Other than the information on our map, we will have to cross mountains again.
I was so happy that I wouldn’t have to cross passes no more on this trip, but now another 800 kilometers with about 10 passes are right in front of us.
Although we will only get to a hight of 1200 meters the passes will be steep and each from near sea level to the top, so quite an ascend.
The landscape here is very hilly. Today we had a total climb of nearly 2000 meters and still managed to go 98km. The funny thing is that in opposite to the beginning of the tour, not our lungs are the problem now, but our legs. We have a good condition now because we have been “training” in over 5000 meters height, which gives me the best and fittest lung I’ve ever had in my life. Breathing is something that I don’t have any problems with, Paul and I drive up steepest hills “chatting about the weather” and don’t need to breath very deeply. But the muscles can’t meet the power of our lungs, so the legs hurt every morning and muscle ache lets us feel every part of them. I guess it will take some time, maybe up to Shanghai until the balance is there again.
Today was raining again. The weather here really sucks. I guess we came here in the wrong time of year. Everyone of the locals is perfectly equipped for this situation. Their scooters are armed against rain with huge umbrellas in aerodynamic shape, the handlebar secured by gloves an rubber sheets, their legs kept dry by plastic boards mounted to the bumpers. Everyone is ready for a rain shower in every second and so, when the sun disappears and everything gets wet and grey, the people at once have colorful raincoats and heats. The streets change as if the rain would paint the world, change the grey canvas to a impressive picture.
Well, every one but us. I mean, we do have rain clothes of course, but not as colorful, and not very good any more. But since it is not too cold here, most of the time we just keep on riding in shorts and T-shirt. The only thing then is that we can’t stop riding for having a break when you’re cold and wet is not very healthy.
Still we raised another street-sign:
Eisbären-pfad is now a street in the bamboo jungle of Sichuan, China. I hope the koala-bears don’t mind.
Right now I am save, lying in my tent which again stands under a bamboo-pavilion. The ground is made of concrete and thus hard and cold. But knowing that I can get up tomorrow without having to stand in the rain and mud and having a dry night makes the hard ground worth sleeping on. It’s the first knight in two that we sleep in our tent, the first time in 200 km that we find a place where raising the tent is possible at all.
Adventurous days seem to be over somehow, the civilization has got us in his grid again.
Ps: on the picture you can see a nice example of the Chinese art of road construction, ornaments are not only part of their housing-architecture :0)
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