February 18th

February 18, 2023

River bank

On Monday I had a nice ride with my Canadian friend g around his neck of the woods, but I forgot to take my camera with me. It was a warm, sunny day to start off with, but once we climbed up Turtle Mountain in the early afternoon, clouds dropped and the temperature followed suit and it looked like it'd rain just before I got a train back home.

Well, the sun is out again after a few chilly days (8°C) and I ride into town and get to the river bank and go upstream, riding along a decent bike path. Dressed in a short-sleeved top that I bought about 20 years ago, my destination is a bit vague, but coffee will feature at some point in the near future. It's getting on for noon already.

Another apartment block going up near home

Chopped pieces of something edible drying in the sunshine

The river bank is flat, as they normally are, and the ride is a gentle cruise. There's no wind to speak of and with it being sunny and a Saturday, you'd expect to see a few people out and about, but today is what's called a 'make-up day' - a Taiwanese peculiarity. The reason there're not very many others obout is because all students and workers have had to clock in to make up for an 'extra' day that they had to take off during the recent Chinese New Year break. It's hard to fathom the logic.

The bike path soon takes me out of town and past flooded rice fields and afterroughly half an hour I cross over Route 66 and keep going. There's a short hill that's steep and then an urban lane bends a bit and I decide to head to a nearby Starbucks that Ralph and I were in not too long ago. It's gone 2:00 now and I'm ready.

It's a pretty big store with not many customers and once my bike's parked against the plate window, I order a meatball curry pasta, which sounds slightly weird but tastes OK. My camera gets set to pre-programmed HDR mode, and is rested it on a nearby table and takes a self-timed snap of myself sitting near my bike and it looks better than the one taken using the manual setting. There was too much conrast.

Ralph usually leads the way from here and we've gone south and got a train home. That route seems too complicated for me and getting lost is pretty much an odds-on certainty, so after pondering what to do for five minutes, it seems best to simply ride back the way I've come.

It's obviously the same route, but I've not cycled this way for a long time. Heading back down the lane and making a right where a school sits on a corner is OK, then the bike path starts and it's practically impossible to get lost.

The perspective is different and a few things get my attention this time - things that I passed without noticing not very long ago. One is a dead tree with an array of wooden bird boxes nailed to it, each painted in bright colours. It's hard to tell if any have inhabitants.

It won't be long before rice is being planted in the wet paddies, which right now have a few inches of water standing in them. The adjacent river isn't much deeper in places and leggy herons stand around on the lookout for lunch. They always fly off when I stop to take a photo, so I take a shot while cycling.

To be a bit different, I take a short cut over some big stepping stones after crossing the junction with Route 66 and after cycling for a few minutes along the bike path, it occurs to me to turn off it to explore a more direct route back home. It'll save riding back through the city centre. The route is a bit vague as it's one Ralph led me on a long time ago.

Certain things ring a bell, like junctions, and it all seems to be falling into place. Eventually I'm winging it and teh lane spits me out on a main road - I opt to take a right and it turns out to be correct as after a couple of minutes I spot a side street and head down that and kind of know where I am.

A pair of dilapidated wooden steps that are leaning agains a wall save the day, as I stop to take a snap and after doing so decide to take the nearby street that I just passed by, as that's where all the scooters are going. I'm in sheep mode.

I soon get to my neighborhood. The road is blocked but I decide to ride opast teh bollards as the surface is just being removed. The local authorities usally do this kind of cosmetic work around election time. I'm sure the road surface was fine - Debbie and i walk around it most nights and never noticed any potholes or decay.

It's gone 3:30 when I get to the end of my street and a few unusual traffic cones that I only spotted the other night are still there. Rather than the familar orange, these are black and I take a snap for my friend g, then take a shot of a shop that's about to open across the street from our apartment building. Things change so fast here. Maybe in a year it'll be different again.

Today's ride: 20 km (12 miles)
Total: 2,362 km (1,467 miles)

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