18 September,109 km and 1300m of elevation
Jianshui to Eshan
Breakfast wasn’t served until 8.30 this morning so a Late start for a big day.
The first few km were quite industrial and looked a little bleak under a cloudy sky with morning mist hiding the surrounding mountains. Soon I was on a quiet rural road with some big climbs
Thinking of lunch opportunities whilst peddling through a smallish town I spotted one of the chicken burger shops, perfect timing.
Wonderful scenery after lunch, a patchwork of crops in terraces on the valley floor. The crops seem to be tended to entirely by hand, even the preparing the soil for planting. They look to live comfortable lives good quality housing. Most of the old mud brick and earth buildings are unoccupied and crumbling, it seems a shame as they are prettier than the concrete replacements but in an earthquake prone area it makes sense.
Not many young people, I guess like most of the world they have been drawn the cities and their opportunities.
After some big hills on rough gravel roads I finally reached Eshan, Checked in to a Hotel and had a quick explore of the town and settled on a restaurant near the hotel
No idea what sort of food they served, communicated via a translate app and asked for some rice, meat and veg. Turns out they were all raw and you cook it yourself on the BBQ they open up in the middle of the table. The owners were so excited to have a foreigner in their restaurant they sat with me and cooked the food, all the while talking through the translate app. It was an entertaining evening and at the end of the evening they refused payment.
19 September, 82 km and 928m elevation
Eshan to Yimen
Left the small town on a fairly busy highway, heading up through forested hills and mountains. I counted the numbers of electric trucks compared to diesel. There were more electric, some appeared to be older vehicles that had been converted.
On to quieter roads for the afternoon, rice, sweetcorn and vegetables growing in the valleys, and solar panels covering the steeper less productive land.
20 September,72km and 900 m of elevation
Yimen to small town with no name
The images of the included breakfast showed croissants and coffee, neither existed. There was a fairly good buffet, including, fruit, eggs, dumplings and noodle soup.
Tonight’s destination is a small town next to a dinosaur theme park. It must be hugely popular at times as the car park is vast, today it was empty.
Apparently this region is famous for the number of dinosaurs unearthed.
The town seemed to offer few dining opportunities, so surprisingly had one of the best meals so far.
21 September, 90km and 1200 m of elevation
Dinosaur town to Chuxiong
A beautiful sunny day and cool to start, Delightful quiet roads gradually deteriorated to mud and gravel paths, complete with river crossings.
Kamoot the routing app I have been using, has a tendency to sometimes find some really sketchy routes. Often in other countries we will cross check with google maps, using satellite imagery. That is much harder to do in China, the satellite imagery is not clear enough to determine the road surface and google maps is completely inaccurate.
Tonight’s hotel room was extraordinary, voice controlled curtains and lights, thankfully they also had manual switches.
22 September, 45km and 900 m elevation
Chuxiong to Nanhua
Planned on a short day today, it did however prove to be a nightmare in route planning. Kamoot sent me on some tiny roads and gravel paths rather than the quiet highway. One section took me on a steep descent of 100 metres through some sort of concrete works and then a road closed barricade. Return and re route.
20 km later it took me up a steep dusty road and another concrete works, this time the road did pass through. I did feel Kamoot must have an algorithm prioritising dust and industry for today.
23 September, 115km and 1500 m of elevation
Nanhua to Xiangyun
Today was going to be a big one, no breakfast at last night’s hotel so cake, fruit and 3 in one coffee. It looked like some form of bread in the packet but was sweet and filled with some sort of jam.
An early start and felt energetic so hills felt easy, increasing altitude and heading north, the vegetation is changing, the tropical plants, with dense leaves and draped with vines have been replaced by pine and eucalyptus trees, walnuts and chestnuts instead of bananas.
The morning air is distinctly fresh, the afternoons are still warm.
24 September, 100km and 1100m of elevation
Xiangyun to Dali
Today was meant to be easier day about 55km, after about 20 km winding uphill on quiet scenic road an army truck pulled up a told me to go back.
No options but to return and re route. After 30 km I actually rode past last nights hotel. This made for a much longer day than planned and it was nearly 6.00pm when I reached a pre-booked hotel. Always interesting when whole street is all hotels is trying To work out the correct one. They have an English name on trip.com and Chinese writing on their signs that translates to something else. I end up scrolling through their images looking for a building or entrance picture.
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