The Great Guangdong Adventure

[CrazyCarl]

Woohoo! Black Dog is still in action plus a ChinaV encounter!!!



CC

[Gardo]

you guys have the best ride reports

[Serpentza]

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Intermission ends
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Before we left off, our adventurers were all drying off in a small dirty town restaurant/shop located next to a filthy meat market (which had some interesting features... such as a strange breed of Engine loving flies... seriously hundreds of the buggers thought sitting on hot engines was the thing to do.... ).

It is in this small restaurant that we bought a bottle of local "famous" brandy for 22RMB which would later lead to Martin's 100RMB vomit cleaning fee at our posh hotel.


CIMG4749 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Us filling up before hitting the mud on Day 1

When this picture was taken we were entertained by a group of local teens on their souped up scooters popping wheelies up and down the forecourt (it's all in the videos).

Anyway, back to Day 2, after a massive, dirty yet tasty lunch (why is it that the dirtier the restaurant the tastier the food???) we spent about 15 minutes trying to get rid of the huge amount of flies that had landed on our engines, even if you revved the engine hard they still refused to move... strange flies... as luck would have it, just as we hit the road again it started to rain... this would be a bitter sweet day indeed (mostly bitter).


CIMG4802 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

However, raining or not, we had entered some seriously beautiful mountain roads and could now see the signs for the "Chinese Grand Canyon", a spot ChinaV had suggested we stop and see.

There are two parts to this place, a touristy paid for area which has all the views, and a back-road area with a big lake feeding a waterfall, there was a water covered bridge over which some local tourists were walking ankle deep, enjoying the peaceful scenery... that is until I went over the bridge, realised that the water was deeper than it seemed and had to really power through... screams of local tourists being splashed by my mini Tsunami echoed through the "Grand Canyon" that day.



CIMG4799 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

That water bridge can be seen in the background here.

Okay now you'll have to put up with the fact that I'm a vlogger and tend to take more videos than pictures... so I didn't get a shot of the grand canyon... (ChinaV has plenty I'm sure), but I did take video footage, so keep an eye out for the links.

Speaking of ChinaV, perhaps I should get to that part of the story.

After leaving the Grand Canyon (mainly due to the fact we didn't want to pay to go in, and couldn't find the right path out of there, we backtracked to the main roads and continued on... it's then that both Martin and I ran out of petrol and had to switch to Reserve... we'd done about 180kms, which isn't bad considering Martin only has an 8L tank and my Qingqi has a 9.6L (yes, my 200cc uses more petrol than his 250cc bike.. but that's because the engine is older, I am heavier, and I'm carrying a passenger and more luggage... and having to strain the motor more to keep up and ahead of 250s... enough excuses?).


CIMG4753 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

After flagging down a local farmer on his 125, we found out at his insistence that there was a petrol station at the bottom of the hill where we'd just come from... We hadn't seen a petrol station, but decided to go and check in any case.

We found an old run down house with an old woman sitting outside feeding chickens, when we asked her where we could find a petrol station, she insisted that she was the petrol station and produced some old sprite bottles containing something that looked and smelled like petrol (although we suspect it was watered down with lamp oil and apple juice).

Funny thing is that she kept asking us if we had "Chinese money" as she couldn't accept our strange foreign currency, even after producing RMB, she still asked us if it was "我们的中国钱" "Our China's money" ;)

She also offered to let us feed the chickens, but we had to meet up at ChinaV in little over an hour, so we decided to skip that and hit the road... (footage of the old woman and her petrol in the vids).

The next set of roads was probably the second best set of roads during the whole trip, (day 4 was the best.. and I have some great photos of that).

We hit some absolutely incredible white knuckle twisties through some beautiful scenery, these corners were fast paced and had the occasional branch on the road or broken down car, but all in all exhilarating. These roads were so fun to ride that once we reached the meeting point (the place we were going to meet ChinaV), Tom and Martin went back for seconds while I waited with the beer girl for ChinaV to arrive (I would have joined them if riding solo.. but my passenger was complaining about being dizzy from all the twisties).

So there we sat at the crossroads waiting for ChinaV to pitch up, and around the corner came the low humming sound of a Vstrom 650, ChinaV had arrived, while we were all being introduced a car pulled up behind us and a woman passenger ran to the side of the road and puked a few times, making the moment even more memorable (smells and sounds associated with events and all).

So we followed ChinaV all the way into town, to a great posh little 5star (more like a 3.8) hotel that he usually stays in.



The above image is stolen from ChinaV's spring rides report, as we went down into Ruyaun following ChinaV, his wife snapped off a few pictures.

