Day 46

If we were expecting a straight forward drive to Xi'an today, we were going to be disappointed.

The road condition wasn't too bad, but the number of lorries, single carriageway and the hilly terrain made for slow progress. We had expected to be on a good dual carriageway within 100km but this was still under construction.

After a refuel and lunch stop around 1pm, we carried on but soon encountered the back of a queue of lorries.  Not seeing any cars in the queue, we overtook them, but after about a km of lorries realised something wasn't right.  It transpired that there had been an accident several km ahead and we'd just pushed past vehicles that had already been waiting several hours.

With no alternative route, we joined the queue which occasionally crept forward a few hundred metres, with the usual Asian overtaking manoeuvres leading to chaos when there was no space to pull back in and they then blocked the path of oncoming vehicles.

After a total of more than 5 hours in the queue we passed the scene of the accident which looked like the result of a blind bend overtaking where the innocent oncoming lorry had ended up on it's side.

An hour later we reached the toll booth where they still had the cheek to charge us.  By this time it was getting dark and several members of the group wanted to stop for the day.  We pulled over to discuss the options only to witness a totally unecessary personal attack on Tracy by one of the group accusing her of forcing us along against our wishes. I'd like to think this person would regret their words tomorrow, but I know there won't be any appology forthcoming.

After a point blank redusal to move another inch from this person, we did eventually agree to drive to the next town to find a room of some sort for those who needed it.

Oh the joy of group travel and decision making.....

Lat 34 28.88 N
Long 106 33.38 E
Distance 14656km
Town Tuoshi

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