January 19, 2025
Over to the East Coast and down the 193
Haulien to Guanfu
Debbie wakes me up at 7:10, but I drift back to sleep, then the alarm on her phone goes off 10 minutes later. It's gloomy outside. Only a little light is seeping through below the blind on the window and I know it rained heavily during the night. I could hear it pinging off a nearby rooftop.
As agreed, Ralph calls to say he's on his way over and will be here in about 15 minutes and I tell him I'll be outside waiting. The road is wet when I wheel my bike out of the gate, fitted with a saddlebag and barbag, which always carry a few basics. I'm already dressed to ride - in shorts and a merinio top. I have my camera and a Gorillapod tripod... the Slick Mini I have just seems a bit too heavy for this trip.
The thing is Ralph will be riding a Cannondale road bike that has just had a new drive chain fitted, while I'm on my hefty Thorn Nomad. It's like a greyhound compared to a bulldog.
I've got a canvas holdall stuffed with my clothing and Debbie wants me to wear a helmet and has dug out a spare one. A rain cover gets pulled over my Brooks seat and when Ralph pulls up at about 8:20 it doesn't take a minute to sort things out and we hit the road with 70s music for company. We reckon it'll be noon-ish by the time we reach Haulien.
Ralph is much more familiar with highway travel and knows these roads really well. I haven't driven a car in Taiwan for about 15 years or so.
After about 10 minutes we pause at a 7-Eleven to get cheap cappuccinos to go, then soon after turn onto the Highway that skirts the southern edge of Taipei and eventually enter a very long tunnel. I've only been through this thing once before, soon after it opened over 10 years ago. Let's say it's a strange experience - 13km of weirdness at a steady 70km/hr max.
The weather doesn't improve a whole lot, with dark skies hovering over the hills as we make our way down the east coast, through a couple of more long tunnels as we cross from Yilan County into Haulien County. En route we agree to just park at the hotel, then start riding south along the rural 193. We arrive at gone noon as expected and that doesn't leave a lot of daylight.
The hotel is called Meci and a banner hanging outside advertises two hours for NT$500, which makes us wonder what kind of place this is. There are four toilets placed adjacent to the rear parking area, each with a large letter on the back of its cistern that spells the name. Fortunatly the room is OK. It's cheap.
By the time we've had lunch in a Subway on the main street that leads directly to the coast, it's just after one o'clock. The train that runs back north from stations nearby the 193 depart at about 5:00... depending how far south we get. It's likely to be a small town called Guanfu.
Most vehicles use either Highway 9, which is inland, or the coast-hugging Highway 11. The 193 is inland and just a few kilometres east of the 11. It doesn't really go to any place, and it's this that makes it ideal for cycling. There's no traffic on it.
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The coastal bike path ends at a bridge which has marble crazy paving for pedestrians - and presumebaly cyclists. We ride along and I worry it'll be slippery as it's smooth and slightly damp. Soon after turning onto the 193, there are two foreign cyclists fixing one of the bikes and I ask if they need anything, but they say they're fitting a new tube. We wonder if they will come our way later.
The 193 runs beside a range of hills (or mountains) that seperate the wide Rift Valley from the coast and there's evidence of rockfalls and small landslides here and there. For a while there are no villages, just the odd dilapidated building that looks like it's used for storage of some sort.
Eventually we do come to a village where the 193 doglegs. It has a cafe/shop and we get cold drinks and sit outside for a few minutes. Most of the residents are aboriginal.
There are some climbs along the 193. While they're not really hard work compared to the mountain roads we'll cycle up and down in a day or two, they do warm us up and I reckon that a short-sleeved top would be better than the long-sleeved merino one I have on. I easily get hot and Ralph is wearing a cotton Cannondale top that I gave him as it was always too warm for me in Taiwan.
Ralph has aimed for a village further south, but that's not going to happen and when we reach a junction with the east-west leg of Highway 11, we turn inland and ride over a long bridge to get to a place called Guanfu. This secton of Highway 11 actually spans a couple of rivers before ending directly in front of the town's train station, where it interscets with the main north-south 11.
Not all trains allow bikes, but the one departing at five after five does and we buy tickets before riding back two blocks to a 7-Eleven where I once had breakfast after staying in a B&B here nearly 10 years ago. Guanfu is a small town.
It's an hour's ride to Haulien and once we've cleaned up, we walk down the city's main street to an Indian restaurant that Ralph found online. It's a nice place, but my legs feel it and the walk back to our hotel seems long.
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 83 km (52 miles)
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