In the end I decided on a solo walk to clear my head, planning to go across the bridge to nowhere and then around the river. That plan also failed, access to the bridge to nowhere was blocked so I had to go further downstream and join the riverside path after the paint shop. By then I was feeling a lot less grumpy, this was my view just after I joined the path.
Going back upstream I decided to cross where some of the local farmers do. Once I was down the ladder I noticed the sign, but the view was nice half way across.
I thought I would have a look at the other end of the bridge to nowhere and see if access was also blocked there. It wasn’t. In fact it looks like they are actually going to start work on making it a bridge to somewhere. The rubble behind the cars used to be some village houses.
A detour via the bank and I was feeling much better.
September 9th We weren’t too sure what to do today, surrounded by clouds and this was the forecast, check out ‘precipitation’ in the bottom left.
We took the risk and decided on the Changhao village countryside route, I’ve been recently but it’s been a while since Huan went that way, too dusty. Road works have nearly all been completed so there was not much dust at all today. There weren’t any ducks either! All the fishponds we passed had fish but no ducks which is unusual. I wonder if the local government is trying to stop fresh markets, I hope not. We did spot cows though, coming down the exit road from the highway, I wonder they had been.
Before too long we were off the main road and onto the country lanes. I guess you can see why we like these kinds of walking routes.
Last time I came this way I walked across the weir to the other side and came home instead of going all the way to Changhao. We couldn’t do that today, I would have been able to cross but Huan’s shoes are not waterproof and barefoot would be quite risky. We carried on and were pleasantly surprised to find that the route we had taken before, fighting through the undergrowth, has now been made into a road for the farmers. It took us all the way to the head of the little valley and down the other side again.
As you can imagine we saw a lot of butterflies on this route but not many new ones. Most of the ones we saw were also very difficult to capture but right after I caught this dragonfly I also caught the butterfly. I don’t think you saw one like this last week.
Not much else to report, we did see ducks in farms and in the fields, I managed another photo or two of SWMBO, and then we came home, by electric bus.
PS The promised rain did turn up, from mid afternoon to around seven thirty. I can cope with rain like that, I just wish it wouldn’t keep us on the hop all the time.
September 10th It’s that time of the month again, another trip to
Our drive was uneventful; as far as I’m concerned anyway, let’s hope I didn’t upset any of the average speed cameras! Huan went in to the cashier while I joined the queue to park the car. By the time I got in she had already managed to see the doctor, told him I was parking the car, he had given her the prescription and she was back in the cashier’s queue again. She also told me that the doctor had asked how I was doing as some of the other patients are having side effects of vomiting and heart problems! Huan told him I was fine apart from what appear to mild hot flushes from time to time. Before too long I was flat on my back with my thumbs in my ears and my hands over my eyes. I needn’t have worried; this month’s nurse was superb! I don’t know what she did differently, apart from maybe wait a little longer after cleaning the injection area. I hardly felt a thing.
As usual, our next stop was ‘The Grocery’ to collect butter, cheese, sandwich meat and a couple of other odds and ends for the next month. I had to reluctantly stay away from the bratwurst and other specialities due to Huan keeping me on a restricted diet until my next blood tests. I will have them in November with my regular PSA tests. I learned something while I was there, I needed a drink before we started the return journey and there was nobody at the café counter so I checked the fridge and found ‘Coca Cola Coffee’. I won’t be trying it again!
On our way back, which was another uneventful journey, we hope, I spotted some beautiful clouds. I was wearing my driving glasses which I believe are polarised as well as helping me see further and the clouds looked more like a piece of art than real clouds should. At one stage I told Huan I could see a dog, which she could also see, and that it was eating a fish, she could see that too. I took a note of the time and found the spot on the video where we both saw and talked about what we saw, but it’s impossible to see it on the video. Never mind eh?
