Kashgar. So I’m lying on the bed at the Super 8 three star hotel when it suddenly dawns on me that it’s maybe a good idea to take a look at the next phase of the journey. A wave of anxiety descends while spreading the map open across the floor as this is something that should have been addressed ages ago.

I’m taken aback at how much distance is still remaining. It’s a massive space hugging the whole bottom of the Taklamakan Desert, then south right through the Qinghai Province and across three more provinces to Beijing! What is it? It’s well over three thousand more miles. AAAAAAGH!  I’d forgotten that Kashgar is only the halfway point and that the hardest part of the trip still remains.

There are a number of factors that cause me to fall back onto the bed star-fished while trying to avoid having a coronary…