May 1, 2023
May 1st
tea fields above Longtan
I keep wondering when this journal will end. No doubt you do, too.
Well, it could be any moment now, what with the epidemic command centre closing down today and the only time face masks being required is inside a health facility. It seems lockdown is finally coming to an end.
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Being May 1st, many local businesses and institutions are closed today, but it's a bit weird - nobody can really explain to me who has day off and who doesn't. Banks and the post office are shut, but teachers still work. As I don't have any classes on Mondays anyway, it doesn't impact me.
A ride is on the cards - one that's overdue.
However, it takes me untill gone 11 o'clock to get my act together. After pondering where to go, Longtan seems like a good option, then I stick a novel in my saddlebag to read while having a coffee and rub some sun cream on my arms - it's hot and sunny out there, with the temp' in the high twenties.
The familiar ride to Longtan is uneventful and I don't take any photos until sat near the window in Louisa Coffee, with my drink, a toastie and a slice of warm apple pie in front of me. It's while munching on this little lot that it occurs to me to venture up into the tea fields. It's been a while since I rode up the two stiff climbs and I could do with some proper exercise.
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From Louisa, it's just five minutes or so of riding along wide Highway 3 to reach the turning where route 20 begins. This is a small road that immediately kicks up and my lowest gears get used and thankfully there's a lot of shade from trees that stops me from getting really hot.
Nevertheless, when I spot an empty packet of betel nuts on the strimmed verge, I take it as a sign to pause and take a drink, and also take a snap.
This is a route I've ridden many times, but now it's one I associate with Andy Peat, who borrowed my old commuter bike when he came to Taiwan a few years ago and rode with me up here. The low gears on that cheap mountain bike weren't working, so it was a slog for him and it still baffles me how he manageed to pedal his way up. It's a few kilometers of serious uphill, with the route leaving the urban confines of Longtan and leading into terraced fields of tea.
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After turning right from the 20 and riding up the 67, the incline eventually eases off and the tarmac follows a high ridge that provides a vista on either side, but the northern one includes the outskirts of Taipei and has more going for it.
I pause and take a snap of a couple stood outside one of the cafes selling overpriced drinks, then soon get to the left turn that drops me through more tea fields. There's a shop selling cold drinks near the junction, but there's also one at the foot of the descent and that one's preferable, what with the ambiance beng more peaceful.
The bending drop is a bit technical, with neat rows of tea either side roughly following the contours. There's one area where a digger is making what looks to be a parking area, which pains me. There was one built lower down about 10+ years ago which never seems to have any vehicles in it.
A house that has stood empty for a long time might offer a couple of photo oportunities and I rest my bike in some shade and wander around. There's easy access up to a flat roof and from there I can see through broken windows. Oddments of furniture are scatted about. Clothing litters the floor of one room. A roof has collapsed in another. It's like two or three houses that are connected and most of the structure is sound.
When I make my back to ground level, a scooter stops and the elderly man riding it says something to me which I guess means don't go inside.
The road descends quite a bit more and passes paddies before it eventually flattens out as it crosses a river and gets to a small bunch of homes and a simple temple. From the shop I buy a chilled bottle of tea and sit at a wooden table outside and as the cold drink washes around my mouth, I ponder what flavor it is. It's difficult to say. The design of the label includes some pineapples, so that answers my question.
It occurs to me to read some pages of the Graham Swift novel, but it's hot even in the shade, and time is getting on.
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I cross over route 20 and venture up what is initially a gentle climb. Beside the road are fields, but there is nothing being grown right now. Usually it's rice. Just 100 metres or so away, hills rise up and are covered in trees, a few of which have white blossom.
A local on a Bike Friday cruises down and we nod to each other, then 10 minutes later a thin-looking foreigner rides past on what looks to be a conventional tourer.
After a couple of kiometers the road seriously kicks up and it's one of those inclines that can seem better to walk, but I spin away and make it. The higher area also has tea growing, but I doubt it's the best Taiwan has to offer as the elevation isn't that much and the best stuff grows on the country's high mountains.
Once on route 68, there's a cyclist visible in my rear view mirror and he soon overtakes me. He's on a mountain bike and is in the biggest gear and pedalling slowly, and I wonder if his knees will forgive him. He's not a young guy. I follow him for a while as we both head along Highway 3, but he makes a right just before I turn left to ride along the quiet-ish 65, which takes me northwards, back in the general direction of Longtan.
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I retrace my tracks from earlier and head home, but there's more traffic now as it's getting towards rush hour. I call in at a couple of plant shops, but don't see anything that appeals.
Once back at my desk, a message pops up on the computer from Debbie saying her bike is 'broken'. It turns out the chain came off as she was cycling to work. That's not an issue, but the thing needs some attention.
Yesterday, after riding around town, we went to the local bike shop to see about getting a new bottom bracket fitted. Hers is totally shot, but as the staff were pretty busy, I said I'd pop back and after a while on the computer, I decide to ride her bike there. It's hard work and thankfully it's just a five-minute journey, as it's not simply too small, but the tyres are pretty flat and the bearings in bottom bracket have obviously completely disintegrated. It's a wonder she's managed to ride the thing.
It's time for dinner and I leave the bike with them, but know they really want to sell me a new one. It just winds me up. They say they'll try to order a new bottom bracket, but once I go back after having a bite to eat, they say it's too old and the part is unavailable. Intuition tells me otherwise.
Around 8:00 the sound of disco music is thumping away outside. This must be a religious procession and after over five minutes of it I go down and take a look, armed with my camera. There are half a dozen trucks decked out with flasing lights and sandwiched between groups of costumed guys, with one bunch near the back supporting a long dragon made of cloth that they move through the air on poles.
It's not long after that I ride my cmmuter bike into town to meet Rallph for a beer, as Mondays are are usual meetup. I tell him about teh bottom bracket and tell him the Giant shop we've both been to often over the past 20-odd years will no doubt have one.
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 2,800 km (1,739 miles)
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I remember that hill well! Not sure how I would do these days. It’s been three or four years since I’ve been on a ride half that length and some of those are on e-bikes. Looking forward to seeing some more of your trips further afield now lockdown has come to an end.
11 months ago
11 months ago