New Cameras, New Tenants, Cars, More Walking

“Time to remember, the kind of September. . .” I was idly thinking about September songs today, as you do, and I thought the best one for us would be “It might as well rain until September.” That’s based on the weather we had in August. Can you think of a better one for us?

September 1^st Today called for a trip to the landfill. No, we weren’t disposing of anything, just taking one of our usual walks which includes some quite steep hills, and today was a good day for it. The sun was mostly behind the clouds and there was a bit of a breeze, just what you need for walking up hills. Our first stop was, would you believe it, another ‘fish farm’. We’ve passed this one many times, it’s still not open yet, and I’ve always remarked about the flat faces on the lions. What do you think?

Stopping to take photos of them today did show us that we have missed something before, for the last two years! One of the lions has a little one on its paw. Even this one has a ‘human’ face.

Remember the Wuzhishan-Haitang Wan highway I mentioned last month? Well, since the last time we walked this route, the landscape has changed considerably.

I guess we have found the beginning of the Wuzhishan part. It’s a shame to see the scars on the landscape but all necessary in the name of progress I suppose. The good thing is that once the work is done, nature will rapidly move in and fill the gaps again.

There is supposed to be a tunnel somewhere, not started yet though. We couldn’t find the ‘entrance’ but we did find what could be this year’s Christmas dinner in a little village on the way. At one stage they all came running towards me. Perhaps they thought I was going to feed them. They ran away when I put my hand out though.

Now we call this particular walk the “Rubbish Walk”, because of the landfills of course. If you wonder what they are like here, I took a couple of photos for you, from a distance. I can’t really compare them to anywhere else; it’s not been a hobby of mine! My criticism here in China would be that there is not enough separation of rubbish before it’s dumped, otherwise they seem to do OK. After all, we are still doing the same in the West, as we have been for hundreds of years.

Last one for today is a sign, of impending doom perhaps? As you can see, somewhere behind the foliage, it’s a sign of a steep descent. The bamboo is blindly following instructions.

In fact quite a bit of the mountainside seemed to have followed the same instructions and if we had driven today, we would have had to go back the way we had come. Maybe one day I’ll be rich enough for that big 4WD!

September 2^nd And another good day for walking. The first sight we saw reminded me of something I did in Dubai. In 1984-5 I was working for a company that serviced oil rigs and such like. Well one day I had to go and install a HF (high frequency) locator beacon on the underside of a helideck. The rig was in dry dock at the time so I was a long way off the ground. I spent a lot of time praying that the metal I was clipping my safety harness to was not too corroded! Anyway, these guys are painting the wall of a new building. Sorry the photo is not so clear.

Once again we decided to explore one of the side roads. At least this one wasn’t too long. We came up to an old army base. It appeared deserted apart from one or two motor scooters but Huan said the sign on the gate said that the place was monitored by security cameras. We decided it would be best not to venture inside. This is what it looked like from a distance.

As we arrived home I spotted one of the bikes that I fancy, one of the few that I think would fit my legs! Of course, I wouldn’t be able to ride once I reached the age of 70 because I will then be limited to 50cc!

September 3^rd A nice day again so we took our local walk, up the hill towards the hotel, across the bridge and down by the riverside. We went a few metres further up to the rest stop, and here we are.

On the way down we passed these two. We have seen someone bringing food up the trail for them before so I think they were hoping we would have some. Shame we didn’t.

Both of us needed the ‘loo’ so we stopped off at a pretty nice one on the way down.

Our day was spoilt when we got home though, water had been leaking from upstairs again, this time into our kitchen. The water is turned off to their apartment so we’ve no idea where it comes from.

Huan disappeared to see the building maintenance people again and eventually got a letter off them to take to the police. The plan being to get the police to open the apartment and then let us sort it out, with them witnessing we are not a pair of thieving criminals. The police decided they would have to go to the government housing office tomorrow to confirm that they had no phone number for the occupants.

At least the day finished well. We had hot dogs made with Kay Feske’s sausages. Lubbly jubbly, they were the best hot dogs I’ve had for a long while. Kay is from Germany, lives in Haikou and makes his sausages from Ding An black pigs. I can highly recommend them. This is what we tried this time, but we will be back for bratwurst in the future.