In this one you can see Martin (surprisingly) in the lead, followed by Tom and me and my "dizzy" passenger bringing up the rear.



Again, following China V down into Ruyuan, this time Tom in the lead trying his best to keep up with ChinaV... which is just not possible, even when he's idling on that 650.


After booking in and freshening up, we all went down for a night of drinking crap beer, cheap brandy, talking about bikes and arguing the finer points of Mac vs. Windows machines (all the while it was pouring down outside).

The hotel was incredibly good value for money, and an amazing place to set up base camp.

In the morning, we bid our farewell to ChinaV and his lovely wife, but not after taking a few pictures and getting some more advice on local riding from the Vstrom rider.


CIMG4813 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Above, China V and his lovely wife the morning after, just after taking the following pic:



We were to stay on for the next 3 days, meet up with Rich and ride the best roads Guangdong has to offer...

Stay tuned, next time "The best roads in Guangdong"

[Serpentza]

Where we last left off, Tom, Winston, Martin and the Beer girl had just said farewell to Mr. and Mrs. Vstrom (well we all actually met up again shortly at the one and only local petrol station). Today being day 3 we were all going to go our separate ways (I’m not talking about the Journey song.. but now that’s stuck in my head).


CIMG4816 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

A view from a restaurant in Ruyuan

ChinaV and wife were headed back home, Tom and Martin wanted to go muck about in the mountains exploring the local roads and do some close up bird watching (explained later), I needed to spend some quality time with the Beer girl who for some reason wasn’t enjoying riding through mud, rain and dangerous obstacles at top speed like the rest of us, so I decided I’d get the old Qingqi cleaned, take Beer girl for lunch and explore the local town and find a good spot for us to all have dinner.


IMAG0023 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Tom mucking about in the mountains, just after pulling Martin's bike from the mud

RuYuan is an in the middle of nowhere town, but has its charms, it’s about a 3 horse town with a busy section full of shops, motorcycle dealerships (even real Honda and Suzuki ones alongside the usual Chinese fare), I snapped off a few interesting pics of some of the nicer looking bikes for sale (I'll stick those in another section).


CIMG4898 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Have to love the creativity of this MKC whose Chinese name was a mix of Mcdonalds and KFC

I decided to get an oil change and lube the chain etc, my bike had for some reason been very difficult to start in the morning, I thought it could be due to the rain, and even ChinaV had come over to try help me get her started with some or other line “oh she remembers her daddy” or some such when she fired up.


CIMG4894 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

When there's a foreigner fixing a bike, there's bound to be a crowd of curious locals.

Progressively she was getting worse, constantly cutting out, especially under heavy acceleration, I thought that perhaps the apple juice paraffin mix we’d put in the day before may have clogged up the jets in the carb… but no, as usual it’s always something obvious… and in this case it was my “Suzuki genuine part” spark plug which I’d put in before the trip (thinking that a fresh plug was a good idea).

China Bike tip: Always use a brand name you don’t recognize, it you’re buying something that sounds good like a “Genuine Brembo caliper” you know it’s a fake, buy that “Golden Lucky Dragon Star Rice Diamond caliper” instead.

With a new “Genuine Champion” spark plug in place (yes I don’t follow my own advice) she was running well again, this was to be the only technical issue with my bike for the whole trip (other than the shitty rear brake), in fact she was the most solid bike of the lot.


IMAG0021 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Tom on his hybrid taking a splash

While I was pottering around the town chilling with my bird, Tom was having a completely different encounter with a bird at 60+ km/h, apparently it almost knocked his block off and he was very happy that he had his visor down at the time.


IMAG0026 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Tom certainly has his way with the birds

The boys were tearing round the twisties killing small creatures and getting muddy whilst I was in a private room at a nice restaurant watching TV and drinking beer.


IMAG0027 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

They hit a big landslide and Martin’s bike got horribly stuck in the mud, so with a heave ho and a one two three they made a plan, all the while I was tinkering around on the Qingqi, having a beer and enjoying the day.


IMAG0020 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Fun with landslides and China bikes

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Intermission

When we return, riding above the clouds on Guangdong's best biking roads

[felix]

best installment yet!

hitting birds directly with my face is my preferred way to kill them too, since simply burning petrol near them is a much slower death and not nearly as satisfying.

[moilami]

If a bird comes, juts duck and cover

[richardktm]

Tom gets hit by a bird nearly every night out... but his chat up lines are very rude haha

[Serpentza]

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Where we left off, I was having a relaxing day exploring Ruyuan and fixing the old QM200, Tom and Martin were out getting stuck in the mud and ridding the world of flying beasts.


