julie stephenson

Yesterday we left Shilin at about 9.00 after going to look at the Stone Forest, but deciding not to enter as we had seen some of the formations from the outside and all had more interest in going to the Dinosaur museum later in the day on the way to Dali.

In regards to the Dinosaur museum, I must give a very big thanks to Ross Oakman who read about this museum in the Australian Geographic in January and built it into the trip plan.

When we entered the park it looked more worn out theme parky then anything else; but low and behold after walking around the track we came to this 9000 square metre building on the side of the hill. When we went inside it was the most incredible dinosaur display I’ve ever seen in my travels. It contained not one or two dinosaurs, but about 50 complete dinosaur skeletons all mounted and all made from real fossil bones found on the site. There were complete animals still in the the rock that they died on.

Further in the hall were groups of 5 to 10 dinosaurs all different sizes of the same species all of which had been found at the dig site. Then the bigger highlight was down the one side of the building was the side of the hill with all the bones still exposed in the siltstone for you to see how they were found.

Like one of our group said; “Seeing it like this makes it so real.” which I think summed up the visit completely.

The days driving was all freeway for the 430 kilometres. Yesterdays drive nearly had me getting a coat out with the temperature starting to fall as we are now at 2000 metres. All though it was freeway all the way it was still 5.30pm when we arrived at the hotel in the old city of Dali to say in a hotel that is over 100 years old with all the old Chinese wood work.

Yesterday morning we left the old town of Yuangyang to climb up to the ancient region of Yuangyang 1400 metres higher in the mountains. This is the area that the native people of the region, the Hani people have lived for centuries. The highlight of this area were the vast areas of rice terraces that are still in use after being built 1300 years ago. The rice terraces are still being worked in the old style using water buffalo for cultivation, and like all the rice we have seen in China it is hand harvested. The local Hani women are still wearing their national dresses everyday.

After looking around the area and all having a Cuppa tea beside our cars it was time to head back down the mountain and off to the Shilin Stone Forest.

Maurie’s and my departure was delayed for twenty mins to put a bolt in the starter motor. This is a common problem with CAV starters and was no real concern; just an inconvenience.

We stopped for lunch in Yuangyang at a street market for a buffet lunch..a hot one :-).

The rest of the day’s drive was a couple hundred of kilometres of mostly freeway driving. Freeways are not as nice as the country roads, but an essential part of Chinese driving if you want to get anywhere. As soon as you leave a freeway the average speed of travel drops down to about 30 or 40kph, so the days get very long as some of us have found.

Hi everyone… Julie here. For those who want to see the route Max and Penny and the others have been taking – usually pretty much in real time as well.. pop to this link Follow Max and Penny on Map Tracking InReach Satellite Tracking.

Have a play with zooming in and out to get an idea of the grand scale of their journey as well as the type of terrain their journey is taking them across.