Day 61 bush camp
I am here: 39 50.923 N 76 56.197 E at 1257m as of 24/06/2013 http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:39.84872,76.93663
A day of contrast. Having woken at 0630, very pre dawn, we had breakfast in the dark and cold; an early start to allow us time to walk around the lake we'd camped at.
(very pre dawn: China operates on Beijing time, which is UTC +8. The region of China I'm in has a local time (UTC +6), which is based on its actual location and not the government's sayso. We operate on Beijing time as this is the standard for the country, but it does mean that getting up for 0630 is more like getting up at 0430 in terms of the light.)
A gentle walk around the lake in the pre dawn, dawn and then early morning light is a fabulous way to start a day. Me, Shaun, Karen and Matt.
A few hours later and we'd decended the 2500m we'd climbed yesterday and had gone from warm hats & down jackets to the least we could wear and not be naked - low single digit degC to ~35 in a few hours. It stayed at this temperature all day.
Nice little camp just off the main road.
A little touch rugby after dinner.
I like camping in the desert as I like the cold and the clear skies. We had very clear, very bright, skies with a full moon (lovely light on the hills and mountains, even if it means we didn't see many stars), but the temperature just didn't drop like I'm use to - a hot night, with the added bonus of mozzies eating my legs.
