Printable View
SO, our plan has matured from driving two cheapy stolen scooters accross china to driving a fully legal iron horse to kunming and sending her on the train back. From there we digressed to taking our semi-legal steed for a few-week gallop through the mountains west of shanghai and back. As I said second best couldn't be better. I've really enjoyed the ride reports here on MCM and hope to be able to repay-in-kind
The map doesnt show our actual route, maybe this link will
Very keen to understand what you've posted, but it's not displaying well for me.
cheers
hey corporal_clegg... interesting read ahead. same as euphonius though, I get half a google map screenshot on the right side of the picture with a list of waypoints to the left of picture...
yea i tried to change it but it cant. the picture is interactive tho, you can click the waypoints away with the leftpointy arrow and then drag the map around, zoom-in/out etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by bikerdoc
Its nt great anyway as it only shows the waypoints. the link underneath has the route
2236km on a bike.. China will always prove to be adventure. Good luck.
http://hotimg23.fotki.com/a/123_86/3_136/2nd.jpg
I just maximized the map area, then took a screen shot.
Yeah, that looks an amazing ride. It should be some adventure.
Ride safe, and enjoy.
Just got back now, a bit earlier than we had planned. Just had one of the worst days ever driving back into Shanghai in the rain, came off more than once, but that story will have to wait till the end of the RR. Will get on it tomorrow.
Holy shit, Clegg, you okay? Well, given that you're already on MCM and posting, as opposed to racked up in some rathole hospital somewhere, tells me it can't be too bad.Quote:
Originally Posted by corporal_clegg
Very my looking forward to your ride report, and relieved that you're in a state and frame of mind to tell it!
cheers
I was wondering what happened to you guys. Glad to hear you made it home.
Using Imgur (thanks Slabo)
To Anji:
We set off in the early evening taking advantage of the unforecast nice weather to get out of Shanghai and its daily rainfall. Heavily laden we set off to meet our guide around the check points. Nuhaus took us around and back onto the G318 where we had a smoke and he went to get petrol. That was the last we saw of him. We were delighted to be out of the city on a nice big straight road with no cars. We had a mild case of buttache after doing our longest run ever (70km) followed by a shorter trip through the country so we set up camp in the first town over the border. I can't remember the name but unless you like roadside brothels (more than 7 to chose from right by the G318) there's no reason to. We found a nice bike for sale tho, all flashing lights, blasting out MJ only 800km on the clock but we declined.
Next day we made an early start (9 a.m. is early enough for us) speeded on by the hard mattresses. On the G318 again it didnt take long for us to lose interest and we couldnt wait to get off it. We saw loads of signs forecasting visual splendour only a few km up the road but when the appropriate kilometer arrived the was never a sign indicating the turnoff. We were repeatedly let down. Eventually onto the 306 and we had begun to give up hope. I was powering along wondering when our China adventure would begin when, about 30km outside Anji, we saw a sign for a turnoff. We turned off and again quickly lost interest, a lonely looking dirt-road to our left was calling us. "Come Mr. and Ms. Clegg," she said and we followed siren song all the way into a bamboo forest. We were so transfixed that we didnt notice the road shrivel away until the inevitable happened.
No sooner had the bike hit the ground than we heard the first crack of thunder. Rear light was detached and the bike was stuck in a bit of a difficult position, together we managed to get the bike upright and turned around (Ms. Clegg almost had her hand crushed when it came between the bike and some bamboo. Fake hard-knuckle gloves are better than no hard-knuckle gloves... word). I was happy to have a use for the crap tool-kit I got with the bike and we were back on the road in no time. Never found the temple.
Through the p'ing rain and into Anji we motored and unto a restaurant wherin we took shelter from the storm. Afterwards i set about fixing the wiring to the rear light which had some invisible problem. No one thought that they were up to it until I eventually managed to explain to a small army of mechanics that if they could fix a car light they could fix a bike light. Light fixed and chibaole we set off to find a hotel. Anji was an absolute mess after the few hours of rain. Puddles around 20cm deep in some places were fun to drive through... once. Again we got distracted (you'll learn that we are not very objective oriented) and ended up offroad again. Sometimes the roads were more like streams but this was no problem for the QingQi Enterprise and we found some fun little bits and talked a bit to a farmer lady.
