Marc and the two guys from the UK came through town last night. They stayed at the same hotel as us. We had dinner together and then saw them off this morning at 6:30- they were heading down to Xining. After they left, I slept in til after 9:00. I've got a sore throat and am fighting off a cold. When I finally got up I ate some crackers and headed out to meet some folks from another organization that are in town. We both receive funding from a common source, and that funding source sent a photographer to get some images of the projects that their funds are supporting. We met with them to plan for the coming week so that the photographer will be able to see the most possible work while he's here. After that we ate a big lunch- pork stew, chicken legs, stir fried potatoes and rice- YUM! Then I went for a hike up one of the tallest peaks near town. Unfortunately a storm rolled in when I was about 2/3s up. I picked a spot to wait it out, but when lightning started licking at the slopes just to the north of me, I skeedaddled down again! It was rough going- a lot of sliding down gravel slopes. Pretty soon I was getting blown off balance by strong winds and then pelted with sleet mixed with snow and driving rain. That eased off a bit but I kept hustling down with the thunder rumbling behind me. I slid under a couple of fences and was down to the last third when I hit a slope that was too steep and loose to control my slide. I ended up down by the western canal right where it runs into the hydro-turbine- not where I wanted to be in the thunder storm! I managed to pick my way back up the slope and cut across to stable ground just as the rain started in earnest. My legs were wobbly and tired as I wandered back into town. Much to my chagrin- the storm passed within an hour and left a beautiful sunny afternoon in its place. I was hoping that it would be an all-nighter so that I wouldn't feel bad about deciding to come down- but it was a quick pass and left the upper slopes beautifully dusted with snow! Oh-well, there's something to come back for on the next trip down to Yushu.
I did a few pushups, then peeled off my smelly, dirty, wet clothes and took a hot bath! Then I packed all of my stuff up for tomorrow's drive. Just when I was finishing up and sitting down to journal, Peter came back from his meeting. Now we're both sitting here tap-tapping on our computers and getting closer to going to bed. Tomorrow we'll be heading up to Zhiduo.
