FW: Dujiangyan to Leshan

Day 53 Tuesday 22nd September 212 km (16802 km total)

Follow the leader!

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This was'nt a long ride, but took a long time as we had to navitgate across a major city (Chengdu is as big as London) with dodgy gps maps. The group got split up, went in different directions, met various obstacles & wet weather.

Packed & ready to go with some of the grey mud from yesterday cleaned off - ok only a little then!

Russ, John & I set off to do a particular route together, though Russ's gps (using OSM maps) & John & mine (using Garmin maps) constantly disagred about where we were and which way to go - makes for interesting conversations at traffic lights!

It seems that Garmin is mostly at fault here. Russ has calculated that the Garmin map for China on the gps is offset diagonally by about 400m (only for the China map, all the rest are fine!) The gps unit knows exactly where you are relative to the satellites, but displays this incorrectly on the screen, due to the map offset.. So, in a city, it shows you 2 or 3 steerts from where you actually are & then tries to navigate you to where it thinks you should be, but already are ..... Got the picture?

Considering most of the group are using the garmin map, its a wonder we dont get lost more often really.

Anyway, back to today's journey. Despite having previously agreed that we would travel as two groups in different directions, John spied one from the other group heading in the wrong direction (following us) so stopped to turn him around. Unfortunately Russ & I were unaware of this and so when we made a wrong turn (following an errant Garmin instruction) in heavy traffic, we lost touch with John and didnt see him again until that evening at the hotel.

So then it was just Russ & I.

Now Russ is an accomplished off road rider & also doesnt like to be defeated. So if he thinks there should be a way through, he's jolly well going to find it. That can make following him quite a challenge, for me anyway.

After we finally got out of the city, we were making quite good progress with Russ in pole position, then the road just stopped.

We weren't the only suckers who went down this particular road, there were a whole string of chinese drivers who went the same way, stopped in front of this huge pile of earth, looked puzzled & then did a U turn to find another way. The only fifference between us was we looked puzzled in English!

So we too did a U turn and went another way.

Our other way started ok and after a bit of the rough stuff we were cruising along a new & strangely empty road. A little further in we ralised why when we saw all the bulldings under construction.

Its a strange feeling when you ride through one of these new chinese towns. Like everything else in China the scale is much larger than anything we get in Europe. It seemed here they were constructing an entire town, streets, malls, tower blocks, lanscaped garden areas, a huge area - but as yet devoid of people or ongoing life.

Eventually we came to a bit where there was at least some habitation, though not much, and felt relieved weweren't going towards a dead end.

Oops! We 'thought' too soon, the road we were on stopped just like before.

Russ however had other ideas & spied a narrow muddy gap through which there was a glimpse of a road on the other side. So off he went down this gap, down a short hill and across a muddy stream - so of course I had to follow. A few slips & squirms around the back end but over safely, only to find Russ parked at the real end of the road! There was no further you could go.

So now of course we had to turn around and go back through the mud again - all part of the adventure!

But it didnt stop there as the intrepid explorer, figured there should be a short cut down the next street, and so zoomed off ignoring the oil drums blockimg the way and some big red chinese signs, that i am sure must have said "no entry" or somethimg similar!

As we rode along the road became smaller and smaller and morev& more overgrown, until it was just a muddy path with the end blocked by a painted bollard. With a "that's not stopping me," he shot through leaving muggins here wondering if my panniers would actually fit through the gap.

Anyway, I made it through unscathed and he even took a photo of the event. The rest of the journey to Leshan was comparatively uneventful, lost of potholed roads, maniac drivers and rain - so no more photos.

Hoping the weather & scenery improves tomorrow.

Beware falling rocks & slippery roads!

 

Songpan to Dujiangyan

Day 52 Monday 21st September 254 km ( 16590 km total)

Great roads, snow yaks & a mud bath

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I started the day with a breakfast at Emma's kitchen before heading off out of the town with the prospect of warmer weather as the route descended from the high plateaus. It was a lovely road, twisting its way along the river bank.

The chinese obsession with construction was still evident in a number of places, not clear where this bridge was going though - I guess they will bring the tunnel boring machine in later.

Some of the veiws from the road were truly beautiful.

As the descent continued we came across snow white yaks, positioned every so often at the side of the road. usually there was a bus load of tourists next to them having photos taken.

The Snow White Yak is the rarest color of Yak in the world accounting for only about 3% of the population. In Tibetan culture the White Yak is regarded as a divine animal, and in the past it was used in spiritual sacrifice. They are truly magificent animals close up, and were extensively groomed and made beautiful for the photos.

The road continued its desecent with a series of challenging hairpins - normally with a lot of trucks & busses preventing spirited progress.

Fruit & veg stalls started to appear - I had not seen any for the several days we were at high altitude.

Also the descent brought with it cloud & rain At one point the road just sort of disintegrated and I had to navigate across somethimg resembling a very wet lunar lanscape with trucks, cars and bikes weaving in all directions across where the road should be trying to avoid the biggest pot holes. No pictures of this I am afraid due to the concentration required, but here is one of the bike afterwards!

Time for a bike wash I think!

Langmusi to Songpan (part 2)

Day 51 Sunday 20th September 247km ( 16336km total)

3500m marshland, yaks & Tibetan prayer flags

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Continued from part 1

The vast high level plains are known as the Ruoergai grasslands and cover approximately 13700 square miles at an average height of 11500 feet. Like many things I have come across as in China, the sheer scale of it is daunting.

The grasslands are composed of peat and are home to the Tibetan Zang peoples, who traditionally farm yak & sheep there. Nowadays tourism is also a key earner and their were numerous camps offering food andpony trekking opportunities.

Much of the journey was taken up crossing the huge plateau, but eventually after rising to over 3800m, the road began to descend a little and quickly the landscape changed along with the vegetation.

Yak's were still very evident, and we encountered more than one 'Yak jam' !

Songpan, today's destination, is now primarily a tourist town serving the surrounding area, but also has remnants of old city walls and some reconstructed old buildings. Unfortunately, I didn't get chance to look around the old city, but had a nice walk down the main street.

There were many shops selling dried yak meat & other body parts, apparently this was traditionally done to provide food for the herders in the plains, but now is largely for passing tourists. I saw many bus loads passing through.

The other kind of shop commonly found sold furs of varying colours, types & sizes.

We opted to have a late lunch at Emma's kitchen, a sort of central hub in the town for foreign visitors and the only establishment that serves proper coffee & various other comfort foods (the yak burger & chips went down very nicely!)