China, Yunnan Province 2012

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Dali, City of Minorities

Eight ’o’ clock breakfast of noodles and some spicy stuff, no bacon and eggs yet, and then off at nine following 42 miles round Lake Eyrian anticlockwise. No sooner had we set off than John’s pedal fell off as we were travelling through the edge of town. The threads were damaged so we put the pedal in from the other side to clear the threads and it went in again, thankfully, so off we went again. The ride north along the lake started with tar macadam which eventually reduced to dirt and loose stone. The scenery was very interesting with first of all fishing in the lake. There were boats out on the lake fishing with nets and many fishermen at the lake side with nets going out on ropes using winches. Further north we saw more fertile land with rice being the main crop followed by maize and other unknown vegetables. The road was being upgraded for quite a long way and we encountered lots of piles of stone and sand with the odd motorised roller making it easier to make progress and unusually today no punctures. The top of the lake has a small town called Shaping, which had a market going on as we passed selling all the usual tourist things but more in abundance were vegetables with some fruit and meat. Most of the veg was very strange to us but we have probably been eating them in our noodle and rice meals. Heading back down the lake from Shaping there were some Egrets near the waters edge and later we saw some cormorants being used for fishing in several large steel boats with tourists on board. Drawing nearer to Dali there were several stone masons making fancy shapes and polishing large stones. The Landscape Hotel is very nice and more like a western hotel with clean bathrooms but still hard beds - ugh my back.

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