I think I have got a chill with the rain, storms and cold weather over the past few days, so after a restless sleep and feeling about 85%, I left town and headed north towards Quliang.
Quliang has some hot water springs about 4kms south of the town Miles stayed at the hotel there a few nights ago. Unfortunately the hotel is booked out tonight Perhaps the hot springs would do me good, but I’m not sure that I want to emerge from a hot springs pool then ride 4kms in the cool weather if I’m already a bit sick.
Anyway, after a sincerely inexciting first 50kms to Quliang, I had some lunch and decided to keep going. If id paid more attention to Komoot, I may have decided otherwise as there was a lot of climbing to be done.
I simply didn’t like the look of Quliang and left.
It was fine to start with. The beautiful farmland made for a nice ride, especially because it was largely flat. Before too long though, the road went skywards for all but the last three kms of the ride.
As the climb started, I came to a town where I got a coke and some bananas. I only wanted two bananas and the nice people let me buy them. Usually, Asians will simply laugh and say no. They came to the grand total of 1 yuan or 20 Aus cents.
To be fair, it was beautiful going slowly up the narrow gorge. Cars and trucks were very kind and there was plenty to look at.
At one point up ahead, I saw a dozen goats run across the road and jump the fence. When I got there, they were gone but I simply couldn’t see how they could stick the landing after jumping. It was vertical. Just amazing.
When I got to the top, I stopped and rugged up. There wouldn’t be much descent and I was at 1850 metres, sland starting to get cold.
I rolled into Tonghai and fould the Landun Hotel. It’s very very nice, but more importantly, it has the best shower I’ve ever had. That meant I could warm up and feel slightly human again.
Dinner was down the road at a pork intestines restaurant although I didn’t partake of their signature dish.
Update – I didn’t feel up to riding in the morning, so I decided on a rest day full of cold and flu tablets and vitamin C.