January 23rd Luck was with us today and although the weather was cooler it was still a walking day. Not only that, but it was still a day for shorts and shirt! Not sure about what the weather would do for the rest of the morning we decided a round the river and town walk would be good enough. We set off over小岛 and found our first subject, just look at the size of it. If you look closely you can see that it is creating anchor points and dragging them up the bridge hawsers.
This one took me a while to understand, it was on the doors of a car we passed. Eventually I realised it was a ‘split’ Bat emblem, as used by Batman himself. He wouldn’t have fancied the car it was on though.
I thought I would pose for a photo for Huan, two fruits and a tree!
I’m not sure what I was going for with the whole picture but when I cropped it down to just the fisherman and the water I quite liked it.
Another fisherman is up next, not one of the rod and line type though. Instead he uses a reel on one wrist with the line and then a catapult in his other hand to ‘fire’ the hook. It is rare to see a successful one, but this one had caught at least one fish.
Now what is going on here? The bird at the back seemed to be chasing the others and trying to get them back to a tree. Is it a family, baby following Mum and Dad trying to get it back?
“You don’t need to ask them, they will ask a Chinese person if they want a joint photograph” said my travelling companion. Needless to say I asked anyway and they accepted.
Our route took us past a small car park where we noticed that additional chargers were being installed for those electric cars you all keep reading about. The workmen told us that these will be high speed chargers.
Always willing I was glad to be able to lend a hand!
The cables are certainly high current ones and will all be fed from a new transformer box at the end of the row. I have to say the use of EVs is looking more feasible as time goes on.
Despite being cautious we still managed to get twelve kilometres in which necessitated a nice after lunch nap later. Dinner was on me again, noodle soup with squid. Vegetables were garlic, 大葱, dàcōng, (they look like leeks but they’re not), ginger, carrot, 白萝卜, bái luóbo (Chinese white radish) and sliced button mushrooms. There are no photos to show you today, just a useful hint if you are cooking squid and don’t want it to be rubbery. Prepare it well removing all the bits you are not supposed to eat, cut as desired. Pour some freshly boiled water over it and leave for a couple of minutes. Take out of the water and marinade if required while you cook the vegetables. I marinated mine overnight in a 50/50 mix of light Soya sauce and vinegar. It works a treat! I always remember the first time Huan cooked squid for me and how soft it was. Now I know.
January 24th Here I am writing this tomorrow! Why? Huan said as a throwaway yesterday that maybe I need a new camera (again). Cue me disappearing down the Youtube rabbit hole for most of yesterday evening. Anyway, what did we do in the daytime? It was quite chilly in the morning so we decided on an afternoon walk, especially after checking the forecast. It turned out to be a really nice day for walking. At one stage I had Chinese people trying to take surreptitious photos of me so I pointed my camera at them and asked them why. They said it was because it was cold and I was wearing shorts. I pointed out to them that they were standing behind the bus stop, in the shade, because the sun on the other side was quite high in the sky and very warm at this point! Our chosen route today was via Rendishan!
“We haven’t been down there for a long time, let’s go and have a look-see.”
“Maybe we can turn right and follow the stream round and get back to the road. Look, there’s a way down there!”
“There’s even an old road at the side for us to walk on.”
Of course we ended up having to jump the stream at one point, only to have to go back to the small ledge to get out on to the road.
Now if Huan sees too many photos like this one she may well baulk at me buying another camera. Just look at the size of that beak!
Before too long we were in the village where we found boys pretending to be fruit!
Sometimes what I see just tells me I need a photo of that particular scene. These are two from our walk back towards town.
Another urge overtook me when I saw the excavated trench for a new drainage system. This time a gif was planned and I got Huan to and stand a bit further down the hill and I ‘skipped’ my way to her. She doesn’t understand how an adult man can want to skip! Because Huan was using her phone I had to do a lot of cropping to get me in so the quality is not so good. You can click on it anyway and have a laugh.
Shall we have a photo of the lady herself? OK, it is from behind though.
Let’s finish off with random photos again, some elephants outside a little Buddhist temple, a very wary cat that we couldn’t get near, and some stones and flowers outside the nurses’ school.
Our plan worked and we got enough kilometres for the day. Surprisingly, even though we missed our afternoon nap today we still felt fine. It must be the weather!
January 25th The forecast for today was almost identical to yesterday so we decided to follow the same plan, stay in for the morning and walk in the afternoon. Being Thursday I prepared our dinner and Huan watched TV.
After lunch Huan chose the Atuo Ling road route so off we went. As we got nearer I ventured a suggestion “Shall we walk along the stream?” The answer was affirmative so down from the road we went to see what awaited us.
Some scrambling was needed here and there but the going was reasonable.
Before too long we reached where I knew we were going, well the little village anyway. I have to confess I did not know about the goats.
