Monday, October 24, 2011

Day 6: Kenting - Taitung

Time: 8:53:16
Distance: 159.44km
Average Speed: 17.9km/h

My friend Francis was in Kenting for the weekend so we met him for breakfast before taking off. At times we were cycling into a very strong headwind and we met the steepest hills of the trip so far. This made our progress slow. The scenery, the weather and the sea to my right made it a really nice cycle even though it was challenging. The many people at the side of the road shouting 加油 always gives me extra encoragement too. Today was the first day I was happy to be using a mountain bike as we passed through a section of road that was under construction which is never comfortable when using road bikes. With another 50km to go it started to get dark and we considered stopping in Dawu. In the end we decided to press on to Taitung through the darkness (we have lights on the bikes). Further up the road we met 2 cyclists from Taipei at a 7-eleven (if I get tired coffee and snickers always does the trick here). They were covering a similar route to ourselves so we cycled for another hour with them. One of them had speakers on his bike. The first song he played was R-Kelly, I Believe I Can Fly. One of the classics! Cycling through the dark in Southern Taiwan with 3 Taiwanese, this song blaring, the sound of the Pacific Ocean on my right plus trucks and tour buses whizzing past on my left was something I never predicted I would experience. We reached Taitung just after 9.30 where Angus's aunt was waiting for us with dinner and beer.

















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