2016, Part 3

In August it had rained every day except one. September was little better but we did manage to get out and about a bit. We also found that the coffee shop where we get the car washed actually has decent coffee. It is Foshan coffee, not too bitter and tastes great. Here’s me hoping still to get into the movies.

As usual, we had lots of walks. Sometimes on roads and sometimes not. We saw this at the side of the road and decided to follow it.

We stumbled across what seem to be old army positions, set back into the mountain. Not having any torches, and wearing shorts and sandals, discretion was advisable and we stayed out.

Walking further up, or should I say scrambling, we found we had run out of paths and were hauling ourselves up with tree trunks and anything else we could get hold of. It wasn’t easy although Huan did tell me that she enjoyed it because ‘it was a little bit dangerous’!

Here she is, wading down through a stream, it was the only way we could find to come back down before we died of thirst and heat exhaustion!

Despite drinking some of the stream water, by the time we reached civilisation my mouth was so dry my tongue was swollen. My legs were covered in scratches and although they had gone by the time we took this picture, there were also lots of little leeches!

Our next walk took place on Huan’s birthday. Well, she said she liked danger and so we went off down the river.

This is the time I realised that walking, or hiking, in sandals was not really the ideal thing to do, especially as there were times when we had to wade into the river because the bank was impassable.

One of the things we often stumble across on our many walks is the new route they are putting in from Wuzhishan towards the central highway. Huan naively thinks it will be finished by the end of 2017, I have no faith whatsoever!

That’s it for September, except that I do think I should include Pudsey. “Who is Pudsey?” I hear you ask. Well, he is the mascot for ‘Children In Need’, A BBC UK charity. Why should I include him? Because he had the honour of meeting my #1 son of course!

Apart from walking, we also drive once a week. We have to, or our battery will go flat. What is it with Chinese cars and their batteries? At times we do spot little bits of scenery which remind me that we live in a pretty good place. This is a small waterfall we passed.

This month’s wildlife is the omnipresent lizard. We haven’t seen any really big ones yet, maybe one day. This one was sunbathing. These are the photos where I really had a macro lens. Still not bad for a camera phone.

Something else we see far too much of is old abandoned buildings. Because of China’s laws relating to land ownership, they just sit there doing absolutely nothing. There are some that I would gladly sell my own apartment for in order to do them up and live in a house. This is not one of those though.

Cooking still going strong, I have not yet learnt how to make baozi; pastry is not really my thing. However, Huan can make them and here is her version, at my suggestion, of a ‘Scotch Egg Baozi’. Well, it tasted fine.

Years and years ago, I had been out in a typhoon in Hong Kong, a very dangerous thing to do at that time. That story is for another time though. We did decide to drive to Haikou in October; supplies from Corners Deli were getting low. The typhoon had passed so we thought we’d be fine. By the way, some of those workers are using handsaws to remove the fallen trees.

Somewhere along the route, probably where we were driving over fallen trees, I managed to puncture a tyre. That was not fun, struggling in the pouring rain trying to lift the new wheel on. Luckily there are no photos of that, Huan was snug in the car where I had told her to stay.

That’s it for October, and for Part 3 of 2016. Part 4 will be up soon.