Sandy Arms

Still recovering from our train ride the night before, we immediately got onto a bus and drove into downtown Dunhuang where we had the most disgusting breakfast ever. Silver platters filled with unlabeled food that had clearly been attacked by other tour groups earlier in the day greeted us. Flies buzzed around and I lost my appetite.

Snacking on granola bars that I had brought just in case we were met with something like this, I found a bathroom and washed my face, reflected on the fact that I had another 30 some hours without a shower and then re-boarded the bus to our first stop of the day, Yueyaquan National Park, or Crescent Moon Lake National Park.

This is the Oasis, the Crescent Lake is behind all the green.

When we drove up to the national park we were immediately awed. Although it was clear from our surroundings that we were in a desert, we hadn't expected to see sand dunes of this size, springing up seemingly out of no where. Tourists on camels went on tours through the dunes and in the distance we heard the sounds of ATVs. This was a tourist's dreamland. Activities ranged from riding in small planes over the dunes, driving ATVs, sledding down the dunes on tubes, driving jeeps, riding dune buggies, and of course the camel rides. It was difficult to decide what to do first.

Luckily our local guide decided for us. We headed first to the Crescent Moon Lake that the park was named for. It's an oasis in the desert, and to no one's surprise, it was in the shape of a moon. It was a beautiful sight to see with the flowers that they had coaxed into growing up through the sand but it was also an example of the wasteful nature of the Chinese culture. Flowers weren't meant to grow like this in the middle of the desert, and the fact that they were using all of their water to do this was an extreme waste that to us was unjustifiable.

Ignoring the flowers, we tried to decide what we wanted to do today. Eventually we decided we'd hike up a sand dune....easier said than done. When we looked up at the dunes they didn't look as massive as they actually were. As tall as a mountain, they loomed over us, shimmering in the heat of the dry desert air. We saw there were some other people at the top, so we thought, how hard could it be? An hour later (possibly more, time ceases to mean anything after you've climbed a wall of sand for a while) we reached the peak, and it was worth it. Frequent breaks had been needed and I'd often collapsed into the sand after particularity long climbs, and by this time my arms were caked in sand which gladly clung to my sweaty skin. My mind was screaming, "you don't get to shower for 27 more hours!" but the rest of me ignored it and stared out over the beauty before us.

Miles of untouched dunes continued on as far as the eye could see. I could imagine trains of people on camels many hundreds of years go making their way to Dunhuang on their silk road journey. The people below us looked like ants, it was hard to believe how far we had climbed. We celebrated on the top with many cheers and lots of pictures, and we guzzled bottle after bottle of water in an attempt to replenish ourselves. There was only one thing left to do...to get down.

We ran, stumbled, and fell our way down the dune, sand flying up under our feet, feet catching, tumbling down the side of the dune. In that moment it really felt like we could fly. The drop was steep and intense and thought it felt like we were racing at the speed of light it's a testament to how high we were that it took us so long to get down.

Dusty and breathing heavily we regrouped at the bottom before we all headed off to get back to the bus. But before we left there was one thing I just had to do. With a few friends we found some guys renting out dune buggies and we drove those back to the front of the park. The ride was anything but comfortable but boy was it fun. I might have gotten a little out of control because when I parked the guide standing on the back of my dune buggy looked at me like I was insane. And maybe I was, but I felt like I was on top of the world.

Also, I found this giant caterpillar.