After our short winter expedition I started the riding season for real last weekend.
I went out on easter Sunday around 7:30 and first stopped at a 7 eleven to get some snacks.
[IMG]http://static.picuna.com/photos/s576/35682.jpg Easter Ride 2012 by fahni, on Picuna[/IMG]
Then I headed west in the direction of the last Jialing Riders excursion. I went passed Mentougou and then along the G 109 until after Yanchi took a right and followed the S211/X008 to Yanhe town. I had found what looked like a nice dirt road through the mountains on google maps and followed the directions of my mobile until I saw a guy waving from the side of the road. It turned out that he is the road guard and supposed not to let anyone pass because of firefighting and environmental protection reasons. That did not sit well with me as a big truck loaded with gravel had just driven down the road. After some arguing, I just hit the gas and paced on, with an eye to the rear mirror for the next half an hour or so.
This road turned out to be just extremely beautiful.
[IMG]http://static.picuna.com/photos/s576/35684.jpg Easter Ride 2012 by fahni, on Picuna[/IMG]
[IMG]http://static.picuna.com/photos/s576/35686.jpg Easter Ride 2012 by fahni, on Picuna[/IMG]
A lot of abandoned hamlets along the road, the rocks and cliffs growing steeper and the road getting narrower. Going was slow because it was all sand and gravel but the landscape was stunning and I hardly saw any people. After quite some riding (maybe 1,5 hours) I arrived at a quarry and shortly after had a standoff with a flock of cows. While I was waiting for them to clear the road I had a little chat with a farmer who pointed me in the right direction which meant do some very steep hillclimbing through the quarry. It was a bit tricky but totally doable and I was rewarded with this view a few kilometers further up the road:
[IMG]http://static.picuna.com/photos/s576/35688.jpg Easter Ride 2012 by fahni, on Picuna[/IMG]
This pass was more than 1600m altitude
From then on, it was downhill through twisty, paved roads with a lot of sand and gravel on it which made them especially delicate to drive on. On my way through a small village, I saw a lot of folks walking the streets with baskets of painted eggs. I looked around and really: it looked like easter mass had just been sung.
[IMG]http://static.picuna.com/photos/s576/35690.jpg Easter Ride 2012 by fahni, on Picuna[/IMG]
From one of the mountains I had already seen that village and dismissed what seemed to be a church tower as probably some kind of chimney. Well, I was wrong.
Finally I reached the Hebei border and drove on,
[IMG]http://static.picuna.com/photos/s576/35692.jpg Easter Ride 2012 by fahni, on Picuna[/IMG]
asking directions for the nearest filling station. I had discovered to my dismay, that most Sinopec filling stations in the Beijing area don’t accept cash any more. You have to buy a fuel card but it turns out to be impossible for me cause my passport, which I need to apply for a card, has only letters as a passport number instead of numbers. Anyway, I hunted for gasoline and after I had filled up it was obvious that I could not make it as far as I wanted . As it was already five thirty, I decided to call it a day and checked into the next small and clean restaurant I drove by for a room, a beer and some food. Just in case anybody needs lodging in this area, call me for their number.
I was in high spirits the next day even though I started a little later than planned. After a hearty breakfast, I hopped on the bike and drove further to the west where I wanted to take the X417 on the southern side of the Xiaowutai which is the highest mountain of Hebei with 2882 meters. I expected twisty roads, steep slopes and breathtaking landscape. What I got first was a wrong turn which cost me mazbe half an hour. Then I found the X417 and followed it for some time passing two unmanned checkpoints until I got lost just outside a small village. When I stopped and checked my mobile, a police car came the opposite direction and immediately stopped next to me. First the member of the wujing, the armed peoples police, seemed surprised to see me. I told him I had lost my way and wanted to backtrack to X417 to continue westward. He asked for my papers which I handed them and then told me that I could not continue on X417 because it was closed because of road damage. He kept my documents and ordered me to drive back to the police station in front of his jeep. There was not much arguing with that guy. When I arrived at the checkpoint some km down the road, the guard on duty first waved me down, seeing my laowai face, he indicated I should drive on but my documents were still with his colleague. Still, I had no feeling of having done anything wrong, drove my bike into the courtyard and followed my “friend” into his office where he and a superior (which seemed to be much younger) tried to sort out the situation. First they copied all my documents. Then I had to explain why I am in China and what I am doing in China (tricky one…) Next was my complete travel itinerary for the weekend including refill brakes and the place I stayed overnight (with which they immediately double-checked wether the information provided by me was correct). In between the telephone rang and the person on the line obviously asked very detailed questions regarding the position where I had been “found”, If I had a diplomatic passport, etc. So it dawned on me that maybe the area where I had met my friend from the armed police forces was probably off limits.:hellfire: I asked politely if I had done anything wrong and they assured me that everything was fine. But their faces did not look like everything was just routine. When they asked me if I had taken any pictures I was alarmed and told them that I had only taken pictures the day before and showed them a bunch of MC-centered pics from the day before. Then they asked me to write down everything I told them, which I did (there was nothing untrue or inflicting in what I had said) with some effort (it has been a long time since my Chinese character classes), received my documents back and was escorted further down the road by the jeep until we reached a traffic police checkpoint, where I was stopped again. Thinking this was some kind of joke I told the traffic police officer that his colleague from the armed police forces had already checked me. But the two officers in the wujing jeep just waved goodbye, smiled and gave no information to the traffic police. So I parked my bike and went to the next “interrogation room”. This time the focus was on my bike and drivers license which they double-checked via telephone. But with them, everything really felt routine and they seemed to be happy to have the Chinese speaking laowai around. The bike was looked at in great detail and they asked a lot of interested questions on how far I could go with one tank and other trivia. They returned my licences, repeated that the X417 was closed and would not open before autumn again, waved a bye bye and after 3 hours I was outside a traffic police station just 15 km from the place where I had started off in the morning. As it seemed there were no more promising options around, I decided to head back to Beijing but going via Shidu, just south of the G108 (X107 and X108). Shidu seems to be motorcycling heaven. Of course, I had the advantage of riding on a Monday and hardly met any cars or trucks. The rest of the journey was uneventful riding on the G108 which is very nice and curvy with perfect blacktop.
[IMG]http://static.picuna.com/photos/s576/35694.jpg Easter Ride 2012 by fahni, on Picuna[/IMG]
So, a very nice first day and a very disappointing second day (on a sidenote, according to my GPS I clocked more than 32.000 km on the second day including stops in the ocean west of west Africa and also to the vicinity of Urumqi). If anybody is interested, I got the track and GPS data at hand. The dirt road of the first day is very nice to ride but maybe to avoid hassles when entering the road, one should approach from the west and ride it to the east.
For me it was also a great opportunity to see if my setup of the bike is working. Charging of the mobile is working, my Bluetooth intercom is working, every filling station refused to fill my cherry can (special permission needed in Beijing) and the new Adlo top box sits at the back of my bike perfectly. So it seems like with this setup, I should be ok to do my Chengdu/Xi’an trip.
Hope to be able to do some riding with the rest of the BJ crew in the next couple of weeks…
