Today was bumpy. Like in Finland, the bumps are 50m down and 40m up. On and on. So, I went down a valley, but it was hard work. The scenery was nice – seeing more palm trees now.
Mountains
The road down
Posts Tagged ‘Cycling’
Day 235. 109km. Nanjian – Jingdong
Posted: January 2, 2016 in China, CyclingTags: China, Cycling, Jingdong, Nanjian
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Day 281. 132km. Bangkok – Phetchaburi
Posted: January 2, 2016 in Cycling, ThailandTags: Bangkok, Cycling, Phetchaburi, Thailand
Leaving megacities takes time – time on big arterial roads with lots of traffic. Its not pleasant cycling, but it was safe enough with the wide side lane. Cycling along minding my own business, I was overtaken by another cyclist – Arne from Belgium. He’s heading to Singapore – like me, so we cycled together along the busy, flat, straight road.
The beautiful road
We are now close to the sea – the sea I have not seen since Turkey (except briefly at Bangpoo). Bring on the beach!
Arne and me
Day 234. 119km. Dali – Nanjian
Posted: January 1, 2016 in China, CyclingTags: China, Cycling, Dali, Nanjian
I could hear the crickets and the cicadas. The sun was out, it was warm, and there were eucalyptus trees. I got all teary. It felt more familiar – in some ways it felt like Australia. But it was foreign too. Chinese writing, markets and food stalls. And more tropical plants. I am entering the tropics!
Familiar trees
It has been cold and wet. It has been hilly. The going has been very slow. The daily displacements have been small – 100km on windy roads doesn’t bring you far as the crow flies. Today the sun came out. The road was still hilly, but, with the familiar vegetation and the warmth, it felt like I was cycling on a different planet.
Valley
Yesterday was another rest day – in Dali. When it’s raining, the urge to cycle is low. I was in Dali with Ann and Liam (the English name I gave him), and we had a nice walk to a temple on the mountain behind Dali.
Me, Ann and Liam
Day 233. 108km. Diannan – Dali
Posted: December 31, 2015 in China, CyclingTags: China, Cycling, Dali, Diannan
Grey. A bit of rain. I wanted to get to Dali to catch up with Ann and Liam, who I spent the day with in Lijiang. It was cycling straight ahead in the cold, to arrive at the tourist destination of Dali. Oh. I passed 20000km in reality (not just celebrated it).
2000km
Fields
Day 232. 88km. Lijiang – Shigudiqing – Diannan
Posted: December 30, 2015 in China, CyclingTags: China, Cycling, Diannan, Lijiang
A fixed bike and a rest day in Lijiang, including an early 20,000km celebration, meant I was all ready to continue on towards Dali. It was grey with a few drops of rain, making for a rather uninteresting ride.
The scenery is changing
Thank-you Ann – one of the friends I met in the Tiger Leaping Gorge. She spent all afternoon looking around Lijiang for a bike shop that would try to help me. She was doing this while I was destroying the screw holding my frame together in Shigudiqing.
After about half an hour of despair in the bike shop, where the screw refused to budge, finally, after a bit of RX7 lubricant and elbow grease, the guy in the shop finally got it to move, and we were able to fit the new carbon drive.
I decided to stay in Lijiang and spend the day with Ann rather than return in the car to Shigudiqing to continue today in the rain.
American lunch
20000km
Day 231. 60km. Qiaotou – Shunggong
Posted: December 29, 2015 in China, CyclingTags: China, Cycling, Qiaotou, Shunggong
It’s good it didn’t happen in the long tunnel forbidden for bicycles. It happened just before the road turned into a dual-carriageway. In the rain. Uphill. My ‘carbon-drive’ – what I use instead of a chain – made of Kevlar and unbreakable – broke. Without being able to pedal, I rode down the hill I had just climbed to the first little village, and stopped to contemplate.
