Thursday 21, November 2024

Another rain day and it was an interesting day. I was feeling quite positive as we set out. Maybe because I was determined not to let the rain and the insane Taiwanese drivers get to me today. It was our last day of cycling the Huandao (Around the island) and I was going to try and enjoy it despite the weather.

Of course, it was pouring rain when we left the hotel at 10:00. We had an excellent breakfast and a good sleep. There was a bit of a shoulder for the first part. Then wouldn’t you know it we missed the turn for the lighthouse! Although we could see it, just through the rain, before we knew it, we had passed the little road to take us there. As we crossed a bridge, I noticed there was a sign that said lighthouse 2.3 kms back where we came from. I shouted to Ralf, we missed the turn. He shouted back I know, I couldn’t see it on Garmin/google. Why were we shouting? Because the wind, the rain, the roar of the surf and the cars were so loud!

We carried on, I muttered something underneath my breath, we cycled all this way in the rain so that we could say we had been to the most southern AND northern point of Taiwan and we didn’t get there. Mutter, mutter, mutter.  Never mind, stay positive.

The roads were very wet and streaming with water. It was difficult to ride near the edge of the road because of the amount of water that was on the road. We were getting wet not just from the rain but from the water on the road and the cars spraying us with water. However, the temperature wasn’t too cold, stay positive.

As we entered Sanzhi the traffic got busier, but Google had found us a quieter path. Google eventually routed us around Sanzhi and Tamsui. Tamsui is a large city on the outskirts of Taipei.

Looking back at Tamsui

The rain had almost stopped and we were on a nice cycle path along the river. We crossed the red bridge which had a separated bicycle path.

We then continued on various cycle routes towards our hotel. This was going to be a great ride into Taipei. I had read about the cycle routes along the river coming into Taipei and was really enjoying them. There was one problem with the cycle paths, at every road crossing there was a barrier to stop scooters using the bike paths. These were not the same height or design. Sometimes you could get a touring bike through them very easily other times you had to angle the bike thorough the “gate” or lift them over the barrier. If you were on a road bike with no panniers these obstacles would be easy to get through. However, with panniers on, they became a bit of a pain. However, I did appreciate the fact that their were cycle ways all the way into downtown Taipei and into New Taipei.

We knew we were in Taipei when we spotted Taipei 101 Tower. Woo hoo, we have almost finished cycling around Taiwan.

We came off the bicycle routes and into the Shonsang District where we are staying. That is when this happened.

Trying to find the hotel!!

Google and the phone glitched and for the next one and a half hours we were going around in circles. Ralf was frustrated but was trying his best to find the hotel. We changed the google setting to walking, that made it worse, we went down every back alley you could think of, sometimes twice. Then Ralf switched it to car. That didn’t help much but we seemed to be heading in the right direction, until we weren’t. We stood there both of us almost in tears, not knowing what to do. We were within 250 metres or 500 metres depending on which way google sent us next. Ralf had gone into an optician and a pharmacy for directions. They couldn’t help. We stood there bewildered, then our road angel arrived. An elderly gentleman asked us if we needed help. Oh hell, did we need help. I showed him the address on my little piece of paper. It was written in English and therein lies the problem. Some of the hotels we have booked have English names, but when you get to them, they advertise their Chinese name. He looked up the street and down the street. Then he said go to the next set of traffic lights, wait until they are green, cross over the road. Go left and I believe it will be on your left.  I could have hugged him. He just smiled and said “sometimes not many people can speak English in Taiwan, so they may want to help but can’t”. I was so grateful that this gentleman spoke English and choose to help us.

We waited until the traffic lights had turned green and saw the address on the side of the building 10F. As we looked down the little side street, we saw in English – Giant Rich Hotel (10F). Finally, we were at the hotel. This hotel is similar to the first hotel we stayed at in Taiwan. There is no grand street entrance, you take the lift to the hotel and then you have the grand entrance at the floor you are staying at – 10F. Check-in was easy as we were well past the 3:00 check-in time.

After a hot shower, we went out to eat and to get Ralf’s phone an extended plan. As tourists we could only get a 30-day plan. We needed another five days to get us to the end of the trip. The young man at the Taiwan Mobile store was really helpful and it was all done and dusted in about 15 minutes.

Dinner was excellent, a little restaurant that looked like a takeaway, but had seating upstairs. Then cake for dessert at a rather expensive coffee house. We were going to get the laundry done, but it was raining again so into 7/11 for some beers to take to the room. We caught up on three days of the blog and Facebook. Tomorrow we will have a semi-relaxing day, I think.

Ooh, the other thing that didn’t work today was my Garmin. It recorded my stats, time on bike, speed, heart rate but not the distance or elevation. It couldn’t find a satellite!! Fortunately, Ralf’s did and I have the map and elevation from him.

