To Free Camp near Daju: cobblestone road

March 26, 2007

We took the scenic route into the city and we took a scenic route out...through a "suburb" concrete road, narrow and winding working our way to a connector road to our route North. Soon we are headed to Daju. The road is good and imperceptibly we are gaining altitude, Rachel calls this "flat hills". The road looks flat, but the effort to cycle says it's not.

To use the road, there is an entrance fee 120Y/pp Patrick tries to get out of paying "arguing" we are on bicycles...didn't work, but at least we didn't just ride through and be chased like some cyclists report. Our first food stop is at the tourist Snow Mountain Village. We enjoy the view of the mountains, the wind swirls, the head wind just around the village is strong, occasionally a tail wind helps us with the climb. And we do a lot of climbing today, the highest point 3322 meters. The road surface is tarmac until after the village, we have a little downhill cross a bridge and wow...cobblestones for 8km or so.

Just before that, we pass through the next tourist trap of fake glacier pools and fake calcium terraces. Rachel works her way through a crowd of tourists all with red caps and following the tour leader carrying a flag. Patrick suggested yesterday that we should take turns carrying a flag walking around Lijiang. He had mentioned this last night in the British Pub, the owner said he had known of two travelers that did that and pretty soon they had a group following them.

The cobblestones were rough to ride! To think that one time in history, cobblestones were considered a road improvement! Eventually the road turns back to tarmac. The views are incredible!

At 4pm we reach a junction. To the right--tarmac; to the left--cobblestones. Patrick says, by the map a junction is at 63km, we are at 53km. We decide to take a break and eat and wait for traffic to pass by to ask for directions. Patrick flags down 3 vehicles, they all point the way to Daju, of course the cobblestone way! Resigned that it's cobblestones, we descend slowly, what would have been a beautiful downhill is an arduous task! Our bodies get beat up and we feel robbed of a downhill.

Quite annoying to Rachel ...one...gray... hair escapes through a hole in her helmet, continually floating and waving in front of her eyes. She comments that she didn't need to be reminded of her age. Ten km and we still aren't down. The road continues to wind around, we can see Daju, well we think it is Daju.

Do we go onto the town or camp? It has taken us 1 1/2 hours to come down 10km. We think it's another 15km to the town but not sure. Patrick scouts out an area near a stream coming downhill. Rachel's hands are going numb from braking downhill and the bumps. Patrick finds a beautiful place to camp. We filter water from the stream then go to find a place to pitch the tent. We have cooking gear, but no fuel yet, so peanut butter sandwiches & potato chips for dinner. Patrick has carried a nice bottle of wine to enjoy!

We wait until dusk before pitching our new tent. This will be our first night of camping!! And in a beautiful spot.