Wednesday 20, November 2024
Another rain day and it was another hell of a day. By the time we got to Keelung I was ready to quit. We passed three train stations and Ralf wouldn’t stop at any of them. All I wanted to do was get on a train to Taipei, I had enough of the traffic, the weather and cycling. Ralf was determined to keep going. He wanted to see the north lighthouse. Good luck with that my love it was raining so hard you couldn’t see anything. What was the point in riding in the rain, just to say that you had cycled completely around the Island. As you can tell it was not a good day.
Both of us got pissed off at each other and even now after settling into our nice hotel, and having a good meal the internet is so bad, neither of us can post anything, we are still grumpy people. Tomorrow is our last day of cycling the Island, we may do some cycling in Taipei but there is an excellent Light Rail Train (LRT) and Metro (Underground/tube) system, I am not sure I will get on the bike until I get home. We will see maybe we just need to see some sun and warmer weather.
Ralf managed to take a few photos.
There were a few sections of bike path, that we took to get off the road. They were too short and we had to get back on the road. I must say that Shimen District is creating new cycle paths, but are using large pavers instead of paved bike paths (tarmac). The pavers can become very slippy when wet, whereas tarmac or concrete doesn’t.
There were a few positives today. We met the Czech couple again. They had taken a rest day in Keelung and had taken a bus tour to the waterfall that we had cycled past. She had wanted to take a train to the west coast as it is sunny on that side, but they couldn’t get their bikes on the fast train. The slow train would take 5-6 hours. He wanted to keep cycling to do the north!! We both agreed that the east coast is far more dangerous than the west coast.
The second positive was when it briefly stopped raining and we stopped to take photos of the Arch. A couple commented on how wet and cold it was, we had a little chat and they wished us well. Sometimes it is just a little bit of encouragement from strangers that keeps you going.
The Arch is a natural geological feature formed from lava that had flowed into the ocean from the nearby (extinct) volcano Da-tung. The Arch was created through persistent erosion of the sea combined with rising movements of the earth’s crust, leaving an arch straddling the seashore.
The third positive was that we thought we had reached our hotel, but it looked like somebody’s house/business. That wasn’t a surprise because some of the ‘hotels’ have exaggerated their facilities. Ralf asked a fella if he knew if this was the hotel. He told us to follow him and he would take us to the hotel. Off he went on his scooter like a bat out of hell and then stopped about 500 metres down the road and waited for us to catch up. This was the hotel. The Ferry Love Hotel. The hotel is clad in steel to make it look like a ship (the Love Boat maybe). The room continued with the nautical theme, with small portholes in the bathroom door. The floor to ceiling windows looked out onto the ocean which was crashing onto the beach below. They even provided a condom, just in case we were in the mood after an horrendous day of cycling.
The fella on duty said we could not check in until 3:00 – it was 2:20! But we could do the paperwork. We asked if we could clean our bikes, and he showed us where we could use a hose. We cleaned the bikes and dried them. He then let us check in to our room early – at 2:50.!!
We had a lovely meal and a couple of beers at the hotel.
