The red line on the map shows the trek of our expedition in 2010. The map features our camps and those rare objects of interest you can find in the endless Lopnur desert. The austerity and plainness of the desert are well illustrated by the story of Selvachev’s birthday in camp on March 14th – the festivity was marked by an extra bottle of water at dinner. Everyone agreed that was a feast of luxury.
The photos placed on the map can give you an idea of what is there, where there’s nothing. You definitely need to see the pictires of the Dragon City, a vast labyrinth of yardangs, which was one of the main objectives on our way.
In a nutshell: Expedition to eastern part of Taklamakan desert, crossing the dry bed of Lake Lop Nur. 12 days completely self-supported, including water, in search of pre-Chinese settlements in the desert. Wandering the labyrinths of Dragon City, a city of yardangs. Read more »
We finally managed to escape from the “Safety Zone” of Imphal. And up to the Myanmar border, we hoped to meet no police nor military troops. Only some villages found on satellite images – no other information, no maps, no reports. Seems like nobody ever ventured into these hills – or kept silent about his explorations.
Pictures from the state of Manipur – with lots of rebels and abundance of military forces, trying to keep them in order.
There are two major groups of people, living in the state – peoople of the plains, Meitei and some others. And the hill tribes – kuki, zo, paite, and several clans of nagas.
Only pictures here. The main entry is only available in Russian, sorry.
We met no more human ashes, nor voodoo dolls on our way to the cave. The mystic cave turned out to be a hole in a limestone sink, about one meter in diameter. The khasi stayed away from the hole, trying to peep into the vertical hole from a distance.
On and on, ever turning and turning, and sliding up and down the hills of Meghalaya, we pedal to the East. Towards the state of Manipur, burning in the flames of a revolt. Behind us, in front of us, side by side with us Tata trucks roar they way from the coal mines, huge, rubbed, all heavily loaded with coal. “Give way, you little nuisances!” they horn to us huskily. When tired of climbing up the hills, Roma and Gleb speed up and clutch at the frame of the nearest truck. Tata usually doesn’t like this, but the driver sticks out of the window, looking back at them, smiling and absolutely nonchalant about the road safety.
