November 7th

November 7, 2023

Back home

It's only gone one when we're both awake in the darkness of our hotel room. We stay in bed and soon drift back to sleep, thankfully, and reawake at a more reasonable seven. That's more like it. Still, 12 hours in bed tells you how tired we are and my legs feel heavy as I carry by panniers down the stairs.

There's a cafe just across the road. It's where I went last time I was here. The small coffee machine that they had then must have died, as it's just cans of the stuff in a steaming cupboard on offer. It'll do. We both order egg and bacon sandwiches for brekkie and sit at a table for 20 minutes.

Cans of hot coffee to get us going in Barling's one cafe

The forecast had said rain would have arrived by now, but the sky is cloudless again. Unbelievable. It feels hot even up at this elevation and this time of day.

The first time we cycled to Barling was about 20 years ago. I remind g of this as we ride across the narrow bridge, which is now just for pedestrians. There's new one about 100m away on our right. Back then, the bridge was an alternate one-way crossing, with lights contolling the traffic - what little of it there was, and still is. Each end still boasts a bending tunnel chissled through the hard rock. There were dark and damp, but are now illuminated with spot lights and decked out with displays of aboriginal crafts, they seem like Christmas grottos to me.

The original bridge on the edge of Barling, with bending tunnels at each end

An aboringal villge down by the river, now far below Highway 7

We're heading downstream with the river, but you wouldn't know it and riding along the 7 gets us sweating from the bridge as it rises for much longer than I recall. It's nice to eventually reach a junction and a level section, where we pause after a while to glance down at a small aboriginal village nestled by the river. No doubt everyone knows each other.

The reason soon after is because one of my shoes doesn't feel right. There's something inside and I can't imagine what could be: turns out to be a NT$10 coin - like a quarter or 10p. Weird.

You might be able to spot g enjoying himself

Highway 7 undulates, but we dropped down quite a bit to Fuxing

There's very little along teh 7 in terms of places to get a drink or a bite to eat. That's OK, as it's not long since breakfast, but we reach a familiar place that's relatively modern, set back with a large parking area out front. It's like a rest station without the gas pumps.

There's one seller that serving coffee that's way overpriced. It's locked up, but a man appears and agrees to serve us. We pay NT$150 (about US$5) each for cappucchinos, and sit on wicker chairs at a table overlooking the valley. He brings us black coffee.

The 7 is mostly down to Fuxing from here.

It turns out Fuxing, the part near the river, has developed since we last rode this way. We see a 7-Eleven and instinctively decide. We reckon a cappucchino would be nice, and we have plenty of time. The crinks are a third of the price we paid about 20 minutes ago, and I also get a bagel and microwave it for 20 secoinds. We're living the life.

Across the road, slightly obscured by a metal-clad warehouse, are white clouds cascading over a high ridge of the Central Mountains. I walk over and take a snap before we get to the final climb on the 7. It's horrible.

This 7-Eleven in Fuxing is pretty new - we didn't know it existed

There's a small track that gets up to the higher part of Fuxing, but it's so steep we'd have to walk and g doesn't like that idea, so we start spinning away.

It's strange how trafffic increases a lot from Fuxing, which is basically a one-street kind of village. Sixteen-wheeler cement trucks now zip buy, likely carrying gravel dug from the exposed river bed. It's a stressfull, noisy and hard climb that lasts for 30-odd minutes or so. And it's hot.

We zip down the 7 and it's not long - albeit about 20km - before we're in Daxi. The town is busy and we have no desire to look around, but I feel like I need some energy and have a craving for fruit, so we stop and I get a couple of large oranges. We sit in the shade and know the effort from the last few days has taken its toll.

We cross over the wide river then veer along some lanes that are quiet and say bye to each other near g's old apartment in Bade. We now have different routes home and while today has been much easier, I arrive back at my place knowing it's just as well there's not another day of cycling. It'll take me a while to recover from all the steep, hot climbing.

Briefly relaxing after a long, final climb up Highway 7 to the main part of Fuxing

North of Daxi, heading towards Bade on small lanes

Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 3,480 km (2,161 miles)

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