A rainy day on our bikes....not just rain, but wind driven bullets of liquid cold and pain. Dripping with sweat and the bucket loads of precipitation falling, we hustled about the southern part of the country. New roads, untouched by our treads thus far.
What was planned to be a two day camping trip turned, rather quickly, into a hostel and a "where can we dry our things out" trip. The Taiwanese winter chill is upon us, and when it is damp and cold....
Or original plan was to take our bikes on the train south to the village of Dawu. There, we wanted to follow the road south, depart from the main highway that cuts through the mountains and follow what was, on the map, a dotted line along the coast and enter a grassland area of the southern tip. However...
The road went as far as a stream, wide and menacing, and went no further. The rest of the coast was impenetrable. The road ended. The torrent continued...
Sunday morning we awoke to stunning clarity and sunshine....a much better day for riding!
Friday night to Taitung. Sleep. Wake, train south. Rain, rain rain.
Another train, from Taitung to Dawu. The further south we got (where the rain is usually less) the heavier it got. Hmm. South, south, south. Rain, rain, rain. Drizzle at times, pouring at others. When we finally arrived in Dawu it was wet, there was a chill in the air but we were pumped to get on the road and explore some new kilometres of this adopted home of ours.
Us getting breakfast early saturday morning as the rain pounded the outside world; us waiting to get our bikes (for the first time!!) on to the train.
Hitting the road we passed the village itself, kept going until we got to the harbour a mere few km's away. Spotting a neat looking place, we puled over and took our seat. Ordered food, made it through a conversation with a gentleman with his family who was ever interested in our trip, us and talking about just about anything that came across his mind, and ate our grub. Full - very full - we got on our way again.
Perusing the choices of food to eat at the lunchtime harbour stop. So easy when you can just point!
The rain continued, but we pushed on with an eager cadence - south south south!
The road yet to be traveled.
We finally made it to the turn off, and were instantly turned around by a couple of fellows who demanded that we turn around - "no road". Ok, landslide. Ok....there was another access to this road a km back. Try that route....a truck slowed to tell us, again, that we could not continue..."no road, no road".
Whatever. I did the impressive thing that I always do when people in Taiwan tell me the road ahead is dangerous - I tell them "I know, I just want to take a picture". They accept that we will do just that, and not try to carry our bikes across a landslide or along a cliff. While we, fruitfully, do just that.
This time though, the road truly ended! There was no going further, it just ended. It turned from a main highway, to a small road, to a dirt road, to a rocky-dirt path, to a dry river bed to a grassy patch to nothing. Nothing. The End.
Turn around.
Making our way along the secrondary road that abruptly ended at a stream. Crystal, on the right, meanders her way back across.
So, we hit up the main road again and started south-west along this road and climbed up and up through the mountains for a couple of hours. Eventually we realized with the cold, our drenched bodies and stuff, the lack of camping places....we realized that we were destined to double back to the village of Dawu. Which is ok...we like Dawu. Calm, dusty little place that welcomes us. So, we let ourselves be welcomed.
The next morning we awoke to:
The sunday view ... so much different than those of Saturday! This is why we came....this is why we stay...
Sunshine!
Our original goal was to take the train straight home from Dawu to Hualien, the previous day being the main goal of our trip. However, we could not. Just could not. It was too perfect out.
So, instead of a 1.5km ride to the train station and a 4 hour train ride back to Hualien, we decided to bike.
Making our way back home, north along Hwy 11. All new ground.
Worthy of a post itself, this is a tortured reminder of the power of Typhoons here. Two years ago Taiwan was assaulted with a major typhoon, turning this entire village into a washed out riverbed. The wind was not to bad, but the rain immense. It simply washed away the majority of the town of Taimali. What is left is a patchy network of mess....still. Collecting up a mass of wood that the river spewed forth, and that which washed up on shore from places unknown, many places look like this one. Half clean-up obsession, half job. These can be sanded, cut, and sold to make furniture and various household items. Fetch a good price, too.
Stopping to change our tickets and embarking in a conversation with a ticket seller that took too many turns to explain, we set out to Taitung, some 70 curvy, hilly kilometers to the north.
About 7 hours later we pulled into Taitung, and made it on the last train that would take us to Hualien (Hualien is another 170km north of Taitung....not possible!!)
The train station kiosk where we were able to, after a good 45 minutes of bartering with the facts, change our tickets and get our money back for the Dawu-Taitung leg that we were now biking. Seems we know the rules with bikes and trains better than the employees!
Us just before our lunch break of homemade buns and diced veggies, on the left. On the right, the remains of humanities obsession with disposable wares. This is, unfortunately, a reality along most of the coast. Most does not come from Taiwan exclusively, but Taiwan and Asia all together certainly fall into the group of throw-away bsessed. Everything is in a plastic bag, nothing is reuseable and nobody seems to realize the problem. And here is where it ends up.
Peering out over the trees to the horizon...somehwere over there is Canada.
Along the way home we stumbled upon a training operation for Taiwans Search and Rescue squad. Today they were doing rope training and how to rescue fallen hikers, etc. Interesting to watch how they handle themselves on the ropes...pretty much the same as we do.
This was a stretch of road that we had dreamed of biking before, but just never really planned out. But, as our proper plans kinda failed, this dream became a reality. Funny how that happens.
