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My childhood dream is fulfilled (mechta idiota ososhestvilas). I crossed Takla Makan and spent night in the middle of it.

From Russia to India (part IV: Travel Notes from Takla Makan Desert)

Alex Mumzhiu
2006-03-22 19:27:01

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I never dreamed of being on the North or South Poles, but Takla Makan was always on my mind. Takla Makan is a unique geographical phenomenon. It is a gigantic crack in the Earth's surface, which is deeper then Marian Depression near Japan. But unlike Marian Depression which is filled with water, Takla Makan is filled with the sand. Many rivers flow to the desert from the the surrounding tall mountains but no one river flow out of TM. All sink through the sand and form a gigantic underground lake at the depth of about 5 km. Unlike Sahara or Arabian peninsula Talka Makan does not have any oasises in the middle of it. This is why TM was crossed by a human for the first time only in the beginning of 20 century.Five years ago, the Chinese built the road across the TM. When I learned about it I decided that I have to cross TM using this road.

I arrived on the sleeping bus at 3 am at the small town Luntai where the road across Takla Makan started. I spent night in the hotel and next morning started to look for the road to TM. It was difficult, nobody speaks English, nobody understand what I want and I decide to take any road to South and ride bike until I will see the desert. Fortunately at this moment I met two young Chinese people whom I met before in Turfan. I am not sure if it was the result of my propaganda campaign or not, but they also came to Luntai to cross TM. With them everything became much easier.

We found a minibus which took us 70 km down South to the village of Tarim on the shore of Tarim river, where the desert actually start. There was no public transportation South of Tarim so we started hitchhiking. Felix, Chinese fellow, never did it before but he turned out to be a very talented hitchhiker. So soon a small passenger car took three of us and drove the first 100 km, then people who gave us a ride turned to their oil well and Felix stopped next car which drove us another 200 km to the middle of the desert. As we exited the ...