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Published: October 23rd 2012
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Mountain
Yulong Snowy Mountain Day11
Yulong Snowy Mountain is 5600m tall and sits at the opposite side of the Tiger Leaping Gorge to the Haba Snowy Mountain! Which is 5400m. It looms large on the landscape and is often capped with cloud as it was this morning. The stay in Daju was very pleasant with the new rooms now in operation. It is still a little basic with only two rooms having shower and toilet, plus one shower and one toilet out in the yard. Luckily by pure chance we had the room with the shower and toilet, the down side was we had to share and had middle of night invasions. Sitting out in the vines for meals was very pleasant and after noodles we were off at 8am across the plain to the foot of the mountain, first across dirt road and then onto asphalt. The climb from 1,700m started in earnest after three miles into hairpins for the next 30 miles (45k). After a steady slog to the top we were met by the support bus for the second time to have a much needed cup of coffee and a biscuit at 12.30pm. The views were absolutely marvellous and however much
Road
Cobbled Descent you may photograph em they never do justice to the real thing. The mountains stand there so large in front of you they are absolutely stunning. The view down the valley is also quite unique with the typical Chinese villages and small farms with workers cutting maize and tending cattle. After the big summit at just over 3,250m came the descent, which I always love, but soon came across a 3km hairpin descent on sharp cobbles which rattle your arms and body to the limit. I find the best way to tackle them is fast, up on your pedals with your hands hovering above the bars just keeping directional control. Braking is done in sharp bursts, which stops rims overheating and also means you are not holding the bars for long at once. Unfortunately after every downhill there is usually an up and this was no exception, but not as severe as this mornings climb. We went past a cable car, which takes walkers up onto the mountain, and the next descent took us down to a series of turquoise pools with man made waterfalls and men taking photos of tourists on Yaks standing in the water, all a bit
Lunch stop
Baisha Turquoise Pools and Yulong Mountain tacky. We had a late lunch here before yet another climb up,to 3000m where there is the Yulong Outdoor Tourist Centre with pony rides and golf course etc. I would think it must be more look a cattle auction with perhaps towards a hundred coaches waiting to collect visitors to go back to Lijiang. Another long descent down into Lijiang which you could see in the distance but never seemed to get any nearer. We arrived in Lijiang Old Town at a respectable 4.20pm after a hard but most pleasant day where we climbed over 2000m over a 55 mile journey. Our bikes are due to be sent to Kunming tomorrow so some of us bagged up our bikes before dinner to allow more time to look,around the Old Town.
It is now all over “bar t'shouting” and we are now sightseers rather than cyclists for the next three days having done 400 hard miles in an amazing country which is seeing rapid change and increased prosperity.
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