There was lots of traffic noise overnight, so we were up early. We were all wanting to get going in anticipation of our biggest day of climbing of the whole trip.
We had tea/coffee and ate just a orange and then left before 7:30 in full sun, and stopped at a nearby 7-Eleven for our usual breakfast - tea eggs, roasted yam and yogurt for me and Sue, egg and pastry for Rick.
The apartment opened up right onto the street, and had a roll down security gate that had magically opened when Sue and Rick arrived. The owner must have a camera outside.
Our first short-ish climb brought us to a good descent. There were lots of Sunday road bikers out. All very fit looking.
I had all my gears to start, but soon lost my granny gear. Not ideal on a day with the most climbing of the trip. But the derailleur was shifting fine into all the other gears. Rick also had no granny gear for most of the day. Bad luck for us.
Then by mid morning we were on our hardest/longest climb of the day (and probably the trip) on route number 21. The views were terrific. Marred only by loads of motorbikes. It felt like a Grand Prix, complete with photographers at one of the corners where the motor bikers were really laying down their bikes.
We saw only one bit of what must be typhoon damage.
The reward for our climb was a big twisty descent. We saw our first dead snake, and I saw three monkeys cross the road.
The sun was beating down and it was very hot as we approached Guoxing We stopped at Family Mart with lots of motorcyclists. By that point, I think we were all worried about the heat because we still had lots of climbing to do.
Typical of our companions today. A road biker and a motorbiker.
But after the break we had more coasting downhill, then a general uphilll trend along a river which wasn’t too strenuous, and at least the numerous short tunnels provided shade. There was lots of traffic though, and not a great shoulder on the road even though it’s an official bike route.
As we entered Puli Township we saw two bike tourers, we think from a Germany or maybe the Netherlands. But it was a busy section of road and we didn’t chat because we soon stopped when we spied a sign for a gelato shop. The shop made gelato with only Taiwanese flavours, and only fruits that are in season. There was black tea, milk tea, guava, bitter melon, black sesame, papaya, passion fruit, yam greens, corn (really), and a couple of others. No vanilla or chocolate to be found. It was delicious!
We did stop to chat with a Spanish bike packer who had an unfixable flat. He was in search of a way to get up to Sun Moon Lake, about 15 km uphill.
We had about 15 km climbing up a river grade. Not bad at all.
The last climb up was long but not as terrible as I feared - the temp trapped as we got higher. We were briefly routed off the main highway and saw tea growing for the first time. We finally saw Sun Moon Lake and got to our very nice and well located accommodation, Mei Jen House. The owners are super friendly and provide complimentary coffee, tea, chips, oranges, and other packaged treats. And send postcards for free.
Our bikes are stored in the lobby. After a beer and nap, we had a very good dinner practically next door.
