March 21st

March 21, 2023

Yingge with Ralph

Today marks the spring equinox, with a focus on balancing yin and yang, and avoiding extremes

Standing outside the pub at gone 11 o'clock last night after a couple of IPAs, Ralph and I agreed a ride today was a good idea and reckoned meeting at nine in Longtan was the way to go. To be on the safe side, I asked him to phone me at eight and right on time this awakes me from a deep sleep and I trot to take his call, then tell him it'll likely be gone 9:15 when I get there. It's a decent ride to Longtan that takes me about 40 minutes.

A breakfast shop next to a tyre place on the way to Longtan

The ride is very slightly up all the way, which means I'm feeling a bit sweaty when I rest my bike outside the original Louisa Coffee. It's been about a year since I was last in this shop, but the tall, twenty-something clerk recognises me and says 'long time no see' and I order a big one and take a seat and wait twenty minutes for Ralph to arrive. I know he has to take it steady because of his leg problem and when he turns up I notice he's wearing an old Nike cycling top that I gave him.

We chat about a cycle race that was streaming late last night and it's after 10 o'clock when we leave Louisa. Ralph buys a bottle of water from a nearby Hi-Life before we weave through town and get on route 113. Being a busy one, it's not the best road to cycle along, but it soon gets us to a long hill that we whiz down for a while before braking at about the half-way mark to cross over the meridian and get on a path that runs beside a canal.

His pricey shoes have come unstuck - hence the tape.

This path is one I used to ride along regularly with Debbie, but it's years since I was here. It's flat and today there are just a few people walking along it. There's a view of the wide river valley on our right whenever there are gaps in the trees, with the greenish water of the concrete-walled canal flowing along steadily beside us on our left. We're quite elevated still.

The path brings us to a bending lane and we drop towards the river at a good speed and get on a farm lane passing fields of what look like onions and it takes us to the start of a cycle path. Unfortunatelyt it's blocked off with a metal fence, with some serious-looking civil engineering work underway, but it's not a problem as another path takes us northwards and leads us to the old bridge that crosses over to the town of Daxi. We stay on this side, dip below what is now a footbridge, then the modern road one, and find the cycle path running along the bank.

The canal is on our left, with views of a valley on our right.

A quiet lane takes us past fields of onions and towards Daxi

Surreal printed digital image beside the cycle path - note the two monster ducks

There are other people also out on bikes. A couple roadies on expensive machines come by, with others taking it steady on the rental U-bikes, plus one or two locals on their basic models with the seats really low. It's a good day for a ride, with the temp' around 26°C and some cloud cover.

Again, it's a couple of years since I rode along this section of cycle path and it seems like it's a continual work in progress, with more being added on a regular basis.

A new footbridge appears that we never knew existed. The stanchions tower high and it must have cost a fair amount, but it appears to be away from any obvious place. Nevertheless, there's a large group of people clearly here for a photo opportunity. They take turns standing in front of the imposing structure and seem to be mostly pensioners. No doubt their tour bus is parked on the other side of the river.

A new footbridge has been built since I was last here - it is a popular spot

The cycle path leads us to a lane running through farmland

The path goes all the way north to Taipei, but we veer off at the edge of Yingge and make our way along some busy roads for a few minutes and after a short incline, make it to Starbucks. We're both ready. It's just gone noon.

With the town being a bit of a tourist magnet, the shop is busy, but we grap one of teh few ground-floor tables near a window and slowly cool down.

The train station is not far away and after our lunch, we cruise there and only have to wait 10 minutes for a departure south. There's a long row of military vehicles loaded onto flat bed cars on the other side of the platform and the jeeps have very uncomfortable-looking seats - it's either flat sheet metal or wire that no doubt would leave some tell-tale signs after a minute or two of sitting on them.

Our train journey takes just over 20 minutes before Ralph and I go our separate ways.

On the train back south at just gone one o'clock

Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 2,559 km (1,589 miles)

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