Fujian for beer

[ChinaV]

We were up early (some earlier than others..cough..cough), and after a couple bits of bike tweaking, took off towards Fuzhou. I wasn't planning on hitting the coast, so I told Felix I would probably head back towards Guangdong around MinQing. We headed south on S303 and hit a little rain and gravel in the mountains, but overall, not a bad road.

Felix winding it up in the corners.



Followed by Dao Fei. Dao Fei's bike is completely custom, and he's done an amazing job of picking components from several different kinds of bikes. It's a nice blend of trick little gadgets and common sense upgrades that are a huge improvement on what you see from most of the factories here. They should hire this guy, they could learn a lot from a passionate rider like him.



The rice is ready for harvest and everything has a beautiful yellow glow.





We stopped in GuTian for a quick breakfast.



A traditional breakfast of eggs, pancakes and sausage…er…dumplings I mean.



Followed by more nice scenery.



This is the MinQing Hydro power station on the MinJiang river. I stopped to grab a photo and wait for the boys to wish them well on their journey. They didn't notice me as they whipped past and that was the last I saw of them. They headed towards the coast as I continued south.



Which started out pretty well. I had learned from the previous days to avoid the X roads in Fujian and stick to the S roads. They don't have the tight twisty's, but at least they would most likely be in decent condition.



Or so I thought. This is when everything went to shit. So I'm coming through one of those little towns where everyone with a sense of entrepreneurship has set up some kind of roadside business, effectively cutting traffic down to a lane and a half. There's a bus in front of me that's stopped for no apparent reason, so I move left to go around. Just as I start to pass, a passengers head comes out of the bus window spewing barf in all directions. It's unavoidable, and she manages to cover a good portion of the bike and my helmet. Naturally, my face shield was open due to the traffic jam, so I got a good face full. Yuck, it was almost making me puke. I stop a couple hundred meters up the road and try to de-puke my bike and riding gear. I seriously debate throwing my helmet away as the smell was just revolting. Just a little after the puke incident, the road turns into a construction project gone wrong and my mood is not getting better.



I asked people about the construction and they said it was only about 20 kilometers, they were wrong, as you can see the sign in the picture bellow mentions something about Kilometer 255 through Kilometer 344 being a mess. I never saw this sign, as I came from the north, and I guess they forgot to put one up there. These 4 people riding a 125 didn't seem to mind and gave big smiles as they passed.



Shortly after this picture, the adventure really began. As I reached another spot of congestion, I slowed down to figure out the best attack for a deep mud hole. I decided to go right to avoid the water and as I made my way through, some idiot on a scooter comes up the middle, bounces off a rock, and whacks my front wheel. I'm in shallow mud with no stopping power going 5 km/h at most. The hit is just enough to send me off course and I start going down. The natural reaction when you fall is to put your arms out, and as I'm falling, my hands don't hit ground, but rather, pass through some loose vegetation and bamboo. I realize I'm falling into a ditch. A very deep ditch, but I never made it to the bottom. The bike has pinned my foot and now I'm hanging upside down trapped by my motorcycle. Not good, as this is China, and it's fairly normal for people to avoid those in need, less they get blamed. I struggle to get upright, but there's just no possible way I can get up or pull my foot out of my boot. After three monumental efforts, I'm getting dizzy and start yelling out for some help. A few minutes later, I finally feel the pressure on my foot subsiding as someone pulls the bike up and I go crashing down on my head into what is basically a garbage ditch. Oh well, it's nice to be free again and I thank my new found friend for helping me. He's reluctant to shake my hand as I smelled like puke and trash at that point. I finally manage to get on my way again.

It was getting a bit late, probably around 5:00 or so, which meant I only had another hour of light. I had managed 35 kilometers in the last hour and a half, and I still had more than 50 to go before I would intersect another major road. Never ride at night, never ride at night, was starting to creep into my head as I lumbered on. I looked at the GPS and came to the grim realization that I was going to be riding through this crap in the dark. Another hour passed and another 25 kilometers covered. I could see my headlight beam now and the sky was starting to go black. The traffic had decreased to the occasional motorcycle or small tractor and I noticed the road was getting very narrow. I looked up ahead and saw there was no road. Just a huge mound of dirt and a tiny trail to the left that looked barely passable on foot. I walked it over a couple times, removed the hard luggage and squeezed through. Again I came to a another mound and barely managed to get through after removing the luggage, this was getting exhausting.

About this time I started to come full circle on the Kübler-Ross model. Those are the five stages motorcyclists usually go through when dealing with a crappy ride.

Denial - This road can't possible be under construction for 90 kilometers.
Anger - How can a road possibly be under construction for 90 kilometers.
Bargaining - If I can just get to an intersection, I will gladly go anywhere else.
Depression - This sucks, why did I ever take this route.
Acceptance - It's not so bad, at least my bike is running fine and I'm not hanging upside down covered in puke.

I stopped for a few minutes and sat there in the pitch black and silence. I finally started moving again and as I rounded the next corner, realized I was at the summit of the mountain. I could see lights and a city off in the distance, and a huge feeling of relief washed over me. I slowly plodded along down the mountain feeling like there just may be a chance I would get off that stupid road. Another 15 or 20 minutes passed and I reached a couple vehicles that were stuck. There was another impassable mound and I wondered (A) how the hell did they get there and (B) how many days had they been stuck in that spot. I was in no mood for conversation and quickly pulled the luggage and managed to wiggle through. I imagine those people are still sitting in that spot.

That was the final obstacle. A few kilometers later my headlights struck concrete and I realized I was finally on a regular road again. Hallelujah! Onward into the town ZhangPing, where I stopped at a hotel, and then another, and then another and jeez... will this day never end. At last I found a room at a dirty little Bingguan and called Felix. How was your day?.... Mine was pure hell. We chatted for a bit and then I headed into the shower with all my riding gear on. The stream of filth was astounding and a half hour later I finally felt human again. I bought a couple beers and pulled a granola bar from my bag for dinner.

What a day.

Here's the section that kicked my ass. It's S203 between XiangHu and ZhangPing. Give it some time and I'm sure it will be a lovely ride when the road is completed.



The next morning I woke up feeling a bit sore and abused. I decided I wasn't going to take any chances and would hit the very first G Road (national highway) that I could find and head straight to Guangdong. Started out with some lovely coal country.



And a few kilometers of torn up roads from the coal trucks.



But finally I hit some decent high speed sweepers on G205 and just let it rip. It was so nice to be cornering again.



Many hours later I was back in familiar territory and enjoying the serenity of northern Guangdong.



Home at last! Time for a bath and some TLC for my Wee. I love this bike, seems like she always comes home looking like this, but still goes back out for more time after time.



Trip Log:
Day 1 523km Time 08:32 Average Speed 71.37 km/h
Day 2 597km Time 10:17 Average Speed 67.42 km/h
Day 3 493km Time 13:17 Average Speed 48.23 km/h
Day 4 838km Time 11:00 Average Speed 82.72 km/h
Total 2451K

Cheers!
ChinaV