Intrepid Explorers Savaged By Bloodsucking Monsters, (Again)!

August 24th “I’d like to be under the sea, In an octopus’s garden in the shade, He’d let us in, knows where we’ve been, In his octopus’s garden in the shade.” By the most famous band ever of course, ‘The Beatles’ and written and sung by ‘Ringo Starr’. However, said octopus would not be very pleased to see us today as our dinner was octopus tentacle noodle soup!

And that’s all we have to report for today, I didn’t wake up until nine o’clock so we ended up with another one of those lazy days. Huan watched movies and played a little music. I spent most of the day laughing at the antics of the three grumpy old men, Jeremy, Richard and James. I also decided I wouldn’t mind emigrating to Columbia, what a beautiful country that is.

August 25th Indiana Bob and Lara Huan were off on their adventures today, this is the signpost showing where we were going.

No, we weren’t going to turn ourselves in for ‘treatment’, we wanted to see what changes had been made on this road. We were heading up to the top of the valley, those buildings you can see are supposed to be either officer’s quarters or an officer’s mess, we can’t remember what the builders told us the last time we went that way.

After we’d passed the nursing homes we came across a small problem, someone had destroyed the road. No problem, we retraced our steps a few hundred metres and found an alternative.

Arriving at the officer’s whatever it is, we found it deserted with the gates open. Huan wanted to go in and look around, I refused, I didn’t fancy being picked up on any cameras that may have been there and hauled into detention. Instead we thought we would see if there was a way through the mountains and then back onto the main street. First we came across a small village.

There was an old lady there, whose Chinese wasn’t so good, she spoke mostly Hainanese, and she told us there was no way through. Because she lived there I accepted her word. A few minutes later the ‘expedition leader’ told me that she had ‘found a road’. We had to take the right fork in the dark portion of the second photo.

Here are a couple of photos of Huan on the way up, note the appropriate clothing!

Disappointment set in for me when Huan told me that the shards of pottery I had found were not ancient relics and thus were not worth a fortune! Onwards and upwards we went, crossing stream after stream, although it could well have been the same one again and again. This was one of the crossings, quite beautiful and not giving us any idea of what lay ahead.

Before long though the going got tougher, can you spot me?

Soon we found a farmer’s hut, not abandoned, but the occupant was not there and probably hadn’t been for a few days. No advice available there then! In the next photo, I have no idea what I was trying to snap but you will notice Huan in the top right corner. “What is she doing?” I hear you ask. Well, she is trying to remove the leech that was eating her through her sock.

Seeing what looked like a man made path for the stream we tried to follow that upstream always keeping an eye out for the sunny part of the valley on our right hand side where we thought there should have been a way through. Before too long though it became obvious that the old lady had been right, there was no way over the mountain! That meant a small rest was called for.

Not long after this it was my turn to be ‘bled’.

While Huan may not have been dressed for exploring, as I wasn’t either, at least she remembered her bottle of water this time. Here she is cooling her face down. What we both remembered from a previous expedition, when we got lost in these same mountains, was not to drink the stream water. On that occasion my tongue swelled up to nearly the size of my mouth and I was never so pleased in my life to find a ‘little shop’.

Coming down was much harder than going up but by the time we reached the ‘cooling stop’ above we knew where we were and that the end was near.

Apart from leeches we saw nothing else until we were almost down, and then lady luck smiled on us, we spotted this butterfly. This was the best angle I could get.

On the final stretch, one of those pesky blood suckers got me yet again. Of course, just like Huan, I was not exactly dressed appropriately for trekking through the jungle.

After a stop at 师傅, Shīfù’s shop, (we don’t actually know his name, he was the site boss when we had our house done in 2015), for a much needed ‘sports drink’ we wearily headed home. Once there it was shoes off outside the door, go straight to the bathroom, clothes off in the shower and then check each other’s bodies for leeches, ants or any other strange hangers on. I did have a leech which I flicked off and now we don’t know where it is! Old age certainly lets you know it’s there at times, we both crashed out after lunch, exhausted.