This is the end of the Round the Island Ride. We have cycled 1,069 kms in 27 days. Ralf is talking about cycling to our last hotel near the airport. The weather on Monday is not looking good, in which case we will take the train. We will see!!

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.

Tuesday 19, November 2024

What a hell of a ride/walk today was. We left Jiaoxi in the rain, at some stage during the day it stopped raining and then it started again and by the evening it was pouring down.

Today’s ride up the east coast was probably one of the worst days I have ever ridden while bike touring. We were on Highway 2 following the coast towards Keelung. The route was supposed to be really nice. However, we had trucks thundering by us every few minutes. The road was also probably the worst we have ridden on in Taiwan, sometimes there was no shoulder at all. Add to that the rain, the wind and the tunnels. Just an absolutely joyous ride (NOT).

We did manage to stop a few times to get photos of the amazing rock formations.

There was only one brief respite when the route took us through a bike tunnel. A 2 km long tunnel away from the noise and traffic. The Caoling Bike tunnel was originally part of a Japanese built railway, completed in 1924. In 1986 it was abandoned as it was too small to run train traffic through it. The tunnel was reopened in 2009 as a bikeway, with lights and music.

One of the places I did want to see on this trip was Jiufen Old Street. I knew it was up hill, but my god I didn’t think I would be pushing my bike uphill for 3.4 kms. 

As we made the left turn to go up to Jiufen, we both noticed the old buildings. These were old gold processing plants. One of them is now a museum.

The waterfalls around this area are called golden waterfalls, due to the colour of the rocks, the water flows over.

Ralf took a photo of these musicians and then started to push his bike, he said no point killing ourselves, but I don’t think he realised we still had 3.4 kms to go.

Google maps ironically bought us through a cemetery and up and down stairs to our homestay, which had advertised that it was only 350 metres from Jiufen Old Street. Just before we got to the homestay, we had to unload our bikes to be able to get them up the last flight of steps. Jiufen Old Street was only 350 metres from the homestay but downhill and down stairs. I have no idea how we are going to get down from this mountain tomorrow.

View from the Homestay

We were so wet and cold, I couldn’t even be bothered to dry and clean the bikes. As far as I was concerned at that point, I would not have been sad if someone stole them.

Sometimes the homestays do not make it easy to check-in. Once you get to the homestay and sometimes before you arrive, the owners will send you a code. We searched everywhere for the key code panel, eventually one of the young cleaners showed us where it was and we were able to get into the room. We were settling into our room and heard people outside trying to get in.  We let the family from Singapore into the building and then tried to help them find their room. There was only three other rooms available and their code didn’t work on any of them. Eventually the owners responded to their inquiries and they realized that they were booked into the building next door. Same name, same address, same front door code, just a different entrance door for the family room.

After we had showered and relaxed a little, we headed down to Jiufen Old Street. After the day we had I was hoping and praying that it was worth the effort of getting here. Fortunately it was definitely worth the visit.  Although there are easier ways to get here. You can take the train to Riufen and get a taxi from there, you can also take a bus or a tour bus. We saw quite a few tour guides with their flags telling people about the stores and where to stop and buy gifts/souvenirs.

Jiufen Old Street is one of the oldest streets in Taiwan. The Village originally had nine families but expanded to a Town after gold was discovered in the hills around 1903. After the gold mine closed in 1971, the town quickly went into decline and was almost forgotten.

Jiufen Old Street is primarily four streets that are very narrow and each store is quite small. The largest store was the tea tasting house. It covered three floors and had great views of the valley (if you could see them through the rain and fog). I was looking at some of the high mountain oolong tea for sale ranging from 600 to 6000 TWD ($25.00 to $257 Cdn). It is definitely a tourist attraction and you could pay for a tea tasting that was quite expensive as well. We did watch a video on how to make oolong tea. Of course you have to heat the pot and the cups.

I was just enjoying the atmosphere of the old building. One of the assistants chatted to me he told me that the building was very old over 100 years old and it was previously owned by a gold merchant. His store was in the front of the building and the back of the building was his personal residence.

The rain really started to pour down about 7:30, there were streams of water running down the middle of the small streets and a few of the stores were closing. We had spotted a 7/11 and a Family Mart, we stopped in at the Family Mart and bought two rain ponchos which kept us dry for the walk up the stairs back to our room.

Monday 18, November 2024

We left our warmshowers host in the rain. Not many photos today because it was a wet and dreary ride.

