There was the occasional no go area (even the Qingqi wouldn't make it over this without pulleys and ropes), but there was always a way around via some temporary dodgey road.


The occasional awesome scenery..


This certainly was the Qingqi's day, lots of dirt, lots of fun.


By this time I'd broken away from Tom and had plenty of time to stop and take the occasional picture..


This evening was going to be one hell of an interesting one, and Tom's shyte rear tyre would be to blame.


If you look closely you can see Tom in the distance turning the corner :)


These were some of the better dirt sections, less mud, fewer bumps.


This route is going to be brilliant once all this construction finishes.


More scenery you ask? Yes damnit, I had time on my hands with Capt. Pikey wallowing in slow and steadyness.


Muddied up, the way she should be and the way she left me (more about that later).


The roads turned back to concrete... we were over the worst.


So finally we were in Zhanping, we'd been keeping an eye on Tom's rear tyre, an almost new Eternal rise Street tyre.. and it was now pretty much completely bald.. this after just about 2000+-kms riding..


Tom was content to just leave it and keep on pushing.. that is until he decided to clean it up with some water for a proper photo of how bald it was..


When water was poured on, we could clearly see air escaping from some small punctures.. not just one but many.. this tyre wasn't going to make the trip...


My tyre had also worn down more than half... but was still fine.. my spokes weren't, you can't see them in the picture, but already a few had broken.. by the time we'd reached our destination one of them would have fallen out and a few more would have broken :P


Tom had the good idea of buying some inner tubes in case his tubeless tyre went flat.. and so we did and pushed on to Longyan.. where things would get interesting.

RR continued.. just as soon as more pics are uploaded.. and I've had my coffee