Abrupt end and great gift
N 24°46'19.7'' E 103°17'02.9''
Date:
18.05.2016
Day: 326
Country:
China
Province:
Yunnan
Location:
Shilin
Latitude N:
24°46’19.7”
Longitude E:
103°17’02.9”
Daily kilometers:
38 km
Total kilometers:
16,981 km
As the crow flies:
21.60 km
Average speed:
17.6 km/h
Maximum speed:
43.4 km/h
Travel time:
02:10 hrs.
Soil condition:
Gravel / asphalt
Maximum height:
1.900
Total altitude meters:
39.015 m
Altitude meters for the day:
539 m
Sunrise:
06:21 am
Sunset:
7:45 pm
Temperature day max:
27°C
Temperature day min:
17°C
Departure:
09:30 a.m.
Arrival time:
5:00 pm
(Photos of the diary entry can be found at the end of the text).
As it is only 38 km to the famous stone forest of Shilin, we are looking forward to a short and pleasant day today. The weather is good and the roads, as always in recent weeks, are sometimes bad. We make good progress and are in a good mood. It looks like we’ve made up a lot of kilometers in the last few days, which means we’re no longer under any time pressure to reach the Vietnamese border.
“Look, we can take a good cover photo over there for our upcoming e-bike book!” I shout with motivation. We set up our tripod and get into position in front of it. As we smile into the camera, a couple of farmers’ wives come by. They greet us in a friendly manner and give us a few small peaches, which they have apparently just harvested. In their excitement at meeting foreigners here, the farmers’ wives chatter enthusiastically with each other. One of them doesn’t seem to notice our tripod with the camera mounted on it and walks purposefully towards it. It happens so quickly that we are not able to give a warning call. The woman misses our expensive technology by just a few centimeters. “Phew, that was close,” I groan with relief when the camera is still rolling.
On the way into town, we see the first bizarre rocks of the famous stone forest. “Wow, we can look forward to an extraordinary landscape tomorrow,” says Tanja, because we are planning to stay here for a day to visit the UNESO World Heritage Site.
We reach our destination for today, the small town of Shilin, late in the afternoon. While Tanja asks a few passers-by where our accommodation is located, my gaze routinely glides over our bikes. When I spot a black line on the mounting bracket on Tanja’s bike, to which the trailer is attached, a shock runs through my body. “Probably just dirt,” I reassure myself, get off my bike and take a close look at the angle. “Please don’t,” I whisper, just as Tanja returns. “What?” she asks. “The bracket on your bike has a hairline crack.” “I don’t understand.” “The connection between the trailer and your bike will soon break,” I explain. “Oh, you’re joking, aren’t you?” “No, not joking.” “Do we have one of those angles with us as a spare part?” “I could slap myself. I left the spare brackets at home to save weight,” I admit with a nod. “And what does that mean?” Tanja asks excitedly. “That’s it again. We can’t go any further. It’s too dangerous. Especially in the mountains. “How far is it to the border?” “350 kilometers.” “If we have one of these sent from Germany, it could be here in seven days. Then we’d still have three days to get to Vietnam,” she considers. “Hm, I don’t think we’ll get the part in time. Maybe we could have it welded?” I think, but it occurs to me that nobody in such a small town is capable of welding aluminum. “I just can’t believe it. How could I leave such a part at home? Back then, in Kazakhstan, we also broke a bracket like that. However, I had filed it smaller at the time to save weight on the wheels. It was a crazy idea to try and save weight at every turn. It was at the expense of stability,” I explain. “And you didn’t tweak it this time?” “No, but in these bad road conditions, a bracket like this is like a wearing part. Just like brake pads or inner tubes, you have to have one of these as a spare part. I could drive out of my skin,” I curse under my breath.
Two kilometers further on we reach our accommodation. The corpulent young woman at the reception desk of the simple hotel is in no way cooperative. After some back and forth, it turns out that this little hotel is not allowed to accept foreigners. Although we had pre-booked by phone and given all the information.
We are just about to set off again when two policemen rush up. Apparently the girl also called the law enforcement officers. Fortunately, the two men are extremely friendly and point to a hotel just 200 meters up the road. Once there, we learn that the cheapest room including discount costs 360 yuan (48.13 €). Too expensive for us. We sit down on a bench in front of the luxury shed to discuss the next steps. “And now what?” I ask as the two policemen’s patrol car stops in front of us. We explain to the officials that we cannot stay here for cost reasons. “No problem,” they say and go to reception to ask again for us. However, without a positive result. “Look,” says Tanja to the younger of the two and shows him the hairline crack on the bracket. The man taps his brain with his index finger and thinks. Then his features brighten. “Come with me,” we understand, which is why we follow the police car in front of us. We stop at a workshop. Two mechanics inspect the angle and before I can open my mouth they unscrew the part. One of them swings onto an electric scooter and whizzes off. 15 minutes later he is back and hands me the welded, still hot bracket. “The weld looks great,” I say to Tanja, raising my thumb approvingly. The man smiles, takes the bracket out of my hand and starts to put it back in. “It works much better if we remove the rear wheel,” I explain. The two police officers, who are now hard at work, a mechanic and the boss of the workshop, don’t want to know anything about it. A few commands are shouted, whereupon an apprentice applies various tools to somehow fasten the lock nuts. It doesn’t take long and the men are successful. The bracket is back in place and it looks like it will never break again. “How much will the repair cost?” I ask, relieved. “Bili”, (nothing) says the head of the workshop. “Bili?” I repeat incredulously. The man pats me on the shoulder, laughs, hugs me and wants his employees to take a photo of him and me. We both stick our thumbs up at the camera. He, out of joy at having helped a foreigner, and I out of deep gratitude for such incredible helpfulness and friendliness. After a few group photos and words of gratitude flying back and forth, our policeman friends accompany us to an affordable hotel that accepts our bikes and our lovely dog. Just an hour ago we had thought that our trip to China would come to an abrupt end here and now, after the Chinese have given us a great gift, we are looking to the future with confidence and full of joie de vivre…
If you would like to find out more about our adventures, you can find our books under this link.
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