Back in town we found a hotel (twice as expensive as the one the night before) and were happy to get into dry clothes and accross the road into a restaurant which had (as advertised in the window) the most haochi food in Anji. It was alright. We slept early. Next day onto LinAn
The bike, the gear (note gear, this is important)...
http://i.imgur.com/5k0ZO.jpg
.. and the passengers. You wouldn't have known that we had just had an extended quite fight over when to leave (note fake smile).
http://i.imgur.com/QoAi3.jpg
This master of disguise showed us the way
http://i.imgur.com/X3DiX.jpg
From the bike
http://i.imgur.com/y70RH.jpg
The bike we saw for sale
http://i.imgur.com/l9iCJ.jpg
Pic from snack stop. No chicken I'm afraid.
http://i.imgur.com/KHiqFh.jpg
The sign
http://i.imgur.com/S7vtZ.jpg
The road...
http://i.imgur.com/D1MFI.jpg
...worsened
http://i.imgur.com/PE3ZJ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/GCHAN.jpg
行?
http://i.imgur.com/fe7CK.jpg
不行
http://i.imgur.com/yEc73.jpg
more of that area
http://i.imgur.com/ADkne.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ch0Ds.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WBZYG.jpg
That could've been Ms. Cleggs hand
http://i.imgur.com/vVOyj.jpg
Yes... 9
http://i.imgur.com/12jRt.jpg
..and then there was one
http://i.imgur.com/wE97x.jpg
Anji after some rain
http://i.imgur.com/GLY1B.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ub4Ep.jpg
Downstream
http://i.imgur.com/qBVZu.jpg
3 angles of my 7-point turn
http://i.imgur.com/ywb5P.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Bs9ol.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/aPBQR.jpg
High and dry
http://i.imgur.com/DUrlU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/dA8dj.jpg
More better stuff to follow
Best thing to do is open a flickr account, pretty easy to do upload and then copy and paste the bbcode from there, that's what I do for my ride reports
use [IMG] around the links ending with .jpg..
[ IMG]http://i.imgur.com/KHiqF.jpg[/IMG] >> full size
[ IMG]http://i.imgur.com/KHiqFs.jpg[/IMG]>> thumbnail size, notice the extra 's'
Slabo,
Something ain't working with those tutorial links!
Say, aren't you supposed to be blasting toward Beijing right now?
cheers!
brr,, im on the way, refueling the rider in Dali now.. I should be in Lijiang tonight.Quote:
Originally Posted by euphonius
Shit, dude! That's awesome!!! If possible, please leave us a little trail of popcorn or breadcrumbs every day so we know you've not gone off some precipice! A picture or two now and again would be sweet too.
Considering that this voyage ultimately will end not in Beijing but in Beirut, I'd love to know how you are appointed on the Shineray, what you are carrying and, given your past experiences, how you are keeping stuff from disappearing en route!
Wishing you a memorable and safe ride, Naim!
cheers!
Day 2: Anji To Lin'an (almost)
We arose early(er) to a beautiful day. Our plan was to make 200 km a day minimum at a leisurely pace so we set off soon after on the 201. Before long we were itching to get off road again and did so at the first opportunity. Baited by bamboo trails we made for the mountain from a few different angles but to no avail. The bamboo trails, tempting as they were were all dead ends. There were some thin trails up through the woods but they were made for someone of more grit than myself (or bamboo harvesters). Buttreflies began arriving one by one like in the Birds. Although I didn't see the end of the movie I remembered poor Dan and we beat a hasty retreat.
Back on the guodao, perpindicularly, for two seconds and we were off again in search of trails without much luck. We stopped at a shop to find some mosquito repellant and asked the locals where the nice riding might be found to which the reply was an offer of a guided tour. I don't know his name but I'll call him Mr. Zhu because somehow the conversation always returned to bamboo. Mr. Zhu took us on a nice (small) road up the mountain where we chilled out for a while and I thought him how to say hairy molly. He told me all about the bamboo, which types we better in which seasons and what for and where the best spots on the mountain were, price per jin and so on. I have to say I couldn't really follow what he was saying, nevertheless we were invited us to his house for lunch. Here he plied us with alchohol, it started raining and he beseeched us to have a nap at his house and sleep off the drink. It was 12 already and I think he was more in need of the nap than we were so we set off during a break in the rain.
