Day 39

Not quite the day we had planned.  Rachael and Tom went straight to the car hire shops first thing while the rest of us took a more leisurely breakfast and had a wander around the local shops.

A little after 11 we got a call from Tracy to say the car hire wasn't going to work out at a sensible price as their understanding of one way hire involved getting a guy to fly to our final destination and drive the car back, at a cost of 14000 yuan (about £1300) so they were looking at buying 2 motorbikes.

Once we realised that motorbikes weren't allowed to travel along the toll roads we had used yesterday and should have been using most days whilst in China, they ceased to be an option as the slower roads would add 3 to 4 days to our China tour at a cost of about £200 per day to the tour company, plus the extra wear and tear on our vehicles.

Finally the solution came by hiring a taxi on a long term basis to carry them all the way across China.  The cost of this was a little less than the total for the car hire, was to be paid in stages, and didn't require a deposit of near to £2000 to be paid as demanded by the hire company.

By this time it was 4pm - virtually another day gone by.  The drive today is only 180km but we should have had about 6 hours sightseeing so that will have to wait for tomorrow.

Turpan and the road we will travel for the next few days are at the northern edge of the Gobi desert, which looks more stone than sand so far.

Lat 42 57.00
Long 89 10.90
Town Turpan

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