Welcome to Qinghai

(typed by Mum - Emrys can't access his blog in China - it is blocked)

It is late in the afternoon and I have just crossed the border in Qinqhai province in the far west of China. I have had a pretty good run with a tail wind for a good part of the afternoon. I am thinking about pushing on a bit to take advantage when the wind swings around. I am now riding into a dusty headwind with spots of rain............blow this.
I start to look for a campsite. It has been pretty desolate with very little cover for much of the afternoon. I am passing a lake off in the distance and I spy some pretty tall looking reeds on the lake shore. I hurl Igor down the slop off the edge of the road and head off down the embankment.
It is about 700m by the time I get there and the reeds are a good 3 meters tall and thick. I clean the grit from the gear using a pepsi bottle with petrol, make my bed an snuggle down.

Bang!

It seems the wicked witch of the west that I was protected from hast just had a house land on her. Glinda is back with a vengeance!!

I sit in my tent and listen in the dark and the wind accelerates. Sleep becomes impossible so for the next four hours I try to stop the tent from disintegrating around me. To her credit she holds up remarkably well, unlike my nerves. At about 1 I finally drift off, waking periodically as the gusts thump against the fly. Dust storm number two, welcome to Qinhai!