains that a section of the great wall is about 500m from their house. we go off to explore and there it is, yet a very, very old and crumbled portion of the wall. dont stick around long as its freezing as well as raining. on the way back she asks me if i think shes a boy or a girl. i failed... the mother later asked me the same question. weird... she definitely looked like a boy.
 
I say my goodbyes and cycle about 4 more km until i reach another small village. enough is enough i reckon (frost bite is a distinct possibility at this point). knock on a random door and explain my situation, get send on my way, try again, get sent on my way, third time lucky i get taken in and end up sleeping in a bed (a big bed let me add) with four other blokes, very good guys. in the morning the clouds had cleared enough to see the great wall, complete with impressive guard towers, in the distance. offer to pay for the place to sleep and food, but get turned down.