July 28, 2023
July 28th
back out
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The world's been burning. No doubt you've read about it. The weather here has been hotter than usual, but powerful Typhoon Doksuri recently skirted Taiwan and while its brutal force uprooted hundreds of trees and resulted in at least two deaths, it also cooled the island to a more bearable 30°C-ish. Although there's a 70 percent chance more rain could fall today, these odds seems acceptable and after a late breakfast I don a bright Castelli cycling cap Ralph gave me on my birthday over a month ago, pump up my slightly squishy tyres, then wheel the bike out the front door. My black plastic Casio says it's gone 10 o'clock.
There's a Murakami paperback in my saddlebag and a small plastic bag to put it in if it does rain, with the plan being to read for a bit while having a coffee in Longtan - about an hour away. My camera and a small tripod are being brought along for the ride. I'm wearing Crocs.
The white-painted, whatever-it's-going-to-be on the corner of our block has still not opened for business. In fact nothing seems to have changed since I took a photo of it on June 16th. It's a baffling sight as I make a right, but then my focus switches to the absence of the strong winds generated by the typhoon. They've totally vanished. Magic! While the sky is overcast, it's not making any direct threats and my hard tyres roll along nicely, giving me a feeling of liberation. It just feels nice to be not cycling into town, like I do at least a few times a week.
I make my way down the wide road near home and after a few turns, eventually meet traffic as the intersection with Route 66 gets closer. After getting through that, it's a case of veering off on a small road, which goes past some more rice fields and the odd house or two.
The paddies look different for the last time I was here and the rice in many has recently been harvested, so there are fields of short stubble while others are already filled with ankle-deep water and a few have even been planted with the next crop, with green shoots forming wobbly rows.
It's gone 11 o'clock when I get to Louisa Coffee and peel off my soaking wet cycling mitts. It feel nice to sit inside where AC is on. I get a table next to the window and start reading the novel.
There are a few other people in the place, but it's not busy. Aftr a while one twentysomething guy sits at a nearby table. Wearing a mask, he reminds me of yesterday afternoon - being on a bus with practically every passenger wearing one, young and old. It struck me that there can't be many countries where it's like this now the pandemic is basically history.
My cycling mitts seem to be even wetter when I put them back on.
It occurs to me to look around the town's traditional market, just around the corner from Louisa Coffee, but when I glance down a narrow lane that has its main row of stalls, there doesn't seem to be many people, so I decide to head straight back to the route that brought me here. As I make my way there, I notice most people riding motor scooters are also wearing masks.
The camera gets used a few times: a faded canopy outside a shop has a typo and once out of town, there are a few men using a planting machine in a paddy. Soon after I spot a plastic chair outside an old house, which has a badly painted front wall. I notice that quite a lot here and it makes me wonder what the person was thinking when they dipped the brush into the tin of paint and set to. Maybe they were drunk, or perhaps they decided to let their child have a go. The brown plastic chair looks pretty new.
Rain is coming down gently all this time. It may get heavy, but then again it could clear up. Looking at the grey sky, it's hard to say. As I said, the forecast gave a 70 percent chance of rain, so it doesn't bother me. My mitts are soaked anyway.
About 200 metres before I reach the intersection with Route 66, I cross over and make my way along a narrow road that runs beside a canal. It's a longer way home, but it's quiet and adds a bit of variety.
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Most of this route beside the canal is not on Google Maps. I've looked.
The concrete channel bends as it follows a contour and has more of a road next to it along short sections, but traffic remains sparse to non-existant. A newish zig-zag bridge takes me over a busy road and then there are trees to give me shade, not that the sun is out. The rain has stopped. My shirt is a bit damp.
The path runs with the flow of water and it's easy going back home. There are just one or two people walking along the smooth path, which is interrupted when it crosses a couple of roads as it heads towards somewhere. It eventually disappears when I reach a steep drop and soon after I'm cycling beside a shallow river. There's a spot where Debbie saw a snake the last time we rode along here, but it could be anywhere now. I still look around for it though. She said it was big.
Eventually I turn off the path and ride down side streets towards home. I make a turn at one junction of about 150 degrees and my left pedal strikes the road as I do so, bouncing me up a little. For a minute it seems like I've bent the spindle, or the crank arm, but then I realise it's the saddle that has moved. It's now pointing down, so I stop, get my mini-tool and adjust it, and also raise the seat post about 15mm. It feels a lot better now.
It's lunch time and it occurs to me to stop somewhere and eat, but my appetite isn't great and I keep riding and get home at gone 1:30.
Today's ride: 28 km (17 miles)
Total: 3,164 km (1,965 miles)
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