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!