Day 20 - Bicycling Yangshuo Countryside

We woke up early (well early for us, being very leisurely travellers) this morning for our first bicycle trip in China. After renting great bikes from the hostel we headed to the bakery to stock up on supplies for breakfast and lunch, and headed towards what we thought was Yueliang Shan (Moon Hill). After half an hour we realised we weren't getting into territory the Lonely Planet described so stopped for directions - which resulted in a complete turn around and another half hour ride to the beginning! Adam always encourages a warm-up ...

Eventually on the right track was passed the Butterfly Spring and made our way to Yueliang Shan - an amazing peak that has a moon-shaped hole, that can be a quarter-to-full moon depending on your vantage point. After walking the 1200+ steps we enjoyed the resulting view from 'inside' the moon - and then trucked on to the top of the 'moon' for even more spectacular views. From here we could spy Moon Hill village and a 1500 year old Banyan tree.

After a slip-in-slide journey back down we headed back towards the Yulong river for a nice, gentle bicycle ride - yeah right! Once we got to the river we stopped for a watermelon break - to revive us from our effort in the heat.

From here began our off-road escapade along Yulong river. We followed the river for about half and hour without too many dramas. Our semi-plan was to bike to Yulong Qiao (Dragon Bridge) which is one of Guangxi's biggest and old at 59m long, 5m wide and 9m high, hoping along the way we would pass double-flow crossing (we weren't sure what it was yet), the village of Jiuxian and then catch a bamboo raft back. That plan changed when we got to a dead-end and the rain came tumbling down!

After finding ourselves sheltered in a local's makeshfit shed, we then found Ellen - a lost American! This was about the time the continuous calls for us to take a bamboo raft back, began (and never ended). Journeying as three, we travelled along the road we were told not to (in order to convince us to take a bamboo raft) and ended up finding Susanna and Ali (more Americans) at the end of the road. Now there were five of us all trying to go to the same place (the bridge) and all lost in the process!

We continued along in the right direction and came across a lovely Chinese lady who ended up being our personal tour guide - without request from us, but a welcome helping hand from someone who knew where they were going! We later found out that her family had bamboo rafts that would be 'great' to take us back on!

Journeying along with our guide, who happened to be riding an ancient road bike with no gears while we road on fully suspended and 20-geared mountain bikes, we found ourselves riding through the most stunning, beautiful ... hang-on words can't describe this place ... we're know our photos don't! The trail she took us on we would NEVER have found alone, and most of the time we were all unsure if she was taking us where we wanted to go - but when you have no idea, you can't really argue! Plus, we'd gone way too far to turn around now (and couldn't make it on our own if we tried).

Along the way we passed amazing villages nestled among the rice-paddies, mountains and the river. One village that stood out was the village with stilt houses looking out over the crystal-clear ponds they had made to house their fish - the fed the small and caught the big!

After an endless ''only 40 minutes to go'', we made it to the bridge! Yay! The bridge was lovely, but nothing compared to the ride there. The rain once again halted our bicycling, but soon we were on our way to the village, Baisha, and then finally home to Yangshuo! We made it back at about 6.30pm, after leaving before 10.30am! From his personal trainer perspective Adam is super-proud of the phenominal effort Liv put in to surviving the day.

We collapsed at the hostel for an hour or so and then went to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner - which was so yum!

Adam loves the rock structures here and it is the first time he has truly wished he had his rock-climbing gear he sold to help finance the trip. But he will be back, maybe with Josh, to do some peaks by rope instead of by foot.

On our way home to sleep, we met up with Ashley, who we had met in Guilin, who we exchanged tips with on what to do in this great place! It's nice to know on our adlibing tours we can run into familiar faces, even if we only met 2 days ago!!

Exhaustedly adlibing it to bed ...