September 4^th Stuck indoors waiting for some kind of response from the local constabulary. We were supposed to be going to Ledong today to hand over the keys to our new tenants tomorrow, with enough time for a swim this afternoon. Once again you will have to wait for that report. We will now be going this evening and coming back in the morning to see if there’s any progress from the old bill.

I suppose I could have gone out for walk on my own today but I didn’t. Instead I spent all morning and most of the afternoon uploading photographs to a new Facebook group page set up by my old family doctor in Abu Dhabi. Within 24 hours the followers had reached more than 2,500. I’m pleased to say many were very happy to see some of the pictures I put up, even though the quality is wanting on some, to say the least. The photos and/or negatives had been stored in boxes in Hainan for eight years while we were in Harbin. There’s a lesson there for all you travelling people, if you have any kind of old films, videos etc, get them digitised a.s.a.p!

Lunch was very nice today, thanks once again to Kay for his Polish sausage this time, and to Corners Deli for their German bread. Are you drooling yet? We’ll be looking for Kay’s place when we next go up to Haikou.

So, we got a response from the old bill. They turned up after four o’clock with the locksmith, who proceeded to ‘bash’ the lock on the upstairs apartment. The police went in before us and took photos as evidence for when the occupants eventually return. There was a lot of water on their dining room and kitchen floors and a blockage on their balcony drain. I had my ‘dyno-rod’ with me and I was all prepared to clean not only the blocked pipes but the rest of the water as well. The police would not allow me to do that. Once the blockage had been removed they said we had to leave. I just hope it doesn’t get blocked again soon!

Once they had gone we had to get ourselves over to Ledong in preparation for our new tenants in the morning. I was dreading what we’d find when we got there but it turned out that I needn’t have worried. All the walls were still in good condition where we had repaired them earlier this year. There was a ‘damp square’ on a different wall, the one between us and the empty, unfinished apartment next door. (Spot the trend here?) However, Huan was able to clean that without too much difficulty.

September 5^th Breakfast first at one of the local noodle restaurants. Can you guess what this is? Believe it or not, it is tea, a big plastic jug full of it. I gave it a miss!

New tenants happy to be able to move in, although they won’t do it for a few days, something to do with Buddah. Yet again their daughter tried to get us to buy another fridge-freezer for them. Huan politely refused, again, pointing out that not only was there already a perfectly serviceable one there, the rent was also unusually cheap.

We drove away from Ledong with an extra ‘big blue washing up bowl’ and some fabric bags. These were a gift from the old gentleman moving in, well, sort of a gift. It seems his bank had given them to him as a free gift and he didn’t want the security guard to have them so we had to have them instead!

Back to Wuzhishan and home, via my bank to withdraw oodles of dosh, then Huan’s bank to deposit same, so that I could buy a new camera for ‘rainy days’. As you can probably guess I spent the rest of the day on the internet comparing cameras and prices, no decision though.

September 6^th Shopping day, late this week. Then more and more browsing for my camera. I’m not sure if browsing is such a good word for the internet. After all, browsing around your local library or bookshop is fairly relaxing whereas browsing to research and buy something is most definitely not! I did eventually stop dithering though and we ordered a Nikon Keymission 170, a GoPro like action camera. I know, I’m not ‘Action Man’, but we needed something to take photos and videos in torrential downpours and this fits the bill. I had been going to buy a quad proof JVC, (look it up on the web) but decided I could buy a ‘good’ camera in the future. The Nikon gets some reasonable reviews but it didn’t take off for some reason so the price came down! This made it half the price of a GoPro Hero5 and much cheaper than Hero 6. I’ll include some pics when it arrives.

September 7^th Walking was the plan, not to be allowed. Huan had some admin to do, too complicated to bore you with the details. I stayed home just in case I got a call that I was required along with my passport, visa, marriage book etc. As it happens, I wasn’t needed but Huan’s mission was not completed. ‘Original’ paperwork required from Dalian!

After lunch we had a small walk, just into town to buy me some new reading glasses. We were looking for some plastic ones this time; the metal framed ones keep corroding and giving me a black nose. This mission was successful, apart from getting caught in the rain on the way home. What do you think? Clark Kent, Buddy Holly? Definitely not John Lennon.

Our evening walk was cancelled, raining again.

September 8^th Today this appeared on my Facebook feed, where I had asked if anyone remembered the ‘curry club’. I love the sentiment!

