a2b - Crotos, to Zhangye

Another posting from Crotos in one week! Written by Vasilios Mesitides and posted on 2008.7.10.

The narrative begins at Tung Huang [Dunhuang] with their visit to the Mogao caves, murals and carvings. [days 126-7] There is small problem with a cycle lock - key is missing – so it must be cut [...]

a2b - Crotos, across the Taklamakan and beyond.

We have two blog postings this week, one from Carlotta and the other from Vasilios and Danae. One thing to note is that the group appears to have divided into small sub-groups and even a few sub-sub-groups. This is just speculation but possibly they have given up their support vehicle as they couldn’t [...]

a2b - Accor Beijing, a partial recap plus the latest news

Quite a substantial change has occurred on the Accor Beijing website. A number of postings have appeared on the Forum which were not visible before; posting dates span from mid-June to the present– there has been a persistent page not available message for some time – and the weblog has come back to life [...]

Lent’s new gallery

Click here to go straight to Joachim Lent’s new geotagged photogallery, with an array of pics which will take you all the way from Olympia to Kashgar.

a2b - Accor Beijing, into the Himalayas

Just two postings on the Express Bank of the Accor Beijing website; I guess this is because internet access is not available and signals from portable devices will be weak or non-existent. The first post announces the group’s entry into Tib@t and the second one gives an indication of their progress.

Date of posting [...]

a2b - Crotos, from Kashgar into the desert

Now we have lost our prime blogger information must be taken from other sources. Some of the these notes have been gleaned from a Google-analytics translation of Carlotta Dal’Aglio’s blog and the rest taken from the blog of Vasilios and Danae.
2008.6.11 At Kashgar the party said good-bye to 6 members, Joachim Lent who [...]

a2b - Accor Beijing, into Nepal

There are two entries from the Express Bank of the AB website copied below with Google translations added -
Date of posting 2008-06-12 02:11

我们明天去奇旺国家动物公园，三天后去博克拉，再三天回加都，之后骑中尼公路回国。

Tomorrow we go to the Royal Chitwan National Park, three days later to Pokhara and then another three days for riding across Nepal to the Tib@t border.

Date of posting 2008-06-13 21:45

2008.6.12 [...]

a2b – Accor Beijing into India, and out again

The blog on the Accor Beijing website has been suspended. Whether this is permanent or a temporary measure isn’t known but as the last entries made related to the early part of the journey in Iran, as far back as Gurbulak [a few thousand kms away], maybe it isn’t important. Possibly the riders simply haven’t [...]

a2b - Lent leaves Crotos

Bad news. After 99 days and six and half thousand kilometres Joachim Lent has decided to call it a day. Details on this latest posting. Other riders have joined and left the tour as it has progressed and no doubt others will do the same for the last 5,000 kilometres. No [...]

a2b - Crotos, into China

The two blog postings covering the entry to China are particularly significant as they cross borders into the final country and the flavour of the tour takes another change. Some things remain the same, for now, they are still passing through Moslem territory, the terrain is still mountainous but everything takes on Chinese characteristics. [...]