Chenggong to Yuli

Jumping the sausage queue

Some additional guests arrived late in the evening so we no longer were the sole occupants of the hotel when we came down for breakfast.  More egg toast though some peanut butter toast as well and a chicken nugget instead of a little sausage. This time we didn’t have to eat Jonno’s breakfast.

The wind had dropped when Si, G and I left just after 9am and the friendly host watched us pack the bikes and bid us farewell, after I reassured him that the mysterious fourth member of our group would be checking out later

We retraced our route back to the turn off to the Sanxiantai bridge and continued along the coast with a mist still loitering over the mountains. We stopped at Shihyusan Park to admire the various sculptures and the expansive sea views.

We had time to linger as we had our sights set on a coffee shop that was due to open at 10:30, the earliest of any cafes before we hit the mountain climb.  We arrived at 10:30 to find the cafe looking very closed.  As we debated what to do, one of the owners came out to feed the chickens and let us know the cafe was opening in one minute. 

The cafe was run by a young couple and there were lovely views over the sea from the garden area.  As it was threatening the rain we opted to stay inside.  G ordered a matcha latte, which apparently tasted strongly of coffee, Si had a latte and I went for the pour over, which the owner prepared with great diligence.  We also tried some of their scones.  Coffee is expensive in Taiwan, typically costing AUD $7 - $8 a cup. 

We lingered a while over our hot drinks, knowing that the climb commenced less than a kilometre down the road.  Jonno passed us soon after and powered on into the distance, the lack of a toe clip clearly not slowing him down. 

The climb was steady and gradual and we saw heaps of people cycling down the hill.  We had seen a few vans pass us laden with bikes, so we figured they may have been dropped at the top for the cycle down.  Jonno and G were waiting at the top when I arrived, though my bike computer said i still had almost two kilometres to go with an average grade of 32%.  It hadn’t registered that there was a tunnel ahead.

We enjoyed the vie whilst we waited for Simon and then decided to order some sausages from the man BBQ’ing them at a little stand. A few other people had arrived in cars and had also ordered sausages but let us have ours first - maybe on the basis that we had earned them.

It was a long ride through the tunnel  - some 2.6 kilometres, but it was well lit and traffic was sparse.  After a quick descent we regrouped and tried the nearby ramen shop which was very reminiscent of a Japanese ramen shop, including a vending machine, though it offered an English language option.  As we were working out our order, the young attended advised that “there was not enough soup” so we had to try somewhere else. 

We were only 7 kilometres from our accommodation in Yuli and it was too early to check in so I suggested that we head down the Yufu bikeway to Dongli.  Unfortunately part of the bike path was closed due to construction and we were only able to join it a couple of kilometres before its end.  Even more unfortunately there were no food places open, so we returned to the Dongli bike rest stop and pulled out our remaining  snacks for a lunch of ritz biscuits, nuts, dried mango and oranges, washed down with a cup of tea.  It was enough to sustain us for the cycle back to Yuli.

We stopped at the supermarket for more provisions and checked into our Airbnb.  The host’s husband met us there and showed us around.  The accommodation was above the wife’s studio where she makes soaps and also had a complex drip coffee set up.  The husband asked multiple times if we would like coffee but I declined and said that we were morning coffee drinkers.

We enjoyed some more snacks on the little balcony before showering and heading next door to JJ Bistro for a pasta dinner. G was keen for an icecream so we walked 500 metres to the family mart where we all got a soft serve of chocolate and matcha, except for Si who bought the equivalent of a chocolate gaytime.  Something was lost in translation as Si somehow ended up with a soft serve as well.

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