On the move again

I left Beijing on Friday and had planned to make it to Baoding where I would have a host for the night. My first thought was to do the 155 km in two days since I though getting out of Beijing would take some time. But it was actually easier than I had though even if the traffic was crazy in some places. But for a long time there was a bicycle path to ride on beside the road. It took me about 40 km until I saw some green open field. I wasn’t a lot, but at least a little sigh that I was leaving the big city. I made it to Baoding in good time thanks to mild wind and very flat roads. But just as I arrived I cycled over some sharp metal piece that punctured my back tire. So I had to change tube with just 1 km left to my hosts place.

Walked met up with me and showed me to their nice apartment on the tenth floor. Luckily my bike fit into the elevator! That evening me, Walker and her husband, Xin Lijun went out for a very nice dinner and lots of drinking. I decided to stay one more day in Baoding since I had made it there in one day except for two. So Walker showed me around town to the Buddhist temple, Bell tower and the old The Zhili Governors office. We had a nice day that ended with another great meal, this time home cooked by Xin Lijun.

The next day I had another long ride ahead of me. A girl that I had met in Beijing had arranged for me to stay with her English teacher in Hengshui. So I set out early in the morning after a breakfast consisting of donkey meat sandwich and a tasty soup. There were some roadwork along the way and one time I ended up on a road and noticed less and less cars on the road. And after a look at my GPS I realized I was a road that wasn't in use yet. But it looked like it was turning toward the road I should be on so I kept on going. And after going round a wall of soil that was blocking the road I was back on the main road and was happy that I didn't have to turn around.

The last stretch of the day my legs was really tired but I made it there even if 160 km isn’t a distance I like to do many times more. I met up with Nas and Jean who was both working as English teachers at the University. They were living at the campus where they had a spare room for me to stay in. Later we went out for some food and beers and also taking a lot of pictures with curious people, mostly girls(not complaining).

Today when I set off from Hengshui it had started raining, and after a little while it started pouring. And they don’t seem to have any draining in town because the streets began pooling up and for the rest of the ride out of town I rarely saw any asphalt, just a lot of water. And it kept on raining and the small road I chose was really muddy. And I think todays 70 km was harder that the 160 km I did the day before. Headwind and heavy rain is a real mood killer!