First Days On The Road - Cycle Touring Southern China
Our bikes were ready, we had said ‘see you later!’ to our friends, our flat was leased out…. time to get going!
December 19th 2017 - From Chengdu, we got a train to Kunming, then a bus to JinHong. We did this because we didn’t have time left on our visas to cycle that extra 150km of mountain roads. So, instead, we took a 16hour train and 8hour bus to get as far south as we could.
We stayed a night in JingHong, and began to set up the bicycles. By the next afternoon we were on the road and cycling our first day - rolling hills on a smooth and easy road, heading towards the Chinese/Laos boarder town of Mohan.
Our first days ride was easy, the weather was perfect, the roads weren’t busy and were nicely paved. We stopped to eat around 6pm… a rookie mistake, because it got dark while we were eating and we hadn’t found a place to sleep yet. So we rode on, for another 2 hours, before finding a decent place to sleep.
The 6 days consisted of long inclines and declines as we cycled up and over at least 1 hill a day. This meant we cycled upwards for 14-20km, then coasted down for 7-12km. The roads were all smooth and easy, with camping spots easily found and lots of opportunity to find good food or supermarkets to shop for ourselves.
Beginning in China was a nice introduction to the world of cycle touring, and we cycled between 35 and 50km a day. We didn’t have any technical problems with the bicycles, or the new stove we bought before leaving.
During that first few days on the road, there were several things in our panniers that we decided might not be of use - spare bike parts, panda onesies, coffee flasks. Anything that could go, to make the bicycles as light as possible!
It was also a time for learning; how we felt on the bikes, saddle position, handle bar position, packing order of panniers, when to change gears for it to be done smoothly, how much water we should be carrying, how hard we can push ourselves before we need a break… We learnt a lot about ourselves, our cycling abilities and our bicycles!
At the end of the day though, it was great! We had a lot of fun, and finished our week by arriving in the boarder China/Laos town Mohan, where we spent 2 nights - spending Christmas Day there - before heading on to Laos.