August 26^th Rain should have stopped play today but we misread the sky and the computer told us lies. We were wary though and only took a leisurely stroll around the river. Freddy was left at home just in case so photos were taken with my phone.

Huan had brought her umbrella, just in case, here she is before it was needed.

It had been raining most of the night and we could see the effect of all that rain on the river.

You may remember these two from a previous post, but there is a reason for the repetition. The two young ladies who run the small refreshments stall must have decided they have bitten off more than they can chew with these two. Obviously they are growing bigger and need more space and more food. Their answer? Offer them both to us F.O.C. If we had a villa we would more than likely have said yes, but ducks don’t really fit into apartment life very well!

We got caught in the rain more than once today, mostly when there were trees to shelter under. These trees down by the riverside always seem to have a little added beauty when it’s raining and they are wet.

Somebody else caught out in the rain were the ‘council workmen’, busy repairing pavements, replacing slabs and installing ‘blind people slabs’. You can see the two workers in this photo and even the site foreman, that’s his head behind the small distribution box on the right. Seeing them hard at it made me wonder if workmen in the UK would have carried on in the rain, or would they, as I suspect, have stopped for tea.

Arriving home we weren’t too soaked, hiding under trees and shop awnings had protected us from the worst. So it was a slow walk, an easy walk, and yet I still had to have an afternoon sleep, not only that, it was a long one, nearly two hours. Huan was strong, stayed awake!

August 27^th Horrible noises emanating from the living room roused me from my slumbers this morning. Huan had the TV on at the same time as she was doing some hulusi practice, I guess she thought it was time I was up! Our planned route was the ‘third turn off’ today, the weather held and fun was had by all, including Tom and Jerry.

Once in the pleasant surroundings of the countryside we were having a little chat when we were loudly interrupted. This was the sentry for the chicken yard, who did hiss as he approached us but once he was near enough quietened down a little.

Men at work were ‘up’ next.

Soon, we parted ways, Huan took the high road where she got protection from the sun by walking under the roadside trees. I took the low road to make sure I got enough vitamin D.

We were to meet up just after the village, underneath the highway. On the way I spotted another ‘des res’, it even had an access bridge, only for people though. Getting your car into your garden would be an impossible task.

While I was waiting for Huan to join me I took a few snaps to show you the view along the other side of the highway.

Going back through the village there was a lot of spring cleaning, or refurbishing going on. Can you spot what we did? Yes, it’s nearly all women working; they explained to us that the men were actually elsewhere, out at work. Strangely enough, some of the ladies even knew us two and where we lived.

Heading back towards town I took some more snaps so you could also see the village and the highway from the ‘approach’ side. I never cease to be delighted by the scenery we have.

Not a bad walk at all today, nearly nine kilometres and ‘not many’ problems. During our leech experiences I had one attack me through my socks, as did Huan in fact. You saw the photo of her removing hers. My ankle had been itching a little yesterday but I hadn’t been worried about it. However, this is what it looked like today when we got back. I guess my boot must have been rubbing on the tender spot.

Today being Friday we were out making videos in the evening. The blister burst while I was eating my burger, when we got home Nurse Huan cleaned it up and put some ‘red stuff’ on it. I have no idea what it was but the pharmacy recommended it.

Should you wish to see what our fast food burger place is like, you can find the video by following this link - https://youtu.be/JWPsZN3c4iQ

August 28^th Confined to barracks and on light duties by order of the C.M.O. I can’t say I was unhappy about it as my ankle was definitely not in the mood for walking. Boots will probably also be a no-no for a few days more. In her capacity as the nurse, Huan cleaned me up again and this time put some ‘blue stuff’ on the injury. The ‘red stuff’ from yesterday was over three years out of date so I made her throw that out. I don’t think you particularly want to see my leg with blue stuff on it though so, unless something goes terrible wrong you shouldn’t see it again.

