October 10, 2023
October 10th
Out with Debbie on 10/10
Well, summer has finally ended. A typhoon put finally pay to that and radically changed things. It's now in the pleasant high twenties rather than the steaming low thirties.
The timing is good, as it's a long weekend here: four-days off work to celebrate Taiwan's national day. On Sunday, Debbie and I went for a short ride beside the river and likewise yesterday, so we're on a hat-trick today, with the idea being to pedal out to Longtan for a coffee and a look around. The clock in the living room says getting on for 11 o'clock when we venture outside with the bikes.
The white-painted place on the corner hasn't changed in the past few months: still not open, it's become even more of an enigma.
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Coffee in Longtan is at Louisa as usual and we then ride out on back streets towards rice fields on the town's southern periphery. It takwes a few minutes before we reach the flat areas that currently have rice standing a couple of feet tall that's swaying in the breeze. The narrow path follows a winding stream that's hemmed in by deep walls and we leave that and head to a spot that sells dumplings as it's lunch time.
The cafe is simple and has about six tables and a few are occupied. We get one below a TV screen that's showing local news, but which is mostly dash-cam footage of road accidents.
I have some steamed dumplings and Debbie gets some dried tofu.
We're in no rush to get home, so once almost at a junction with highway 66, we take a path that follows a canal.
The path is flat and the wind wafts us along nicely. This is cycling made easy.
There are very few people around and not a lot to photograph.
My mind is on doing a trip for a few days, but the forecast for the weekend isn't great. The plan is to go over to the issland's east coast and ride into the mountains, but that far side of Taiwan gets the most rain. Now the eather has cooled, I just have to wait for a chance when the weather is like this.
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5 months ago
Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 3,240 km (2,012 miles)
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