CIMG4831 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Me, trying my best to strike a "cool guy" pose on the outskirts of Ruyuan.

The day ended with us all meeting at the local bike shop, fixing up the bikes and making a plan to drive to the highest spot in Guangdong the next day, the mountain that we were to ride up is situated half in Guangdong and half in Hunan and is littered with "nature reserves"... very odd nature reserves, but I'll fill you in later.


CIMG4839 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Shmooozy couple shot (sorry, had to throw one in)

So I struck a deal with the beer girl, she gets to stay in the hotel, potter around town and do whatever she feels like while I head out with the boys and tear up the tallest mountain in Guangdong (saying things like.. it's probably going to rain and there'll be a lot of mud really helped )

We filled up and head out, the first part of the trip was the same way we'd come down into town following ChinaV on his Vstrom, we were about to hit one of the best G roads Guangdong has to offer, the weather didn't look great, it was wet and overcast, as we climbed higher and higher into the mountains we started to hit clouds, visibility went down to about five feet ahead, the roads were slippery, but once we emerged from the first level of clouds, things started to get really pretty..


CIMG4852 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Tom taking in the scenery


CIMG4855 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Nothing like being up in the mountains on a bike, not a single car or passerby, just three blokes, their bikes and amazing scenery.

The thing is, from here on out the scenery just kept getting better and better the higher we went, I stopped and let the others ride ahead so that I could take a shot of this and just take it all in:


CIMG4859 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Above the clouds, my little camera does this scenery no justice whatsoever (maybe it'll come out better in the videos).

We started to descend and the weather suddenly cleared up, sunny skies and greenery were all around as I tore through a valley filled with farms, rice paddies and beautiful mountains, I was trying to catch up to the other two (since I'd stopped to take that pic and a few videos for youtube).

I caught up to them at a small petrol station in a small little village, we filled up, entertained the local school children who were all coming home from school, and then head up into a so called "nature reserve".


CIMG4884 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Martin checking on his bike

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Coffee break intermission
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[Serpentza]

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Coffee break intermission over
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daytrip by SerpentZA, on Flickr

This was the route we were taking for the day (although we did get a bit lost somewhere up at that strange part and ended up in Hunan), this is more or less what we did, it turned out to be between 230~300kms of riding that day.

We asked a local if we had to pay to get into the "nature reserve" or not, he said that if we just drive through the gate we should be fine and shouldn't need to pay, so we did, we drove through a rather big gate and started to go up.


CIMG4870 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Our bikes parked at an awesome spot somewhere near the top.

The road became extremely hazardous, if this was a nature reserve, they certainly didn't want any cars to be able to drive through it, there were massive rocks and trees scattered on the road, bits of road missing, small rivers at times and missing barriers, basically a lot of fun, we were screaming round the twisties with a "oh shit, big rock", "damn tree", "holy shit that was almost me over the edge" sort of thing.


CIMG4866 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

The sun had come out and the weather was perfect for riding.

I suppose that the poor quality of the roads was due to the big storms that had been happening all week, but either way it was not a ride for the feint of heart, we stopped somewhere that we thought had to be near to top to have a rest, take some photos and eat some packed grub.


CIMG4863 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Take note of the lack of barrier next to the road, if you make a mistake.. that's tickets for you.


CIMG4868 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

You can see the small twisty roads, note the complete lack of barrier... bloody fun.

We hadn't seen any traffic since we'd entered this place, but as we sat taking in the view, a scrawny little sun-baked man puttered past us on his little 125, stopped a few meters down the road and made a phone call, he must have spent about 15minutes standing there staring at us all the while chattering on his phone... alerting the government to our presence?? Telling his family he'd seen aliens?? Who knows... he eventually got back on his bike and rode off at his usual 9km/h pace.


CIMG4877 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

Another shot of the scenery..


CIMG4880 by SerpentZA, on Flickr

This is the way to do it, no sponsorships, no big BMWs or support cars, just a bunch of mates on a shoestring budget carrying enough tools, spares and know-how to keep themselves going, this is motorcycle adventuring.

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In the next installment... we meet up with the Silver Fox, get really good at fixing punctures and despair in the rain....
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[Serpentza]

Videos are finally up!

http://youtu.be/2oi-o1qn_Hk

The Great Guangdong Adventure, part 1

http://youtu.be/bxVq60-2YGo

The Great Guangdong Adventure, Part 2

These should get you more or less up to speed with the ride report more report and vids coming soon! (and I'll try to get a youku account for the local chaps)