May 18, 2025
May 18th
Zhubei via route 30
Every 007 movie features a Bond Girl and because tomorrow night I fly to Manchester, today's the last chance to get out for a ride with Debbie.
Our friend Ralph emailed last night and we agreed to meet him in Longtan at 9:30 and it'll take us 45 minutes to ride there, so we set off at 8:44.
The forecast says it may rain in the afternoon, but it's about 25°C and I've got cream on my arms and face, while Debbie opts to cover herself up with dark glasses and a bandana, ninja-style.
The ride out to Longtan is very slightly uphill and there's a wind blowing in our faces, but we manage to get to Louisa Coffee at 9:30 on the dot and find Ralph at a table wearing a cycling top that I gave him for his last birthday. The cafe is very busy - the busiest I've ever seen it. We don't know why.
Debbie and I haven't have had any breakfast, so we order something to eat with our coffees and it's about 10 o'clock when we set off, cycling back past a park full of caged birds. There must be a couple of hundred round cages hung from rows of metal poles and the dinky creatures are chirping away en masse and making quite a cacophony. It's unclear what's going on, but my guess is it's a competition of sorts.
Ralph suggests we ride to Zhubei, so that's where we set off for. It'll basically be the reverse route of what I cycled on Friday.
We weave through central Longtan, stopping at a shop to buy bottles of drink, then make our way up wide route 3 for a 10 minutes before crossing over it and starting up a hill via a narrow lane, one which I whizzed down the other day.
The sun comes and goes, but there are a few darks clouds topping the distant hills. It's very humid as usual.
The climb is kicks up in a couple of places, but we make it to the top alright and have a drink before freewheeling down the bends on other side as the route drops towards the town of Guanxi.
At the junction with Highway 3, I instinctively go straight across and begin to retrace Friday's wheel tracks, heading towards the river path, but Ralph calls me back and says there's a different route to Zhubei. It's not one that springs to mind, but I know we'll get there one way or another and we're soon speeding along the wide 3. It's about 2km to get to a left turn, which is the start of route 30, which is a road I only vaguely remember. It's been a couple of years since I was here. Debbie too.
The dark clouds we noticed earlier begin to loom over us as we pedal up the winding road and we make it about 6km before spots of rain start hitting the surface of the road.
We are at the entrance to a hotel resort called Sun City, where there's a guard manning a kiosk and a black dog chained to a tree. Right nearby is an large, open-sided structure that's near the road, so we decide to take shelter under its metal roof. A proper downpour looks imminent and we make it in good time, as rain starts pelting down.
The sky has turned completely dark and it looks like we may be here for a while, but staying nicely dry, we look out onto an area of ankle-height grass. It looks like people practice golf shots here, or did, as there's a wire basket with cheap balls in and the floor is half covered with strips of very tatty Astroturf. There's one chair.
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Ralph checks a weather app, which shows this little part of Taiwan is where the rain is. It's heavy for over 30 minutes, but then eases off, so we decide to risk it.
A few minutes later, as we are cycling through a village called Yushan, the rain comes down heavy again and as luck would have it there's a road-side gazebo to shelter under. While here, Debbie decides to take off her cycling bottoms and socks, as well as her arm-warmers. She wants to keep them dry.
Once it's just about stopped, we decide to get back on the bikes and we just about get to the edge of the village when the rain pours down again, so we squeeze into a shed-like building that's minus a door. It has a few used tyres at the front and oddments such as packets of noodles strewn on the floor. There's a big snail on the top tyre.
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https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/324460-Nesiohelix-swinhoei
1 week ago
I looked for that lizard that I saw the other day, but didn't spot it. I was going to flip it over and take a snap.
1 week ago
It seems like the rain won't really stop today and the three of us accept our clothing will just have to get wet. We continue up the winding 30, which continues to rise gently to the 10km point, but at least it's not so hot now. Our speed is pretty steady on the drop on the other side, as there are wet leaves littering the edges of the route.
It takes us back to Highway 3 and it's now well gone lunch time and my breakfast snack has been burnt off. It's almost 2:00 when we whiz along Highway 3 for a couple of km to a 7-Eleven. The road is completely dry here. Strange.
I have a microwaved pesto penne dish and a carton of soya milk, which hits the spot. Debbie has just a rice triangle, as she says she isn't that hungry.
A bit further along the 3, we reach the FamilyMart shop where I had cold drinks on Friday. If we turn right here, it would be up a climb, but we go left and soon get to the riverside road. It's now about 15km to the station in Zhubei and it's basically all flat.
The wind blows towards us, but it's not too bad and our damp clothes soon dry out. It's only a couple of days since I was here, riding the other way, and the sights - which aren't anything to write home about - are fresh in my mind.
There's the embankment to lug our bikes over once the riverside path comes to an end, then we cycle along the path for a while and make our way to the station. It's about 3:40 when we buy tickets for the next bike train, which departs at just gone four. I think the ticket guy recognizes me from Friday. It's going to be a while before he sees me again.
Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 310 km (193 miles)
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