April 1 – Day 91

23,005.9 Miles

CLICK ON THE PICTURE ABOVE TO GO TO THE EARTHWALK WEBSITE

REPORT FROM THE WALK:

WE’RE IN ASIA –

Our destinations?

Taj Mahal – 53 votes

Great Wall of China – 73 votes

Mt. Fuji – 40 votes

Mt. Everest – 40 votes

Our Security Team intercepted this message by a prankster:

J. Oker writes,

We have discovered the greatest beer! We’re about 70 miles northwest of Moscow and it doesn’t look like we’re going anywhere soon. I don’t think anyone has eaten anything for the past week. We just drink this wonderful, divine beer. Everyone has forgotten about the Earthwalk. We’ve started EarthBeerDrink. We’re at about 51 kegs and counting. We’re all sworn to secrecy on where this elixir of the gods can be found. We don’t want to run out! Every time a stray dog comes by, we take off one of our pedometers and attach it to the dog, we have a great laugh and toast another round. We’re perfectly content to have everything end this way. We have lost all ambition to do anything but have another of these glorious beers. Cheers and Hapiski Aprilski Foolski Day!

From our Russian Attaché Security Detail Comandante, Borus Todet:

We are confident that there will be no more bogus messages coming from EarthWalk. We have the very latest in electronic surveillance and feel confident nothing but authentic reports will be able to pass through our security perimeters. At your service.

OK. OK. Well, welcome to April. Earth Day month. And on that theme, let me tell you where we are right now. We’re standing in a place that has this salty chalky ground. In 1960 this spot was under nearly 60 feet of water. Yup. We’re where the Aral Sea use to be. Look at these satellite pictures, it’s unbelievable.

You see on the left where just a few years ago, the Aral Sea was the 4^th largest inland body of water. Now, today it ranks number 8. What happened?

Well there are two big rivers that flow into the Aral Sea – or should I say, use to. There’s been so much increase in irrigation these last couple decades that water from neither the Amu Darya nor the Syr Darya rivers ever even makes it to the Aral Sea. (Did you know the same is true about the Colorado River – it never makes to the Gulfo de California anymore?) Fishing is basically over in the sea as it has become too salty for most of the prior fish to survive. There are boat cemeteries, big boats, and the water has receded so far you can’t even see it. Children use them for playgrounds. The water is awful. Full of salt. We had some tea with people here who use to live it a bustling seaport – now a desert village. The tea was so salty, we couldn’t drink it. I guess the people here have gotten use to it. But many of them are sick. They worry about their children. The water is also contaminated with runoff from cotton pesticide and fertilizer from the huge irrigated fields out in the desert.

I know I’ll get over it soon. But you have to know it was just a day or two ago that we had to make a big detour around an area that was off limits because of all the radioactive cesium in the soil from the Chernobyl nuclear accident years ago.

And just last month while we were going past the south shore of Lake Victoria, we saw the most dreadful sight. Poor people were going through this trash from a fish processing plant and eating maggot infested fish waste. They use to fish for their food, but a type of yellow perch introduced from Europe has destroyed all the other species in the lake.

Oh, please, get my mind onto something else, quick!

FROM EARTHWALK COSMIC HEADQUARTERS IN OMAHAHA

Until the orangutan twins come up with an Asia contest, here’s a quick one worth 4 free lunch points.

In the picture below, find the hidden 3D image and when you submit your next miles, write down what you see in the comments field.

The contest will end in a few days and we’ll let everyone know what the hidden image is.

FIND THE HIDDEN IMAGE

Contest ended when we left Russia and entered Kazakstan

EUROPEAN MARATHON FINALS (26.2 miles in Europe)
Swimming Marathon	40 free lunch points
(no one – Susan Roberts came close at 20 miles)
Jog/Run Marathon	10 free lunch points
Mark Burns	Ernest Issacs
Cary Norquist	Susan Roberts
Howard Hoffman	Ron Webb
New – Kevin Handt	New – Charlotte Lundemo
New – Scott Carson	New – Becky Adams
Walking Marathon	5 free lunch points
Karla Burnet	Dave Burnet
Clay Cooley	Susan Weill Durr
Doc Patterson	Charlotte Lundemo
Pamela Leonard	Jeanne Rozman
Steve Rozman	New – Leo Huddleston
New – Joseph Guess	New – Buffalo Bear
New – Bill Woolverton	New – Amy Clark
New – Vicki Holland	New – Lois Lundemo
New – Lisa Yazdani	New – Robert Connolly
New – Gail Brosey	New – Maya Weilundemo
New – Nancy Goldman	New – Patrick Jerome
New – Nanolla Yazdani	New – Barbara Scobee
New – Luke Lundemo	New – Marla Meadows
Biking Marathon	3 free lunch points
Scott Carson	Michelle Williams
Susan Roberts	Douglas Kern
Robert Connolly	Luke Lundemo
New – Terri Carson

Points will be awarded as soon as the data entry cats get over enjoying all these crates of beer somebody sent them.

Submit Miles Here Too