August 29^th With a red raw ankle wearing boots today was out of the question, in fact even shoes and socks were a problem, so it had to be sandals. Because I was still officially on light duties only a walk around the river was planned anyway. Not a great deal was seen today, we did have another failed attempt at snapping one of the local birds for you.

Our plan included a visit to the bapman today, yes he and his wife have returned. They came back about three weeks ago as they found Harbin to be too hot for them! I suppose it does get hot there in the summer but not much hotter than here. Anyway, we were pleased they were back and running out of Taobao Russian bread went to top up on baps. Unfortunately that was a failure, their stall was all shut up. Hopefully that was a one-off because we have spoken to them and they have been open recently. I’ll try again on Tuesday.

Do you remember the little Welsh Corgi? Nearly every time we see him and his Dad they are ‘taking tea’ at one of the riverside outdoor cafes. Well the little pooch doesn’t have to walk there, he gets chauffeured. We see quite a lot of our canine friends travelling in this fashion.

On the way home we passed by the chemist’s shop again and let them have a gander at my leg. They first suggested Amoxicillin tablets which I should then break in half and put the ‘powder’ on my open blister. I didn’t fancy that much, it would have meant covering the skin to stop the powder falling off. They then suggested Erythromycin ointment so that’s what I ended up with. Time will tell if it will work or not.

August 30^th One of us, who shall remain nameless, (but it wasn’t Huan), was attacked by sleeping sickness last night so didn’t get up until half past nine. How did I do that without even having a beer or two (or more)? Anyway, today was shopping so no worries. If we had wanted to do anything else we wouldn’t have been able to as rain stopped play, again. In fact it rained so much that Huan insisted I take a photo to show you.

You see a lot about Taobao in our posts, I don’t think there is anything quite like it in the UK yet. Yes, you do have eBay and such like, but I do believe Taobao beats them all, hands down. There are times when I wonder how people make any money from it at all. Yesterday Huan received a pack of ten new sewing needles for her machine. The cost? ¥4.00. Yes you did read that correctly, four Rénmínbì, less than 50P. The shipping cost, from Anhui to here? (Quite a long way) ¥0.00. Somebody must pay the shippers, often it is not use but the suppliers. Amazing!

And on that note it’s goodbye from SWMBO and it’s goodbye from the lowly serf. Hope to see you again next week!

Bird Net, Sage, Secret Agent, Some Nice Walks, Invisible Insurance Renewal

August 17^th The best laid plans of mice and men…again! Huan fancied a walk around the landfill mountain today but it wasn’t to be. First of all I was very late up; we could possibly still have done it though. However, Huan then told me that we were on Taobao duty again as well as water duty. No problem I said, we’ll go this afternoon, I’ll cook dinner this morning. The water arrived mid-morning; the sausages arrived at lunch time. That meant the afternoon walk was delayed until the evening. The moon cakes arrived during NAAFI break, went very well with our coffee. No more deliveries were expected but lo and behold, the rain arrived after dinner! Ah well, there’s always tomorrow.

August 18^th No landfill walk again today, but that was our fault for sitting in the house waiting to see if the sky was going to clear. It did, so if we had set off earlier the landfill would have been fine. Instead Huan suggested down the river and back through the villages. Our normal gate was out action, they are repairing the road, so we had to use the back gate, or is it the front, neither of us is sure. Over the bridge to nowhere we went turning left as soon as we reached the other side and heading off down to the river.

There was no sign of the fat pig with the four piglets; maybe it’s been so long since we walked this way that they have gone to market. We did pass this farmer though and initially we thought he was feeding chickens and ducks pieces of the insides of chickens and ducks. However, closer observation showed us that he was in fact cleaning the innards of fowl and throwing the contents of those innards to the other fowl. There were quite a few fights between the chickens and the ducks which I unfortunately managed to miss with the camera.

Further on we found that the path has not been maintained for quite some time. Personally, I prefer it this way.

The goats seemed quite taken with it too, there were hordes of them today. Here are just two.

Freddy was on duty today and to avoid him getting soaked with sweat through my shirt I had the camera bag with me. I asked Huan to take a photo or two specifically to include here; she ended up taking far too many so here’s a gif.

