Photo gallery – Silk Riders

By Gareth Morgan on July 20, 2005 in Photo Gallery

In the footsteps of Marco Polo, our Silk Riders trip from Venice to Beijing … in photos!

Browse through the galleries below.

Silk Riders »
Tackling the Taklamakan

Dave sits a healthy distance from one of the Taklmakan twisters

Last shop before you enter the desert - get your water here!

Massive and foreboding

test for the tents - how far can they implode before we're squeezed out?

close to liftoff

The bikes stay sturdy in the face of a Taklmakan tearaway

Storm gone, peace returns to the ridge

hello a desert maiden decides to do a runner

up to the top of a dune

.. and then down down down, rolling in her silksack

Who's bike got buried in that maelstrom then?

A pumping station on the Tarim highway - pump attendant at work fixing the irrigation lines

They are equi-paced across the whole 522km of the Tarim highway

beautiful - nature's artform

Drilling for oil

Flax matting to keep the sand from invading the highway

a long way back

Bactrian two humped camel

.. and babies watching us pass by

Dave, Jo and Gareth wonder why they organised this

Jo comes into a desert stop after a harsh 350 kms

Bowl of noodles - just the potion t face the second half of the day on

A good bit of the metal road

Planet moonscape

Feet down trying to stay upright in the sand

the road disappears int teh canyon depths

A river crossing! What sort of a desert is this?

Threatening to engulf the road

Switchbacks, gorges and mountain passes

Oops - whose is that cheeky whitey in my nature shot? Still got the squirts I see

Our southern route through the desert moves in near the Kunlun range that rings the Taklamakan southern boundary.

Salt crusting that goes for miles

An asbestos factory in the middle of the desert

Oil pumps everywhere

What a relief - melons for sale in the desert!!

And after it's all over - a flash hotel threatened by encroaching dunes

Giant sandunes of the Tacklamakan dwarf us as we pass by

Windstorms in the Taklamakan can be so firece they bury cities. Our bikes and tents stood up to this one well.

A damned hot one - be grateful for a dip in the warm, muddy slicks

Motorcycle Photo Gallery

In the Beginning

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