February 8th “What shall we do today boss?” I talked Huan into staying in for the morning with the promise of a walk after lunch. We spent most of the morning attempting to renew my yearly subscription that allows me to keep in touch with family. We didn’t succeed!
After lunch I prepared some belly pork for dinner, I wanted to try something different today. Once it was cooked through, boiled in shallow water with a dash of salt, we left it and set off on our walk. “Shall we have a look over that way?” I suggested, when will I ever learn? Over ‘that’ way we went and found no way down into the valley.
To our left, with fantastic views over the valley and the distant mountains you can find Oasisland Grand Hotel. What you won’t find is guests; it has been empty ever since it was completed.
“There’s a road over there” said the tour guide, dragging me into the woods. There was a track I suppose, which went all of four or five metres before we found ‘no through road’.
Just below the hotel we did find a ‘new’ road, which obviously led somewhere because a motorbike came facing up it. Let’s explore this one, we both agreed.
To our surprise it led to somewhere we had been before, a long time ago and from another direction, an old ammunition store.
Today, the farm next to it was occupied with not only a family celebrating Spring Festival but a whole pack of dogs too. Happiness for Bob and a sniff for Huan!
The path round the farm led to the front gate of the old ammo dump and another old army store up the hill, not sure what for.
Now we were on a road that we knew, well at least for a few tens of metres before we did a U-turn and veered off uphill, again.
Before long we were up above the buildings that we had thought were going to be an “Officer’s Club” or as we would have said in the mob, an “Officer’s Mess”. Way back in the Blog posts you may remember that we went up the track to the right in this photo and got leeched to death!
Today we didn’t plan to say hello to the leeches at all so continued onwards and upwards. After passing a farm or two we found another remnant of military life, a small cave system. This was the entrance; the path went right past it.
Inside we found a corridor which Huan was all for disappearing down and exploring. This time I won and said that if we were going to go down there we would need more candlepower than just our piddly little mobile phones!
Not far from there we found some steps leading up to another farm, or part of one anyway, so decided we should have a look. The first thing we found was yet another pooch. You can probably tell from his eyes that he welcomed company.
After trying to find a way across the valley without going over the mountains we eventually had to retrace our steps and here they are looking back. You can see the pooch in the top right hand corner, probably wondering why we didn’t stay and play.
Once down at the bottom we found out where the Taekwondo school from the town has moved to. The instructor actually knew us and where we lived. We think that is because of an old man who used to live in our building and take his grandson to their classes. Here’s another old man who definitely won’t be starting Taekwondo!
And here’s a ‘younger’ lady giving it a go!
And that brought us almost to the end of our walk, over two hours but only five kilometres. Those hills must have slowed us down today. It was nice to turn onto the riverbank and head towards Shifu’s water stop and then home.
Good news to end the day, we managed to complete the process of renewing my subscription, I can talk to the family, and friends, for another year!
February 9th Another lazy morning, courtesy of Herr Bob getting up a little too late. Never mind, afternoons are good for exploring too. Let’s head out into the countryside via this panorama. If you look in the centre of the photo you may see what looks like a brown trail in the hills. We knew that somewhere in that area was a small reservoir so that’s the direction we headed.
Turning off this road we passed another one of our des res locations.
Passing through the next village, I decided it was time for Huan’s first photo of the day.
Today we are still in Spring Festival time, it finishes on 15th
February this year. However, some people have already gone back to work, Huan’s
son in
We came upon another village where turned off and up towards where we had seen the brown trail. The first thing we spotted was the small reservoir.
Not long later we had gone as far up the brown trail as we were going to, for today anyway. It seems to continue over the mountain but that could take us a whole day to reach civilisation again. Maybe we’ll try sometime in the future.
To take a nice panorama of the view I had to climb up an eroded part of the hill. Huan was going crazy as usual, snapping away at my progress. However, I didn’t think you needed another gif of my bum going uphill, well not yet anyway, so here are just three of her shots.
The trek was worth it, just look at the view.