As you can see from the photos so far the weather was wonderful and we both like this walk. The only part I don’t like is when we have to leave the riverside and make our way upwards. Today, for some strange reason, it wasn’t too bad at all.

We took a slight detour up a track that we haven’t used for at least three years, I wanted to check my memory. The scenery up there makes the walk worth while, even though we have to come back down the same way.

Huan couldn’t remember what was up the hill; I thought it was just a water tank. There turned out to be a couple of farms, that we both decided were new, the water tank, which Huan still missed, and an old electricity substation now used as a hen house, outside and inside. Perhaps we never quite walked as far as that last time.

If your memories are better than mine you will remember that downriver and through the villages takes us past my bovine friends. Well I saw them today, but they were not in their usual place so I couldn’t go for a nice chat with them.

Huan had me taking photos of chickens just a bit further along, the one she wanted to see was a chicken with a chick on its back. I never actually saw that one so it didn’t turn out well at all. I did see this little chick though and one of its siblings. For a brief moment I thought it was going to walk right up to me allowing me to pick it up. It ‘chickened’ out at the last moment.

Walking through one of the villages, as we passed by one of the houses I heard 罗博特 (LuóBóTè) which in case you haven’t guessed is ‘Robert’. (PS The Chinese characters mean Bird Net, Sage, Secret Agent.) For some reason many of the children in the villages remember my name, hopefully that’s a good thing. Anyway, a little further on one of the little girls came running after us asking Huan if she could have her photo taken with me. Huan took some with the little girl’s phone and some with her own. The photo tells you which girl asked for it to be taken and which one was just a little bit worried!

Two more photos of the village coming up, the first a panorama, I think we could get used to living in a place like this, if we were allowed to buy property there!

A water stop was needed where Huan pointed out to me another fridge. It seems that this particular one is broken so has been repurposed as a shoe cupboard. Although not a very tidy one at least the bugs and snakes won’t get in!

That’s all the snaps for today; let’s see if we get the landfill walk in tomorrow. The weather forecast was right, the rains came just before two in the afternoon so no more walks today either. There was more Taobao, more music and more ‘Grand Tour’ though, not a bad day really.

August 19^th We did it, we conquered the landfill mountain today! Of course that’s not the first time and it’s not exactly Mount Everest, but at least our plans worked out. We even checked out some ‘des res’ on the way. (UK informal humorous. /ˌdez ˈrez/ us. /ˌdez ˈrez/ a very desirable residence [= a nice house or apartment]: She's got a nice little des res in Chelsea. Cambridge English Dictionary.) Here’s the first one. OK, I know there is no house there but the location is great, we’ve always fancied it.

And this is the view from the front door, or should I say from the gap in the bricks.

I spotted some bovine buddies so I went off for a chat, although they didn’t really want to talk to me today. Huan decided to take a photo of me taking a photo of them. Unfortunately, she still hasn’t worked out how to zoom in with her phone.

Our next des res was just after we went under the highway, I prefer the scenery at the previous one. Behind where I’m standing is the raised highway so not too much of a view.

Straight on to the next one which, while looking not so good, does have a much better view than the last one. All we’d have to do is chop a few trees down and refurbish the existing house.

We’ve always liked this walk but in the past have had to share it with garbage trucks and all the dust that they used to kick up. Today we saw nothing apart from the occasional moped or farm three-wheeler. The landfill is no longer in use so we took a sneaky walk up the last access road to have a look and found the final resting place of some local garbage bins.

Venturing further we found one of the two, or three, landfills, all in the same condition now, covered over with large polythene sheeting. Huan was asking me questions about how long before they could be planted on, built on etc. That meant I had to do some Google searching to find out how they work, if you want to know, then Google is your friend too.

On our merry way we were reminiscing about our first couple of trips up this way and how often we had to stop for rests on the way. We must be much fitter now because rest stops are not needed at all! Before too long we were over the top and looking down on Wuzhishan.

