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| It was a beautiful bright morning to leave the Hai'an valley; we thought it was down all the way but had to recognize that there were a couple of short but tough morning climbs |
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| Taiwan also has its share of cherry blossoms, however it's the end of the season already. Here and there we still get some... |
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| Riding in the mountains... It's harder because of all the climbs, but so rewarding! |
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| The lakes on the way to Taichung all seemed to have quite low water levels. From October until pretty much now, there is much less average rainfall, I guess that would explain, but I have no idea whether it has been exceptionally dry or not. |
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| The ride towards Taichung was mostly along road No 3, a wide yet not too busy road. As we got closer to Taichung, there were a lot of riverside biking lanes (or at least small, quiet roads) which made it quite comfortable to get into the city. |
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| We had planned to stay 2 nights - so 1 entire day - in Taichung, mostly because heavy rains were forecast for that day. It did rain heavily at night and most of the morning indeed, and while we were having our (late) breakfast it was still raining. Late morning the rains stopped however, and even though more rain was predicted, it stayed dry most of the day. It meant we had time to walk around and enjoy Taichung - which was pretty much an enjoyable city. It's not everywhere as you see in the picture above of course, and walking was sometimes very comfortable, sometimes not. All in all, a good experience. We also had the chance to buy a few things we needed (like, my inflatable pillow which had broken down the night before). |
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| We planned to stay for 1 day, ended up staying another one. On the evening of the first day, we both suddenly didn't feel very well (stomach) and couldn't eat. Next morning Ellen was fine again but I still was feeling a bit weak. So we decided to not push it, and stay another day. |
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| It was a good call. Another day later, and things are looking better. So we left Taichung this morning, direction Sun Moon Lake. Leaving the city, as usual, was not the best of experiences, but not too bad this time mostly because traffic was really light. |
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| In fact, it was a nice day on the bike, and as we progressed the scenery became better and better, with some impressive mountains in the distance and some not much less impressive nearby! |
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| While the road was mostly broad, there was little traffic on it and most of the time a cycling lane; definitely pleasant cycling! |
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| And then we also had some tunnels to go through; usually not too long, a few 100 meters, wide enough and well lit, so no risky business for cyclists. |
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| Inside the tunnel; this is one way. |
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| We had a very nice lunch of rice ball soup in a small village on our way |
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| Our home for the night, about 10km before the Sun Moon Lake and after an enjoyable 61km with a very gradual ascent: Siyuan Ju Homestay. |
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| With a good shed for our loyal bicycles, accompanied by some rusty old friends. |
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| The areca palm, producing the areca nut, better known as: betelnut! Betelnut is very popular in Taiwan, sold everywhere along the roads. It has many bad effects on health and is even carcinogenic but that doesn't seem to stop people from using it (well, there are quite a few other products like that too...). |
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| Just behind our homestay, there is a 100 years old tunnel, still well intact, impressive - definitely with the surrounding nature. A much newer and bigger one is 100m besides this one. |
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| And the view from our homestay; beautiful, isn't it? We haven't found out yet which grass-like plants are being grown here; it's not rice but we haven't found out what it is then... |