We woke at 4am as the sun lit the sky outside our window, stole another half hour then a coffee and packing the car 6am and away to the NZ embassy.
Flagged away by Ambassador Tony Brown at 7am and our adventure has really begun.
Out of Peking and onto amazing two lane motorways for nearly 400 kms to our hotel in Jining . Sunday morning traffic is like our Peak hour traffic.
Travelled North out of Beijing on the Badaling highway. Stopped at the Great Wall to take photos of our cars with the Great Wall behind. Had a pleasant drive to Huaian for lunch. We now seem to be getting more of the Mongolian food and people are looking Mongolian. After lunch due to the hot temps {35degs} a couple of cars had fuel problems. Sandra drove after lunch with a little rally driving between trucks. On arrival at Jining we were welcomed by a group of young women who sang a welcome song and gave us some type of alcohol which we were meant to only wet our lips. Sandra took a mouthful, which cleaned out the throat. Said it tasted like “rocket fuel”
The Hotels are getting less westernised. We had no towels in the bathroom, got onto room service and got two delivered, wet!! Phone to reception and finally dry towels, only to find the bathroom floor floods when we use the shower…..seems the plumbing is not connected. The joys of travelling. Still this Hotel will look good next week when we are in the Gobie.