Distance vs Height – Yongfengzhen to almost Zhaoqing

Freshly showered and with fresh motivation we were on the road again.

We had been pondering, if we cycle into Guangzhou and then Shenzhen. But since none of us enjoyed cycling in Shenzhen at the starts of our tour, we decided to keep west of these places and eventually take a bus. So our last stop would be Zhaoqing, Guangdong. A small city of about 4m, enjoyed by many people from Guangzhou for it’s fresh air and beautiful scenery.

Depending on the route we were 70 to 90k away from there. So this could have very easily been our last day of cycling and of no-more camping.

Last day – first(!) flat between the two of us

We set off with this bittersweet feeling you get, when you know, something is about to end. A bit sad, a bit looking forward to going home (Niklas at least; I could have gone on for… let’s say, a while, at least).

I was at ease with the kilometers we were doing – depending on the time and progress, we would camp a last time outside Zhaoqing before going in a really nice hotel.

Having to roads to choose from, we opted for the shorter one. Even though, we would leave the s-road for the smaller x-road. We saved 20k in total for 20k on the x-414. And heavens… we really worked for every single kilometer of that.

That’s the view we got – I was too exhausted to care enough to cross the street for a better pic

First, the road was full of potholes, but flat. Then it started to gradually climb before the real climb started. We got slower and slower and realized, we would be totally exhausted if we stick to the plan of having lunch once we left the x-road or in the village that we would pass pretty much at the end of it.

So after looking for a nice spot to rest, a tiny, deserted construction site served as our napping-and-picknick-spot.

Our construction site – the village was in the valley so going down didn’t seem worth the effort

This really nice car overtook us, stopped and one of the passengers got out to take our photos as we were almost at the top. So we stopped as well and I walked up to the then terrified looking guy, smiled, hold up my mobile and successfully asked for their wechat to get the photos.

Two kinds of highway, water and road – and we ‘sleep’ in-between

We put some effort in finding a secluded camp on one the side roads, but eventually gave up as every spot of land was either field, dump or a house. Camped between the river and the highway.

Looking for a camp – pretty sure, this building was deserted.