It was a nice day for walking again so off we went. As we were passing one of the local clinics, they were doing free blood pressure and sugar tests outside so of course we had to stop. We couldn’t have the sugar tests because they are supposed to be done on an empty stomach. Our blood pressure results were not bad. Huan was 139/90. They said it was ‘normal’ and checking the web, it’s not bad. She had been walking uphill just before we got there, and quite quickly with me in front. Mine was 130/86. I was amazed! I don’t think it has been that low for twenty years or more!

So, back to the walk and once again we went where we hadn’t been before. We stumbled across a few villas that looked as though the ‘rich and powerful’ lived there. One had a ‘China Power’ sign outside the front gate. There was also a hotel there where I snapped these two pictures. Now I know what they are doing in the second one but who knows what they’re doing in the first?

September 9^th Once again we had some great walking weather so we started off walking by the riverside. The ‘walkway’ was too muddy and slippery for us to walk on so we just ambled along the top. Looking down I thought the mud looked pretty artistic so took a few shots. Here’ one of them.

And here’s a high resolution crop from the same photograph but with the application of “auto-contrast’ in Picasa. What did I say, modern art at its best.

Often, during our travels around Hainan, and especially on the winding mountain roads, we spot ‘secret cars’ as I call them. Manufacturers love to use Hainan for testing and I can’t say I really blame them. Usually we are moving too and our dashcam doesn’t pick up enough to share with you. Today however we found two with their drivers and back-up team just getting ready to leave the Fudelai Hotel. The company is ‘Singulato’, a new company, and these particular cars are supposed to be capable of 400kms between charges. They are SUVs too so I expressed my interest but also my reservations about charging. The ‘boss’ reckoned that by 2025 there would be no fuel stations left in Hainan, only charging stations, everywhere. He couldn’t answer my question of ‘charging at home for all those people living in apartments’ though! Anyway, here’s the beasts in question. Photo taken with their permission!

September 10^th It must be a car month! Being Monday it was our usual shopping day but look what we saw in the supermarket car park, a Ford Mustang! What do you think of the colour? I quite like it; I find it strangely attractive although I would probably prefer a yellow one.

We have done a fair bit of Taobao shopping this month, here’s Huan’s latest purchase. I don’t know if she’s going to cook with it, or keep me under control. It weighs 2.5kg!

September 11^th We had a lovely long walk again, over nine kilometres, but didn’t see anything worth taking pictures of. Not to worry, plenty when we got home!

First was the delivery of my “action cam”! Yes, I can hear you all having a little snigger. Well I had decided I needed something that we could use when we get caught in the rain, which is by no means a rare thing. My phone also has a habit of pausing my fitness tracker when I shoot a video, and I don’t always remember to restart it. Anyway, after lots of searching I ended up buying a Nikon Keymission 170. Why not a GoPro? Well this is a third of the price. Why not a Chinese make? Well this one doesn’t need a cover to go ten metres underwater. I probably won’t do that but if it’s good for ten metres it should be OK for me. For those who are interested, it cost ¥1018.00.

Lucky me had two Taobao deliveries today; I also got a new chair. The one we had bought in 2015 was no longer doing too well. This time I went for a cheaper model, definitely no leather; and white wheels so as not to scuff the floor so much. It took me half the day to put it together! It should have been easy but sometimes in China, screws and holes don’t always line up the way they should. Anyway, I succeeded, here’s the final result.

September 12^th Another lovely day for walking and for us, or should I say me, to test my new toy. We shot around twenty eight short videos and I have to say that apart from a few minor niggles I was quite happy with it. Obviously the videos can’t go here, but we did take a few stills as well. Here’s two, a selfie one and a forward looking one.

September 13^th We got the weather completely wrong today. There’s a typhoon passing north of Hainan and it’s supposed to be raining, all day. So far we haven’t seen any. Still, it gave me time to catch up on FB, and on this blog. It also meant I could spend a long time in the kitchen cooking a nice beef curry.

