Day 255: Back on the bikes

It was raining when we got up this morning and after the girls had a few snacks for breakfast we went back to the buffet restaurant so I could have my noodles. We then bought some drinks and food for later and headed back to the hotel. It had stopped raining by then, so we went back and hired our tandems again – this time from Granny, who was there alone and spoke no English. 

This time we rode left instead of right – heading for a different section of the Yulong River. After riding on the road for a while, we spotted a turn-off to a well-made and -maintained bike path that snaked along beside the river. The scenery here was just as spectacular as on the previous days – the limestone hills marching off towards the horizon on either side of the river. 

Eventually, the bike path ended and we were back on the road, which then diverged from the river and took us up through the hills to the main road back to Yangshuo. Following this road would have allowed us to do a loop back to the hotel, but it would have meant riding through the city itself, so instead, we turned the bikes around and retraced our earlier ride. At one point, we stopped at a little rest area and were joined by two Westerners with a local guide. We were quite surprised when they all began talking among themselves in German – the Chinese guide obviously near enough to fluent. Before too long we were dropping off the bikes again, Kate and I somewhat relieved to be back so soon as we both had quite tired legs after yesterday's ordeal.

Before dinner we went back to a shop we had seen during last night's failed night market mission and bought an umbrella each for the girls. For dinner, we returned to Gan's noodles, where we had eaten on our first full day in Yangshuo, this time getting an extra serving of the excellent fried dumplings.