練英文的時刻又到囉~
hi all
With only about a week remaining it was time to make proper plans to cross the mountains
to the east coast and then cross back to the west to reach the airport. I had been having
fun riding in circles but there are only a few ways to cross the mountains and I would
need to plan carefully. I decided to use the southern cross island route even though this
was closed due to typhoon damage in 2009. I hoped the route would be open to bicycles even
though it was closed to cars.
Heading south into the misty hills i discovered a route called the coffee road. This is
exactly my sort of road! Around midday i saw a sign for coffee pointing up steep side
road, which i followed. Then just ahead i saw a cyclist so I followed him into a parking
area where i found 15 other cyclists resting. It was a cycling group of civil engineers
from the adjacent county, out for a day ride. They kindly invited me to join them for
lunch and coffee. I asked about the road route i hoped to use, which they were responsible
for maintaining. They hesiated but said it would be passable for a cyclist. But to cross
the 2800m high pass safely i needed to cover a long distance this afternoon. I set off to
try and be as close as possible to the start of the high mountain pass. By 4pm it had
started to rain lightly and i decided to stop although i was in a remote village not
usually visited by tourists. With help from the 7 eleven convenience store girl I found
the only hotel in town. As i then set off to explore the town, the hotel owner insisted i
join him and his family for dinner, for which he refused to accept payment. After dinner i
went in search of some pineapple. A man selling whole pineapples had a bag of pineappple
pieces, and i managed to request a cupful of them, for which he refused to accept payment.
It seems these pieces were his "free taste" samples although he had given me 10 pieces.
Everywhere i went i was showered with kindness and I felt welcome despite (or perhaps
because) these villages were well off the usual tourist route.
Next morning i set off to the mountain, but i was further than i had hoped from the pass
as I travelled up a major river valley bordered by impressively high mountains. There were
numerous busy roadworks repairing the extreme landslide damage of 2 years prior. It took
me until midday to reach a control post at 1000m altitude, still 35 km from the crest. The
guard refused to let me pass because it was already raining at the summit. Then Martin
arrived in his new Toyota 4wd pickup truck. He convinced the guard to let him drive to
the summit, and invited me to join him. So i did reach the summit but not by bike. And it
was cold and wet and i would not have been able to ride this serious mountain pass alone
in just an afternoon. I had been saved from the folly of my inadequate planning. Now i had
to decide if i had time to complete a complete circuit of Taiwan. Martin discussed my
dilemma and offered to drive me some 100 km south so i could cross the mountains on the
only other route, the south island link, despite the fact that going south was not even
part of his planned trip that day. I was very grateful for his exceptional kindness and help.
At a small town nearby i found a hotel with help from a policeman, as the sign was only in
chinese and unreadable to me. And the welcoming staff showed me to the laundary which i
could use. Did i smell so bad that i clearly needed a laundary? Or was this just more
Taiwanese helpfulness?
Now one quirk of the non-western hotels is the miniscule size of the bath towels. I first
had this problem in Alishan where the bath towel was just 400*200mm and paper thin. And
this hotel had a similar sized towel. But by now i had become an expert in self
drip-drying after my shower, a necessary skill.
Next morning i crossed the low mountain pass to the east coast, which was busy with tour
busses. I also came across several other cycle tourists, local taiwanese on the popular
east coast route. The ride along the pacific coastal cliffs was very pleasant and scenic
but i needed to cover some serious distance which was made difficult by a strong headwind.
After 160 km i was out of energy and found a hotel for the night in a pleasant coastal
town not usually frequented by tourists. Next morning i went searching for fruit for
breakfast and found a market stall selling bunches of bananas. I only wanted 2 bananas and
had difficulty communicating my request. Eventually i broke off 2 bananas and offered him
whatever money he wanted, but he declined any payment. A mere 2 bananas was free!
After 30 km on the undulating coast road i needed to find some mountains and crossed the
coastal range into a wide valley parallel to the coast. Here i found a bike path. Although
I did not really want to go in that direction, a bike path was too good an opportunity to
ignore and I rode the path to the nearby town. It was an excuse for a coffee at least. The
bike path had been a railway line and crossed a long bridge across the river valley. Half
way across there was a display in english and chinese about the plate tectonics which
caused this valley and the frequent earthquake offsets which led to the railway line being
rerouted, leaving this old line available for bicycles. What a great discovery, a
rail-trail bike path with a geological explanation and clear evidence of plate tectonics
as I stood on the junction of the Phillipine and Eurasian plates.
