Your stories

"Camels were never meant for truck transport and in true caravan fashion, I had them walked the remaining 100km to Taxkorgan. It’s a place that has long been a navigation point on the caravaner’s compass.

Alongside the Taxkorgan River to Datong

"Tax (tash) means stone in the local Uighur and Tajik languages and during the time of the Silk Road, a stone tower near the site of the modern town is rumoured to have acted as a bearing point for caravans. The town is also less than 200km from the border with Pakistan, where I finished my ride 18 months ago.

"My first shock on arrival was to find all three camels stabled in a school. My second was in finding two of the formerly shaggy beasts hairless. My third was in quickly learning to tell truth from fiction, as my ‘trusted contact’ turned out to be only a tenant. This caused later complications. 

"Over the next five days, there were last minute preparations, filming, replacing a blanket the camels had eaten and dealing with a drunken hospitalised camel driver. The enraged owner of the school caused a final ruckus and thus fate, God and Taxkorgan to thrust us out on the open road.

• Next