On our way down we decided to pass through the reservoir area and look for a route on the other side. The reservoir had no ducks today although there were fish in there.
We found a way down the other side, you can see the little track beside the fence which passes the aqueduct just a little lower down. Because I had made Huan pose earlier, she insisted I pose now, I hope you like the result!
We followed the small irrigation canal that led from the aqueduct knowing that it was leading us in the general direction of home. Often, our photos in the middle of the woods are OK but this one I feel, somehow, has a little something extra special about it. What say you?
Our route took us past a very large ‘greenhouse’ but we could not make out what they were growing in there and there was no way for us to get in and see.
Finally, we found a motor scooter, on the path, facing in our direction, so passing it would obviously lead us to a real road.
Breaking out of the trees we spotted something we recognised, what we had previously called a battery farm. At that time we couldn’t see inside. Today we could and although there are a lot of chicks, or varying ages, they can get out through the tops of their cages. We asked a worker about this and she said it was no problem, they just rounded them up at night time. The older ones roam the wooded areas and come home when they are ready.
Finally, if you fancy staying in the countryside, and enjoying the walks that we do, here is a local B&B. Way back in the Blog posts, (6th April 2021), there are some photos of the inside.
That brings us to the end of another day of exploration. All that was left was for me to cook shrimp noodle soup for dinner. We were both exhausted!
February 10th Huan wasn’t feeling so good today, a bad night’s sleep hadn’t helped her, so we stayed in. At least it gave me a chance to complete yesterday’s post and catch up with some more ‘Elementary’, really enjoying it.
“Katherine” uploaded the video of her and Wei’s visit to Wuzhishan today, you can see it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r3oqB8dl90&ab_channel=Katherine%27sJourneytotheEast%E9%98%B3%E7%A6%BB%E5%AD%90%E4%B8%9C%E6%B8%B8%E8%AE%B0
February 11th What do you know, no walkies again this morning. “Why not?” I hear you ask. Well Huan had a phone call last night asking why we hadn’t gone for our medical check up yesterday so we had to go this morning instead. I should add that these check ups are voluntary and free of charge. Here I am, waiting in the queue, don’t I look happy?
They took our photos today, as you see here and also with our mouths wide open.
We passed, Huan’s BP was a little high but mine was even higher. There was some suggestion of tablets to control it, I politely refused. I’m not ready to go down that road yet! Both our blood sugar levels were fine, even though I’ve had a few chocolates over the two holidays.
On the way home I dragged Huan past the animal care clinic, vet, shampoo, haircut and all the rest of that stuff. Two of the ‘customers’ fancied a chat.
Breakfast was taken outside, rice soup and fried pastry for Huan, pancake with fried egg, dried fish and pickles for me. It made a change from cereal, and mine was quite tasty to boot.
After lunch Huan decided that we should go ‘exploring’ again, to try and find the cellphone tower that we failed to find three or four years ago. The route takes us through a small village that Huan read will be knocked down very shortly to make room for the ‘road to somewhere’.
Before too long we were off the hard top and to a track, a dry one at that. When we went this way in the past it was quite boggy all the way up.
The next change came just a few metres further on. The trees, and the mountain holding them, on the left had disappeared. Instead there was a new apartment complex and way down below we could also see the ‘road to somewhere’.
We knew we were on the right track, I remembered it from before, but just so that Huan could also be assured we spotted a couple of clues.
Onwards and upwards we went, and there was a lot of ‘upwards’ I can tell you. We passed a few burial places, not quite a cemetery, no photos there today. Huan is not very keen on photos of dead people places but we did take some last time we were up this way. Soon we spotted what we were heading for, hiding between the trees.
This next photo shows where we turned right last time and failed in our quest.
Turning left this time brought us to this, bear in mind that the tower is on our right somewhere. One track leads downhill and veers left, one just veers left and one almost does a U-turn to the left and starts to go up at a slight gradient.
Giving up on our quest to find the tower, again, we took the U-turn left. Almost to spite us, the tower was still visible, this time on our left but with no obvious way up there.
Just to ‘rub it in’ as it were, the track we were on petered out at a small farm.
