China Blog #56
It had been a long 34-kilometre slog
through mountain drizzle with a cold snap in the air. All day long and
into the early hours of the morning people were letting off fireworks.
They even threw them from wedding cars, set them off in factory yards or
just randomly at the side of the road. I enjoy them mostly when they
light up the evening sky. Other than that I just don't get their
fascination. The amount of debris and smouldering pollution left behind
in villages has to be seen to be believed. I didn't have any luck trying
to find accommodation and there was nowhere suitable for pitching my
tent. In the end, I lay my almost dishevelled body down at the side of a
leaky roadside monument which afforded slight shelter. Stupidly I
hadn't secured my sleeping bag inside my waterproof bivy sack and as a
result, I awoke next morning and it was damp. Drying that out in this
weather could be problematic.
I was up and walking
at 8 am and with no breakfast options, I stopped at a store that had
almost no stock. The owner had stopped me in the street to see if I was
lost so I went inside and got boiling water for my coffee and even
though I had my own bread I bought some more from him just to support
him. This man actually didn't want to take my payment until I insisted.
Naturally,
the people in these villages are always wondering what I'm up to and
when I engage with them they seem to get some kind of a thrill that I
singled them out. That's what I like to do, engage and get as close as I
reasonably can.
I continue to show my Google
translated message explaining about the walk and my early cancer
awareness message. I also offer my world walk business card but in China
its almost always handed back as people can't understand the script.
I
walked on through villages with pretty red lanterns and stopped to
admire a temple whose architecture I admired. Then I crossed over two
long bridges which straddled the Minjiang River and then later a tunnel
which was almost 900 metres long. That tunnel had a path which was about
10 centimetres/ 4 inches wider than Karma so I was able to walk on it.
However, it was slow progress to keep my cart on the straight and
narrow. A constant stream of traffic roared towards me leaving a plume
of carbon monoxide behind. I imagined that I was walking on a tight rope
across the Grand Canyon. It took immense concentration just to keep
Karma rolling on in a straight line as she kept crashing into the wall
and I had to be careful she didn't drop off the narrow path and onto the
road.
Just after I exited the tunnel I met an
interesting cyclist from Azerbaijan who spoke fluent English. He plans a
world cycle but for a trial, he is cycling China in two stages. Last
year he spent a few weeks in the country and this year will cycle for
another month.
Just after dark and with 32
kilometres behind me I made it a large city and stopped in a suburb
called Lianjiang at a restaurant for a delicious beef, cabbage and
noodle dinner. As the owner was so friendly I offered him the equivalent
of a few euro to sleep on some chairs all pushed together in the
restaurant when they closed for the night. He agreed and then later
after I paid for my dinner he wouldn't take my money for the sleep. I
hung up my sleeping bag in an effort to dry it out as it was still damp
from the night before. Thoughtfully he also gave me some blankets and a
thermos of hot water for my coffee. This man fussed over me so much and
he even boiled up some water so I could have a scoop shower.
27,776 kilometres have been walked for 817 myworldwalk.com road days 
Thanks for stopping by!
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