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Published: April 9th 2012
Today marked our longest ride -- 100km. However, not everyone made it!
After another morning of no hot water and a simple breakfast of porridge, noodles and eggs, we all rode North through lovely countryside with rice fields, oxen and small towns. There was a lengthy uphill portion where we rose 1000 feet and then had a fast downhill. The roads were so quiet, with only occasional motorbikes, that we could actually ride side-by-side and have a nice chat. I've also been listening to audiobooks and have already completed listening to two of them during my rides.
We stopped after 50km for lunch. Graham, Jane and Birgit decided to ride in the van for the second part of the day, but Lyle, Dimiter and I continued down the country roads. There were yet more up-hills and roads wrapping around mountains (with Falling Rocks warnings) and a seemingly infinite number of "learn to drive" vehicles passing us. We rode along a river and saw dams with hydro power, dredging boats and boat locks.
At the 80km point it started to rain and my bottom was getting sore after hours of riding so I handed my bike over to the
truck and sat in the van for the remainder of the journey. Dimiter and Lyle were braver and battled on to the end, looking wet and disheveled but happy for reaching the magic 100km distance. Good work, both of you!
Our hotel, the Yangshan Hotel, is a brand new building and even has a "new carpet" odour. The shower is wonderfully warm, the carpet is soft, the TV is high-tech and the lights all work! While there is internet, there isn't any wifi so we are missing our "Internet fix".
Prior to dinner we explored the town. Westerners must be a strange sight here because people kept staring and young girls snapped pictures of us on their phones. We bought fruit for tomorrow and a cute-looking cake that we consumed over dinner. It's a fairly big town, with lots of traffic. Its size meant the town wasn't as 'fun' as the shops we saw in Jiu Long yesterday.
The rain has continued and may impact our ride tomorrow.
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