They may sound like a female comedy double act, but they were in fact a trio of intrepid British missionary ladies, namely Mildred Cable and sisters Eva & Francesca French, who crossed the Gobi desert along the northern Silk route five times in mule carts in the 1920s/30s. They wrote and lectured extensively about their experiences, and many years ago when I was eighteen, my father gave me a copy of their aptly named book ‘ The Gobi Desert’. I was immediately captivated by its descriptions of oasis life, braving bandits and travelling by moonlight across barren and desolate landscapes. As a result I have always had a sneaking desire to emulate them – in their desert travels, not their evangelising – and now find myself with the opportunity to do so, although doubtless things will have changed beyond recognition since their time. We will see.
I plan to try and retrace their 1926 journey across the Gobi via Yumen, Anxi, Hami and north of the Tian Shan ‘mountains of heaven’ to Urumqi. Where they followed rutted desert tracks in carts pulled by mules, including their faithful pet mule Molly, there is now a railway and main road, and possibly even an expressway – it is difficult to keep pace with the speed of construction in China. Although I have managed to identify most of the places they visited and/or stayed, some of the oases appear to have completely disappeared with the coming of lorry transport. No longer do camel caravans, mule carts and herds of donkeys carry goods across the desert, but in effect the modern ‘oasis’ is the petrol station. But it will be fascinating to see to what extent life in this part of the Gobi has changed over the last eighty years.
If you are interested in learning more about ‘the Trio’, their books including ‘The Gobi Desert’ and ‘Through Jade Gate and Central Asia’ are easily available on Amazon. Professor Linda Benson has recently written an excellent and well researched biography ‘Across China’s Gobi’ and Australian journalist Kate James a most entertaining account ‘Three Women of the Gobi’.
A postscript. I was thrilled to discover in the 1901 census that the French family lived only a couple of streets away from where I was brought up in Bedford Park, London. And my Beijing host Caroline now tells me that husband David’s mother actually attended one of Mildred’s lectures when a child, and entered into correspondence with Topsy, a little deaf and dumb Tibetan girl adopted by Mildred.
Whereas last time I was in a carriage full of westerners, this time I spent the whole trip across Russia struggling to communicate with the help of a phrase book – but at least my Russian vocabulary now extends beyond ‘vodka’, even if is only to say ‘ Ya nye gavaryu paruski’ (I don’t speak Russian). I started off sharing a compartment with three Russian men, one of whom drank himself into a stupor on the first day, during which time he also rather worryingly staggered off and disappeared for about three hours. Just when I thought he must have fallen off the train and be a frozen corpse by the side of the track, he reappeared, slightly more sober but still clutching a bottle of beer. But by the end of the trip I had the luxury of a carriage to myself. Below are Svetlana, Irina, Tatiana and Mariana, the jolly ladies next door who invited me over for vodka and Russian sausage, and took me under their wing at the Chinese border stop, when I joined them in town to become of the ‘babuschkas that lunch’ brigade.
Passing Lake Baikal was an eagerly awaited thrill, as instead of a blue expanse of water fringed with ripples and dotted with little fishing boats, the whole lake was completely frozen solid. But people were still fishing through holes in the ice, huddled under windbreaks – some had driven their 4x4 vehicles miles out onto the lake. 
I am now staying with friends David and Caroline in their superb flat in central Beijing – it was utter bliss to have a hot shower and cup of tea on arriving (which to have first?) and crash out in a comfortable bed. Yesterday I went with Harry Tse and Peng Wenchao for a most congenial meeting with the Chinese Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries to report on our progress, and this morning Peng helped me sort out a super duper new dongle for my laptop.
And below is Hua experiencing an even closer brush with the law while negotiating Baotou traffic.
