The night was the most comfortable, i had burnt my arms and it was rather uncomfortable trying to keep warm in the sleeping bag, also i felt dirty having not been able wash due to the lack of water. I took my time packing up, there was a bone chilling wind blowing which i was sheltered from but overnight had changed direction and the tent was the best source of relief from it.
When i did get going i felt rested and ready to tackle my new foe. I had hoped the sealed road would return after 12kms but i didn’t, i had to grind out 30km before i got sealed road. The ironic thing with the cobbled road is the worse it is the better for me, where it had worn away and been replaced with gravel i headed straight for those areas. I also had very little water so was rationing what i had as i had no idea where the next town was. When it did arrive so did a sealed road but as the town ended back came the cobbled road, i had enough of that road, i already had replaced a bolt which had shaken out so i took the motorway which wasn’t very busy and was a beautiful smooth sealed road and more direct, why go around a mountain when you can just blast a hole through it. I was worried though that i might be pulled over by the police, they had already given me a warning and had my picture so when i saw two policemen and the beckoned me to stop i feared the worse. They didn’t speak a word of English, i played the dumb Englishman (not hard for me) and the let me carry on. The bike gods are indeed kind.
When i reached the first major town i was caught in two minds whether to pull off the highway or not, i did not know where the next hotel would be, i didn’t have enough supplies to camp and this toll both did not look easy to slip past but hopefully the cobble nightmare will be over. I opted to stop though i was keen to carry on but it is Sunday.
Huize is very typical of china at present, its a developing town, the roads weren’t even on my GPS they were that new. I got myself a hotel that seemed almost brand new and there was great excitement at my checking in as i was the first westerner to stay here. I did some repairs to the bike but have another puncture at the back to deal with which i will do in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment