13-Jul-2012 -- This is the 5th out of 20 confluence points that I reached on a bicycle trip to the North-East of China. The narrative of the trip starts from 41°N 117°E.
On the 10th day of the trip, we started cycling at 5 AM in the morning in the town Balagaergaole (巴拉嘎尔高勒), about 55 km south-west of the confluence. A freshly asphalted road took us up to 3.5 km to the confluence. From the nearest point, we simply rode our bikes cross-country on the grasslands. Although the terrain was a bit hilly, it was possible to ride the hills up and down until we reached the exact confluence location.
From the confluence, a group of houses can be seen 1.3 km to the north. Otherwise, there is only grass in all directions. As soon as we had reached the confluence point, a motor cyclist with a herd of horses came up to us, asking what we were looking for. To avoid complications we simply replied that we were tourists taking pictures of the beautiful grasslands. And indeed, it was a wonderful sunny day with a huge sky and saturated green grass.
After our visit we went back to the main road where we split up. Thoggol’s travelling time was up. Before he returned back to Beijing, he managed to visit one more confluence near Xilinhot. I continued further north-east towards the province Hēilóngjiāng.
CP visit details:
- Distance to an asphalt road: 3500 m
- Distance to a track: 1300 m
- Distance to a footpath: 250 m
- Duration of the hike to reach the CP: 0 minutes
- Distance of bicycle parking: 0 m
- Distance to houses: 1300 m
- Time at the CP: 12:15 PM
- Measured height: 968 m
- Minimal distance according to GPS: 0 m
- Position accuracy at the CP: 3 m
- Topography: slightly hilly
- Vegetation: grass
- Weather: fine, 27° C (felt temperature)
- Given Name: The Cross-Country Grasland Confluence
Story continues at 45°N 119°E.