On the road to the village the boys were busy playing with fireworks. They had realised that setting them off on a box in the road would make them sound louder.
We left the boys, and the village, and headed off over the bridge.
We were now out of the stream bed and on to real roads. On a new, small road, leading to a farm, someone had caught a small fish.
So were the fishermen really experienced old men? Nope, they were two young boys.
And here they are along with four of the village girls looking for a bag to carry the fish in.
A few minutes later I was holding forth with the girls waiting for Huan to show up and help me.
The girls then stayed with us as we went further up the hill to where we would cross the valley to turn back home. I kept bugging Huan to make sure that the girls knew where they were and where they were going. Here we are crossing the stream to the other side of the valley.
The girls seemed to know exactly where they were going so we followed them. We stopped off for a chat at a fish pond and then carried on past a very old shack.
The girls then chose to go up the hill, and not via an easy ascent. They made it look easy though with the older one even carrying the younger one at times.
On the upper track we found some chicks with a very protective Mum.
Just after this the girls decided to go back the way we had come. It would appear that they only walked all the way with us to be sure we knew where we were going and there we were, worrying about them! After making sure they were safely down the hill and on the way back we continued on our merry way, taking in the scenery as usual.
Some scenery was best not approached too closely though. Click to enlarge and you’ll see why.
Back in town I decided we needed photos of each of us to show that I was actually wearing long trousers and Huan was so cold she had a fleece jacket. I took five photos of Huan and she chose this one. She was supposed to take five of me for which I varied my poses, she only took one!
Work is progressing on the riverside although what it will look like when it is finished we have no idea. Will we only see a wall when we walk there, will we even walk there at all?
So, walk over, it was straight into the kitchen for me, after washing my hands of course. Job #1, cook the noodles and put them into a colander to drain. Job #2, finish off the dinner in the pan. What was it? Let’s call it chicken something à la Bob. This morning I had sautéed the (usual) garlic, with some spring onions then added the finely cut chicken. Once that was simmering nicely I added diced yellow bell pepper followed by sliced mushrooms. Tonight all I had to do was heat it up again and then stir in some coconut milk. The lady of the house was pleased. Next time though I need to find coconut cream, it will be thicker and tastier then.
January 26th Last night the computer told us we would be going out this morning. This morning it told us we would be going out this afternoon. Murphy’s Law took over and after lunch the rain started. Huan went for a nap, I browsed cameras again.
When the boss came back to life we decided that the computer had been wrong and went for a walk around the town and river just to get some exercise and fresh air. The Director / Producer was as happy as a sandboy before we even got off the little island.
As you may remember work has begun again all along the river so crossing the main bridge through town we were surprised by what we saw. You may not remember but there were hoardings all along here, we took pictures of some of the adverts for you. They have all gone! We both wondered why they removed them now when work has just begun again and will not be finished for a few months yet. Mind you, we were also both happy to see them gone.
We found another little green friend again today. Well, I say friend, but despite Huan’s attempts there was no way this one was coming anywhere near me. I can’t say I blame it!
Down at the other end of town where we crossed back over the river, the hoardings had been removed there too. There was also a New Year decoration in the middle of the road. 2024 is the Year of the Dragon so why there are two deer on this structure we have no idea.
Shall we have a bird today? Well yes! This one was being fed by a young lad.
I think it must be time for a car; we haven’t had one for a while. This is quite a small Jeep.
If like me you were wondering
about the ‘look’ of this Jeep then this next photo will help. The top part is
from above the headlights and the bottom from one of the wings. Searching for
what’s above the headlights (I AM FROM TOPFIRE) led me to a car detailing
company in
We didn’t walk as far as we wanted to today but no worries, we are almost exactly where we should be. The next few days should see us right.
January 27th “Morning has broken, etc”. We used to sing that song at school before it was later made famous. Do you remember who sang it? Today rain was expected after lunch so went off to Luobote village again. There is a part that I think is really lovely.
In the past we were able to walk through this area to the mansions on the hill. Today one of the farming ladies told us there was ‘no road’. Being stubborn we thought we would try anyway only to find out that, as you can probably tell, she knew better!
We saw our bovine buddies today; there is a video, link later. I’m not quite sure why the cow was sniffing my trousers; there was nothing in the pockets.
In the village we spotted something we had never seen before so we had to go and have a look. One of the farmers spotted us and headed our way. He was not there to frighten us off though; he was on his way for an early lunch and was more than happy to talk to us. It seems that this is an old water well, maybe fifty or sixty years old, but it s no longer used.
We played intrepid explorers again today and for a while we wondered if we would have to retrace our steps. However, a quick u-turn at the end of the building on the right (first photograph), brought us back onto the parallel road that the navigator (moi) was aiming for.
There are times when we walk in the countryside when we see very little evidence of man’s presence and sometimes see none at all. It is wonderful, for a short time anyway!