After some time (checking for more trails along the way) I had the feeling that this road could not be the fabled Anji twisties as it had gone a little too long and was way too straight. We turned back towards Anji and back into the rain. Passed an overturned truck which we're pretty sure wasn't there when we came out and went to a petrol station to check their maps which were impossible to make out. About 45 minutes later we were back on the road (same original direction + useless maps, still raining) and just figured we'd get to LinAn and figure it out from there. 207 off the 201 and then some country roads and we found ourselves in GaoHong a very nice little village outside LinAn and decided to call it home. My co-pilot was experiencing some technical difficulties so I left her in the hotel and set off to make my bones in the twisties.
I didn't go far into them when, following the usual pattern I struck off to the side and was rewarded by a very steep twistie route up into a village in the mountains. In the first (main) stage of the village it was dinner time and everyone was outside and very surprised to see this all black astronaut roll through. Further up I stopped to give some guy a lift up to what he reckoned was the top (the second stage) then found a trail which took me almost to the very tippie top. By then it was almost dark so I went back, going down was more fun than going up (but not as much fun as the next few days were going to be) and all in all I wasn't very impressed by what I saw of the twisties. The view was great but the corners were a bit too tight so I couldn't go as fast as I would've liked, I assume they get better deeper in.
Was quite sad to watch this duck struggle to escape, he was just part of the dinner shopping we saw when we went for breakfast.
http://i.imgur.com/DQNkK.jpg
One of the bamboo trail dead ends from the morning
http://i.imgur.com/rQhxe.jpg
Me giving it a go
http://i.imgur.com/wg6YZ.jpg
"The Birds"
http://i.imgur.com/IOx65.jpg
Mr. Zhu, The Zhu Machine and the QQ Enterprise
http://i.imgur.com/ZWWLv.jpg
Some pics of that area
http://i.imgur.com/V57p3.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/O3vgn.jpg
The dragonflies out there are mad. All different colours, blue, green, yellow. We had enough of them after the next day.
http://i.imgur.com/dRISQ.jpg
Dinner with the Zhu's
http://i.imgur.com/YSm1s.jpg
Mr. Zhu's dog was good for a laugh
http://i.imgur.com/qMUNF.jpg
We were pretty desperate to find some trails but most of the time there was nothing. This one was ensuite
http://i.imgur.com/lyMGG.jpg
This is the end of another one
http://i.imgur.com/HwJt1.jpg
And just over that mound...
http://i.imgur.com/3xLR7.jpg
.. a stream. I figured I could jump across but if I failed we'd never get the bike back out so we moved on.
http://i.imgur.com/6XlIJ.jpg
He seemed alright...
http://i.imgur.com/8s5Ig.jpg
Anji...
http://i.imgur.com/QycqY.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IRAX3.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Bl2wA.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/GYHmJ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/sZkLm.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/XIfJn.jpg
You can see the trail I followed to the tippie top there on the opposite side. The views were amazing. My camera doesn't really do it justice
http://i.imgur.com/fDlAY.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/CchPD.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/CQlhs.jpg
The end of the road
http://i.imgur.com/lol0D.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/A7HUR.jpg
This is one of the most memorable lines I've ever read in a ride report. :bowdown:Quote:
Originally Posted by corporal_clegg
The QQ Enterprise looks extremely well suited to those gravel roads and trails. I love those bamboo forests and look forward to getting out there again soon. Your report inspires me to do so soon!
Edit: Also, it's nice to see that imgur.com is working well for hosting your pix. I'm not sure if it's my computer and (smallish laptop) screen, or your choice of image size, but some of the pictures you've posted are so big they don't fit the standard MCM screen so I have to scroll back and forth, and up and down, which lessens their impact. On my host, Smugmug, I can choose various sizes when linking a picture into MCM, and I typically choose something less than the full megilla, usually "medium". Does Imgur allow you to downsize a bit for a better fit?
thanks!
To Huangshan (almost again)
We had a slight run in with the police the night before on our way back from getting (a firkin amazing) massaje in Lin’An. The called us over but we just powered on through. You can imagine my nerves when we awoke the next morning to find a squad car pulled up outside out hotel with the driver looking unhappily at my bike. I tried to play it cool and rolled my bike out and set her warming up. The officer in question did the nothing out of the ordinary for a Chinese police (ie. He did nothing) and we were on the road again.
