April 16th

April 16, 2024

Yongan on four-wheelers

Another 'cycling' oportunity that's safe for the boys lies out at the nearby west coast, where a bicycle path hugs the shore and rental places hire out four-wheel machines, allowing everyone to pedal.

We wait for a bus at the station in town to take us out to a place called Yongan, with the timetable saying a bus will leave at 1:00. We wait in vain for 30 minutes. A couple of bus drivers sat having a bite to eat in the upstairs rest area kindly look up the schedule and tell me the service only runs on holidays, so there's no choice but to get a cab. It's over 30 minutes away and won't be cheap, but my mind's made up.

There are a few taxis waiting just outside the station. They must know.

Al Fresco 7-Eleven breakfast for the boys

No gears and weighing a ton, you wouldn't want to pedal this very far - we didn't

Yongan is a fishing port and is basically a one-street town and the taxi drops us off at right outside a rental place located in a metal shed down an alley. The four-wheeler that we sit in is hefty and has no gears, but the bicycle path is flat and there's little wind to worry about, and there are four of us to do the pedalling. I hand over some cash and off we go, the two boys sat on the back seat, hopefully doing some work.

The cycle path begins at the harbour and there's a small arched bridge that spans a stream and the few metres of incline have us wishing there was a gear to use to make it a bit easier, then on the short drop it'd be nice to be able to pedal, but our speed is too fast and gravity just does its thing.

We ride slowly south, under a sky that's overcast, but it's very humid again and we're all soon feeling pretty sweaty.

The sea is on our right and is grey - very differnt from the nice blue we experienced a few days ago on Liuqiu. There's nobody in it and only a couple of people walking of the vast expanse of sands, as this west coast is unsuitable for swimming, with strong tides making it unsafe. You only see windsurfers here, and not very many of them.

After a couple of kilometres of pedestrian speed, we get to a turning that leads to a cafe that I'd spotted on Google Maps and we make a detour.

Feeding the fish at the cafe near Yongan

The cafe is set in lush grounds and has a couple of huge tortoises in a garden area, just next to our table. They are a couple of feet long and are chomping on carrots. They can live to well over 100 and I wonder how old these two are.

We order a pizza and a few other bits and watch the tortoises move around like a couple of dinosaurs. When I pop out to get a closer look, the manager gives me a few wedges of carrot to feed them and warms me to be careful - they can snap through the thick veg with no problem.

After some desert, he presents us with a free pizza, which takes some eating and we're all bloated when we get back onto teh four-wheeler and head south some more. The main attration here is a Green Tunnel, where trees overhang teh path. It's a nice stretch and being a weeked, we more or less have it to ourselves... I have cycled here on weekends and it can be manic.

Riding along what's known as The Green Tunnel

We reach a point where a path leads to the sea and we take a quick look and decidee this is far enough for today. The ride back is just as quiet and we only see a couple of other four-wheelers during the whole time.

There's a go-kart track within walking distance of the rental place and we go there to see if the boys are old/big enough to have a go. When we get to its perimter fence, we watch a couple of young men whizzing around the track at about 70km/hr, so it seems doubtful.

The manager tells us that teh mimnimum age is 10 and drivers myust be 140cm tall, so that's Oscar out. Charlie is up for it and we hand over some cash and he gets a balaclava and helmet and is given some instructions. We have to wait for the two racers to finish and there are just two older men having a try at the same time as Charlie.

Once he's set off, Ruby asks the staff if one of them will drive a two-seater with Oscar and one agrees, so he soon gets to experience the thrill of speed at low level and gives us a wave as he flashes by on each lap.

It's another taxi ride back to the hotel.

In a couple of days Ruby and the boys will be flying back to England. I fly later on Thursday and Debbie will join me in June. We'll be touring a bit - some proper cycling.

Today's ride: 6 km (4 miles)
Total: 3,825 km (2,375 miles)

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