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Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
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Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
Attachment 7891
The bodged foot peg and shifter
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Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
Thursday 21st
Disastrous start to the day, set off at 8.30 and kick stand spring fell off almost immediately. Then the zip broke on the tank bag while I was getting a cable tie to fix the stand. Have stopped in xingguo to fix it all.
Should be in jinggangshan at lunch time.
It's now 2pm, stopped for a break north of jinggangshan. Didn't go up the actual mountain as I couldn't be bothered in the heat but went up a stunning gorge with perfect twisties. Well worth the detour.
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2MzIxNjg0.html
Near Jinggangshan
Attachment 7892
The next extreme sport - buffalo surfing
Everything has been distinctly average this afternoon. Some busy shitty roads around pingxiang. My choice of route was pretty shite a couple of times so I turned around back on to pretty nice but dull main roads to avoid some nasty dirt tracks that were like the surface of the moon.
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2MzIxNDUy.html
on the way to Wanzai
Arrived in wanzai at 5.45, could've pushed on but felt like a beer. Found decent bike shop to replace my handlebars, there is a hotel and restaurant all within 50 metres. Bike boss is letting me leave the yingang in his shop as hotel has no parking.
519 today, 1135 in total.
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Attachment 7893
This abandoned ferry toll booth was looking like home for the night...
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Attachment 7896
Bent old ali bars and new steel ones
Friday 22nd
Last night was pretty tempted, after a couple of beers, to ride to changsha and meet the jialing people because the roads seemed to be getting worse in jiangxi. Decided not to this morning, felt it was better to finish off the jiangxi job properly. Left wanzai at 8.30 in the pouring rain and immediately the roads were much better, nice pretty scenery with a reasonable surface. After a couple of (short) nasty dirt stretches came out on to a beautiful road at the bottom of a gorge, it stopped raining so got some good footage.
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2MzIxMzYw.html
Towards Xiushui
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2MzIxMjQ4.html
After Xiushui
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NDU3NjQ4.html
Hubei twisties
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NDU3ODA0.html
Towards ferry crossing
Soon after came into xiushui and on to a pretty fast big road then back off on to an x road for more great twisties. Then, in hubei, the road came to an abrubt halt and I waited with some truckers for a ferry, when the ferry came the bike wouldn't start! Pushed the thing on and drained the carb (it worked before) but no joy. Tried bumping it off the ferry but nothing. All the truckers and the ferryman were helping but it was a no go. The ferryman and I pushed it up the slipway and I took the tank off. No obvious fuel blockages, and there was a spark. Air filter also ok, maybe the spark plug is kaput. Just as the abandoned toll booth was looking like tonight's accommodation a man in a trike loaded with chairs pulls up and asks me if I'm French or German, not a good start. But then offers to ride the 3 kms back into town to fetch a mechanic. What a champion! There aren't many countries where random strangers would do that I'm sure. So I'm sat here waiting and hoping not to have to sleep in the booth!
Trike man returned with a mate who towed me to town. Turns out it was the spark plug, I'm kicking myself for not carrying a spare. Found a hotel/restaurant down the road from the bike shop.
Only covered 365 today, will have an early start tomorrow to make up some time.
Attachment 7894
Northern Jiangxi
Attachment 7895
My saviour on 3 wheels
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Saturday 23rd
The pikey town I stayed in last night was bailuozhen. Got on the road at 7.15 with a duck egg, egg and zhongzi in my bag. It's dragon boat day I think so probably the first of many. immediately after leaving the overheating light came on, strange as no coolant had leaked out overnight, anyway I topped up and continued on but an hour later, red light came on again. Stopped in a truck repair place and found one of the hoses had become slightly misaligned, sorted that and nipped up the rest. Had to buy a huge truck size can of coolant but at least they threw in a bungee for free. Roads were absolute shite up til lunch time. Fairly broken up but the main issue was the traffic. There was an old city wall in jingzhou, 2000 years old apparently. The dragon boat festivities were in full swing on the river/moat by the wall. Continued on for a bit then got on another ferry which really wastes time, probably nearly an hour.
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NDU3ODA0.html
Ferry crossing
Attachment 7906
Truck stop crew
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Jingzhou city wall with dragon boat festivities
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Nice honda 150 and bicycle
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Cyclist on his way to Tibet - note how skinny he is among the portly motorcyclists!
