D47: Dadong Town to Beitong Town

March 22, 2018

Having only a zoom lens is making me look at the scenery in a completely different way

I got so close to breaking 100 kilometers today. I don't think I've crossed that line since the Malaysia trip in 2015. I could have done it too if I weren't such a nervous nellie about things like "having someplace to sleep" or "riding in the dark". It wouldn't have been alot of riding in the dark but it definitely would have gone full dark and I just wasn't willing to risk it.

Tomorrow is flattish again. Which is not to say that it's actually flat. Just that the hills are few and the grades are shallow. It's also going to be mostly big roads again all day so on top of the flattish terrain, I've got extra friendly extra boring flattened terrain. Considering how surprisingly fresh my legs still feel, maybe I'll make that 100km tomorrow.

When I say nothing interesting happened today, I really mean it.

Although I spent nearly the whole day on what the GPS maps think are tertiary X roads and what actually were secondary S roads, they were all Grade I and Grade II roads.

Grade I roads aren't limited access, are limited to no more than 80kph and still have level crossings for pedestrians but, other than that, they are basically expressways. Actually, I've been on expressways that weren't as nicely built as a Grade I road. Grade II roads are standardized with a lane and a half in each direction and no permanent construction within 15m of the edge of the road.

On Grade I roads and National Roads, the controlled area is 20 meters from the road; people are prohibited from constructing buildings or storing goods within the 20 meters which start at the outer edge of the road's drainage channel.

They're both boring. Boring. Boring. Boring.

Gets me closer to home and more quickly than expected but oh so very dull and boring.

I was playing games trying to see what average speed I could get the odometer to read. I ended the day at an average 16.8kph moving speed and I was as high as 17.1kph at one point. That's how boring it was.

Apparently this whole area is being made into an official "cycling holiday area".

Dedicated bike paths that abruptly end in large piles of gravel

Giant tourist reception centers that are locked up and have no open facilities of any kind (but which have great big "Cyclists Welcome" signs)

When I left Dadong this morning, I was expecting that I'd be crossing over to the nearby provincial road at the less risky of two farm road options. Instead, I found myself on a provincial road that had been nice and big and wide long enough to be paved in concrete, to have that concrete start to get damaged, to have some idiot decide to cover the concrete with a road thickness layer of asphalt, and to have the asphalt start to severely crack every single place the underlying concrete had a seam or was already damaged. This was fine on a bike but the rhythmic kthud kthud kthud kthud kthud kthud kthud noise had to be pretty annoying in anything four wheeled moving at any kind of speed.

Then the S347 where I had plenty of time to notice the various nice ways that the road designers had made intersections extra visible to drivers or how the crosswalks closest to a school had extra complications so kids could only run across two lanes of traffic without looking instead of running across all four.

This is a Grade I road. One of the "interesting" aspects of the road is the striped poles at either end of every single intersection of any size (including footpaths)

From there I got on the S326 heading for Wuli Town where I'd originally planned to spend the night. When I stopped to refill my water and get some snacks out of my handlebar bag after 4 hours of riding, it became apparent that I was going to make it much much farther than Wuli.

But, I didn't actually. When I got to Wuli I had 2 hours of daylight left and, with two options to choose from, both of them had a town with a hotel in a half hour and then nothing for 2 hours after that. I chose Beitong since it's not a National Road and therefore would have the least amount of truck traffic.

Wuli to Beitong is a bit better on the scenic front than the rest of the roads were but still nothing super special. Lots of fruit trees. Decent number of old stone buildings that look like they've managed to get old enough that they are no longer at risk of being knocked down in the name of development. Some low mountains off to my right. But still, pretty boring.

Grave Moving Announcement (Lingshan County Government Announcement 2017-5) Because of the needs of project development, the Village Committees of Anjin, Houbei, Dengyang, and Dalu have decided that the graves need to be moved. Please bring you ID card, Household Registration Book, and verified documents from your local village committee to the Qinlian Managed Forest Wuli Plantation Office prior to May 30, 2017 to get your documentation and to proceed with self-demolition and moving of your family's graves. For more information you can contact Mr. Dong or Mr. Lao

I feel like they probably grow a lot of lychee around here

I used up some of my excess daylight circling the town multiple times and finding all of the possible lodging and all of the possible restaurants. As the place I ended up at has a sprung mattress, I think I did okay.

Dinner was a fast food set meal of duck and greens and something pickled served over rice. Then a second helping of duck and greens. Then a third helping of greens. I'd probably have done a fourth if my phone, which I was reading on at the time, hadn't beeped to warn me it only had 5% charge left.

Sometimes you see an advertisement and you just have to turn around and go back and photograph it (translation below)

Professional Remediation of Wounds from Poisonous Snake Bites

I currently have a full set of medical remedies available for people who have been bitten by poisonous snakes. Very effective. Only requires a short period of treatment.

Note: If you have been bitten by a poisonous snake and have a wound, you must make sure not to apply pressure to the wound or use any kind of bladed instrument to make cuts near the wound otherwise you risk the poison more quickly getting into your muscles. All you need to do is rinse the area with clean water then quickly come to find me for the most effective and best treatment available.

Address: Na'an Village; Nahui Village Committee; Baishishui Town
Contact Person: He Si
Phone: 13977701068

Today's ride: 93 km (58 miles)
Total: 2,485 km (1,543 miles)

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