October 3rd Today was the day the learner went back to school after what I considered to be too long a break. Hopefully she will be fine. It was not this morning though so we had a nice long walk. I chose one of the Changhao routes where I had been forced to turn around before due to time constraints. Our choice of route was downriver and then under the highway. On the way downriver Huan insisted I take a photo of this egret that I could barely see.
We have a lovely view on this walk, it’s just a shame that we can’t continue down the river.
On our side, the geese were easier than the solitary egret.
Under the highway we went and out into the sun on the other side.
When we turned off the Changhao road to head through the villages and up the mountain, I lost Huan again for a while. She had found turkeys!
In
Up the mountain we went, through the
Many small villages in
It was a pleasant route, at times with trees on both sides of us, restricting the view, at other times allowing us to see for miles, with no sign of civilization anywhere. You have to pretend that the electricity pylons are invisible.
Somewhere, we went wrong, the road disappeared and we ended up on a track. My fitness map is not up to much and Huan couldn’t find a map on her phone. All I knew was that we were going in the right general direction but no longer on the road.
Eventually, we found a farm, with a farmer in residence.
He told us to go back and to turn right at the banana trees. Which banana trees? That was not so clear; in fact Huan was not sure if he meant banana trees or rubber trees. We took an educated guess and turned right here, onto another track, which then got wider.
The route agreed with where I thought we should be on my map and before too long we found a ‘real’ road. Look carefully, you will see the boss.
This road led us to a junction that I recognized and from there we headed into Changhao.
Once across the final bridge it was time to park our backsides at the bus stop and partake of some very welcome cold water.
So, today’s plan was to go exploring, we had no target distance in mind. With all the wandering around the mountain roads and tracks we still managed twelve and three quarter kilometers. We both needed an OAP afternoon nap when we got home!
Huan went off learning in the afternoon, I stayed home and cooked dinner, not very Chinese today, not very anything I suppose. It was fried belly pork, baked potatoes, and a sauce of beans, onions, mushrooms and garlic. The belly pork was marinaded overnight in Chinese vinegar and Soya sauce, the potatoes were baked in the microwave, and the bean sauce was a tin of beans with the fried onion, mushrooms and garlic added before reheating. Lessons learned? #1, Remove the tomato sauce from the beans before adding the other extras. #2, Don’t rely on Huan getting home on time! Verdict? Not bad at all.
October 4th This morning the learner was out later, not an early start, so I joined her on the bus. At her destination I got off and walked home with a little extra. This was the view back into town from where the learners cause havoc for al the other drivers.
Many of you may have read about big companies like Evergrande, and the problems they have been having. Unfortunately, smaller development companies have been affected too. This is one such project, the building at the front. That has been empty since at least 2015. The buildings behind with cranes in operation are part of an ongoing project, they should be fine.
Take a very careful look at the previous photo and you may just catch a glimpse of a solitary fisherman. Here he is larger, still with no fish though.
I can’t say I was actually looking for subjects today; I was just enjoying my relaxing walk. Who wouldn’t enjoy it when it looks like this on the home stretch?
These two subjects were natural focal points for me eyes so they had to be included. The first one was very small and I don’t know whether it was alive and resting or if it had shuffled off this mortal coil. The second took my fancy with the broken balustrade acting as a frame.
As planned, I was home first to make lunch, it had been a short relaxing walk, no nap was needed today, and the C-in-C didn’t need one either. We could have made use of the time and had another walk but we were both too lazy.
October 5th An alarming start to the day with thirteen kilometres covered before arriving home just before half past ten. The alarm was because SWMBO had an early lesson this morning, eight o’clock. I didn’t take the bus with her but set off on a longish walk, down the main road towards Sanya and then back via the kindergarten in the countryside. There may have been hundreds of lizards enjoying their early morning sunshine, but I didn’t see any. In fact I couldn’t see much at all, the sun was in my eyes all the way down the road. PS The photos don’t really show it.
Reaching the turn off to where we almost once bought an apartment, it became much easier to see ahead of me. I still didn’t find any lizards though.
Being earlier in the morning, even the long straight stretch with no shade was not so much a problem. I had purposely left my hat at home this morning, vitamin D was needed!
On my way back down into town from the kindergarten I had a call requesting a meeting. You guessed it, the learner’s lesson was over and she wanted to meet me and walk home together. Who says romance is dead?
