Hong Kong adventurer takes on China’s ‘desert of death’
Alone in a wasteland of extreme temperatures in Xinjiang, in China’s wild west, Hong Kong-based Briton Rob Lilwall sets off on his toughest challenge yet
Ahead of me lies a tough challenge. Perhaps it will be the toughest thing I will ever do, or attempt to do. My plan is to walk east to west across the Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang province, China’s wild west.
The Taklamakan is sometimes translated as “he who goes in, never comes out”, and sometimes just called “the desert of death”. The reason for this reputation is that it is a 1,000-kilometre wasteland of sand dunes and not a lot else. Temperatures range from 45 degrees Celsius in the summer to minus 25 degrees Celsius in the winter. It is prone to sandstorms which can bury you – they are known as “black hurricanes”. As far as I am aware, no one has ever crossed it solo before.
I do know of one joint British-Chinese team which, together with 30 camels, crossed the sands in the mid-1990s. They were led by the stalwart soldier-adventurer Charles Blackmore and they were the first group in history to succeed. Earlier this year I read Blackmore’s excellent book about the journey, and managed to meet him in London and pick his brains. And so gradually my own crazy plan was hatched.
Instead of taking camels (which have a tendency to run off, bite, spit at and generally disdain you), I decided I would try to cross it dragging my (quite considerable) food and water requirements on a cart with special wheels that don’t get stuck in sand. I am helped by the fact that there are now several oil roads running north-south through the desert, so I will use these roads to stash some supplies which I can pick up as I cross them.