Lijiang – Dali
Two longish days of riding has taken me from Lijiang to Dali. It was some great riding!
It was a slower start than I was hoping for out of Lijiang- after a month off the bike it takes a while to get back into the routines I guess. I was still on the road by about 8 which was good. After a little hill out of town I was riding across a basin with a lake in it. Here the new highway that’s being built from Kunming at least to Shangri-la. I think this is a side bit off to Lijiang. It’ll make cycling in this area even better as it’ll take a lot of the big trucks off the roads.
Here’s part of the elevated construction that seems to make up a lot of it.
From there it was a 600m climb and descent on roads that once been sealed, but had been eaten up by big trucks. It was a nice road though, passing through some villages. I even passed some ice on the side of the road- showing how cold the mornings are here at 2900m!
Once down the other side, it was a ride along a pretty flat valley for about 50km. I stopped for lunch at a roadside place, it was a decent meal, but they wanted a price that I thought was too steep (after I’d eaten it) – twice what I was expecting. So I got to use one of the few phrases I’ve learnt- “it’s too expensive”. I felt kinda bad afterwards because I was a bit grumpy and it was still pretty cheap, but it’s not nice to feel like you’re getting ripped off.
It was nice riding along the valley. I passed through a busy rural town, and past a whole heap of cement works.
It was a 200m climb
That night I stayed at Shaxi– a town that was on the Ancient Tea Horse trail. It’s claimed to be one of the most intact horse caravan towns left. I stayed at the Horse Pen 46 hostel, where the rooms used to be horse stables! It was so nice I decided to spend another night there and hang out. What’s the rush eh? They had some awesome big dogs too! (You can see more of my photos of the dogs of Yunnan here)
After my day off there, it was time to get back on the bike. My GPS didn’t have the road I was going to follow (I’m going to add it to OSM myself), but it was in Google Maps, and I could see it in the satellite view, so that was good enough to give it a go. I wasn’t expecting much, and didn’t get a whole lot! The good thing with these roads is that they’re built with gradients for clunky old trucks and scooters to make it up, even if the road surface is terrible! So it was a pretty slow morning- I started at 7.30am, and climbed then descended 700 metres. Because of the surface, it took a good 4.5 hours to ride the 30km- I couldn’t go very fast up or down hill.
Even with the rough surface and slow progress I really enjoyed the ride- it makes me look forward to buying a mountain bike after the trip ends! :-)
I helped some guys pump up the tire on their scooter. Not sure why they needed a fire..
Some of the track felt more like Australia than China!
I crossed under the new highway
Once down the other side I made for a busy little town where it was market day. I had a great Wonton noodle soup with everyone looking at me, and it was nice and cheap (a third the price of the lunch a couple of days before). It was obvious that not many westerners stop in this town!
As I climbed on my bike I realised I should’ve eaten a little faster- I got stuck in a 45 minute traffic jam! No wonder they’re building a new highway- there wasn’t enough room for the big trucks to pass each other through the town.
Once I got out of that it was a 75km push to Dali. It was generally flat, with a nice little downhill halfway. The sun was shining and the road wasn’t crazy busy (or at least had an OK shoulder).
I really hit the wall in the last 2km from the lake up to Old Dali town. Once I recovered with some beer and snacks, I wandered into town (just across the road) for a proper feed. I checked out out the old town walls on the way where there were several couples having what I presume were wedding photos taken.
For dinner I went to Bad Monkey- which claims to serve their own beer- the first/only microbrewery in China! It was really nice beer (after all the pale watered down stuff I’m found in China) and they make good pizza too!
So I decided to stay another day in Dali today (hence you’re getting a blog post). I went for lunch to an all-you-can-eat Buddhist place, which cost all of ¥5 ($NZ1!).. But I should be back on the road tomorrow- heading south. It’ll take just over a week to make it to Jinghong- the next place with a hostel. Most/all foreigners (except cyclists) take a 17 hour bus for this leg, so it should be interesting!