Not that long ago, we knew clearly in advance if the road was going to take us over a "serious" hill - like climbing 150m or so. We would check the map, making sure we knew how much and when we would climb. Getting over the hill would never be a problem, yet would cost some effort. Laos changed that, with days of 2000m total climb you can't keep up with all the "small" hills. Now we're in south China; a standard day in the office comes with a few climbs of easily 500-600m. Anything less than that is considered a bump in the road...
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| Leaving Xishuangbanna in the morning, it's a bit hazy |
So, leaving Xishuangbanna, we had 20km climb to gain around 600m, then 10km descend (until then on a gravel road, of decent quality though; the X181), then a bit up and down, followed by 3-4km up and back down, then some more or less flat road, then 30km up again... 86km total, with at least 1500m climbing. Today it was "much easier": we started by 40km mostly downhill (wooohoooooo!) - first 10km real (cold!) downhill, after that very slightly with "bumps" - and then 40km mostly uphill also with varying gradients. Good for 80km, probably around 700m climb.
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| The X181, gravel road but mostly nice to cycle on, with rubber everywhere, no traffic at all, and great views; certainty a good alternative for the G213 on this stretch! |
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| Not sure what this is; we saw this in a few places, intriguing |
All that climbing goes really well now. The slopes here are very gentle too, and the legs have adapted well meanwhile. Cycling in the mountains is certainly more challenging, but it's really good fun and the rewards are simply fantastic.
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| Just making sure we choose the right side at this junction |
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| The beautiful nature along the G213; the road is in perfect condition in many places |
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| Here comes the tea! |
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| After a thorough study of the landscape, we can conclude that China has been 3D printed (the layers are still very visible) |
The road itself is also still very enjoyable. We're cycling mostly on the G213 still (which continues for another 2700km from here by the way, all the way to Lanzhou), and most of the time there is little traffic. It was a bit busier today coming into Pu'er but still nothing annoying at all. Yesterday we rode a lot through jungle still, more of the impressive, massive nature reserve. In the beginning it was all rubber however, wherever you looked, the mountains were all full of rubber plantation. But then nature again, and we even passed a place called Wild Elephant Vale (that's how it's called) where there should be - you guessed it - wild elephants. We didn't see any unfortunately. There's also a tourist attraction where you can go see shows with trained elephants and even though it was Tuesday, the road was full of tourist buses and cars, the place packed. Incredible how massive the Chinese tourism has become...
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| The town of Dadugang |
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| Dadugang |
Towards the end of the day yesterday we started to see more and more tea plantations on terraced hills. Initially on the lower elevations, tea was planted amidst rubber trees, interesting. The tea plantations are more orderly than we've seen before, taking a bit of the beauty away, although they are still often really pretty. We stayed in Dadugang yesterday night, a small town, but apparently it has one of the biggest tea factories in the world (which we haven't seen). Then today, on our way to Pu'er (which is very famous for its tea) we saw lots and lots of tea, but also increasingly coffee, and some other crops: bananas again on the lower elevations, cacao, ginger, and many other things. Also: strawberries and yes, they are yummy!!!
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| A first glimpse of a coffee plantation |
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| Passing through a typical village |
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| Coffee beans spread out outside to dry |
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| Coffee beans close-up |
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| In this village, coffee was spread open on any available piece of land |
We arrived mid afternoon in Pu'er and checked in to the Rongxing Coffee Hotel (how could we not check in to a place with such name!). A nice, affordable room, a free good coffee upon check-in, good wifi, and a place where we were able to buy a new pack of coffee for our coffee breaks! Yey! We strolled around a bit in Pu'er, it's quiet a nice city, spacious, with a pleasant atmosphere (and nice climate too, we're at 1300m asl here). Good to have had some time to explore and experience the city a little bit, tomorrow we're continuing on the bikes!
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| Village view |
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| Seen on our way: I can't understand it, but I can read: emission 0 g/km, fuel 0 l/100km. Well done Giant! |
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| Bike sharing in Pu'er, we saw this in Xishuangbanna as well. Also well done China! |
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| Pu'er city |
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| Pu'er |
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| Not for vegetarians... |
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| Dinner time, this time we selected mushrooms and cauliflower from the fridge and again they just made something with it |
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| The Rongxing Coffee Hotel from the outside |
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| And the mini bathroom on the inside (you have to stand over the toilet to take a shower 😏; other than that it is a nice room, and in fact the shower is really good too) |