The more I thought about it, the more horrified I felt, so I quickly asked the dark and thin young man, "Is there any other camel team? Please help us contact them. We have to catch up."

The young man was very polite to me and said: "Don't worry, I've already taken care of everything. The best camel team was hired away by those people at a high price. What I'm hiring now is a small camel team, but it's small and capable. The leader is

He is also an old man who knows the way. I have prepared the equipment to enter the desert and am ready to set off at any time."

It's great to be the boss, as someone will do the errands for everything.

Immediately, under the leadership of the young man, we got to know the guide of this camel caravan.

The guide's name is Alida, a man about forty years old. Since he has been a guide for tourists all year round, he speaks Chinese fluently and can also make some witty remarks, which is quite humorous.

The price has already been negotiated, and the little yellow dog is not short of money, so his men are naturally generous, and the reward for Alida is very generous, so although the journey is long, Alida is still happy to accept it.

His camel team had a total of five camels, all of which were yellow camels with two humps. The three of us mounted the camels and loaded the equipment on the other two camels. A group of three people, led by Alida, began to head towards the Tarim Basin.

.

This is my first time in the desert, and my first time riding a camel. Unlike horses, camels are easy to fall. This thing moves smoothly and is tall. When riding on it, the field of vision is suddenly broadened, and it is very enjoyable.

, I thought it was quite interesting at first, but after riding for a long time, the road was filled with monotonous yellow sand, and gradually it became boring. Especially when riding a camel, the legs were spread apart for a long time, and it was almost difficult to take them back.

After traveling for more than two hours under the scorching sun, a dry riverbed appeared in front of us. Both sides of the riverbed were covered with yellow sand, leaving only a section in the middle. Alida only thought that we were adventure tourists, so she did her duty

introduced us and said: "This is the channel of the ancient Kongque River. I will take you to

If you go here, you can avoid the Kongque River. This river is often buried by wind and sand, and ordinary guides can't find it here." Then, he pointed to the upper reaches of the ancient river and said, "If you walk for another hour, you can see the Kongque River.

, let the camels drink enough water there, and then they can go without water for more than ten days."

After not drinking water for more than ten days, I couldn't help but touch the hump in front of me. In such a hot environment, the ability of animals to evolve is really admirable.

After walking for more than an hour, we finally saw the Peacock River. We were already unbearably hot at this time, so we jumped directly into the river and took a bath. In this environment, wet clothes dried quickly, waiting for us to cool down.

It was almost gone, and the camel's hump became round and erect, and we started moving forward again.

The process along the way was very monotonous. There is no need to go into details. Sometimes we rode camels and sometimes walked. In order to catch up with the uncle and the others, we rarely stopped. In the end, even Alida felt it was too much and said: "It is rare to see such hard-working tourists like you."

.”

We were on our way, and Ghost Chen and others were also on their way, so we didn't find any clues. Halfway through, the Kongque River turned northward, and the clear water got farther and farther away from us. Finally, we were surrounded by desert, which was so hot that it seemed to be smoking.

, we could only camp on the spot that night.

The temperature difference between day and night in the desert is huge. It is unbearably hot during the day and feels cold at night. When the wind in the desert blows, I even get goosebumps. We were about to set up camp. Suddenly, Alida laughed and said: "Oh, those guys

People move at the same speed as us."

He was relatively far away, as if he was squatting on the ground and looking at something. I walked over curiously and found a dark object half covered by yellow sand on the ground. After a closer look, I saw that it was the residue of some burned wood and solid fuel.

.

Although this is a desert, because there is the Kongque River not far away and the underground water is abundant, there are some vegetation and short shrubs around, which can be used to make fires, such as common seed grass, Haloxylon ammodendron, red leaf shrub, and sand creeper.

They can be seen everywhere. It is said that these things cannot grow in the depths of the desert because there is not even a drop of water in the depths of the desert.

Alida didn't know that we were tracking Ghost Chen. He said this because Ghost Chen and the others were too eye-catching before and left a deep impression on him. He is an old guide. When he saw the number of ashes on the ground,

You can estimate how many people have been killed. After passing here a few days ago, it seems that there are only Ghost Chen and his party, and because the camel team is small, there is no business from Ghost Chen and others. Alida is obviously very

mind.

My mind moved. The previous 'tour' route was all prescribed by us, which was up the Kongque River. However, there was a three-day difference in speed between us and Ghost Chen. It was easy to lose track of us. Instead of doing this, it was better to talk to Ali.

Da, an old guide, came to track them, so I thought about my words and said, "Analyze this, where do they want to go with this large camel caravan?"

While collecting hay and shrubs, Alida said: "It's hard to say. But there are generally two possibilities. The first is to go straight ahead and reach the branch of Kongque River, where there are gathering places for several ethnic minorities.

