Thursday, 14 November 2024

Today was a very short day, even for this trip of shorter kilometre rides. The reason for the short day is that we could not find a hotel further along the route. By having a short day, we know our next day into Hualien is going to be the longest day on this trip. However, not as many hills as our first couple of days to Hsinchu and Yuanli. Unfortunately, we are also racing against the weather. There is another typhoon forecast that may hit this area (Hualien County) late Friday to Saturday.

Due to the short ride today, we started later. The breakfast place (Good Morning) next to the hotel was doing a roaring trade. We had a good breakfast and left the hotel a little after nine.

It was raining when we started and raining when we finished. There was a brief period of not too bad weather in between. When we stopped at the rest stop yesterday, (where the sculptures had been placed in 2022) it indicated that there were six sculptures. We only saw three. Today we spotted a few more, but it was raining and we couldn’t stop. This whale may or may not have been one of the additional sculptures. There is whale watching in this area. From May to September you can spot sperm, orcas, and pilot whales. Humpback and beaked whales can only be seen in the spring.

Although we stopped for lunch, we still arrived at the hotel at 12:30, way too early for check-in. Ralf emailed the property owner and asked for an early check-in. The owner arrived and told us check-in was at 3:00 p.m. Ralf explained that due to the weather we arrived early. His wife arrived, she spoke some English and allowed us to check-in. She told us where we could keep the bikes. While all this was going on I managed to find a hose and cleaned both bikes. I was also able to do a little maintenance on the back brakes. My back brake was almost useless, I found the adjusting screw and tightened it and now I have back brakes again, yay.

If the weather had been more conducive to taking photos you would have seen what a great ride this was.

This coast line is beautiful. The rugged mountains come down to the edge of the road. Steep slopes covered in verdant forests and waterfalls. This coastal area consists of coral reefs, coastal terraces, sandy beaches, gravel beaches, reefs, offshore islands, which makes it a fabulous place to ride.

Four million years ago, the Philippine Sea plate and Eurasian plate collided, forming the Penglai orogeny. This marked the emergence of Taiwan Island from beneath the Pacific Ocean. The Philippine Sea plate keeps moving westward, when it hits the Eurasian plate it goes under the crust and becomes a subduction zone.

Compression from the Philippine plate not only creates new mountains but also lifts the surface of Taiwan. On average, Hengchun Peninsula and the Central Range rise 0.5 centimeters a year. Obviously, in terms of geology, Taiwan is a very young and still developing island.

As a result of the high density of faults, Taiwan also experiences frequent earthquakes, especially in the east. The constant crustal movements unsettle the stratum in mountainous areas, which then tends to collapse in quakes or rainstorms. Today there were three earthquakes recorded in our area. We didn’t feel any of them. They were 3 or less than 3 on the Richter scale.

That is the end of your geology lesson for today.

We passed the Baxiandong archaeological and cave site. We had the time to go in and explore the caves. It was raining, we were already wet and didn’t want to get cold in the caves. Here is the history lesson for the day: “Baxian” (eight deities) are famous Chinese deities. Fogs drift perpetually around the caves and the interior is damp and misty. As the environment resembles that in the folklore when the eight deities cross the ocean, the caves were named Baxian.

After we had settled in to our room, I rinsed out our dirty, wet clothes. Ralf went for a walk on the beach opposite the hotel. He loves taking photos of waves. No doubt he will post a few photos on his Facebook page.