May 12th

May 12, 2023

north from Zhubei

At the risk of sounding smug: life's pretty good; no complaints. It's the crack of 9:30 when I get up and around 10 when stroll a block for a coffee and a blueberry bagel in 7-Eleven. En route, my eyes look up to assess this morning's weather. I'd not been too optimistic, as the forecast last night said it'd be wet, but while it's clearly overcast, there's no feeling of imminent rain. A ride from Zhubei beckons.

Once back home, the government's web site tells me that today will be dry and while satelite images do show some cloud drifting over, they're nothing serious. Then the online timetable says the next train south is at 10:53 - not long. It's about 10:35 when I wheel my bike out the door and it's a mad dash to the station. The train's headlights are visible in the distance as I get onto Platform 3 after spending just over US$2 to travel 40 minutes.

So much for the forecast. The sky gradually darkens as the 10:53 trundles south and as it gets close to Zhubei, rain drops start streaking down the carriage's windows and it's still drizzling when my bike gets pushed out of the station. Louisa Coffee is just a few minutes' ride away, so that's where I head to take stock.

After scoffing a tuna bagel, the weather seems to have perked up a bit and riding home seems an OK thing to do; if it does begin raining within the next 30 minutes, it'll be easy enough to double back and get a train north.

The straight road from the old part of town takes me to the river and a bike path then leads me east, past tall apartment blocks of the new, more affluent Zhubei. Eventually, at a bridge carrying route 117, I make a left and go a block north to see some traditional homes that belonged to the prominent Li family. Although I looked at a couple the last time I was here, I didn't know there were a few more.

The buildings have been renovated and stand vacant, like museum pieces. They're locked up, so it's a case of walking around their perimeter and taking a few snaps. The interiors are not that interesting anyway.

As I snap away, rain lightly falls and makes me wonder about riding back to the station, but it soon passes so I head to the river and it's only a few minutes later that I climb over its sloping concrete flood wall and start cycling along a rural lane, past ride fields that drop in gentle terraces.

The lane's flat and has very little traffic, but there's not much of interest. Houses are dotted here and there have been modernised and look bland, and there are just a few industrial units to add a bit of variety, plus a place that looks to process gravel excavated from the out-of-sight river bed.

It takes me longer than expected to reach a brutal slab of a bridge over a dried up stream and after that my eyes are on the lookout for a small lane veering north. It starts spitting and it's a relief to reach a Family Mart before things get worse.

The convenience store stands at an intersection where the climb up route 竹25 starts - that Chinese chacacter means bamboo and refers to the county of Hsinchu (新竹), but sometimes the English spelling is different, such as for Zhubei (竹北), which means North Bamboo.

The shop has one baked sweet potato left and I get that and a couple of cold drinks. It's damp outside, but I'm leaking and need to rehydrate. There's not much else after this place.

Getting some liquid down my neck in Family Mart before starting up route 竹25

The climb lasts for about 4km... maybe a bit more. It starts off OK, going past a few large industrial buildings, then a small group of houses before it gradually winds up into lush, hilly countryside and becomes harder.

The temperature is in the mid twenties, but humidity is close to 100 percent and the wet-bulb version makes it difficult to keep pedalling away. A Guinness bar towel gets used to wipe away sweat and is soon soaked. I pause a few times to cool down and allow my heart rate to drop.

The good thing is there's no traffic. Just one or two cars pass me on the way to the crest, and none on the cooling, twisting drop towards the town of Guanxi, which I bypass by tracing a riverside path.

Following the river on the edge of Guanxi

A lane from the river takes me to Highway 3 and straight across a set of lights is the start of route 28-1. This is like an action replay of the first climb... not too hard at first, but the incline ramps up and gets me feeling like I'm taking a hot shower. Rain starts to fall steadily, but as I'm already drenched, it makes no difference.

Time is ticking by and I reckon it'll be getting on for dusk by the time I get home. I have lights with me.

The 28-1 drops me near the edge of Longtan and from here, the roads imperceptibly decline and my speed is around 25km/hr - sometimes more. As it gets to five o'clock, traffic picks up as people leave work, but I stop at a garden centre that's still oepn and buy a couple of plants. The owner knows that I like ferns and shows me one he's just got in - a species I don't have. It's about US$5. The other plant is a third of that.

By the time I reach my block it's 5:45 and I'm long out of liquid, so pop into a shop to get a cold drink and see they have my favourite IPA in stock - a brew from Lithuania. I buy three cans, knowing one will be drunk before I hit the sack.

I buy two plants that cost a total of NT$200 - nearly US$7

I buy some IPA close to home... and a sarsaparilla

Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 2,946 km (1,829 miles)

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