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10 August: Wase Village

Today was a super day, extremely exhausting, yet indescribable at the same time. Key words to describe it includes gravel roads and mountain passes! The morning started by rising early and heading to the morning market, this time the correct one. The market was filled with colourful fruits and vegetables, huge melons, purple aubergine, red chillies! We sat down in the market for a thick noodle soup and a yogurt which we bought in the shopping center just adjacent to the market. On the way back home we tried something that looked very similar to some sort of pumpkin pancake, it wasn't, it had a faint bitter taste and that was about it, would not eat it again.

Back at the hotel we collected our bags and asked for some rope, they gave us some nylon which we used to tie the bags to the back of the bikes. There wasn't much room but just enough, it really made riding without the bags on our backs much easier and more enjoyable. Again we rode through the rice paddies along the main road leading to Lijiang, this time carrying more traffic than the previous day. We drove past fields filled with colourful plastic bags on sticks, no idea why. The road was good but at some point it became very narrow due to part of the road being re-tarred. The road had its ups and downs but in general it was an easy ride.

We had planned to stop at the Zhoucheng market, but before we knew it we had driven right through the small town. The town had been so small we had incorrectly thought it to be a collection of two or three restaurants, nothing more. We came to Butterfly springs, where we had planned to visit, but again the Chinese Government curtailed us, the price had once more been raised astronomically and for a nominal fee of Y85pp you could gain access to the springs with a pagoda crossing the water, we rested a bit before driving on to Shaping.

Shaping was once more a small little town one could drive through without knowing it, but it was well known for its Monday morning market. This was also evidenced by the westerners we met at the market. We set off first to find accommodation, Leanne found one but to say the least it was gross, the bathroom was a public toilet about 500m from the guest house, and was nothing more than a glorified horse stable! Inside the town was a hotel but the owner didn't want us to stay there the night and just waved us away... We spoke to a lady at a furniture store some shops further down and she told us that was the only hotel and we would only get accommodation at the next town.

We decided to take our time going through the market, find something to eat and then drive to Wase to take the ferry back to Dali. The market was huge, filled with fruits, vegetables, clothes, shoes, baskets, cookies, souvenirs such as jewelry, bags and wooden ornaments. It started raining lightly so we waited under a covering for 20 minutes, before continuing through the market. We bought a bunch of banana's to sustain us for what lay ahead. On the way out we saw for the first time how they kept chickens and ducks in "streep sakke", they cut holes in the sides and pull the heads of the fowl through them. Looks hilarious to see the white bags with 10 or so chicken heads bobbing around. Then next a bus pulled up and with a rope they pulled the 6 bags up and tied them to the roof of the bus!

We continued on looking for a restaurant along the way where we could eat, we stopped at two but the prices were just too much. Only at the second one did I realise that I had forgotten my hat at the first place - back again to fetch it, at least not too far. We decided to push on and eat when we arrived at Wase, at least we had Oreo cookies and dried fruits to sustain us. We had no idea what lay ahead...

20 minutes later we said goodbye to the nice tar road for good! From there on we had only gravel roads, we had the opportunity to do real mountain biking through rural China. The roads were full of potholes and loose stones, so progress was slow. Every now and again a truck would come swooshing past covering us in dust. At least we knew we were on the right road, having the lake on our right side at all times. Sometimes in the distance as we drove over mountains and through the valleys. The lake was majestic with small waves lapping at the shores, there was almost no activity on the lake other than one or two fishing boats. Trees would stand in the water and at some spots there was no movement in the water, leaving perfect mirror images of the trees.

To be honest at no stage did we know exactly how far it was still to reach our destination. We had passed through both Jiangwei and Shuanglang, but the map didn't have distances and few of the locals could give us an accurate indication, all we did was paddle and hope. At one stage both our legs were dead as we peddled up the mountain to the top, at least we had amazing views. We could even see Folklore island, although it wasn't even on our map. It was becoming later and we were afraid we would miss the last ferry, ha ha.

At one stage both of our confidence left us, we were in despair and tired, our bottoms bruised from the rough riding. Our water supply had not made it as we hadn't expected it to be so far. We pulled into a field over for a short rest and regained our strength enjoying some of the sugar coated dried fruits.

At last we arrived at a town they told us was Wase, we continued down the streets to the jetty, it was just before 17h00 so we were still just on time. We came to the jetty, located near a bustling market filled with people. Strange thing was there were no boats, we asked one of the locals, they couldn't speak English, but a girl heard us and came to help with her limited English. Turns out there has never been a ferry leaving from Wase, thanks Lonely Planet! We had two options - drive now to the next town and get on the early morning ferry or stay in Wase the night and go there the morning. It didn't take long to decide, we had covered more than 40km the day on poor gravel roads and were exhausted. We walked 10m before asking the first person we could find where to find a room. She pointed behind her and seconds later a woman appeared who showed us to a room 3 floors up. The room was basic and the bathroom was 3 floors down with cold water, but that wasn't a problem.

Our first priority was to find food, we walked through the old town and soon came upon a restaurant, we had the same noodles, but were able to show her we wanted the thin ones - it makes a big difference. After the meal both of us felt much better, so much so that we started exploring the small streets, getting lost in alleys, not that it bothered us. The houses were built with a type of red mud, often with sea shells still stuck in the mud. The building style was very similar to that of Xizhou. In one of the streets water from a canal flowed by, where residents washed vegetables or clothes, as we walked past a huge pink pig ran straight at us but then turned into a courtyard filled with long green grass :-) We walked on through the streets admiring what we saw, all the restaurants had closed their doors and we weren't able to get more food. We bought more water and headed for the jetty, where we lay down, took off our shoes and watched the few clouds in the sky and the small boats on the lake. Super relaxing and majestic with the mountains protecting the lake on all sides.

Some of the locals had gathered and some were brave enough to take the leap into the waters, swimming around with their black truck tubes. One of them even drove a small truck with its engine attached in front, onto the jetty and started washing it with bucketfuls of water. The sun set over the lake creating amazing photo opportunities as we sat there watching. It had been an amazing day, both of us slept like a log, the fact that we had made it without becoming totally despaired meant a lot.