Week 6
Sat 22 Jan - Today 60km, Total 925km
We were up early to catch the bus to WenShan. We quickly flagged down a comfortable sleeper bus and settled in for the 2.5 hour ride. It was a beautiful blue skies and sunshine day - probably the best weather on my trip yet (It was hot the first week but it was misty - this was a really clear day).
After about 50km on the bus, it suddenly stopped and turned off the engine - you guessed it, yet another accident blocking the road. After our experiences yesterday, we knew that we could be in for a long wait. So we tried to persuade the bus driver to deliver our luggage to WenShan while we cycled (not something he would normally do). To our delight he agreed and we gleefully set off riding alongside the 1km of waiting traffic on each side of the accident waving at the bored waiting drivers and passengers.
It was perfect riding weather - about 25 degrees Centigrade, sunny but with a cool wind. No traffic from behind us and great views. A little hilly but we managed to cycle 60km before deciding to catch a bus the rest of the way. The traffic was still stuck at the accident. After 6 hours the queue in each direction must have been massive. The bus finally arrived about 2 hours after us and the driver called my mobile so we could pick up the luggage.
Sun 23 Jan - Today 34km, Total 959km
Our hotel here is so nice (hot water AND heating that both work ALL day) that we've decided to stay another day and check out a road towards Vietnam. The weather is again perfect today. It is so nice to have warm sunshine after being so cold for weeks.
There are lots of hill-tribe people in this area wearing their colourful dress and travelling around in pony and trap - really interesting.
My riding seems to be improving. I made it up much longer and steeper hills today than I have before and at faster speeds. And I seem to have finally mastered cambers on the turns. You just keep the unicycle at 90 degrees to the road - pushing it left or right at appropriate and leaning the other way to balance. It sure beats waving my arms about wildly and careering all over the road!
We rode about 34km today in the hills and then caught a bus back to town to look for an internet connection.
Mon 24 Jan - Today 50km, Total 1009km
Broke through 1000km today - yippee. I feel like we have been taking it fairly easy and should have done more - but distances are not really a good measure alone - because of the hills. It takes me about the same amount of time (and energy) to do about 35km in the hills as 80km on the flat and since most of what we are doing is hilly, the distances don't look so impressive - well that is my excuse anyway.
Today, it was much flatter than it has been, a good road and another beautiful sunny day, but with a different excuse for not doing more - a headwind. There really hasn't been much wind until today - and it seemed to be making up for its absence. I felt like I was going to be blown off the road many times and going downhill, didn't need a brake because the wind was slowing me down so much. It was still a good day though - and we passed over a beautiful gorge where the river naturally ran under the road. The kind of thing that, in any other country would be a tourist attraction - but didn't appear to be here.
After returning to Wenshan by bus for another night in our good hotel, we decided we'd like a change in food. I tried asking if there was Pizza in this town - but didn't get very far. We found a Chinese version of McDonalds type fast food and had some luke-warm, brown chips, flat coke, and overcooked chicken-burger thing in a sweet bread bun. It tasted OK and was certainly a change from Chinese - but about 1 hour later, I felt really nauseous and nearly threw up so I guess that it had really not been a good idea after all.
Tue 25 Jan - Today 50km, Total 1059
Our last day of riding. We started at the bus station this morning and managed to persuade them to deliver our luggage to Kunming (once we'd got through the 'We don't have that service' and 'That is not possible' replies and smiled a lot and looked like pathetic westerners who would really appreciate some help).
That done, we set off on a flatish road in great weather. It has been so sunny recently that we are both getting a nice tan on our arms. The road was a little busy but we managed 50km before catching a bus the last 150km into Kunming.
For lunch, we thought we'd spotted a restaurant at the side of the road. As I was riding near it, I signalled to the people outside the sign for eating. (In China this consists of making a bowl shape with your left hand and holding it just under your mouth, then using 2 fingers of your right hand like chopsticks shovelling food into your mouth). All Chinese people understand this and I often use it when I'm riding to communicate to people too far away to talk to - and they point me to the nearest restaurant if they are not sitting outside one already. In this case, the people nodded and pointed inside the 'restaurant' so we stopped.
As we walked up to the building, I said to Roger that it was odd because there was actually no restaurant sign. It turned out that this was someone's home and they were just sitting down to eat and were inviting us to join them! As soon as I realized I explained to Roger and apologized to them that we'd thought it was a restaurant. They were still keen for us to join them though and Roger was game to try so we did. The food was surprisingly good (I've eaten with locals before and the food is not always what I would have chosen). It seemed (from the dead animals that were being cut up around the place) that the family were the local butchers so meat was plentiful. In return for the meal (they wouldn't accept payment), we had the whole family having a go on the unicycles after lunch and they had a camera and took lots of photos.
The bus in the afternoon taking us to Kunming was a small one with 25 tightly packed seats including seats which folded across the aisle. They didn't seem to mind our unicycles because, to begin with, there were still a few seats free so our unicycles sat in the aisle. However, soon more people joined the bus and there were no seats free. By this time, our unicycles had been moved to the front and were basically in the doorway. This meant that the conductor had to lift them off every time the bus stopped for someone to get on or off (which was often). The unicycles are quite heavy and he was lifting them both at once. He always seemed to do it with a smile though and was a good sport about it (We couldn't help as we were stuck at the back). Roger gave him a demo and let him have a go when we arrived which he seemed happy about as he could show off in front of his other bus driver colleagues at the bus station.
In our restaurant that evening in Kunming the owner was very keen to practise his French which it seemed he had learnt in France. He didn't seem to care that we were actually English and my Chinese is currently a lot more fluent than my French - I kept starting sentences in French and ending up in Chinese. He didn't care and answered in French again. A bizarre kind of evening.