Grab some popcorn, drown it in molten yak butter, and enjoy a vicarious ride on the Silk Road – saddle sores not included. In May of 2006, Kate, Ben and Mel pedaled off on a four month bike trip in China with the goal of loosely retracing Marco Polo’s travels in Xinjiang and Tibet. The Dazzle and the Dirt marks the first of three episodes documenting this journey.
In this video, we fly to Urumqi in western China, give encouraging pep talks to our quaking legs, ride into the daunting Tian Shan mountains, and breathe deep of dust while biking across the Taklamakan desert. Watch us struggle to decipher inscrutable maps, cultivate questionable hairdos, sweat dirt from every pore, and acquire a taste for deep fried fat swigged down with home brewed rice wine.
This episode covers only the first three weeks of the four month trip, so stay tuned for episodes two and three over the next few months.
Yeehaw, Kate’s feature article on Cycling Silk ’06 made the cover of 
Bikes are packed, we’ve got tickets and passports, and the Silk Road is just a dream and a day away. After nearly two years of planning, training, and fundraising, Mel and I are about to launch for China. Right now I am both ridiculously excited and powerfully terrified, the ideal state of mind and heart and soul for launching on such a journey. I tend to gauge the worth and promise of an adventure by the sheer frenzy factor of the butterflies in my stomach. The fluttering I’m feeling now bodes well for this one.