, they may be traveling there; the second possibility is that after reaching the ancient river channel, it was interrupted and then changed its course southward and entered Taklimakan.

Desert... However, this route is not a tourist route. Generally, only scientific expedition teams, film crews, and professional expedition groups will go there. It is not suitable for individual travel, because it requires a lot of financial resources, and there are many strange things in the depths of the desert.

The interference factors will cause the communication equipment to malfunction. In short, if you are an individual, it is better not to go in."

I acted as if I had suddenly realized something and said: "Actually, we don't have any clear goals when we enter the desert this time. I think this camel caravan is quite interesting. Let's do this. The previous route is invalid. You can follow their route.

That’s it.”

"What?" Alida looked surprised and said: "There is no problem with this, but they have many people and carry a lot of equipment. I doubt they can be a professional expedition team. If their final route is to enter Taklimakanda

It would be difficult to deal with the desert." Alida showed a hesitant expression on his face.

I have been in business for two years, so I understood it as soon as I saw his expression. I couldn't help but smile to myself and said, "Then what can I do best?"

"Boss, you know that entering Taklimakan is very risky. There are many unknown factors there, such as black storms, sand wolves, poisonous snakes, and lizards. No matter who bites you, there is no way to give first aid and you can only wait to die. This, this...

...If you really want to go in then, you can, but my camels will suffer a lot if they carry heavy weight for a long time, and they need to strengthen their nutrition..."

Seeing that he couldn't get to the point for a long time, I thought to myself that this guy was quite thin-skinned and he was probably too embarrassed to ask for money directly, so I interrupted him and said with a smile: "Well, let's double the price we agreed on before.

"

Alida's face glowed with joy, and she kept saying: "Oh, boss, I didn't mean that, you are so polite..."

I didn’t mind, since I wasn’t the one paying for it anyway, so after we agreed on the price, I asked Alida how sure I was that I wouldn’t get lost. Alida patted her chest to reassure me, saying that outside the desert, who could

Who is God if you have money, but in the desert, you can only ask for money?

Guides are God. These guides lead the way with certain skills. In order to prevent accidents, they will leave a way out for themselves. Only people who are also guides can see traces in the vast yellow sand. This is called walking across the road like a mountain.

To an outsider, you can't see it at all.

We continued on the road the next day, and sure enough, when we camped that night, we found another fire. Alida said proudly: "This shows that their traveling speed is about the same as ours, and their camping is very regular. There are many people in the desert."

You can't leave at night, the old guide understands this, so the camping time is exactly the same as ours."

The three of us sat by the fire and ate. The little yellow dog was lazy as usual, just like Garfield. He was not interested in what Alida said. It was my first time to enter the desert and I was curious about everything, so I asked Alida.

Why? Is it because there are sand wolves at night?

Alida said: "Sand wolves are only a small part of the population. The most terrifying ones are snakes. Snakes in the desert hide under the sand at night to keep warm. If you accidentally step on one and get bitten, you will be finished."

When I was a child, I followed my father into the desert. The tourism industry was not so developed at that time. Most of the time we went into the desert to hunt foxes and wolves so that we could skin them and sell them for money. One night, I saw

I saw the eyes of a lone wolf in the distance, so I picked up a shotgun, got up and wanted to chase. My dad was still sleeping at the time. When I chased far away, I looked at the ground and, hiss... there were centipede scars all over the ground.

, just like the desert has been disfigured. Under the centipede scars, there are all snakes. Snakes like warmth, so they burrow in the shallow sand to keep warm at night, making traces. Forget about the overwhelming appearance. "

I couldn't help but feel numb all over after hearing this, and subconsciously looked under the yellow sand around me. Seeing this, Alida smiled and said, "Don't be afraid, we have fire, and animals don't dare to get close to it."

I was stunned for a moment. Although I am a biological idiot, I remember that snakes are cold-blooded animals and prefer warm things. It stands to reason that the heat of fire would attract snakes more easily, right?

I said, "You're a big liar. You're lying when you first hear it."

Alida waved his hand and said: "It is also the responsibility of the tour guide to tell a story to relieve the tourists' boredom, but you college students are smart and saw through it immediately. Fire is indeed easy to attract snakes, but the snakes are asleep now, so don't worry.

"

After he finished speaking, I was stunned, pointed behind him and said, "But what are those?" Not far behind him, I saw a pair of bright yellow eyes. In the darkness, I couldn't see their specific appearance clearly.

Alida turned around and immediately hissed and said: "Get on the camel quickly. These are big lizards. Oh, it's broken. We shouldn't have roasted the meat on the fire just now. All the animals in the desert are hungry."

Damn it, the smell must have attracted them."

I immediately wanted to roll my eyes and said, "Aren't you a guide? Why didn't you stop us!"

While Alida went to call the camels, he said: "I, didn't I just chat with you and forget about this?"
Chapter completed!