Day 109 881 days to go. I suppose its time to change the days to go section working on a two year time frame. With the leap year its 731 days not quite the ring to it as 1080 days but thats just cosmetic. The two years is going to still work awesomely and a beautiful balance of responsibility and very very cool adventure. So lets start again…. Day 109 622 days to go. Distance: yesterday 97km total 6716km. It’s the morning after 18/3/2012 Gong An. I was a wee bit wiery last night to be posting when I got back from the internet cafe. Im all kitted up and ready to get into today but while Ive got internet access thought Id do my post up from yesterday. Last night was great I found internet access and was able to retype the posts from the last days and upload the photos. Have I mentioned how awesome it is to have family suppport so I can still update the blog whilst in China. Thankyou loves!!! It didnt quite work out as I had hoped and a bit of stress involved but all done now and a big sleep in between and Im ready to cycle my kick-arse super Rube today to Jingmen-17 sleeps and 19 cycle days to Beijing plan intact.
Gong An is a reasonable sized dot so I thought it a chance to stay in town for a change and update the post. I found what I thought was a great hotel, totally reasonable at 60 yen but for an extra 20 yen I could het internet access in the room awesome!!! Unfortunately it didnt work and the family dicked about for hours in the afternoon trying to reconnect. I was happy to go back to the original plan and just find a cafe but they insisted it would be fine. I cleaned myself up and eventually someone with a clue turned up and sorted the connection. I sat up for an evening of updating and uploading but unfortunately the keyboard was still set for chinese and I had no idea how to change it to English. Totally over it I gave up trying to muddle my way around chinese settings and went to the internet cafe in town. It was 7,30pm by now and I was super grizzly. I was also a bit anx as on the way out I went to grab Rube and she wasnt there. The family had gone out and common sense told me they had locked her up somewhere but not knowing was a bit mentally tricky. I ignored the issue until I got back at 11pm when the family were home and here she is parked in their loungeroom watching TV 🙂 Love my girl!!!! One very awesome thing I found out at the cafe was how to change the keyboard to English. This very young very IT orientated lad was sitting next to me and heard my groan when I tried to type my post on a word doc whilst the photos were uploading into yahoo. All Chinese and no patience at this time. He leant over and did a quick key thing and fixed it. I asked him to show me and he hesitated as some IT folk do to share precious trade tips. I think he got that I was a bit fragile and may have gone for the throat if he hesitaed much longer, and showed me. So simple just the control key then the space bar yayayayayayaya. Ive been able to now use the computer in the room this morning showing off my new IT’ness 🙂
Yesterday morning I woke to firecrackers and giggling girls next to the bed. I should have asked Jasmibe about the firecrackers/fireworks display in the towns morning and evenings. Ill find that one out when I next get the chance. So me and the girls watched the display and it was very loud and smoky. The man doing the show had a cigarette hanfing out his mouth the whole time which was really funny given the amount of smoke he was creating. Once ended the girls giggled off and I remembered I had two undies on the outside of my thermals that I wore to bed. This is a great way to dry stuff overnight but very scary so thank goodness for the innocense of children and socially I got away with it 🙂 The cafe was bustling with local folk dining and gathering. It was a Sunday morning local mecca for breaky. I scoffed a bowl of noodles and two eggs and got under way. There was a wicked fog which lifted over the next couple hours. I actually cycled in my bikepants and t-shirt later in the morning which felt so nice. We crossed from Hunan to Hubie province around lunchtime. The area much the same except for the boundary. I got some great driections from moped men and petrol station folk along the way and it made for a good day’s cycle on track without too much fuss. There were heaps of truck stops on the outskirts of town but Im glad bnow in hinsight weve updated the blog for a few more days. Ive also emailed the post from Changde to Jasmine so she can share it with the bike folk> Today we cross the Yangsee River and through a town called Jingzhou which has an original fortified wall still standing around the ancient city. I hope to come across it. Safe and sound foremost anything alse a bonus!!!!!! I suppose I better motivate myself to brave the burst of cold to start the day. Once started its totally fine but that first 5kms eeeeeeeoooooowwwwww!!! Talk soon x
shecyclesolo 