May 19, 2023
D2: 英利 → 雷州
Today was a “failed successfully” sort of day. I don't think I actually managed to do anything I intended to do, but my failure to do it happened in a spectacularly stylish fashion
I was up before my a/c off alarm¹ and drinking coffee by 7:00 am. I didn't want to do two oatmeal-based meals in a row (having done a savory nori and lard oatmeal around 10:00 pm), so I headed to the restaurant next door to my hotel for a Canto-type breakfast and to ask about the Zhushan Village Faithful Widow Ceremonial Arch.
Protesting that they weren't really locals, and even if they were that they weren't old enough to know about places that had changed names sometime between now and 1988, the restaurant folks suggested I try the police station.
The officer in the duty room, who was trying really hard to look like I hadn't woken him up for this question, might have been born in 1998. The older officer just kind of stared at me with one of those "this is so not in my job description" looks that someone gives you when they really, really, really want to tell you to scram but can't actually think of anything you've personally done wrong to justify their being rude.
Had I considered instead visiting the Fortress down the road? And, was I absolutely 100% sure that the site marked "Ceremonial Arch" wasn't the Fortress?
On account of the Faithful Widow's grandchildren most likely having died before he was born and no particular crimes having happened around her Arch, he couldn't exactly say as he'd ever heard of it ... so, maybe if he very helpfully gave me very clear directions to the Fortress, I would leave.
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I finished up the Red Bull the younger officer had given me in a gesture of goodwill and went to the Fortress. If nothing else, a lot of squinting at the "who the fuck thought it was a good idea not to include roads" Antiquities Map and the modern map of the area, there was a chance that the road I'd take north from the Fortress might pass by the village I wanted².
The Fortress is just as largely imposing and locked up as it was when I didn't go inside in 2020 on account of it being locked up. On the basis of some successful explorations in Hainan, I knew that I probably could have found someone and gotten the gate unlocked but something about the three shots of coffee I'd had before my Red Bull had me wanting to be a bit more active than that.
Had a lovely ride from the Fortress to Jiangjunxu Village, where I was looking for a stone bridge built in 1898. On account of the information in the Atlas, I wasn't expecting much but—although I did find the right village³—I couldn't even find the water it crossed!
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Leaving the Village for a pair of bridges that were totally modern, I soon came to the G270 National Road for a dull but fast ride to a lunch stop that saw me sitting out the worst of the day's heat in the shade, under a fan, and with a supply of water.
From there, I had a nice surprise in terms of my marked ferry crossing still having regularly scheduled service and the route which I had chosen as a way of avoiding the Truck Route being a provincial Scenic Byway.
The ferry people were so amused by my being thrilled over their really, really cool tugboat + barge style roro⁴ that they not only didn't charge me for the ride, they suggested that I could take the boat back across the way I came so that I could recross a third time!
Still well ahead of schedule for the day on account of the early start and the fast bit of truck road, I arrived in town to the gentle intermittent plop of giant raindrops that never turned into an actual storm, found my booked hotel without any particular excitement, and—even though I've had the "foreigner" argument in this city before—was checked in, in my room, and in the shower before sunset.
¹ If the a/c is left on until one gets ready to go out into tropical heat, it is very, very difficult to step out the door.
² Though how I would know it was the right village is a question in and of itself...
³ And had a lovely conversation with some nice folks who treated me to an ice cream
⁴ Roll On, Roll Off
Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 264 km (164 miles)
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