On the way home we found the home of the little people, some call them leprechauns, some call them elves. There are many names for them in global folklore but there doesn’t seem to be a Chinese equivalent. Somebody put this chair inside the tree and it wasn’t me!
We spotted another egret, again not really near enough, but to keep Huan happy I took some photos of it doing a hop, skip and a jump.
A walk with Huan wouldn’t be a walk with Huan if she didn’t manage to find things for me to take photos of. She did it again and found a lizard, one that was very difficult for me to get into a good position to snap it. At least this time she avoided taking pictures of my belly and bum!
Being home so early and after such a long walk I almost had to have my OAP nap before lunch. I persevered though and managed to hold on until the boss was ready for a nap too, after lunch. Needless to say, having had such a good walk this morning, no further exercise was needed!
Cooking was needed though, fried chicken breasts with microwave baked potatoes (again), carrots and cauliflower with a special sauce. That was onion, garlic, mushroom, saffron, milk and cheese, whizzed after cooking. It looked terrible, grey because of the mushrooms, but it tasted as well as I could have hoped for. It went down well for both of us.
October 6th The last lesson before the test, at least
here in Wuzhishan. That meant another early start with Huan off to her lesson
and me out for a walk. Today’s choice of route was
On the way up the road to the bridge I found my first creature of the day. It almost looks like a tiny baby armadillo but without the snout.
The next find was a very frustrating one. I heard it before I saw it, a squirrel. They make many different noises but from what I can gather from Google and by checking videos on Youtube I think this one was barking. Its tail jumped every time it vocalised. The frustrating part was where it was, too far away for a good view and too camouflaged by all the foliage between us.
Soon I was at the crossover point.
There is sometimes a problem with this walk, especially in the summer. You can see a small part of it in the previous photo. A lot of water comes down from the mountain and the paths can become quite treacherous.
I had no problems though, my new boots are still new enough and I
was looking where I was going. If that sounds odd, well I am not always so
careful! Snowbirds were back, I helped a young mother and her mother with a
couple of photographs on the bridge. Another family stopped for a chat, with
the gent who I think was the father asking his daughter to talk to me in
English. He was asking this in perfect English so that I would understand.
Recently on Facebook the Chinese News has been showing various tourist sites in
Before too long I was out of the park and walking along the river towards the Fodelai bridge to meet my travelling companion. She was waiting across the river.
We walked home via the little island with Huan trying her absolute best to find more subjects for me to photograph. Unfortunately she was unsuccessful and I didn’t stumble on anything either. Despite the early morning and the long walk there were no afternoon naps today. At one stage I almost succumbed but somehow managed to keep my eyes open. Huan was busy in the kitchen after lunch preparing tomorrow’s lunch for herself and Yu, I will probably join them too.
October 7th I was sent out alone this morning, Yu was coming round for lunch at half past ten. I set off and decided to see how many kilometres I could get in before their lunch time and also to check out the imminent arrival of the cyclists from the Tour of Hainan. Being Saturday the market was the second stop, as usual; the first stop was the lottery shop for the weekend tickets.
Today’s electric moped stickers are a couple of lucky cats. When they are 3D ornaments one of their paws moves up and down, most shops have them. We usually think of them as Chinese cats, but the history is in fact Japanese. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maneki-neko
To add those extra few metres in the time allowed I used a couple of alleys.
Once I knew the route of the cyclists and the approximate time of
their arrival I headed home. On the way I passed a small army. Is the sticker
at the back something to do with the
When I arrived home the ladies invited me to join them for lunch, I respectfully declined; half past ten is just a little too early! The early lunch was because they are off up north again today to take their road tests tomorrow. That’s a little worrying as their road lessons have been in an ICE car and their tests will be in an EV. Anyway, after they left I set off to find a vantage point for the incoming cyclists. They weren’t expected before noon so I ended up here, along with a whole bunch of costume wearing cheerleaders.
The first cyclists didn’t start arriving until after one o’clock, they had traversed quite a few hills to get here though. By the time they arrived I had been standing in the sun, with no hat on, for over an hour. I saw most of the cyclists pass by and I tried to make a video, not very effectively. You can see it here https://youtu.be/0PTOLjQUU9I
On my way home I had a problem, I was on the wrong side of the road so could not cross to go home. I did ask the police after seeing a couple of young boys race across and they told me that the boys could go because they were ‘children’. I tried convincing them that I was a child too but it didn’t work. I ended up walking all the way to the finish line.
