November 9, 2014
Toucheng
A day of rain without end
Walking back to our hotel after breakfast, we chuckled a bit on seeing a few umbrellas pop out in the lightest of sprinkles. An hour later, packed and checked out for departure, we were less amused to see a steady drizzle hit the streets. Hours later, soaked senseless in the worst drenching in at least a decade, we would have killed to find ourselves in merely a light drizzle again. I don't think we've been this wet since our tour of Scotland, and maybe not since our epic drowning in New Zealand over 20 years ago. This is a day that will live long in our memories, and that we will measure against awful rainstorms yet to come.
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I'm sure that this would have been a beautiful ride in better weather. Highway 9 follows a dramatic course eastward from Taipei, passing through the famous tea-growing region around Pinglin and the surrounding highlands. For the most part though our appreciation was limited to the lovely, lush roadside vegetation, generally about as far as we could see.
We did enjoy though our lunch stop at the Vanilla Cafe in Pinglin. Warming ourselves with pots of tea and beef with rice, we sat outdoors (but under cover) and took in the view over the gorge. It is a beautiful spot, enlivened by a rich bird life (great and night herons, egrets) and a river packed with carp. A favorite entertainment here is to buy a loaf of bread and fling it frisbee-like off the balcony to sail down to the river 100 or so feet below and its swarms of hungry carp.
The worst thing about stopping in the rain is getting the will to start moving again. We stared at the downpour for about an hour before finally deciding we needed to move while we still had enough daylight to reach Toucheng. Setting off in a sheet of rain, we took our comforts where we could find them - the gradients weren't bad, the vegetation was striking, and above all there was almost no traffic in our direction but heavy the other way, presumably weekenders returning to Taipei on this Sunday afternoon. The descent into Toucheng seems like it must be an amazing ride in fairer weather - a crazy series of tight hairpin bends, descending gradually enough that you could have a glorious descent if it weren't so wet.
Our hotel, once we finally arrived, worried us at first - it is out of the town a bit in an apparent housing complex and had no outward signs of being a business. I had taken great care in mapping its location accurately but was beginning to despair when happily the hostess stepped out and assured us we'd come to the right place. Not long afterwards we were showered, dried out, and ready for a meal. After much language difficulty aided by a translation app from my iPad, we found that there was a nearby Italian restaurant and were offered a ride to it and given an umbrella to use on the short walk home.
Today's ride: 49 miles (79 km)
Total: 89 miles (143 km)
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