We also stopped for lunch at one of the two working rest stops, I
must say they are improving. Prices are a little higher than town but the
difference is not as pronounced as it is in the
With starting a little later, I managed to keep my eyes open without too much difficulty, something to remember for future trips. We can manage the dreaded needle and the shopping even if we don’t get up in the middle of the night!
I had just started the routine dashcam work when Huan told me we had to go to court along with our community charge receipts for last year, no peace for the wicked. While we were there the court clerk, or whoever he was, got Huan to sign a couple of papers and then hander her rather a large file. Naturally my curiosity was piqued and my worry machine went into overdrive. It seems that the old company has decided to take every single resident to court!
After we’d had dinner out, returned home and Huan had started reading the file, she disappeared for a while to talk to members of the committee. She came home without the file and told me that Yu had taken it to practice her brush stroke calligraphy on the pages! A swift reprimand from me had Huan going round to Yu’s to get the papers back again. She wonders why I worry!
September 11th Not sure what’s wrong with me today. I thought I slept quite well last night but I spent all morning and afternoon struggling to keep my eyes open while being on the internet. Huan was singing most of the morning in the living room but even she struggled in the afternoon. Either it’s the weather or we’re getting too old for long car journeys!
Balcony musings with my afternoon coffee. Remember the shared bikes we showed you on August 30th? They all seem to have disappeared plus which, we saw some being taken away to the pound by police pick-ups. I wonder what went wrong. Huan hasn’t heard anything on the WeChat grapevine yet. Tourism seems to be on the up again, I spotted three coaches coming into and three going out of Wuzhishan, all were quite full as well. Final musing, where are all the typhoons this year? We have had rain, lots of it, but even that has been less than normal. As for typhoons, this year’s so far, can be counted on one hand with fingers left over!
After dinner I forced myself to go out, much better than rotting away indoors, and as Yu had gone swimming I had the pleasure of Huan’s company too. Our walk was not going to be far, just around the river, enough to stretch our legs. It ended up being nearly nine kilometres! Marvin was the duty photographer today; here is his view of the river, through his night lens.
And then just to prove that we were both there and that Marvin hadn’t escaped…
September 12th Senility progressing well! Today I walked the ladies to school and then gave myself two jobs, buy more baps and take a photo of the bap man, probably a selfie so that he could have a copy. The baps I remembered, bought twenty for the freezer, the photo I forgot. Does 50% still count as a pass mark these days? I did take a couple of photos on the way there, this is what I shall, from now onwards, call the ‘Hall of Fame’. Huan tells me that all the people shown on all these plaques have done something good for Wuzhishan, and as you can see, that’s a lot of people! What I don’t understand is why they are displayed here and not in the town square which is right in front of the government offices.
Huan was out after dinner,
dancing or singing I’m not too sure, so I spent an hour bashing away at the
guitar. I’ve got quite a long list of songs I can play now, badly of course!
September 13th Boy, did I feel my age today! I suggested to Huan that we try a new walk, one that would take us down the other side of the river and then back to this side via the mountains. It started off well, with roads that we knew and an old irrigation aqueduct. I guess they still have their purpose when it rains a lot but water is available via pipes much more these days.
About four kilometres in, after an hour, we spotted this spider. There are two photos, one to show you its body in glorious detail and the other to show you just how long its legs are. Needless to say, with those beautiful colours we didn’t dare touch it!
Through the first couple of villages but still on the main road we came upon this building, which we’ve seen before and others of the same ilk. We always thought they were like a mini-fish market for all the various ponds, today we were able to ask questions. It is in fact where they store the rubber from the trees until they have enough for someone to come and collect it. It looked so nice, I thought I could bath in it. Mind you, when you get your nose too close it’s a bit on the ‘high’ side.
Up to now we had been following one of our normal routes and this is the spot where we would have turned round in the past. Now though, there is a new bridge leading to somewhere on the other side of the river, our side. I thought it would take us to somewhere on the Changhao road, although exactly where was not clear on satellite view and the maps are not great. The ‘small hill’ ahead doesn’t look so bad but we knew there would be much worse to come.