We commiserated with each other with a camera selfie.
You may remember our fairy castle from other walks, well here’s a different view of it.
Also across the valley we spotted something that could be another avenue worth exploring. Is it somewhere that we’ve already been, viewed from a different angle, or is it somewhere new? Stay tuned to find out!
I decided we should climb the water tank not far from the bottom of the hill, it wasn’t so easy for me, but there was a chair to rest on.
Unfortunately, someone else was already living in the chair! Here I am desperately trying to remove the hordes off my arms and here they are in the arms of the chair!
After being bitten by a lot of mosquitoes on the way up, a few less on the way down, ants were all I needed to make my day! I was quite pleased to get home in one piece today and also quite pleased that at least we can rest a little tomorrow, it’s market day! Exploring can continue on Sunday, maybe, possibly, perhaps, perchance, weather permitting etc etc.
February 12th There wasn’t a great deal to see in the market today. I told Huan I was going to give you a ‘heads’ up and show you some animal parts, an idea brought on by the news about a woman in the UK who found a chicken foot inside her ‘cook in the bag’ chicken. Huan talked me out of it so those photos were deleted. Instead, all I have to show you is a monkey and even then, not a real one.
Just for a change and after a long time we’ll show you a bit of home cooking. Despite it being a weekend it is not something I made but one of Huan’s creations. Yes, it’s a pizza but not a round one, this way we get more to eat. She made two of them, almost identical but with better cheese on the second one. They are in fact pepperoni with a thin slightly crispy crust and I would take them over most restaurant pizzas any day.
February 13th “What a drag it is getting old.” A snippet of a Rolling Stones song because we were both tired again this morning, neither of us had slept very well last night. By the time I roused myself it was nearly nine so our walk was delayed, again, until after lunch. Today’s route was another exploratory one, to try and find the road we had seen on the 11th. First Huan had me trying to snap a bird again, one that was just a little too far away, again.
We were headed off via the ‘no housebook
apartment complex’ towards the main road through town,
At times the going was not so easy but at least I wasn’t bitten to death today and I successfully avoided any sharp bramble type bushes.
It’s a shame that the area has not been looked after, if the villas had been completed along with the hotel that you can see here, it would have been a nice place to live.
Further into our journey, on the road out of town, we took a turn off to the right heading for where we thought the road may be, somewhere behind two incomplete buildings that you can see on the photograph from the day before yesterday. Unfortunately, despite being in the right area, there was no way through whatsoever.
We did get yet another, different view of our famous fairy castle though.
Convincing Huan just to go a
little bit further up the road towards
Almost in the same place but on the other side of the road we found what could lead us to the place we had been looking for. It may only lead to a cemetery that we know is accessible just a bit further up the road. However, time was not on or side, we had wasted too much in the villas earlier. We’ll investigate another day.
On our way home we were stopped by a cyclist, “I’ve seen your video” he exclaimed! He had seen “Katherine’s video” on some kind of cellphone news channel. It seems we had also met him before although none of us could remember the exact place. Once we got home, Huan found that the video was also circulating on her various WeChat groups, I suppose you could say it’s gone viral locally! I know my Youtube subscriber count went up by more than fifty over the last few days and a lot of people want to add me on their Douyin accounts. If I ever learn how to use it properly maybe I will accept their invitations.
February 14th Two people very happy to see Monday, even thought we didn’t need to we went shopping today. We definitely needed more rest before heading off into the countryside again. It’s Valentine’s Day today which is all to do with hearts of course, yours and your loved ones, we couldn’t find any hearts but we did find some love. Check the wording on this sign.
The place isn’t open yet so we can’t have a look inside. Obviously you can donate blood there, Huan is going to check when they open if she is allowed to donate, I am ‘too old’. Instead I am wondering if I can donate some love!
So Valentine’s Day today marks the end of this missive, Lantern Festival tomorrow marks the end of Spring Festival. Hopefully those of you who celebrate it had a good one, and for those of you who don’t, all our best wishes anyway. See you next week!
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