Broken Carbon Drive
I have a reserve carbon-drive, but to put it on, you have to pull apart the frame at the one point the frame is connected by a screw. A screw that it is rusted and not movable. A screw that destroyed two Allen keys, and was mangled itself in the process. I have now arranged a taxi to the nearest bigger town – Lijiang, to see if the bike shop there can unscrew my screw. Fingers crossed.
My time in the Tiger Leaping Gorge meant that I met three new friends, whom I walked through the gorge with. We walked through the green, in the bright, warm sun, gazing at the line of teeth-like pointy grey rocky mountains, reaching in to the heavens on the other side of the river. It was gorgeous.
Tourist stuff.. 🙂
Come Inn
Tiger Leaping Gorge
Teeth mountains
Tiger Leaping Gorge
Day 230. 101km. Shangri La – Qiaotou
Posted: December 28, 2015 in China, CyclingTags: China, Cycling, Qiaotou, Shangri La
Today I left the Tibetan Plateau, I dropped below 3000m, and will stay there for the rest of the trip. The drop was fun. First 60km of small ups and downs staying at 3400m, and then down and down and down – to 2100m in 40km. It was fast.
On the way to the Tiger Leaping Gorge
Today the goal was the Tiger Leaping Gorge. A guy at the lodge knew all about it. I should leave my bike and stuff at the base, and climb up to the first guesthouse on the mountain today. It is too hot and unpleasant at the base of the walk. So.. 100km cycling, and then 2 hours of hiking. I am now looking out over a wall of pointy mountains as the sun goes down. The Tiger Leaping Gorge.
Teeth mountains
Day 229. 39km. Geze – Shangri La
Posted: December 27, 2015 in China, CyclingTags: China, Cycling, Geza, Shangri La
Today was always going to be a short day – over a little 400m bump before getting lots of odds and ends done in Shangri La. The road was good, and I was soon in Shangri La – the town of haircuts, brake pad changes and working on the video.
Red valley
Day 228. 47km. Cheese Factory – Geza
Posted: December 26, 2015 in China, CyclingTags: Cheese Factory, China, Cycling, Geza
The climb continued today with large quantities of pushing the bike. It just didn’t get any less steep until the very end. It remained beautiful, following the river to a bowl of rocky mountains. The road then climbed up the side to have a spectacular view over the valley.
Switchbacks
The pass was around 4500m – a mammoth climb from the valley at 2350m, all on rocky, sandy, bumpy road. Still, the bad road didn’t matter. It was a challenge, in the sun, and in this beautiful, beautiful place. The bumpy road was more annoying on the way down, meaning that it was about 7km/h down (more than the 2km/h going up)..
The road up
Near the top
Steep road up
Looking down from the pass
Perched on the side of the hill
Rocky peaks
Valley from above
Day 227. 36km. Geka – Cheese Factory
Posted: December 25, 2015 in China, CyclingTags: Cheese Factory, China, Cycling, Geka
The switchbacks started, and I thought, ‘this is not as hard as all that.’ Then there was no more room in the valley for switchbacks and the rocky, dusty road followed the river – straight up. I cycled. Fell off as I rock took away my 2km/h. I walked, cycled, walked. Then walked, rested, walked. This valley is beautiful, but, man, it is steep!
Rising from the valley
I had been told of the cheese factory – about 40km away. A good place for lunch, I thought. The first 20km were roadworks – this time without rain or mud, which made them more bearable. It is not the bad roads that I mind with roadworks. It is the constant noise of trucks, drilling, cement mixing. Pulling over constantly to allow trucks to pass, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake.
Roadworks
Rocky, sandy, steep roads without roadworks are fun. The valley was amazing. First stunning views from the switchbacks, and then glimpses of high peaks vertically up, peeking between the dense rainforest foliage. I loved the road – first grunting to see how far I can make it cycling before falling off. Then, how far I could push the bike before needing a rest. The road got steeper and steeper and the pushing the bike rests were finally spaced every 20m or so.
Green, green, everywhere
Looking up – a long way up
The road up
Today I climbed from 2350m to 3700m. Who knows how high the pass is. I am told it is 20km away, but not quite as steep. ☺
arctic-cycler.com 