Of course we do need human
presence; otherwise there would be no food!
At other times, nature decides it
doesn’t really want man so grows over everything it can. That can sometimes be
a small problem for himself and herself..
Once we had climbed the steps and prepared to down the other side of the road to nowhere we spotted some of those pesky white birds. A video link will appear later in this post.
We’ve talked a lot about the works on the river this week so here’s a view of the river. You may not be able to see the ‘works’ very well but they are there.
Now about that video link, it will magically appear after this photo of a little squirrel. Both this and the birds are half way to convincing Huan that we need a better camera. As always, I am stuck with research on t’internet.
Abracadabra! Here’s the link - https://youtu.be/A4wO6WDLrqo
That was the end of our morning walk but I went out again after lunch. I left the camera at home and just took a few photos for Huan. This was where I had my “fag break” although SWMBO is not aware of that, (sssssshhhh!)
I did take one or two more of the little park for Huan’s benefit. For someone who does not want a camera of her own, or to use mine, she certainly likes to see lots of photographs. I even took one of some ear buds that someone left on a park bench. I’m sure you don’t need to see them!
My last paragraph is one for all of you cheese lovers out there, wherever you may be. Our salad today was just that, a cheese salad. Huan had Feta cheese in hers and I had blue cheese in mine. That’s almost right, Huan’s Feta cheese was absolutely right. I made a cardinal error when I bought mine; it was called CAMBOZOLA, Mild Blue Cheese. It looks a bit like camembert and has very little ‘blue’ taste to it at all. In fact mixed with a salad you could hardly taste anything. Lesson learned; do not buy that one again! PS You don’t need a salad photograph.
January 28th What a week! Another morning in because we thought it was too cold out. Mind you I do sometimes wonder if we get the wrong impression just being indoors. Often, when we do end up going out we find it is warmer outside than it is in the house. After lunch we decided that we had to go out and so set off for the hotel up the mountain. Huan must have been thinking of other things today, I found the first lizard and then the second one too. Huan made up for it by snapping me snapping lizard #2.
On our way up the hill we think we found another cave. It is on someone’s land though and cut off with a padlocked gate so we couldn’t explore any further. Here it is alongside our old cave which we had explored before they gated and locked that too.
Still on our way up I kept seeing scenes that I thought were really nice so I snapped away here there and everywhere. Here’s an image from each side of the road.
When walking in the countryside, or even in the forest, you would hardly expect to see security cameras but they are everywhere here. What are they for? Invariably they are to protect someone’s betel nut trees, quite a lucrative trade these days, or so we hear. Sometimes they even have audible warnings; we have been caught out a few times. In today’s case though, there seems to be no speaker, just the battery operated camera charged by solar panel and accessed by wifi.
Now this is where we would normally turn to the right and go over
the bridge to go back home via the scenic route of
It’s been a while since we walked up this way so we thought we should show you the road.
When we reached the top, or almost reached the old hotel gate, we found that they had installed a new much heavier duty gate. There was no way to get in now. Outside there was a sign saying that the hotel was now under refurbishment but no start or finish dates were mentioned.
Brave Bob climbed up on a concrete water tank, very gingerly mind you, to see what the view was like. He had to pose for the artistic director.
The views were fine!
I had to take this one because on the way up Huan had likened the
roads to James Bond film. She had no particular film in mind, she doesn’t
really know the names, but 007 driving up the mountain roads is what the road
reminded her of. I told her that I used to drive around very similar roads in
Lovely scenes grabbed my attention on the way down too.
On our way up we had seen some cows down near the stream. On our way down those same cows were also on their way home. “Do you think they will let you touch them?” said the boss. Of course that really meant “Go over there and touch those cows Robert!” (I added the Robert because that was what my Mum called me when I had been ‘naughty’.
January 29th Well the boss must have been out of sorts yesterday she ended up going to bed very early last night, sniffling away like a good one. She was a little better this morning but not up to going anywhere. After lunch it was a solo shopping trip for me, nothing to report from that.
Because Huan was still not so good it was time for me to cook noodles when I got home, a very easy dinner with no photos needed. After dinner though I had to get out to make sure my numbers were still good for this month. I headed over the bridge to somewhere.
Half way down the road I veered off into the countryside just to get a few pictures for Huan to see where went and of course to share them with you. They are phone pictures though so the quality is not up to much.
Back in town I stopped off for a break and tried out the night setting.
At home, Huan persevered a short time longer and then she was back in bed before nine o’clock again. I’ve already suggested that I cook again tomorrow and also that if I do go out that I go out alone. My poor little teddy bear agreed without a whimper!
And so we say auf wiedersehen, au revoir, 下次见 xià cì jiàn, (translates as see you next time), in other words tatty bye, see you next time!