After the ferry the roads improved immensely. The final 300 plus kms into enshi were some of the best I've ridden. Fantastic surface and scenery to match. There were quite a few cyclists on the road, one bloke on his way to Lhasa, a two month ride away. Also met a guy on a nice 150 honda, he tried to keep up but couldn't come close. Shame, as it would've been nice to have a partner in those twisties. It pissed down for an hour at one point so pulled on to the side of the road. An old crone started screaming bloody murder, saying that I couldn't under any circumstances put on my waterproofs under her lean to shack. I just smiled, waved and put on my waterproofs. Hubei is another province that employs anqian di yi tea pots in the petrol stations, I went on a mini rant at the attendant! This was the first real day in hubei, 300 kms of shite and 300 kms of near motorcycling perfection. A game of 2 halves Gary!
Arrived in enshi at 7 pm, I'm now sat in a bike shop waiting for the jialing boys to turn up.
600 kms today, 2100 total.
Attachment 7905
I sschwear offisha, that ditsch jumped out in front of me
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NDk2ODMy.html
Hubei gorge
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NDk2NzE2.html
Bumping into fellow 2 wheeled travellers
Re: 7 provinces in 7 days
Bloody awesome, subscribed! Yep got a few photos of trucks in ditches in all kinds of poses. Must be relatives!
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Sunday 24th
Set of at 8.30 ish. Headed north west through the enshi canyon, amazing scenery and great roads. Then north through more fantastic gorges and mountains. Craig slid off on a corner as the road was polished smooth but no harm done, and I got it on video! We ended up crossing the Yangtze and were quite near the 3 gorges. Went through a brand new town built 150 metres higher up the mountainside. enshi is a top motorcycling destination, there seems to be no end of awesome roads heading out in all directions. My bike started overheating again but there's no sign of any leaking. It's also becoming harder to start and the idle speed has increased. I'm a bit worried something may be seriously wrong, it may be sensible to head to Chongqing asap, as I doubt anyone here has any idea how to deal with it. It's done nearly 20,000 kms now so probably needs a proper going over.
We arrived in wuxi before 7, only 290 kms today. I'm in no rush now having completed the jiangxi ride and the scenery is so special we've been having a lot of photo stops.
Attachment 7910
Motokai's best friend and purveyor of directions on his cb400 :lol8:
Attachment 7911
The arrival of the jialing riders in Enshi
Attachment 7912
Milton teaching the hotel staff how to register foreign devils
Attachment 7914
The local booze in Enshi. The 'hao nan ren' bai jiu was particularly revolting
Attachment 7913
Just outside of Enshi on the way to the canyon
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NjYyNzA0.html
Leaving Enshi to canyon
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NjYyNjUy.html
More canyon
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2Nzk2MjY4.html
Even more canyon! (I was quite impressed with it)
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI2NzY1MDUy.html
Near 3 gorges dam
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Motokai taking in the scenery
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More canyon
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Newly built town 150 metres up the bank
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Hot pot in Wuxi - great apart from the gizzard that milton sneaked in there!
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Check out the crazy eyes on the hot pot lady! Motokai and I ended up in a flirt off over dinner! (not with each other :naughty:)
Monday 25th
Left wuxi at 9 am, bike was a pig to start this morning, I had to put in a new spark plug. These shitty 10 quai ones only seem to last a day and no-one has anything better. Rode north on ANOTHER great road! This area is a biker's paradise. It rained all morning which was a shame and we got stopped by the feds at the border with shaanxi. They just wanted to see our licenses and blue books, its hilarious that this happens a week after getting my license, having never been asked before in 6 years riding. Stopped in zhengping for lunch. I bought another spark plug (number 4) and jubilee clips to try and sort out the coolant issue as the red light came on again before lunch.
The quality of road and scenery continued in the afternoon with a couple of breaks in the rain where I took some video. Arrived in ankang at 7.15 after 50 kms of mud hell. It's a small miracle no-one fell. The red light came on again twice when riding slowly so topped it up each time. The extra hose clamps obviously had no effect on the invisible leak. I'm gonna start heading to Chongqing tomorrow while the guys will head west, destination unknown. There are some nice looking bikes near the hotel so I'm going hunting for spark plugs.
Did about 315 kms today.