At about the 14 kms mark we stopped for a second breakfast and then headed to Jiaoxi. This was a short day because I wanted to go to a hot spring while we are in Taiwan. On arrival in Jiaoxi we didn’t get a very good impression of a hot springs town. There were a lot of hotels and restaurants, but not very glamorous.  When we got to our hotel it was only 12:00. There was no-one about, so we went to the back of the hotel and Ralf found a hose to rinse of our dirty bikes. While we were there a fella came to the backdoor and let us check-in. How nice was that? Three hours early. We quickly showered and headed out to discover the hot spring park. In the downtown area there is a hot stream that runs through this park area. There are places that are covered, and they are seating areas where you can sit down and put your feet in a hot spring stream.

I was laughing because, it reminded me of my Aunty Nen holding her dress up to paddle at the beach in Lincolnshire. Here I am doing the same thing, probably at the same age, only in a very different place.

There were quite a few people doing it, even on a cool and drizzly day. There were also fishy areas where you can put your feet in a tub with fishes and they nibble at your feet. We did this once before when we were in Cambodia, so we had to do it again.

I did get into trouble in one area. There was a covered area, and we went to investigate. An old man came out and started pointing at the Taiwan lettering and telling me in no uncertain times that I couldn’t be in that area. I had absolutely no idea what he was saying or why he was so upset. Another man came and said only men. No Women, only men. Ralf went to investigate; it was a public bath for men only. oops

At about 4:00 I said to Ralf let’s go back to the hotel, get our swimming gear and find the forest hot spring. He didn’t seem to be too enthusiastic about it but came along for the ride.  We found the Forest Hot Spring Park, very easily and walked through a lovely park area. We arrived at a Japanese style building and checked on the price. There was a young girl on duty and an older person supervising. He asked if we were over 65 and when I said yes, he asked for identification. I had my passport and he saw I was born in 1957 and I told him Ralf 1959. We got the senior rate! Bonus. He told us it was segregated, men to the left women to the right. Ralf and I agreed we would be there for one hour.

It was absolutely wonderful. You leave your clothes in a locker, then shower and then you can go into 7 different pools. Everyone was naked, all manner of shape and sizes. The temperatures were from 39 degrees to 44.5 degrees and a cold pool. I headed for the biggest pool first, there was no temperature guide near it. I dipped my toe, oh that was cold. I decided to try the 39 degree pool and gradually move up to 43 degrees, and then into the cold pool and then go around again. The pools are not smelly as there is a low sulphur rate. Hot Springs in the Jiaoxi area are alkaline, it is crystal-clear, odorless, yet contains a considerable amount of minerals like Potassium chloride, Sodium sulphide, Potassium hydrogen carbonate, Technical Granular, as well as rich organisms. It was a wonderful relaxing one hour and only cost 100 NTW which is about $4.33 Cdn each.

After dinner Ralf had a second ice-cream. Some of these ice-creams had peppers in them. While Ralf was eating his spicy ice-cream, ice-cream with chilli peppers in it! A young couple asked Ralf if the spicy ice-cream was really spicy. He told them that this was his second for the day. The Swiss-chocolate was good, and the melon spicy ice-cream was good. They got the Swiss-chocolate and a really spicy one as well. Then they started chatting to us. Where were we from, did we like Taiwan. We told them we were cycling around Taiwan. Their parents were amazed and asked how old I was. Then we were having our photo taken and thumbs up and good wishes for the rest of our trip.

What an excellent end to a wet and dreary day. I spotted the windmill: Jacky 4, Ralf 4.

We came back to our room and had to decide if we were going to continue cycling or head into Taipei.

The weather for the next few days is not good but what the heck. We choose to continue cycling, we will play it by ear. We really want to get to the northernmost tip of Taiwan and then head into Taipei.

Sunday 17, November 2024

A train ride today. Although we did cycle 14.77 kms to our warmshowers host.

We got to the train station way too early. Then worried where to stand on the platform to get the bikes on the train. We had to be in the last carriage, but didn’t know how many carriages there would be. We watched the high-speed train arrive and the car # and the platform # lined-up perfectly.

Eventually when the train arrived, we had lots of time to get the bikes on the train. We just rolled them on, there were no tie-downs, nor did the seats lift up, we just had them leaning against a couple of seats.  We were the only two in the carriage. Because we had booked our bikes without bags, we had to take the slow train to Luondong.

From the train we saw a lot of landslides and damage from the April earthquake and the typhoon Kong Rey. The train had to slow down in certain areas.

By the time we got to Luondong it was raining. We cycled out of the downtown area and then stopped for lunch. We arrived at our warmshowers house at 2:30. Wan-Wei is a prison officer and is also a published author. He has written many stories about his life as a prison officer and surprisingly they haven’t fired him. Although I am sure they will be glad when he retires in 4 years time.