September 14^th Another walk for another Keymission test. What a wonderful name for a camera, makes me feel like 007! We didn’t go far, only nine and a half kilometres, up the hill towards the hotel, over the bridge, before the hotel and down the other side back home. We shot a little video on the way up, did an underwater test at the rest spot, and a battery duration test on the way down. The underwater test was OK but the water was dirty so we’ll need to do another one, maybe in the swimming pool! Battery duration is definitely not as advertised, we only got 35 minutes and not the advertised one hour. That could be because the batteries have been in store for a couple of years though. I don’t think it’s a big problem as I won’t normally be creating long videos anyway. So, no pics from today except this one taken on our way uphill before starting any videos. You can definitely see the 170º curve there can’t you?

If you want to see more of my videos you can go to my YouTube page, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQdDjjD_0qYthEuj9UwQeuQ, the Keymission videos are in Playlist Life In China 3. (Life in China 1 is Hong Kong and Harbin, Life in China 2 will be normal videos but there are none there yet, and Life in China 3 will have all the Keymission videos

September 15^th Weather pretty good so another long walk planned which necessitated me wearing my boots just in case the ground was too boggy on our return path. We’re both fairly sure that my boots, which I haven’t worn since last year, have changed colour! We think they were more of a green shade before.

Of course, since I hadn’t worn them for so long, and since they’ve been sitting on the outside of the window, for airing you understand, the laces broke before we had gone even one kilometre. No worries, engineer Huan sorted me out.

It was rather a strange walk today, the weather was fine, not too hot, with a little breeze, but we hardly saw anyone when we went the hilly village (Zali Cun) way. In fact not only were there hardly any people, we didn’t see many pigs or chickens either. Still, we couldn’t leave you wanting for pictures could we so we found this for you. Believe it or not, it’s a tree. I suppose that those things that look like seashells are probably fungi of some sort. An image search on Google didn’t turn up anything that looked like it.

After lunch it was Christmas again for me, and another new camera was delivered. This one will not be used on our daily walks, the Nokia phone and Nikon will do the job there. No, this one will be used when we actually go sightseeing so that we can hopefully, upload some decent photos. There is only one minor detail to overcome; I have to learn how to use the camera! I just wish it had an English manual. I know I can get one on the PC, in fact I had already downloaded it before I bought the camera, but I much prefer to sit with a book in my hand and learn.

September 16^th A check of the weather told us that we should be OK as long as we got back early enough. There’s another typhoon going past to the north again. We knew about that and thinking about it, that may explain why the villages were a little empty yesterday. We decided to do another Keymission video, this one an ‘Empty Places’ one around a villa complex where work has been stalled now for over two years. We’re becoming quite the adventurers aren’t we? Anyway, we decided that you probably didn’t want to see empty buildings and so we saved for you ‘test photographs’ with the new camera.

“But they’re both the same!” I hear you say. Well, nearly, one is shot in VELVIA and one is shot in ACROS. Believe me, I have a lot to learn. My frogs came out of it OK though don’t you think? And the close up of the flower is not so bad. I know nothing yet of focussing, never mind exposure, aperture and ISO controls etc. so don’t be too hard on me. I’ll be using the camera on Auto for a little while longer.

September 17th Monday again, so shopping it is. Typhoon Manghut was still wending its way north of us so it rained all day. No walkies hence no photos, only this.

September 18^th Still piddling down with rain and the forecast shows a lot more this week. Despite the rain, I decided it was time to wash the car, it was showing green streaks around all the chrome trimmings again! After that, we did what we had planned for yesterday afternoon and that was made another Keymission video, this time of the market here in Wuzhishan. We stuck to the inside because of the rain. It wasn’t too bad, a little wobbly here and there and a few to many unintelligible umms and ahs from the commentator! The video is with the others, on the YouTube page. Here’s some screenshots. Yes, I even managed to film Huan today!

September 19^th At last, walking was allowed. There were some ominous black clouds around and Huan’s weather forecast said thunder storms all morning. We decided to take the risk, I needed to walk, my left foot was swelling again, and if it had been pouring with rain I would have had to resort to my ‘granny stockings’ again. We were lucky and stayed dry all the way round for about twelve kilometres. I made another ‘Empty Spaces’ video for my YouTube channel. You saw those villas in last month’s blog, August 30^th so we won’t bore you with them again. I also made another video, ‘A Riverside Walk’ around the Nansheng River which is the river around which Wuzhishan is built. Again nothing really new to show you there. It is available on YouTube if you want to check it out though.