We had been dicking around a lot so today we swore we’d make it to Huangshan or die. Already we had to make modifications our trip to accommodate our voyages of (in)discovery and didn’t want to make too many more. Our side-bags (200rmb on taobao) unfortunately had had enough. One had been snug against the exhaust pipe and melted through (edit: burning holes in Ms. Cleggs pants in the process). Stopped in Lin’An and Macguyvered the bag using a hard wooden clipboard cut into shape with a 5mao saw blade to keep it off the pipe.
To get to Huangshan from Lin’an you could take the expressway all the way. You might save a whole day but then you’d miss all the fun. The s102/304 presents lovely, long smoothly curving roads, you rarely had to slow down at all except for the odd sleepy village, it was the best riding so far. On Monday afternoon traffic was light and the weather as wonderful as the road. Then all of a sudden something changed. There was a sign for a tunnel, followed by no tunnel and crappy roads through the mountains. We thought we may have taken a wrong turn but it was still nice so we didn’t even care.
On one of our off route forays we drove through a timewarp. Found an old village built around the top of a mountain. It was absolutely amazing. Felt like we were walking through an issue of national geographic. The people weren’t friendly or unfriendly. The watched us, we watched them. We needed water, the shop only had warm beer which we accepted. We snapped us some pictures and drove back down.
By the time we got to SheXian it was dark and we had planned to finally make use of our tent even though it was a warm night. Pitched it in a school playing field and chatted to the principal and security guards who duly arrived to find out what these crazy white people were doing camping on their land. Was no problem in the end. When they left we had a few beers and hit the hay. And sweated, and sweated in our tent for about 15mins then packed the whole thing back up and found a hotel.
The hotel had a garage for the bike and airco (of course) and they even brought us a quarter of a huge watermelon and we quickly forgot about or camping experience and let us speak no more of it. They next day we would be going to some lake hidden in the mountains and I would pretty pathetically drop the bike a few times.
First a few pics of the road
http://i.imgur.com/kaTrt.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/sqesI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/9naYg.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/1hLyK.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/w050O.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/MqwUf.jpg
I really like the curvey affect you get with panaoramas of roads
http://i.imgur.com/6Syen.jpg
Ms. Clegg having a lie down
http://i.imgur.com/KFn6m.jpg
Me happy after my five meter excursion off road. Moving on these rocks is a real pain. Especially turning
http://i.imgur.com/8rJ7m.jpg
View from a bridge
http://i.imgur.com/gffsy.jpg
And on the otherside some naked children. I saw a woman peeing behind facing the road. I got a full frontal, it was a first for me. Liza saw a naked guy too rinsing himself under a bridge too, no pics tho. Sorry guys.
http://i.imgur.com/92iJi.jpg
Liza with a bridge
http://i.imgur.com/Ym08j.jpg
Check out the awesome mountain in the back, looks like Mt. Doom. We stopped to take that pic then noticed the little road on the left which took us all the way up the mountain into the village. You never know what you're going to find up these little roads. More often than not it's nothing but sometimes....
http://i.imgur.com/LAsXQ.jpg
This was on the way up to the village. It felt ike Elysium, I don't think it could possibly have come out as well on camera
http://i.imgur.com/6xDGh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/QFIlk.jpg
The village:
http://i.imgur.com/mrZkL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yzn0m.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/M9xwY.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/m6Zj3.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/VOeYg.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Peq8J.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/wWAk8.jpg
Mt Doom again from higher up
http://i.imgur.com/EWp5e.jpg
This girl just stood and stared at us, particularly Liza, just like this for almost the whole time we were there, between half an hour and an hour.
http://i.imgur.com/VWH65.jpg
Bed time
http://i.imgur.com/nwZZo.jpg
Next day we planned a little trip up to what appeared to be a lake surrounded by mountains and that's exactly what we did. Also begun to realise what a pain in the ass it is to make a ride report. Big respect to pat (and others) who posted pictures almost everyday and wrote. I have never been much of a picture taker or blog writer and it was beginning to grate, like having to do homework. We were also a bit tired (we're pretty green remember) so we went to chill out by the lake for a while. Took a wrong turn onto this road which was class, its marked D on the map, if you're in the area it's worth doing the same. It was Kind of hard to turn back, eventually we did tho, refuelled (bellies and tanks) and rode up into the mountains. The ride up wasn't great, too many villages and people milling about and the road was small and too shrubbery-yiy so you only caught glimpses of the views.