Our only other creature today was this little caterpillar. We always think of them as moving slowly don’t we? Well this one was fairly shifting, giving me a difficult time of trying to photograph and then film it while walking bent double.

After that we came to our final des res of the day, quite a large piece of land well served by sunlight too. Its only problem is the army compound just a few metres away!

All these desirable residences, or locations for them are just pipe dreams of course. Land in China is all owned by the state hence our property being on seventy year leases. Even if we could lease any of these pieces of land, because we are not local, anything we built would not have any title deeds. This means that is the government decided the land was needed for some other purpose there would be no compensation. Thankfully what we do own was bought before all the rules changed and we do have the relevant title deeds.

Another Taobao delivery arrived while I was making lunch, four boxes of All Bran. My cereal cupboard is now full; it almost looks as if I’ve become a ‘prepper’!

Just like yesterday the weather forecast was fairly accurate and the rain fell after lunch. It didn’t worry me though, I had collapsed into an OAP nap, surprisingly without Huan, she stayed awake. Cooking for me when I awoke, followed by more binging of “Grand Tour” while Huan got on with her music practice.

August 20^th A late start again today, watching the clouds and worrying about them dropping lots of water on us. We needn’t have worried; the rain didn’t appear until after lunch, again. Never mind, a lazy walk around the river is never a bad thing to do. Our main gate, be it the front or the back, is still under repair. It seems that if concrete dries out too quickly it will crack so water is frequently applied to the surface. When I saw the hose lying on the floor and the dry road then I felt it was my duty to help out. Believe it or not both of these photos were taken with Huan’s phone; she definitely got something right on the second one.

We walked through the island park and all along the way we could hear the dulcet tones of a gob iron. For those of you who don’t know, a gob iron is a mouth organ or to be even more accurate, a harmonica. We found the source just as we were leaving the park on the other side, the gent in question did see me taking the photograph and didn’t seem to mind at all.

Today we got very close to the ‘miniature submarine’ so managed to get a much better picture than any previous ones. Huan even had me take a video of it being returned to the boathouse, but that is not interesting enough to be shared.

Brown birds were in attendance today but as usual, we failed. One of these days…

Masks were also more prevalent today and some places, notably pharmacists have now gone back to restricting entry to all and sundry. You have to have your health code checked at the doorway and then go through the disinfecting process before giving or receiving anything. I’m not complaining at all, in fact we had our masks on whenever people were near.

Here’s another sign for you now, too much for me to translate, but there is a little English, written vertically by each segment. The title is 图说社会主义核心价值观 (Túshuō shèhuì zhǔyì héxīn jiàzhíguān) which translates as “Illustrating The Core Values Of Socialism”.

Now a post wouldn’t be a post without cars would it, so here’s another collage for you. The first is a very small electric taxi, not much room for rear seat passengers at all. The next three almost resulted in fisticuffs. Obviously I couldn't get the front of the car. Three large (to me anyway) males got out of the car and did their very best to harass me. They succeeded! I think if I had persevered there may well have been a physical argument and my camera may have been destroyed. Even the threat of me calling the police didn’t worry them. Run away!!

That’s all for today’s walk. However, we did go out again, not after dinner, but for dinner. I’ve managed to convince Huan, or is it bribe her, that if we go out to eat on Friday nights then that means she only has to cook twice a week, (assuming I am always the weekend cook). There are no photos of this evening’s dinner though. Instead, I have created a new Youtube playlist where you will be able to find weekly updates of us “Eating Out (In China)”. Here is the link for this week’s video - https://youtu.be/X_B73tFmSTU (I know, more practice is needed!)

August 21^st Lazy days are good sometimes and that’s all we had today!

August 22^nd Because of yesterday we made sure we were out nice and early this morning. Off we went up the first turn off from Sanyuesan Street, chatting to a couple of snowbirds on the way. Well, Huan did most of the chatting, I just chipped in now and then. They were off up the landfill mountain from the other direction but they would turn around before they reached that far. I felt good because they told Huan I was very strong! As you know this is one of our favourite walks, here are a couple of reasons why.