The road upwards started fairly quickly but it wasn’t too bad, we were both managing well enough. At the first village, where we couldn’t find a shop, we did meet a little friend, albeit a slightly nervous one.
After the eight kilometre mark the going got a bit rougher, or steeper anyway. Here’s a selfie of both of us where you can see that even Huan is sweating. I had just wiped my fevered brow!
Explorer Huan was still on form though and managed to spot a dung beetle. I took a fair few photos of it; some better than this one, but this is the only one where you can see what look like a pair of orange hands. They are in fact the tips of the antennae.
Still on form she found a couple of butterflies, or should I say, they found her. We’re not exactly sure what they were doing on her sleeve, perhaps making babies? Google seems to agree so we’ll go with that answer.
At nine kilometres the going got even rougher and from there to the ten kilometre mark I was really struggling. At one stage I felt as though I would have to vomit, perhaps the early stages of heat exhaustion, so I had to take it easier and rest a lot.
After eleven kilometres relief, downhill all the way, imagine our joy when we spotted the whole of Wuzhishan laid out below us.
Within minutes we spotted a familiar bridge, at the other end of which was another rubber storage place, and we knew there was a village right around the corner.
Having had no water on our way round, better planning needed if we ever go that way again, we were very happy that this village had a shop, and fridges to boot. They didn’t have any cold water though so we had to settle for some kind of sports drink along with room temperature water. One bottle of water went straight over my head, in the process soaking all my clothes even more than they already were. This village is almost on the road to Changhao so even though Huan may have been able to carry on walking home, I decided a bus trip was in order. Here I am waiting at the bus stop, having a much needed rest.
We had quite a long wait and
eventually got off the bus near our back gate at nearly two o’clock. Our timing
could have been marginally better, the rain started as we stepped down. There
was no way I was going to try running home though, I just got a little bit
wetter. Lunchtime having passed and coffee time having arrived, we had neither,
instead we had milk shakes. After that walk we deserved them and we had both
drunk enough water before we got on the bus.
That was me for the day, all I had to do was sort out nearly two hundred photos while Huan had an OAP snooze on the sofa. I managed to whittle them down to sixty six in the end, not too bad. Huan did go out in the evening though while I stayed in and wrote these words
September 14th Monday again but no shopping! We have to go to Sanya this week to see if our tenants are going to renew or not. You’d think they could tell us by phone but that seems to be impossible. The husband will always answer his phone but he say we have to call his wife. Like many families, here and elsewhere, she controls the purse strings. However, she will never answer her phone. Both of us would be happy if they would move out, they give us far too much trouble. Last year, we took ¥9,600.00 in rent, spent nearly ¥3,000.00 on a new door and then gave them a month’s free rent because of Covid-19. They are still not happy and still keep trying to get us to bring the rent down even further. We’ve checked around and they already have a bargain so that’s a no-no.
Anyway, Huan was out this morning, getting fitted for a dress for her next show, so I relaxed in the bath and finished my latest book. I suppose I should have had a nice long soak yesterday but after the walk we had I was too exhausted to even do that.
I did however have an afternoon walk today, unusual for a Monday, but welcome all the same. The weather forecast was rain all day, it managed to hold off until a few minutes after I got home. Do I have any photos from today? Well of course I do. First of all let me show you the amazing electrical engineering skills of our maintenance company. I’ve seen some sloppy work in my time but even I could do better, nay, much better than this.
Another flying creature was spotted today but not a butterfly this time, a moth instead. Looking at it I wondered if the designers of the Vulcan had seen this before it was built. It certainly bears quite a resemblance to the paper planes I used to make.
For the tail end of the week, how about a tail? I kept trying to get round in front of this bird but each step I took he hopped further up the tree. This is the only picture where you can see a part of its beak as well as its tail.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s tale. (See what I did there?) As always, we’ll be back next Monday, hopefully with good news from Sanya, see you then.
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