Chillies, Firemen, Snowboarding, Paddling, Speedy, Hot

April 28^th We had our first nearly mask free walk today! At the beginning and end of the walk we followed what I like to call “mask etiquette” whenever other people were around. Before long though we were out of the city and into the country roads. Once there we left the roads and headed to the fields, something we haven’t done for a while.

Before too long we were chatting to the farmers, they were no longer afraid of ‘the foreigner’. This one was picking chillies.

Today was a good day for butterflies, we saw a lot, and, we both took a lot of photos, me with the Fuji and Huan with her phone. Unfortunately, none of Huan’s came out well enough and mine were all of the same coloured variety, this one.

Sometimes going off the beaten track means we have to find new ways to get back to the right place. We can get stuck in places like this. It’s a good job I have a fairly reasonable sense of direction, if I relied on Huan’s we’d never get home.

My sense of direction did not fail me and we exited the woods to this view.

Soon we had crossed the road and were once again headed across country looking for the road that I knew would take us home.

Two nature photos for you next, the first is flowers that turned out quite well I thought, the second is something I like to see, nature reclaiming humankind’s garbage. There is some kind of farm machine in that bush.

Another road was then crossed to keep us off the beaten path as long as possible. Coming up to the place that we now know to be a failed airport we spotted a whole load of firemen leaving there, mostly on motorbikes. Huan told me they were forest fire fighters and as we could see no sign of fire damage anywhere, we surmised that they must have been training.

Further round the hill we took this shot of the ‘old airport’ and what is supposed to be an apartment complex in the future. Such a shame, I will miss this view.

Next up was an unexpected hill! We were heading back through one of the last villages before home when our way was completely blocked. Luckily, or not, the village does have an upper road so that we could get home.

And on the subject of hills, we saw two children trying to snowboard down a dirt hill. They were finding it hard going and when they saw us they stopped what they were doing. This was the only photo I could get, notice the very narrow boards. Soon after they put back on their school “Young Pioneer” scarves and went on their way.

I couldn’t avoid it; I had to play peek-a-boo with the animals. First it was with the cows who probably wondered why I wasn’t feeding them today, Huan had gone ahead, and then it was a goat, playing hide and seek.

And then finally we were home, absolutely parched. The last village shop hadn’t had any bottles of water in the fridge at all, and only enormous ones outside the fridge. She was also a miserable person but I guess she may have had her reasons.

This morning’s walk fair took it out of us. Going through fields and the forests and occasionally fighting your way through the undergrowth can be hard work. It’s not very good for my legs either! Maybe one day I’ll buy something else to hike in other than shorts. I guess the walk also took it out of the camera, there were 171 pictures to be sorted when we got home plus a sizeable number off Huan’s phone. With the amount I’ve posted here today I think I’d better leave the camera at home next time we go out!

April 29^th No cameras, no real walks, just two people with two missions. Huan was 100% successful with hers and came home with my ‘Proof of Life’ signed; all we have to do now is get it back to the UK. My mission was only 50% successful, the bread lady’s husband was there so baps could be bought. However, there was no sign of the sausage man or his daughter. I hope he hasn’t already moved back up North, what will I do!

The rest of my day was spent creating albums in Google Photos as it looks like access to the old Hainan forum servers is delayed indefinitely. This entailed reading all Blog posts and then finding the photos on my PC, creating the required album and then editing the Blog post to include a link to the album. It’s yet another long job but I’ll get there!

April 30^th Mission successful today, at least our part of it was. Now all we have to do is wait for EMS to start moving. We delivered my ‘proof of life’ to EMS at the post office this morning, and what a pain in the rear end that was. We were third in the queue, with one cashier, (remind you of the UK Post Office?) but we were #1 after fifteen minutes or so. It then took between forty five minutes and an hour to sort our little package out. If I tried to explain why I’d be writing for a few more pages! Anyway, our part is done, now we wait. As of this evening our little package has not left the local post office.

A walk to where we buy our baps and sausages confirmed my worst fears, there will be no more sausages this year. The man who makes them has stopped; the price of pork has risen too high for him to be able to sell locally. Soon, he’ll be off back up north. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that if he comes back in the cooler months that China may have more pigs!

On our way home Huan spotted this creature on the riverside wall near our place, it’s quite a biggy, maybe a centimetre long. Could it be a large flying ant?

Very close to it we almost stood on the next one. We do see some weird varieties of caterpillars here, Huan thought this one had eyes on stalks!

Being the last day of April this was also our last two mile TV walk of the month. For some reason I kept getting the timing wrong, possibly something to do with having an afternoon nap before. Anyway, next month we try and step up to the three mile TV walk, neither of us are sure just how much harder that will be but I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

May 1st “Queen of months, supremely fair, Cloth'd with garments rich and rare, None in beauty can compare With thee, sweet May.” (Ode To May by Peter Burn)

Another mask free day, this time 100% mask free, we both forgot them! Our plan was quickly changed so that we could avoid people and downriver from home we went. The water level was quite low so we went a bit further and looked for a place to cross. This photo shows a tributary coming in from the left and the main river on the right then disappearing towards the centre.

Crossing the tributary was no problem whatsoever; however, crossing the main river was a different kettle of fish. The water was not deep but the bottom was covered in stones which we could not see very well. Huan coped better than me, I almost put the boots, the camera and the Bob in the water, more than once.

Huan tried to take a video of my struggles but managed somehow to press the wrong button on her phone and ended up with a time lapse. All it needed was some Benny Hill music!

May 2^nd Huan was out of sorts last night, better today, but not ready for walking. While she rested I spent ages yet again on Blogger. They have a problem with photos disappearing from posts and being replaced by a “no entry” sign. Advice given was to upload the missing photos again, Google know they have a problem and they are working on it. Luckily for me I not only have all the photos on my PC but also word copies of all my Blog posts.

An after dinner walk was called for today as we had been a lazy pair and what a fantastic walk it was. According to Endomondo, the first 3.36 kilometres was completed in 3 minutes and 13 seconds! Maybe we should start calling ourselves “Mr and Mrs Flash” (not in the pan), what do you think. Just to emphasise the stupendous speed of evening ramble we stumbled across a road sign, one we have not seen before despite walking past it many, many times. It is at the bottom of a walled off flight of steps, on the edge of an ornamental pond with not a road in sight anywhere. Do you think they had us in mind when they placed this sign? After all, we were travelling at something over sixty kilometres an hours.

May 3^rd Reverse plan for today, I slept pretty badly with some very weird dreams although I could work out where they came from. Huan suggested that as we had to do a TV walk today anyway we should skip the morning walk and go after dinner instead. I was happy to agree! So, today’s TV walk was equivalent to five kilometres in forty five minutes, not a great deal different to the previous walks but that extra fifteen minutes made a lot of difference. By the end we were both absolutely dripping wet and pretty worn out. Still, at least we know what to expect for the rest of the month.

May 4^th So that’s it for another week. Life is 99% back to normal, most of the snowbirds have returned to Northern Climes, we don’t have to go shopping at lunch time. We still wear masks when we go shopping, or there’s a chance of getting close to other people, that’s the 1%! The water company can deliver to our apartment again, no need for us to go there. And, the sun has once more got his hat on; this is the weather forecast for the next few days.