A trip to Shiding
We left at seven this morning forLiuzhangli MRT station where X was waiting. H had a cold and couldn't make it. Continuing down to Muzha, we picked up T who wants to come with us on a three day-tour across the island next Tuesday, so X told him he'd better come with us a few times so he knows what he's getting into. No experience and the wrong kind of borrowed bike meant that he kept lagging behind.
We continued for another 10km through Shenkeng past the famous doufu-restaurant that I first tried out together with Great Wall and some other friends 10 years ago before it started to go uphill for 10km without the slighest downslope. Good thing I bought a new bicycle yesterday. What a winner! Eat my dust!
Super good weather. Clear skies, 25 degrees, no wind, birds singing, cicadas chirping and the sound of a mountain stream, mixed up with the sound of the odd car and a few big motorbikes. A great early morning in a beautiful area that brings a lot of both bicycle and motorbike enthusiasts.
At the top of the mountain in Shiding we had a cup of coffee at Helen's coffeeshop (海倫咖啡). If we'd had the time, we'd have rolled down the other side to get to Pinglin for a cup of tea there. We'll do that at the end of our three day-tour when we will be returning through Pinglin. We also passed the road to Pingxi,which we'll save for another day. There's a beatiful road running along a ravine from Pingxi to Ruifang, which we saw taking the narrow gage train from Ruifang to Pingxi. The way home was also nice, since it began with a 10km downslope. Rolling, rolling, rolling. After a total of 55km, we finished the ride with some pasta in a small Italian place somewhere in northern Muzha together with H who joined up after having got some medication so she'll be fit for next Tuesday. Home again, we had accumulated a total of 59km. OK for a morning ride.
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