September 20^th Lovely weather again today and no lottery tickets to buy so we decided on the landfill route. You’ve seen those photos before. The first thing we stumbled on today was what we thought was yet another dead snake. Closer inspection though shows it is probably a worm of some sort. It was somewhere between 20 and 25 centimetres long I guess. Google was no help to me, maybe someone out there can shed more light on it.

Going down the other side, and as we were not as soaked as we usually would be, we decided to explore another ‘new’ road. It started off as a normal village road with its cement top but eventually led to a fork where both turnings of the fork became track. One ended up just a few metres away in a pile of rubbish so we chose the other one.

It wasn’t a bad walk, and it was all downhill, so I had some idea where were going. Huan’s sense of direction had her completely lost, as always. What I wasn’t expecting was to stumble on a ‘farm restaurant’ being constructed. These are restaurants, normally around a small lake, where fresh fish and of course local farm produce is on the menu. This looks like it may be a big one and may even include a hotel.

Not far from there we found ourselves back on San Yue San Da Dao, the main road through Wuzhishan and so headed back home. Nearly ten and a half kilometres done today, not bad eh?

Bad news in the evening. Huan happened to look up at the corner of the ceiling when she put the office light on. We now have water damage appearing there too! The office wall backs onto the kitchen wall and the upstairs neighbours still have problems, and still have not returned. What gets me is that there will be a fair amount of expense to sort our apartment out and there will be no recompense from them at all! We just pray that they will return this winter.

September 21^st Nice morning so a walk to Chang Hao village was called for. Of course, we decided to wander off the main road, it’s getting to be a habit now. The first place we ended up was a small village called Fanyu 1 Cun (Fanyu Village 1). They often have villages with the same names and an identifying number when they are close together, sometimes across the road from each other. We didn’t see the others but here’s Fanyu 1 Cun.

Not long after we passed a four legged spider. Well it looked that way. Perhaps he had four pairs of legs crossed. The snap I took didn’t turn out so well though. Continuing along the road, we met a man who told us that we could keep going and find a way back to the main road, so on we went. We came across an orchard, no longer being farmed. It’s going to be changed into a hotel. Seems a shame really.

Our walks do provide some wonderful scenery. We have retired to a great place, with only one thing missing, the beach. Ah well, there’s still lots of water for my Pisces personality!

September 22^nd Just a town walk, we needed to buy the good old lottery tickets and it was supposed to rain later in the day. It didn’t!

September 23^rd Another mission today! Off with our secret agent camera to do a video of the ‘north’ side of Nansheng River. Just before we started filming, we met some cows. Unusually, the calf was very curious and instead of running away kept coming back for a sniff. I did manage a stroke and he, or she, even came and licked my hand. I should have given Huan the video camera but I didn’t think about it so all we have is a still. In fact, in retrospect, we should have sat down there a little longer, who knows what pictures we would have got. Ah well, we live and learn.

The video went quite well. I had been worried about battery life but the total filming time was 46 minutes and we were still OK. The video has been uploaded to my YouTube page.

September 24^th Monday again so shopping again. I don’t usually mind shopping but today was ‘Moon Festival’ day. Consequently the supermarket was full with those who would usually be working and the early arrivals of ‘snowbirds’ from up north.

Afternoon time was a nap for Huan and repair work for me. Our dining room balcony doors had been steadily getting worse and worse so it was time to change the wheels. We had already bought replacements, from Taobao of course, but were just waiting for the ‘right time’ to replace them. Today was it. Now usually when I work, Huan loves to take photos for posterity, and for your amusement! Because she was sleeping, there aren’t any today. However, you can see the before wheels and the after wheels. Here are the before ones, notice the corrosion and uneven wear.

And here are the after ones. Can you spot the difference? The doors are sliding quite well now; let’s hope the new ‘double’ wheels last a bit longer.

September 25^th Once again rain was forecast for later in the day. As long as the forecast is correct that’s not such a bad thing because it means the weather when we do go out is not too hot. Today I had planned another Keymission. Our job was to walk the full length of the irrigation canal if we could. We had only just started when we met those cows again! Yet again the calf was inquisitive and had a good old sniff at both Huan and I. This time we remembered to catch it on video too. Not long before we reached the other end of the canal, my camera picked up a hitch hiker. It rather looked at one stage as if it was trying to mate with the camera! Anyway, Huan managed a few shots and this one is a crop from the high resolution of the last one she took. (PS Fuji is not used for walks, only Nokia and Nikon).

