The first 17km were sheer bliss, and as we got off the mountain the sun really started to burn through. The greenness of the scenery continued. Apologies for the blur in some of these shots; many were shot while riding, with me clutching my little Canon G11 from the back with my gloved clutch hand. I think I was shooting at DIN100, and in future will boost that to 200 or 400. I'm also only able to guess at the composition (given that I'm also driving), so I just aim in the right direction, rely on the autofocus, and hope for the best.







We passed through village after village, all of which seemed to be engaged in the bamboo trade.







We took a short break in a tidy village and, as is the case in virtually all villages in China, were able to bone up on our civics -- C*mmunist P*rty style. The sign behind me reads: Implement Rule of Law in Governing the Country; Steadfastly Rule in Service of the People.



Do you suppose we were doing our part for "rule of law" and "serving the people" by dressing up as police?



The final run into Anji featured about 5 km of hardpacked washboard dirt road that allowed us to stand on our steeds and again test the suspensions, but not before we enjoyed a final set of blissful twisties. I'm not sure the logic behind the rocks linking both sides of this stretch.





Gassing up with the locals in Anji. Yes, Easy Joy could have been the theme for this ride!





As we rode south out of Anji, we found ourselves on excellent provincial highways, and as our speed increased the color scheme changed dramatically from green to blue. And the scenery morphed from the supple flex of bamboo to the gargantuan yet also graceful firmness of China's infrastructure boom. The bigger roads themselves, rather than bending like bamboo with the contours of geography, tend to smooth out the contours with trestles and mountain cuts and nice straight stretches with only the gentlest of curves.







These last couple of shots courtesy of MotoKai, who started experimenting with the gloved clutch-hand grip and his pocket Nikon.

Did I mention the bamboo trade?





one more take coming...