16th June - Longsheng to Sanjiang

Woke up early and looked out my window to see this huge (1m across) spiders web.


I had been chatting to some friends online until late last night and was tired first thing.... I was very glad for coffee. Maybe I don't need to be carrying soooooo much though. It is very difficult to get fresh coffee in China and so I stocked up.... maybe a bit too much as I have to carry it up the hills. :-)


I had a slow morning because I had breakfast with the family, played with the little grand child and took some photos. They wanted copies on their computer and so I faffed with that for a little while too. They are nice people. They charged me £10 for 2 huge breakfasts, 1 diner, washing my clothes, sowing my rucksack back together and also a bed for the night :-)

The photo with the 1 year old boy is with his 2 grandfathers. They were loving sitting on the porch watching the world go by and playing with their grandson. It did make me feel all broody....



This is the traditional clothing that most of the village women wear. They do a show for the tourists in the morning. The village is famous for the women having really long hair down to their knees. The lady of the house has her hair all tied up in a huge bun. She was very happy for me to take her photo and enjoyed posing.


So there I was at about midday cycling along about 10km South of where I started this morning and the sun came out (it was gray first thing). I looked up at the sky and the views and turned back to cycle up hill to where I had stay last night.... just so that I could go climbing a mountain again and this time get a good photo and look at the views of the rice fields in the sun!

The people at the hotel thought that I was very odd and laughed as I put on my hiking shoes and ran off up the hill.


It was interesting to see how busy the village of Ping'an was today when it was not raining. Yesterday there was hardly anyone there as I passed through, today there where huge groups of tourists everywhere doing the short trek from the where the coaches stop (at least 3/4 of the way up) to the views at the top.

I have to stay I was rather disappointed as the clouds rolled in 15 mins before I reached the view points!!!!!! I really wanted to see the effect that the light shining on the fields had on the view and to take some photos. I had purposely walked up to a different view point than I have been to yesterday. Oh well. Tweety enjoyed the view. He did not want to go yesterday as it was too wet for him.

I was really glad that I had experienced the beauty of this area without all of the hordes yesterday. It is definitely worth walking the flagstone paths between the villages and not just doing the bus tour. I think that you appreciate the whole place and the culture far more when you walk between the villages and see the farmers out planting the rice. They have to walk for hours to get to where they work in the fields. I got more of a feeling of the remoteness of the place. The way of life has not changed much in hundreds of years.

I was feeling rather smug when some American lads arrived at the top bragging about their time to get from the bus to the view and I had just done the whole way from the bottom to the top in the same time.... I am loving getting fit at the moment.

The same group though wanted to know what they could by for 2.5 CHY and then when the found out that this is about 25p they tried to by water with America Dollars! Awesome.... With a big grin on my face I tried to sell them a tiny slice of water melon for a dollar (I had just bought a quarter of the whole thing for 5CHY).

There were a group of doctors at the top that are doing a tour of China and a course in Chinese medicine. I might meet up with them in Chengdu if I go there.

I loved running all the way down. and when I got to the bottom the family I had been staying with were just having lunch and invited me to join them. I did so and got on the road again by about 3.30.



I am not sure if you can see clearly from this photo but half of the road is covered in mud from the landslide. There was a lot of rain yesterday!


I found it hard not to play dominoes while no one was looking.......


The ride along the river was fanatic. Very little traffic and lovely views. The sun came out again in the evening and the light was beautiful. China is a fantastic country for bike touring!


I had to push hard to get to Sanjiang before it got really dark. I found a hotel about 8 and it was 9 by the time I was checked in and showered. I was knackered by the end of the day today. I had done 100km on my bike (mostly after 3.30pm) and run up and down about 1000m over 10km....

My tan marks are getting even more crazy. The flash of the camera makes my skin appear red - when it is actually brown. I am putting on factor 50 in the mornings, not burning but still getting darker.....


Early night.