Friday, 26th January
More time on the train today as I skipped the Su’ra highway arriving in rainy Suoaxin after departing Xinching (Taroko Gorge) at 9.57am. The skies were blue inside the gorge in the morning. I cycled up the extra couple of miles to Tianxian to see what i’d find. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been that surprising to find a 7/11 there. I drank a coffee in the sun outside and wondered why I’d ruled out riding the cross island highway so early on in planning this trip. It would have been hard, and slow, but if the first 15 miles of it were anything to go by it would have been worth the struggle. The pass, at Wuling, 3300m, seemed almost impossible to picture from my lowly position at 500m.
With those thoughts I began the decent to the train station. I stopped a handful of times but mainly enjoyed the freewheel on roads free of tourbuses or taxis.
Back on the ground everything felt rather material and ordinary and I was happy to get on a train out of there and move forward.
I boarded in the middle of the train at first, before getting off and running down to the back where I remembered bikes were meant to go. A conductor helped tie my bike to a pole to keep it upright. From my seat I could see brief glimpses of the sea and the road, then rain. I sent a message to David to see how riding the highway had worked out and he said Hugo’s bike got crushed by a truck, though he’s fine. I’m not yet sure on the details, but I was happy i’d elected to skip it. They were now heading back to Taipei on the train.
I arrived in Su’oa. The station had a quirky old fashioned feeling with bits of replica artwork up on most of the walls – include their own Mona Lisa.
Outside it was still raining, and within 15 minutes of cycling my shoes were wet through. I’ve never really understood the point in carrying loads of wet weather gear since it seems if you cycle long enough you will get wet whatever you wear, and if you keep going, you will probably dry too.
I was heading vaguely towards the sea again, where I would turn left, go straight up the coast, then take another left inland toward Jiaxoi where I was planning to end the day.
Navigating was made slightly harder since I had to keep my phone out of the rain but a series of bike paths gradually took me away from Su’ao toward Luodong, before I was eventually able to connect with a 14km long beach side bike path which ran all the way the coast to Dakeng. It was sheltered from the wind by scrubby hedges and the miles passed easily now the rain had stopped. Worryingly there were signs all along the path warning of poisonous snakes, and wasps. It seemed an unlikely place for them somehow, so close to the sea, but before long I turned off and joined the number 2 road for a while, then inland on smaller roads into Jiaoxi.
I made it the hostel i’d around 2.30. It was quiet – it seemed like I was the only guest – and I immediately ran a hot spring bath and sat in it for a while before taking a walk into town. It was a fun little place – slightly touristy because of the public hot springs and accompanying hotels, but not overcrowded or too garish. I picked up various bits of street food before before dipping my feet in the public hot spring in the centre of town.
The quickest route back to Taipei was on the route 9 – a challenging, wiggly, mountain route, but fewer miles than the alternative which involved heading back out to the coast, then cutting inland before getting to the very tip of it. From there the road 106 would lead into Taipei and I could join riverside paths for the final miles of the ride. It was going to be a long day – over 60 miles from what I could work out. It would be good to arrive in Taipei in time to enjoy the evening and not navigate the city in the dark, so I planned a particularly early start.
The days had been following a similar pattern lately – I felt in a great mood in the morning, but then after lunch this would fade – i’d become tired and a bit withdrawn and just want to stop, then i’d perk up again late in the day and get excited about the next day. The challenge, I think, was that i’d forgotten how alienating it can feel to be in a place with language and cultural barriers that you just can’t cross. At the same time, that feel of being an alien is what makes a trip like this interesting.
But there was no question that I was looking forward to being back in Taipei.
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