The only other information I can tell you about the race is that there was a Brit, but he was racing for the Israeli team; there was no British team. The other snippet is that a chap called Oscar won the yellow jersey at the age of 47. He credits his success to his training and nutrition regimes.
How about me then? Well, I did 10 kilometres this morning trying to make sure of speed and distance, and then another 9.3 this afternoon by accident. Why doesn’t my belly go down?
October 8th Another alarming start to the day, my choice though. Donald and I were sneaking out for the day, to have a bit of fun without the Minister of Transport playing Hyacinth in the passenger seat. Really I went to Sanya for a cheese run. There was only one pack of cheese left in the fridge and it’s been like that for quite some time.
I went down the highway and arrived at Summer Mall in Sanya with no problems apart from being a few minutes too early. The mall doesn’t open until ten. Once it was open it was into the lift with fingers crossed hoping that Corner’s Deli was still there. Luckily the store had not closed down and within a few minutes I was parting ways with close on ¥1,000.00. It would appear that the prices have gone up a little since our last visit!
Soon I was heading back to Wuzhishan, this time on the mountain road. Donald and I had loads of fun. We could have had much more if it wasn’t for speed limits and speed cameras! I was home in time to have lunch with the boss who had returned early. She didn’t shout at me for spending money. Still, I suppose it was from my wallet and not from her purse.
Speaking of the boss, she had phoned from up north around nine o’clock to tell that she had passed her test with a result of 100%. It seems odd that you can get such accurate marks on a driving test but it is all done by computer now. She is still not a driver yet though, despite passing three tests there is still one more to go. This time it is another written test with 50 questions, each worth 2 marks, the pass mark is 90%. At least the lessons are over with.
After a hearty luncheon with my lady, we crashed! Both of us needed a nap, at least we seem to be mostly getting older together, so far anyway. In the evening it was time for the (almost) driver to be treated once again and so we went here. Spot the frog heading merrily towards his fate! This is a new restaurant, not far from the house, across from the road to somewhere.
Although it’s a frog restaurant it does have fish dishes too so that’s what we went for. Here is our fish in garlic sauce. The presentation was a bit nicer but we had already started before we thought about taking any photos. Huan is eating what I don’t, a big rice noodle.
After dinner we had a little walk, both of us had eaten too much!
October 9th Monday is shopping day, except when it isn’t, and today is one of those days. Huan had prepared to much lunch for herself and YΓΊ that we had enough food left for our dinner today. Instead, the two weary teddy bears had a leisurely looking for lizards stroll around the river. The first thing that Huan found, and guided me to snap was this beautiful dragonfly.
I was up next with another couple of electric moped decorations.
Down near the river, at the three legged dog WC, we found the cows again.
And then we started finding lizards.
In fact we found so many lizards that I decided to put them into multiple collages. If any one out there wants to see the original photos, just ask and I will see what I can do. Here we go!
Let’s have something different shall we? I guess it’s not really that much different, it is just another grasshopper. Huan liked this because it was brown. I am still using Picasa on the computer and using the boost setting, lots of different browns can be seen.
Arriving back in front of the house we spotted a solitary egret, as always just that little bit too far for my lens. Eventually I will get a bigger one but for now other expenses must take priority. This week I have the dentist to visit, next month we have my visa medical and then my visa itself. Anyway, here is the little birdie.
We had visited the fish market on the way home and while Huan was at the sink busy cleaning the fish I spotted what I thought was a piece of vegetation on her T-shirt. When I put t on the kitchen counter it began moving. Here I am putting it out of the window. It’s not so clear; we can blame that on Huan’s phone camera
The two old fogeys needed a rest again after lunch, oh how I used to take the mickey out of my Dad and other oldies when I was younger. Gone are the times when I could go for literally days without sleep, especially if I was having fun!
Ah well, no more fun this week In fact we may have to seriously look at relaxing just a little bit more. What say you? As always don’t forget to click to enlarge, and share with your friends. If they are not on FB, tell them about it anyway, not many people are not online these days. We’re there every day, when we’re at home anyway. Say hello sometime! For now, I’ll say Goodbye!
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