I continued northwards on a secondary road winding first through rice paddies and then
through rolling hills. It was a wonderful route with very little traffic and avoided both
the main highways. After crossing through the large metropolis of Hualien it was about 5pm
and time for me to find a hotel. I stopped at a road junction where there was a map on a
sign, trying to work out where I could travel to before dark. Although the map-sign was
understandable, there was no scale at all and I was concerned that the next township might
be 30 km away. Then a cyclist approached. It was Halu from Japan, and he explained that
the township was only 1 Km ahead as he had visited here last year. So we both rested well
that night in preparation for the ascent of Taroko gorge next day.
Taroko gorge is a serious climb. In about 80 Km the altitude rises from 70m to over 2500m,
with a cruel descent of some 200m near the top making the overall climb some 2700m. And
this is merely to a northbound highway junction. If continuing west, it climbs to a crest
of 3250m over the next 10 Km. This is far more serious than the climbs in europe. The
highest pass in the tour de france is 2800m, but it starts from 1200m so the overall climb
is about 1600m. I planned to climb only to the highway junction, about 2800m vertical,
while carrying my touring luggage. But brave Halu planned to go over the crest at 3250m.
We climbed together all day, with Halu being a little faster than me. Maybe he had less
luggage, but I think he was stronger also. It took from 7am until 3pm to reach the highway
junction, where we met 2 Japanese cyclists, one of whom had ridden up there on his fixed
gear track bike. Astonishing! I turned north to find a hotel in a town 30 km away, mostly
downhill fortunately. I trust Halu was able to crest the high pass and find a hotel on the
descent before nightfall. Everything about this gorge was giant sized, from the sheer
cliff walls to the immensity of the engineering task of building a road through this
vertical world. I was pleased to have survived the challenge I set myself, but in awe of
the magnitude of these mountains and the efforts of the other cyclists I met here.
In the high mountain village of Lishan that night I found a comfortable hotel and fresh
local apples. But I could not read the menu and survived on a junk food diet instead. Then
I continued north along the valley, although with some serious climbs also, for the next
80 Km. It was amazing to see intense agricultural development on slopes of at least 60
degrees. Surely even mountain goats would have trouble climbing these slopes. At lower
altitudes the entire valley was filled with cabbage farms, thousands of acres of cabbages.
But I hate cabbage, all I wanted was a coffee and there was none of that here. About
midday I reached the junction to another mountain pass across to the west coast which
would be the last mountain crossing of my tour. This was a climb of about 800m over 15 Km.
so up I went again around uncountably numerous switchbacks through the dense undergrowth
up into the misty clouds. And by 4pm I had crossed the range and dropped down to a small
village with a welcoming hotel for the night. Where i met another japanese cyclist. He
also confirmed other comments I had heard that the mountains in Taiwan were more rugged
and bigger than those in Japan.
I had 2 days left and was within easy reach of the airport so I deliberately found devious
routes through the foothills before delving into an unattractive large town to find a home
for the night. The busy city and its market were very different to the mountains I had
come to love. And on the last day I again rode back up into the mountains where I met Andy
from Taipei who was doing a day loop ride over the mountain range. We shared a coffee and
pleasant chat before parting and I went west to the pacific Cycles factory to say goodbye
to the friendly people there before heading to the airport. Access to the airport was on
freeway like roads and I suspected cyclists were not welcome on the last 3 km. As I
reached the departure terminal, I noticed (in my rear-view mirror) a police car following
me. I quickly swerved across 3 lanes and the road divider into the bus area and rode
against the traffic direction. There was no way the police car could follow that manoevure
and I escaped into the departure area to fold my bike and depart. Sounds unusual? - not
really, the road rules in Taiwan are somewhat optional and I had seen other traffic behave
like this quite often.
I was amazed at what I found in Taiwan. From friendly people to courteous traffic to busy
cities and quiet mountains, well paved roads and excellent infrastructure. Everything
about this country is giant sized. The mountains, cliffs, landslides, road construction,
bridges and hospitality. And all with a warm tropical climate and almost no rain to
interrupt my travels. This is the best cycling destination I have ever found. And despite
the smallish size of the country, there are so many more challenges here that it is likely
I will return again to this place. In India, you have to die to reach Nirvana. But in
Taiwan, I found cycling Nirvana for the living!
Ride high
Kingsley
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