Category: Guangdong

We felt atrabilious breaking camp in the morning.

Well, at least _I_ felt that.

Niklas was looking forward to air-con and showers and no-more subtropical-camping and being home again. And a little bit atrabilious.

We followed the G-road we followed before and slept next to. We stopped detecting the noise from the trucks.

Until we left the G-road. And enjoyed the silence. The quietness. The absence of constant cars going past and honking. Our ear-drums unfolded while we enjoyed some ice-tea.

So yummy, so happy!

And then, that was is.

Less than 20k from where we started, we checked into a fancy hotel.

I abandoned my plans on cycling or busing to Kaiping the next day. Instead I slept. Got up for food. And slept again.

I remember a bit of sight-seeing in Zhaoqing – It’s a beautiful, cute city with a picturesque lake, good air-quality and a bit too much traffic for our taste – but mainly I remember being in the hotel room. Sleeping. Being lazy. Doing nothing.

   City wall and view from the city wall which was- surprisingly – free of charge

“What did she post THAT for?” is what you are probably thinking right now. Well – it looks like it’s out in the country side, right? Zhaoqing city centre is literally right around the corner – but there and then, it was quiet and felt secluded.

 

And then, two nights later, the bus to Shenzhen…

… with specialized bike storage spaces

 

Great service and great language skills by the waitress of the Kung-Fu fast food restaurant.

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.

 

 

Also, was wünsch ich mir als Radfahrerin, wenn ich endlich mein klimatisiertes, schönes Hotelzimmer verlasse?

Genau – eine Erinnerung darum, wie es eigentlich ist auf Tour zu sein. Ausgesetzt den Wetterbedingungen. Dem Verkehr. Der Straßenqualität.

Und so bekamen wir alles – die Baustelle, die auf der einen Seite in die Stadt führte, führte auf der anderen Seite wieder raus. Also viel Verkehr, schlechte, kaum befestigte Wege, Schotter und Schlaglöcher. Dazu noch ein bisschen Regen.

Nachdem der letzte Tag sich so sehr nach Kampf angefühlt hat, war unsere Stimmung entsprechend gedämpft. Ich hatte echt keine Lust mehr. Warum bitte schön, tu ich mir das an? Warum stell ich mir sowas unter einem schönen Urlaub vor?

Darum, zum Beispiel:

Unglaublich schöner Ausblick – und ein riesiger Bereich, der da, anscheinend von nur einer Person, bewirtschaftet wird.

Unser Nachtlager zwischen Bäumen – leider trieb uns ein Gewitter viel zu früh in die Zelte.

***

Diese Gruppe Kinder spielte ein Spiel, indem wir anscheinend den wichtigsten Part darstellten. “Wer traut sich am nächsten an diese komischen Menschen im Restaurant?” Ganz wichtig ist es da natürlich, anschließend lachend und kreischend wegzulaufen, nur um dann wieder zu kommen. Zwei ganz Mutige sind zu mir gekommen, als ich zu verstehen gab, dass ich ein Selfie mit ihnen machen möchte.

This was a tough one. We had a not-to-late-start and the part until Ruyuan isn’t really woth mentioning. Little hills, sucking your energy.

In Ruyuan we had a lunch break, cooled down and hit the road again. And that’s where the real pain started. Up, up, up. In the merciless heat. Thunderrolling and threatining in the distance but no relief by rain or clouds.

So this was Niklas first day of cycling. Bloody, merciless, energy-sucking uphill. Slow, slower… The villages where I wanted to stop for a cold drink didn’t exist. Not good. And we were slow. Exhausted. Especially Niklas. It was his first ever day of bike touring. I tried to figure out the map but couldn’t tell if and when there would be a downhill today or if Nanling National Forest park was just up somewhere in the mountains.

I started to worry. Camping? In this heat? With a thunderstorm rolling in the distance? And with the little water supply and very little food supply weh ad? Didn’t feel good. Not at all. I felt ever so reliefed when I saw a hotel and a restaurant on google maps just a few k ahead. I told Niklas.

The hotel came. All fenced up. The restaurant. All fenced up. The whole village. All fenced up. Deserted. Maybe in high season? Maybe not at all any more? Whatever. Not for us. Every place we came past I scanned for a hotel. But to no avail.

