Friday 15, November 2024

What a day this turned out to be. We checked the weather forecast and where Typhoon Usagi was going to land. The forecast was for rain all day. We left the Millenium Village after a very good breakfast under cloudy skies.

I thought we were going to have a head down and go day to keep ahead of the impending Typhoon and to get into Hualien before any bad weather hit us. We didn’t encounter any rain on our ride. The only rain we encountered was on our evening walk about.

Within 5 minutes of starting our ride we passed over the Tropic of Cancer. Quick photo and on we went. We have now passed the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn on our travels. These lines represent the furthest north and the furthest south that the sun can appear directly overhead at noon. The Tropic of Cancer lies at 23.5 degrees north and the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.5 degrees south of the equator.

The East Coast of Taiwan is stunning, I think I might have mentioned it before. There are a lot of areas where you can pull into and they have sculptures and places to rest.

Today’s roads were a little different from most of the other roads we have been on. They sometimes went to a two-lane road with no shoulder and as the roads were also used by big trucks, it did get a bit hairy at times. That is why most people recommend you to take the train from Hualien up the coast to Su’ao to avoid the narrow roads and big trucks. Although Mark said there is an older road Highway 9b that is not as busy. we will be taking the train.

I knew there was going to be a bit of hill to get over today, but wasn’t too worried about it, as it didn’t seem too big on the map. The map lied. As we made the left turn to go through the mountains the road started to climb, it also went from a four-lane with a scooter/bike shoulder to a two-lane with no shoulder. The road was relentless, we climbed higher on this road than we did getting to the Shouka Pass. Everyone mentions the Shouka Pass but nothing is mentioned about this road! That is possibly because a lot of cyclists go up to Yuli (the East Rift Valley) rather than take the East Coast Route. Back to this hill and we continued to climb. There was a rest stop and look-out point about three-quarters of the way up the hill. We pulled in for a short break and chatted to a family of three women who were visiting their uncle for the first time in 40 years. We talked about cycling and they cheered us on.

We carried on up the hill for another couple of kilometres and then it started to go downhill. Yay I had made it. No, I hadn’t it turned back up hill again. Eventually after climbing for ever we encountered our first tunnel. No scooter lane and a 854 metre tunnel which opened up for about 500 metres then we were into four more tunnels of varying lengths from 400 metres to 445 metres. Fortunately, we were going downhill and fast. We dropped over 100 metres in elevation over  2.5 kms. I am glad I was able to adjust my brakes and that they worked.

After we exited all the tunnels we crossed a bridge and there was an amazing view of a gorge. We parked the bikes and took a short walk across the old bridge and back along the new bridge. The things you can see from a bike.

There used to be a walking path you could take down to the bottom of the gorge. It is blocked off now. How do you fancy taking these steps down?

I thought today was going to be a head down and go day to beat the Typhoon. The sun came out and there were lots of things to see on the route and the coastal road is beautiful. I could have done without the hills but it was a good day, with lots to see.

Eventually we were back on the coastal road. there were some roadworks being done and at one point we were in a construction zone, peddling as fast as we could as were holding up a long-line of traffic. We moved over as far as we could but the car behind us didn’t try to pass, which really surprised me. When the road opened up again he passed us slowly and gave us a little toot. We waved to him and I blew him kisses. He had been holding the traffic back so that we weren’t squeezed into the guardrail. All the cars zoomed past him, obviously annoyed at being held up. Sometimes there is a road angel watching your back.

Our final stop was the Buddhist temple. This Buddha looks a bit crazy to me.

We found our hotel quite easily and they checked us in as soon as we arrived. We are staying on the Champs Elysees. Honestly, Hualien has a wide pedestrian boulevard that runs from our hotel about one kilometre. It is called the Champs Elysees.

After we had settled in we walked to the train station to book our tickets for Sunday. I had looked on the Round Taiwan route map, they indicated to take the train to Su’oua. So we booked tickets. By the time we got back to the room and had checked in with our warmshowers host, we could have gone further to Loudong train station. Maybe we can change our tickets tomorrow.

We had a nice pizza at the Three Koalas and headed back to our room for a good sleep. It has been a good day but tiring. That is why this isn’t going to get posted until tomorrow.