Before we got properly on the road I low-sideded (dropped might be more accurate, low-sided sounds better) from a standing start because of some little piece of bamboo I didn't see. Luckily my passenger was not on the bike and she had a good laugh at my expense. We found a bit of a lake/river thing below some villages built into the side of the mountain and went for a swim (after being assured by the locals that there were no monsters in there). We got a ride to the otherside too which was cool. After swimming we went back the way we came. Much more fun, more speed as we rushed back before sundown, tailight came off again after takin some minor air and I dropped the bike again trying to take a picture, pretty sad I know. We got our 200 km anyway but were really missing the offraod bits around Anji. Further into the mountains there's nothing (that we could find). Here's a few pics. Today and tomorrow were pretty dull days, getting lost, demotivated. Massages in the area were a bit shyte too.
Here's a few pics anyway
First map.
This is the awesome road we took to shexian and into the mountains plus the little wrong turn is marked D I think
http://i.imgur.com/3nzIo.jpg
Views just before entering the mountains
http://i.imgur.com/fA25w.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/1u3JK.jpg
About ten meters worth of cool trail. It's a steep drop off the side
http://i.imgur.com/a7TZO.jpg
Village by lake from above
http://i.imgur.com/j2Uwi.jpg
Liza's face from side
http://i.imgur.com/VuqmS.jpg
This was from the other side of the water. It's kindof hard to get a really good picture of the place because it's mountains all around. But even with panorama you can only get half of it. Admittedly I didn't really try that hard.
http://i.imgur.com/SkKEL.jpg
Heave ho!
http://i.imgur.com/P7aN2.jpg
Was trying to turn the bike around to get this picture when I dropped it
http://i.imgur.com/Vlaet.jpg
hey clegg looks like a cool tripQuote:
Originally Posted by corporal_clegg
your worst day on a bike is better than your best day at work
Dear CC,
Awesome route, and fantastic ride report! I will be studying those maps carefully. My idea of the Holy Grail is a sultry day on a great twisty road with swimmin' holes along the way.
I'm guessing your pillion's utterly un-Asian beauty (and red bikini) might have attracted a crowd...
cheers!
thanks guys. Good to know someone's enjoying it. Feels like I'm writing for myself with no comments. More to come soon. There she is entertaining in 常德 just outside shanghai.
http://i.imgur.com/JHPuB.jpg
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6066/...8fa9c386_z.jpg
patented by zhu by johnnyfast, on Flickr
bummer about the saddlebag meltdown clegg
i introduce to you the zhu patented "never set fire to your undies" foundrymans glove/muffler isolation device
10kuai at an industrial supply store near you!
p.s. i still have the other one if you want it
Great juryrigging! Just hope that isolation device isn't made of asbestos!
Thanks for the photos Clegg. You guys obviously had a really good time on your trip. Props for letting the Ms. take a picture while you were picking it up off the ground! :thumbsup: :mwink:
I've always been known to be a clumsy bugger, my first ride report wouldn't be complete without it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nuhaus
I will take you upon that zhu if I make it up your way
"We found a bit of a lake/river thing below some villages built into the side of the mountain and went for a swim (after being assured by the locals that there were no monsters in there)."
Can I just say that Clegg was actually scared for there being monsters and had me go in first just to make sure (as in, if I didn't get eaten he'd go in too)?!
Hehe! Isn't that precisely why guys bring their girlfriends on rides? To be used as monster bait?Quote:
Originally Posted by MissRose
Anyway, welcome to the forum, MissRose! These are some great first posts. Looking forward to reading more from you!
Cheers!
Hi There corporal_clegg,
I enjoiyed your RR. No worries, people are reading!
I am interested in your experience with the saddle bags you are using. How was it for Ms Clegg? Is it convenient or are the saddle bags in the way when riding two up?
Thanks for sharing!
yea it's not finished yet but I'm going off today to ride around zhejiang for a few days. I think ms. Clegg will try to finish it, otherwise I'll do it when I get back.
Actually the saddle bags were grand. She found it very comfortable just had to adust it sometimes. She says actually it was more comfortabel with them. Eventually tho the seams stared to come apart and we had to by some rubber bunggee cord thing to change the stress distribution, also ttrying to keep it off the exhaust was a bit of a pain. By the time we got back it was all wrapped up in sellotabe, elastic, bits of wood lending support.
Just basically the saddle bags were good, just shit quality (200rmb off taobao)