Today must have been a day for beasties, when I got home this one fell out of my clothes before ending up on me! Only after it had crawled all over both of us and we released it on the bedroom balcony did we realise it was a spider. Hopefully it wasn’t a delayed reaction poisonous one!

And lastly, for today, it was Huan’s birthday so I was the cook. Here’s the result. If you think it looks a bit dry, that’s because I left the sauce off while I took the photos. It’s nowhere near as bland as it looks as the chicken has been marinated before being roasted. Lovely taste, and more importantly, Huan loved it and cleared her plate!

September 26^th Today I had a plan! We were to walk to Nanshengzhen and then take an electric bus back and make a video of that journey. The walk was fine, around eleven and a half kilometres, including another little road to nowhere. We ended up in the woods with only a narrow track through the forest in front of us and a cowshed on our right. I think you’ve seen enough cows this month! The track could be worth exploring another day, but not when it’s been raining. We have very ‘tropical’ weather at the moment, the mornings are great and then it rains either in the afternoon or evening. That means the ground through the forest would be too wet. Anyway, we continued on to the village, had our bottles of water and then jumped on the bus. That is when the plan failed. Keeping the camera steady on a bus is by no means an easy matter. I suppose the video may have been watchable, if you’re not prone to travel sickness! However, the local lady in the next seat to us decided to make a phone call not long after we set off. It was a very long phone call, over three quarters of the journey. It was also, as they often are, a very loud phone call. Result – no video worth uploading!

September 27^th Rain was forecast for eleven o’clock so we decided to stay around the town. Another day with no pics, don’t want to overload the interwebs! We managed to get ten and a half kilometres in by the time we got home. I still can’t understand why all this walking is not leading to a drastic reduction in my waistline!

September 28^th Out to the countryside today, what we call our ‘farm’ walk. Because of the rain we’re still sticking to hard topped roads, well most of the time anyway. Photos abounded today so I’ve had to go through them with a fine toothcomb. First off, not far from home, “this little piggy went to market”. If you look closely, the pig is not on a leash at all, just being controlled with those little twigs in his master’s hand. Speaking of his master, he was full of grins when he saw us, not really sure why.

Huan, (I always blame her, poor lady), then decided we should go off on a tangent again. I of course, dutifully obeyed. We then came across an ‘offering site’ at the edge of a village. We think it’s the god of wealth and happiness but neither of us is so sure. I did wonder who had been drinking the water though …

Of course when the village ended so did the hard road surface which meant we ended up skirting around farmer’s fields looking for a way back to the main road again. I really must stop wearing my sandals for this lark.

Huan of course was as happy as a pig in you know what! However, I promised her I wouldn’t show you that picture. Instead here’s a lovely panorama that I took before we eventually got back to a road of some kind.

Shortly after we found the road again we came across a bunch of workmen putting in new irrigation channels and a culvert under a side road. Before we passed their MPV transport, I realised that they were sneakily taking ‘pictures of the foreigner’ so as I passed their car I leapt out and took one of my own. The young guy had ‘got me’ before I passed the car, the guy on the right and I ‘got each other’ at the same time. At least we all had a laugh about it.

Earlier on in this month’s missive I mentioned that you’ve probably seen enough cows for this month. Such a shame because we found more today, in cowsheds, where I had a whale of a time trying to stroke them (the ‘yellow’ cows) and letting them sniff my hands, (the water buffalo). On the wildlife side we also saw hundreds of ducks and chickens today, but nothing out of the ordinary for photographs. We took another side road a little further on and ended up at a small reservoir, whose name we have both forgotten. However, it was just north of the village of Tongting. There are many of these small reservoirs dotted about the mountains of Hainan, this one was full of ducks but I couldn’t get close enough for a decent picture of them.

On the way back down we passed the cows and buffalo again, another bout of stroking and sniffing. I think the locals think I’m just a little bit strange! Finally, we started with a pig today, let’s finish with one too. This one was all alone, in the ditch at the side of the road. It was drinking the rather dirty water and unusually didn’t run a mile when it saw us. Looking at the poor thing’s flanks I doubt if it would have had enough energy to run very fast anyway.

