The notable part of today is neither in the riding nor the working but in the group of five guys who stop me just after I've crossed into Guangdong again and just before I've crossed into Hunan again. They want to know if I'd like to join them for dinner at a friend's goat farm somewhere up one of the dirt tracks branching off the main road.

Despite the fact that I'm now actively seeking ways to delay my overall forward motion, I'm also a bit cautious regarding throwing my bike and all my stuff into the back of a vehicle preparing to go off road to an unknown destination.

Citing the distance to the town where I'm planning on sleeping as a reason why I really oughtn't, they let me know that the place just down the road has multiple hotels. Being as it doesn't even rise to the status of being a 乡, I'm dubious of this claim but a check of Maps confirms that there appear to be two hotels which hadn't shown up when I'd previously checked on account of Maps never really wanting to show me hotels anyplace other than nearby cities or where I am right now.

I get the one guy's WeChat and let them know that if I find a place to stay in the townlet and can shower and change before Adventuring, I'll join them.

Of the two, one is closed and the other one missing. However, a third unlisted one appears just as I'm about to hit the end of stuff and send the "sorry" message. It's reasonably priced and, on account of my being in Hunan again (when did that happen?) completely unconcerned that I haven't yet found and signed back up for the Guangdong Health Code Foreigner Version.

So I shower, quick wash my laundry and hang it up, and get dressed in cotton clothing that, after so many days of Lycra, is wonderfully comfortable against my skin.

Dinner was exactly what they said it was going to be. A big group of people gathering at a mountain farm (of the commercial sort) and nomming down on a variety of stuff that was, well, far more variegated than I usually get to eat on my own. With the exception of the fruit (including multiple kilos of self grown peaches that I was sent off with) none of it was particularly mind blowing but all of it was yummy.

And if I couldn't always understand their Cantonese inflected Hunan accented Mandarin, the fact of having hit that missing my friends point where I want to be considering a bus the rest of the way but can't because Haikou is currently in a Covid related lockdown meant that being in a group of strangers who were each other's friends still felt good.