As you would expect, riding in the desert involves carrying a lot of water. Most days we can get away with 3-6 liters on the bike and refill at small towns or villages along the way, but there have been a few days where carrying over a days supply plus enough for camping has been necessary, increasing the amount to 10-12 liters. Quite a difference in weight on a bike already loaded to the max with enough food to feed our never-ending hunger.

So when your biking along in 40 degree heat with a hot, dry headwind making every turn of the pedal twice as hard as it should be and you see a truck pull over ahead and the driver jump out with bottles of water a real sense of gratefulness comes over you.

David is given 2 bottles of water by a passing truck driver

This happened again the next day when a gentleman driving an Audi pulled up ahead of Tom, Jiao, Katie and myself, popped his boot/trunk and proceeded to give us 2 bottles each which was pretty much all his water supply.

When we caught up with David he said that an Audi driver had also pulled over and given him a bottle.

Our kind Audi driver with Tom and Jiao

It’s simple acts like this that have really made my experience here in China a great one and from now on I will definitely be carrying spare water and a couple of snacks in the back of my car just for the chance to make another cycle tourists day.

I encourage you to do the same.