We stayed in Prison married quarters and the prison wall was almost next to the house. It was a very interesting afternoon and evening talking to Wan Wei and Joyee. Joyee has travelled extensively as a tour guide both abroad and in Taiwan. Now she teaches the tour guide course, she also is a cultural ambassador for Taiwan and she has been to many places including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival showcasing Taiwanese Art Forms like puppetry.

Wan Wei and Joy had a little rescue dog. They got him when he was 2 years old from a puppy mill. He is now 14. they were both surprised when he went up to Ralf and wanted to sit on his lap. My hubby the Dog Whisperer.

Joyee cooked a really nice meal. Taro soup, which Ralf really likes Taro, a fish and tomato sauce dish, which I really enjoyed, rice and 100-year old egg and tofu (top right in photo).  Our first taste of 100-year old egg. These 100-year old eggs are very popular in Taiwan. They are not actually 100-years old, but the way they are made makes them smell like it ha ha. Not really, Joyee told us that they are duck eggs and in the past they were either wrapped in mud and left in the ground to mature or soaked in horse pee. Now they are ‘cooked’ in a lime mix. The eggs when opened are black. They had an odd consistency, almost rubbery, they tasted o.k. but I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat them again.

We had an early night. Forecast for tomorrow is for more rain.

Saturday 16, November 2024

Hualien was going to be a short stop so that we could book a tour to the Taraoko Gorge. Unfortunately, due to the earthquake in April, most of the trails entering the gorge at the east side are not accessible. The government have been spending all their efforts ensuring that the three major roads that cross the middle of Taiwan are repaired and safe to drive. One road was reopened very quickly, (by the end of May) the other two have taken a little longer to repair and have been down to a single-lane of traffic and restricted use. That would not have been any fun on a bike. Taiwan Kong-rey created more problems with landslides and the roads department are working overtime to get that cleared.

We have seen some road damage as we cycled up from Fengbin yesterday. But, it is amazing how quickly they get everything cleared and ready to go again. We believe this is from Typhoon Kong Rey.

Today then became a rest day, but as most of you know we don’t actually rest on our rest day. We walk the City we are in. However, we did manage to sleep until 8:00. We had breakfast next door, they didn’t seem to be keen to see us. We managed to use google translate for the menu and point to pictures.

As we wandered around the City we came across a kids play area. These were concrete slides. – Tough kids.

We then headed out to the train station to see if we could change our tickets. No problem, cancel the originals, issue the next set and get 4 NTW$ back (about 18 cents). We are going further on the train but do not have to change, it was cheaper.

We got a taxi back to our area and then walked to the Train Museum. This area was built by the Japanese as a train station and administration area. There was also a small farmers market set up. Ralf wandered around the museum and I got chatting to an amazing man at the Farmers Market.

He was 72 and had learnt English in Junior High School. He told me he liked to read English books so that he can continue to learn. We had a great chat, while Ralf was taking photos of the engine and property. He told me that the Japanese grew sugarcane in the mountains around Hualien and logged a lot of the old growth forest. They built the railway so that they could transport the sugarcane back to Hualien and send it to Japan. He told me he had been a farmer all his life, after leaving school he worked on his farm and grew fruit and vegetables. He was very happy to be working the land, but it is hard work. I was amazed at how good his English was, considering it had been over 50 years since he had any formal teaching. I learnt French in school and struggle to understand and speak the language.

After we had spent time at the museum, we had a wander down to where the night market sets up and discovered another market. Some of the stalls were closing up as it was after 2:00 and they had sold what they needed to sell: fish, meat, fruit and vegetables.  We came back to the hotel to pick up our laundry and spent a pleasant hour watching the dirty clothes go around and around. Another job done on a rest day.

Ralf wanted to go to a bike store and found a store that had good reviews. Off we went for another walk. It was a good Giant bike store, the owner spoke very good English. Ralf bought a phone holder to attach to his handlebar. He has had to use his phone for google maps and has had it inside an old map case. It made it difficult to see and follow the instructions. Although we only have a few days left of cycling, it will come in handy on other trips.

There is an excellent night market here in Hualien. I suggested to Ralf that we eat first and then go to the night market. That way he wouldn’t get frustrated at me not liking any of the fatty, fried foods that they have to offer. Also, there is nowhere to sit and eat at most night markets. We went to NuPasta, but it was a bit expensive. We went back to Three Koalas where we knew they had pasta on the menu. The food was excellent again.

Immediately after dinner we went down to the Night Market. We knew it was a big market over 400 stalls, but very well set up with lots of food stalls, games of chance, and music. The market was well worth a visit and it had a huge seating area with tables where you could eat what you have chosen from the many food stalls.

There are a lot of murals/grafitti on the walls in Hualien. I enjoy seeing this kind of thing, rather than someone’s spray painted signature.

We had a good day.

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.

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.