September 29th Baldrick was my name for today, I had a cunning plan. The forecast was for rain, all day. I convinced Huan that we could probably walk for a while without any problems. My plan was to ‘get caught in the rain’ and then take a Keymission video. Well guess what, it never rained! So what have we got for you from today? A pigeon that wouldn’t fly away from me, just kept running away. What colour are pigeons? What colour are concrete roads? No photo, well not one worth sharing anyway.

We did find something though. We only walked around the town areas today, about ten and a half kilometres again. On the way we passed this tree. The locals call it水瓢果 (Shuǐ piáo guǒ), which roughly translated is ‘Water Scoop Fruit’. Trying to find the real name has taken me a couple of hours this evening, I hope you appreciate what I do for you! It is commonly known as a ‘Calabash’, scientific name ‘Crescentia cujete’. Here’s the wikipedia entry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescentia_cujete and also interesting here’s a page from a Philippine sales website - https://lunti.ph/products/calabash-tree-grown-cuttings. However, the one that got me the answer was this one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qySWFPrAjNo. PS It’s not ‘miracle fruit’ although some in the Philippines call it that. It’s also not ‘cannonball fruit’ which was where the internet first led me. Enjoy!

September 30^th A very busy walk today, seventeen kilometres and loads and loads of photos. I guess they need to be trimmed down a little so let’s see what I can do.

The first photo opportunity was right outside our compound where the wall around the flower bed in front of the security room had fallen down. That’s the first edited out. Our second opportunity was the new highway, it’s in operation now. It officially opened on the 28^th September. We are going to give it a miss until after the National holiday when the novelty may have worn off. Anyway, here it is, in use.

Today’s walk was Huan’s choice, Chang Hao village which I readily agreed to as it was part of my plan for Keymission videos, Hainan villages. On the way we took a short detour through the village of Fanna 2 Cun Lots of photos taken here. We even met a snowbird from up north. She and her husband rent the upper floor of a village house every winter. She was sat with her two little pooches.

Her husband was fishing. I wonder whose idea it is to come here every year?

Lots of photos were taken because I thought it was actually a very pretty village. Instead of showing you all of them how about just two panoramas from the riverside? I did try to stitch them together to make one ginormous panorama in a similar vein to the famous Chinese “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” but the software couldn’t find the right places to stitch.

I couldn’t resist this next one, it will be uploaded to Drivespotters, one of the ‘tribes’ in the famous ‘Drive Tribe’ created by Clarkson, Hammond and May.

Eventually we arrived in Chang Hao and I did our video of it for YouTube. We also went back into Fanna village and made a video of that too. I hope somebody will watch these videos. I do have subscribers now, all two of them. One is a friend from days gone by and I think the other wants me to use her music for my videos! No need for any screenshots of either video!

On the way back we passed some workmen taking soil samples from small boreholes. One was kind enough to hold up his sign for us. Google translate says “Drinking water project in the town of Changhao Township and surrounding villages in Wuzhishan City”. We assume they are working on piping water to outlying villages. The soil testing may be to ascertain how deep the pipes have to be laid. Who knows?

I had by now decided that we had enough photos for today but of course something else came along. You may remember that on September 21^st we saw an orchard that was to be changed into a hotel. Well today, just as we were passing that turn-off a woman turned up there on her scooter, child in front as usual. Possibly through eyeballing us, I don’t know, she lost control and fell off. Instinct kicked in of course and I was off like a rocket, lifting the scooter off her and trying to see the damage, if any. She had hurt her left wrist and kept complaining about the pain and holding it out to me. Huan told me later that she wanted one of us to pull it. No way were we going to do that! Huan offered to call 120, the woman wasn’t having that and called her husband instead. We offered to see her up to her house. She asked if I could drive the scooter. Well, I’ve never tried but I’m sure I probably could. However, she would then have wanted her and her son to ride me behind me so I said no. You hear all these stories of good Samaritans ending up in trouble so we just made sure she could walk and that her son was fine before we went on our way.

We took another picture from a few yards further on showing the bike standing by itself and no sign of the woman and child, she had begun her walk home. It’s sad really that we felt we couldn’t help any further but that’s how it is …

Well what a day! We did see goats on the way home and a chicken in a tree but I think I’ve overloaded you with enough photos for now.

The good lady and myself will be back next month, see you then!