November 2, 2023
November 2nd
out with Ralph
A couple of weeks ago my friend Ralph tore muscles in his leg - I think his quadriceps - while doing some sit-ups at home and hasn't been cycling since, but he lets me know that he now feels up for a spin to see if he's on his way to recovery.
We agree to meet at a spot on the river cycle path at nine. It's about a 20-minute ride for me, and I guess about the same for him. We can head up the river and have a coffee in a Starbucks, then see how he feels. There could be a climb after that.
Ralph arrives a few minutes after me. I see him approach from a way off and wonder if he's with someone, but the other rider turns out to be just a twenty-something guy on a rental bike who slowly rides away from Ralph as they get closer.
It's an easy flat ride to Starbucks. There's one very short incline - maybe 10 metres long - that Ralph pedals up, where we veer away from the river, then another one soon after to get up an escarpment. This latter one takes a minute or two, but his leg holds out and we are soon chatting in Starbucks, where we decide to do the long climb to the south.
I have class later, but we'll end up at a train station and come back by rail.
After Starbucks, the route is seriously urban for something like 20-30 minutes and we cut through a traditional market before eventually reaching route 11. At its zero km marker at a junction, there's a convenience store where we buy cold drinks - it's 29°C again and after this there's not much, if anything, on the climb.
We ride out into countryside that's dotted with clusters of homes. The road is now quiet with no traffic to speak of, with vegetation shooting up from either side of the route: bamboo, tall grass and trees. It's a bit jungly, but as we get higher, a vista becomes visible. It's a green and undulating landscape and goes on for miles.
Unlike the climb I did south of Longtan, today's incline is reasonable but it goes on for a while, maybe four km or more, as the road switches from 11 to 11-1 and then the 12, all of which swerve south through hilly 新竹 Hsinchu County.
We reach to a junction with route 竹13-1 that marks the high point and from here we there's drop down towards a place called Sinpu. We linger in some shade and I tell Ralph that I've bought my train ticket to get over to the east coast. So has g. The forecast is OK, although it might be wet on Monday. The forecast is never really accurate.
Ralph and I chat about the planned ride. There's a small track that veers across the mountainous landscape . It's one none of us have done before. Our train over to east side of Taiwan leaves at gone 6 o'clock on Saturday and it'll take over three hours, as it's one that stop at most stations, but it accepts bikes. The fare was only about US$11.
The route actually veers around Sinpu. Ralph knows this area much better than me and we reach a junction and there's a 7-Eleven and we opt to go in for a rest. I'm not hungry. It's too hot to eat much.
Ralph has another coffee while I get a cold bottle and a man aged about 50 or so with a beard moves over a bit so that we can both sit at adjacent stools near the large window. He seems a bit distracted at first, but eventually, once he's almost done eating his microwaved lunch, starts asking the usual questions. My guess is he's a farmer. His bare feet have likely been submersed in muddy paddies and his toe nails looks dead. They're black and crusty.
I realise where we are. It's a 7-Eleven we've been in numerous times. It's not too far to the train station and we arrive just five minutes before a train heading north leaves. The timing couldn't be better as it's one that accepts bikes.
The journey is 40 minutes and it's well before 2:00 when we alight and I say bye to Ralph. I head to an Indian on the way home for a late but yummy lunch of chicken tikka.
My mind is really on Saturday.
Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 3,315 km (2,059 miles)
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