Huan insisted that we take a small detour to check “if the turkeys were still there”. For some reason she thinks turkeys are beautiful! First of all I took some photos of the farm pond to create a panorama from.

Initially I thought the turkeys had disappeared, we couldn’t here them doing their usual ‘gobbling’. However, Huan found them along with the chickens and the ducks. They all came to the fence to check us out, probably thought we were the bearers of grub! Under the director’s orders I took some photos over the fence.

On the back road heading towards the third turn off we came across some water buffaloes. Having seen a video last night of one in Africa seeing off a lion I didn’t get too close!

Exploring was next on the agenda, we wanted to see if we could find a route from the back of the fish farm hotel and restaurant to further up the third turn off, it would be good for future reference allowing us to skip even more ‘hard roads’. We failed, all we found was a scrap yard, lots of old tyres and this almost deserted little village with no way round any of them.

Dragonflies are something we haven’t seen much of this year, today we were lucky. These first two photos, one from the back and one from the front, are quite interesting. I wonder if they show some kind of mating ritual. Feel free to tell me if you know.

The last one of these pretty creatures also had me puzzled, this is the first time I’ve seen one with opaque wings and not translucent ones. Is it sick, or just getting old?

Homeward bound, we met a four legged friend so I stopped for a chat and a play. I didn’t think we were there more than a few minutes but Huan managed to take seventy three photos with her phone! Here’s a sample.

We certainly made up for yesterday’s lazy day, over ten kilometres today and very enjoyable it was too. Surprisingly, neither of us went for an afternoon nap either. Obviously we weren’t trying hard enough and didn’t expend enough energy!

August 23^rd Today was another admin day but it didn’t entail sitting at home. Instead we had to go to Sanya to renew the car insurance. With the new highway we didn’t have to bother setting out too early though. The drive was uneventful with hardly any traffic although we did have to slow down and put the hazard lamps on at one stage when we spotted a car sideways across two lanes. His car had obviously hit something but we couldn’t see what. After making sure he had a phone and didn’t need any help we carried on.

I quite like our trips to Dongfeng in Sanya, there are usually some decent cars for me to check out. Today I was out of luck though. Instead I took photos of Huan, only one of which I’m allowed to use and then only grudgingly.

Our insurance renewal is always done in Sanya, I prefer to deal with the same people every year, and usually the paperwork is given to us to take home. This year we got nothing! Everything is held on centralised computers now so the police can now just by running my number plate whether or not my insurance is up to date. All I got was a bank receipt! The young lady also needed my photograph and what a terrible one she took too!

Our next stop was to renew the internet lease for our tenants in Sanya, unsuccessfully. It seems we were too early but it can be done next month, by phone.

Our lunch was also ‘by phone’ today. No, we didn’t order a takeaway but the restaurant that we used had QR codes on the tables. You had to scan these to see the menu. It may be the modern way but I still prefer written menus and people. It did give us a ‘bonus’ video for our new Youtube playlist though, if you like you can watch it here - https://youtu.be/wrl8kjZrWkU The added bonus for me was Huan paid the bill, we still can’t sort out how to pay with my phone.

Being a Monday and being back in Wuzhishan with time to spare we went to the supermarket to do our weekly shop. Both of us needed the ‘facilities’, we found one I had never been in before. The sign was slightly confusing, 贴近文明 - Tiējìn wénmíng (Close to civilisation) and 靠近方便 - kàojìn fāngbiàn (Easy access). I guess it just means “stand closer”!

For some reason I just had ‘The Police’ in my head and ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’, it’s amazing what can bring musical memories back when you least expect them. That’s us done for another week, another one gone too fast as far as the boss is concerned. I keep telling her that she thinks too much, she should just relax and enjoy each day as it comes.

Hopefully you can all do just that as well, enjoy your week without too many worries, take care and stay safe, we’ll be back next Monday. (Friday on Youtube!)