At least, we came past a store. Stocked up on food and fluid supply, drank salted cold coke and went on. Niklas became mono-syllabic and I got fits of laughter. Our individual reactions to exhaustion. I was still able to talk, so I poor Niklas had to listen to me. We stayed close, so I told him, how good he was doing (remember – his first ever day of bike touring!), told him to keep going, told him, he didn’t get a cramp (he did get one but I wasn’t having anymore stopping at that point), to stop worry about his heart rate, he wasn’t going to have an attack and that we really were doing great progress (which was true. For some reason, we regained some energy and were making progress). I didn’t tell him when I decided that we were going to make it to the first hotels as I was a bit worried, he would have a fit and tell me, I was crazy and he was going to camp right there and then.

Then it came. Finally. The DOWNHILL we were working for all afternoon. Sweet joy! The last 20k were easy and we lived to see another air-conditioned hotel room and have dinner at a restaurant.

 

I had an awesome breakfast which included peanut sauce.

Landscape was beautiful, the sun fierce. I planed on a very short trip, only 10k to Fogang. But since that didn’t feel right I went on. And regretted it. I had to go another 40k before I found a hotel. Which was rather weird. The owner didn’t want to show me the room because it was on the third (second) floor. I insisted. Holy… I can deal with many levels of cleanliness, but this felt almost over the top with cigarettes over the floor. But no bugs. So it was an option. But next door was the next hotel – cleaner, newer and 20quai more. I was going to spoil myself. I shouldered my bags and staggered upstairs where I slept off my heat exhaustion.

48km

The next day held everything in store that cycling has to offer. Apart from rain and headwind. But emotionally. I felt everything from joy to despair to relief and exhaustion.
I enjoyed getting lost in beautiful landscapes along the Guangdong greenway.
I did not enjoy missing the turn off on the highway.
I was not to surprised when a road I was supposed to take did not exist.
I did enjoy a beautiful sunset over a river in the mountains.

I started to worry when pushing my bike uphill in the middle of nowhere after dark. What if this wasn’t a through road after all? What if I am stuck here in the mountains? Everyone was in their houses, I didn’t see a store in ages, I didn’t have proper lunch and no dinner at all yet. So I wasn’t to keen on camping.
Shaking with exhaustion I felt relieved when a motor cyclist came my way. We tried an failed communication so we both went on.* A few k later a shopowner in a small village was able to tell me that I am three k from the next hotel.
And true – a city came up, including a hotel
It’s so fascinating how you can feel like you are in the middle of nowhere in China and BAM – there’s a city, big buildings, everything…
100km.
Weather: hot hot hot. Sunny. No rain.

*at this point I put on my really really bright headlight that the … (heavy breathing. Counting to 10…) person in the store didn’t want to sell to me, telling me that I would never ever need that and it’s too bright for cycling.  I decide how much light I need. No-one else. It was not to bright. It was sufficient.

I swear I had intentions of leaving early but the hotel was so lovely and then I really had to eat before I started. So it was about 11pm when my wheels touched the road.
Riding out of the city was quiet okay. I was surprised how natural it felt and how easy I got back into cycling Chinese streets.
I followed big to small to tiny roads and just when it started to rain really bad with little warning – the smell of air changed seconds beforehand – I was literally right next to a bench with a sun-rain cover where I dunked under.
And just when I was really tired, really wanted to have a bed, i came past a lovely hotel, with a cheap, reasonable sized (sometimes these rooms are just huge and it feels like this hotel used to have seen some better times), clean (!!!) hotel with awfully nice owners.
Dinner was next door and so would be breakfast.
93 km

That seemed to be the best strategy to get to Stefan in Longgang. Crossing the border to Shenzhen went okay but not smoothly. No one wanted to check my bags or complained about my bicycle. They just looked at me forever.
Once I had a sim card the trouble my bicycle tour was off for a start. I was a bit shy of Chinese roads at first and tried to follow the rules by using the bicycle lane. I forgot how bad this decision was but was quickly reminded. Chinese bike lanes get interrupted every so often. The pavements quality in only so-so and with every road you are crossing you have to get off… Not to mention the times where you need to cross but can’t as the bicycle lane and sidewalk are fenced off the road….
So I finally decided I either get to Stefans now or die trying. Exhausted and annoyed I set off to cycle a really nasty road with huge trucks. And there it was. A really nice pathway for walking and cycling.