G'day from Australia. I bet you thought we'd fallen off the edge of the planet. Well we almost have; we're in New Norfolk in the South of Tasmania, about as far as you can get from Derby, England. We spent a few days in Melbourne where we were taken in and looked after magnificently by Roslyn and Peter, who we met in China. They have fed, nurtured and looked after us like their own. In return, they endured about 800 photographs of China! We even had a tour of Peter's place of work - a Company of architects in Melbourne. I [View Full Entry]

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From Yong Feng, we turned our wheels southwards from Yong Feng, stopping off to enjoy a day at Ding Hu mountain park. This turned out to be less of a natural park than you would expect - more like a recreational area - Elvaston Castle meets Centre Parks. However, we did discover a footpath that promised to offer some seclusion and a chance to glimpse the wildlife. To access it, we had to take a boat ride but, once aboard the boat, we were aghast to find that we had inadverdently joined a tour group, complete with flag-waving guide. We were [View Full Entry]

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Wuzhou was a lively, prosperous city with plenty to interest the visitor: parks, a night craft market and a busy street restaurant scene. As we left we passed a sign for a snake farm, and Richard was off, like a rat up a drain pipe. Fortunately, the local council had seen fit to replace the snake farm with a new housing development. However, we did discover a beautiful and large temple complex along the same road. As we were by then loaded up and moving on, we decided not to visit it, and left disappointed at discovering this gem too late. [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from Wuzhou. I bring you this from a gaming room, at great risk to my health, surrounded as I am by chain-smoking 14 year olds. We found little to detain us in Yeng Shou, it being a launch point for tourist trips up to the Li River valley, and those of you who are paying attention will know that we have already idled a few days away up there. We cycled along to Li Pu, stopping off to view "The Big Banyan Tree" as it is unimaginatively, but accurately, named. Indeed, it is big, and old too (more than 2000 [View Full Entry]

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Hello from the town of Yangshuo beside the Li river. We have spent an idyllic few days cycling here, stopping off at Long Sheng, Guilin and Xing Ping. Long Sheng, being sited close to the iconic Longji rice terraces, was a mecca for tourists. One hotel that we checked out was fine, but overpriced, and worst of all, the entire second floor was given over to a young, predominantly male, mostly English, party of travellers. Sensitised as we were by weeks in tourist wilderness, they appeared loud, brash and arrogant in attitude. As we toured the streets, restaurant owners called out [View Full Entry]

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A big hello to Big John and the folk in Skeggy. We're now in San Jiang, and have had several excellent days cycling along the left bank of the Duliu river to get here. We have now spent over 300 kms in the company of the river. It started off narrow and shallow, clean with a deep green-blue colour. Now it is broad, deep and moves lazily. Villages of wooden houses are dotted on either bank. The main industry seems to be harvesting of the timber on the far bank, and we watched the pine trunks being slid down the steep [View Full Entry]

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Hello from San Du in Guizhou Province. We had a lovely break in Guanling to see the waterfalls, and stayed with a very friendly family. The eldest lad was teaching himself English from the internet and doing well. He wanted to know about our journey and after seeing our family photos on the blog, with the garden in the background, he looked at Ockbrook on Google-Earth. His dad gave us a lift to the waterfalls. It was a bit of a hairy ride, though interesting to see the view from the other side of a windscreen. Since then, we have moved [View Full Entry]

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Dear reader, to give you a taste of life on the road in China... Wednesday 10th October. We haul ourselves from bed at around 7 o'clock, and start the packing up process. We fill water bottles and eat cakes, fruit and sweet fortified milk, bought the previous evening, as a precursor to breakfast. Next a visit to the local market, to restock with fruit and snacks for the day ahead, and to search out steamed stuffed dumpings to complete breakfast. And then the climb over into the next valley begins. The road today winds for about 40 km in a series [View Full Entry]

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Your asia correspondents calling from Guanling, to the north-east of Kunming. Since we last spoke we cycled back down to Kunming, via some good roads and through fine scenery. We then headed east, visiting the Stone Forest at Shilin. Not petrified or fossilised forest as you might expect, but weirdly-eroded stone formations. The local Yi people have woven some of the formations into their mythology and have ascribed names to them, such as "Petrified Woman waiting for Husband", though the likenesses are not immediately apparent. Or apparent full stop. You may judge for yourselves once I g [View Full Entry]

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Ni Hao again, and so soon. We paid an evening visit to ye olde towne of Lijiang before moving on the next day. It really is a beautiful town, with channels of (clean) water flowing through the streets, and is beautifully lit at night with lanterns. Bit like Matlock Bath, really. The Naxi formation dance team were out in force doing their traditional dance. Unfortunately, they only seem to have one tune, which reverberates throughout the town from every square and restaurant. I'm so glad we didn't stay in the old town - apart from the tourist hoards and the expense, [View Full Entry]

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