Saturday, 27th January
I’d been lucky with weather this trip. I’d braced myself for a lot of rain, even earthquakes, but aside from the odd light shower, and the final approach to Jioxi the day before, things had been stable and dry. That changed today, when all but the last 20 miles of the 65 back to Taipei were in torrential and soul crushing rain. It wasn’t the best way to finish the trip as I mainly kept my head down with my mind tuned into a succession of podcasts as I wished away the miles and the weather.
I woke up stupidly early at 5am, got up sometime before 6, ate breakfast by the hostel at 7am, and started cycling right after that wearing four layers (t-shirt, fleece, rain jacket, high-vis).
From Jiaoxi to the coast I had to retrace my steps from yesterday road-for-road, through farmland, until I hit the route 2 which would be my last 15 miles of coastline riding and the last time i’d see the Pacific Ocean for a while. My final view of it came at Daxi, the rain eased very slightly and I took a final look out to sea before entering a 5km tunnel through the mountain which conveniently cut off the very north east tip of Taiwan and saved many wet miles in the process. It was an old railway tunnel, neatly converted to a bikeway.
I emerged close to Fulong train station where a stream of cyclists in bright yellow rain ponchos entered the tunnel as I figured out where I was heading. The path turned into a quiet road outside the tunnel, and I followed it down to the train station and paused briefly to drink an emergency can of coffee i’d been carrying for a couple of days.
From here it was back on the branch of a 2 all the way to Shine. My only break along the way came at a roadside coffee bar which I was attracted to because of the rooftop where I had a cappuccino and looked at the trees, sheltered momentarily from the rain. I spoke to some people training for a triathlon (the closer you got to Taipei the more English speakers you found) and carried on. The road was wide and still had good views of surrounding mountains where pylons poked through the mist. There were a couple of tunnels and a lot of climbing which took it’s toll on me as I’d run out of food and had cycled forty miles before lunch.
I burst into a family mart when I finally made it down to Shifen and bought a pile of junk to get me home to Taipei. The rain finally stopped and I joined the route 106 which provided a long downhill – all the way to suburban Taipei. The sun was out, there was blue sky, the mountains shone – it was a nice way to remember the country.
I reached a large junction and it was in that instant that the transition from country to city had been made. It hurt a little bit – I had left the hills, sea, small towns, beaches, weird campsites, trees and rocks behind. From here on out it was traffic and concrete. The trip at this point was effectively over.
A few miles of busy weekend traffic ended when I came aligned with the river and jumped over the road and down on to the cycle track. I got off my bike for a bit and laid down in the grass and removed several layers. I had around 10 miles of pleasant riverside cycling, passing basketball courts and people flying kites. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and people were out and about making the most of it. I kept up a decent pace, passing under pastel colour bridges and as I neared the end I began to notice, on the other side of the river, the path i’d taken out of the city 12 days ago. Not too long after that I was back at the point at which I had entered the riverside park when I started. There was something pleasing about tying things up like that, like reaching the end of book, closing the back cover, and turning it over to the front again.
There was just a mile and a half of noisy traffic to endure, a stop at a 7-11 to withdraw some cash, and I was back at the hostel. The receptionist said I looked tired. I felt tired. I was actually exhausted. And very happy to have a comfortable room to myself for the next three nights. I wasn’t in a particularly celebratory state of mind, so just quietly removed the things from my bike, lugged them to my room, and locked the bike up now it had done it’s job.
I did laundry, drank two beers, then a coffee to balance things out. I headed out for dinner at Tonchin ramen. Then met with David and Hugo for cocktails and a brief tour of Taiwans nightlife which ended outside a club at around 3am.
I had a feeling it would be a trip which would grow on me the more distance I had from it. Right now it was hard to forget some of the challenges i’d faced – the noisy West Coast, and the sense of isolation I maybe wasn’t quite prepared for. Ultimately adventure cycling can be a pretty lonely pursuit, and that’s part of the appeal, but what this trip me me realise is that it might be even better as an experience shared.
But I had no regrets, and i’m sure in the future, whenever I picture Taiwans sweet potato outline in my mind, I will be happy I tried to get to know it.
Map