Miles: 20.71 miles

Time: 2:46

Elevation Gain: 279 feet

I’ll get up in a minute I thought, when my alarm went off at 9 o’clock, as I’d been planning to give myself plenty of time to get ready, before my 11 o’clock check out time. It was 10:57 before I awoke the second time. Thankfully the reception desk were generous enough to offer me another hour.

After eventually checking out, I still had a little work to do on the bike, attaching various mounts, including the one for my handlebar bag, which threw a spanner in the works. I’d bought a new mount, because the cable used to secure the previous one to the handlebar was damaged, but I’d forgotten that the rather idiosyncratic design required the cable to be trimmed down to the right size otherwise the bag wouldn’t clip on securely, as the end of the cable got in the way.

I would need to buy cable cutters before leaving the city, so headed towards the nearest branch of the Taiwanese bike brand Giant’s shop just along the road. No luck there, so I set a course for Decathlon further along. An elderly-looking gentlemen nearby said he’d watch my bike for me, and I smiled in mild annoyance as I walked into the shop. There was no bike section there, so I was soon back outside and confronting my prejudices when the man waved away my attempt to furnish him with a tip for ‘watching’ my bike, he was just wanting to be helpful.

No further forward, I continued for block upon block, duly waiting for minutes at a time to cross every intersection – along with the locals – as I showed willing, for now at least, to stick to the cycle paths.

The next Giant shop didn’t have one either, but the assistant took the time to locate a shop on my Google Maps app, that might have what I was looking for. I found cable cutters there, at ‘Bear Mama DIY’, and although I didn’t think they would be strong enough for the task, I managed to get through the cable with a bit of perseverance.

Soon, I was down by the Tamsui river, and it looked like there would be a cycle path all the way out to the west coat, at Tamsui, where the route would turn North to the top of the island. I knew that the next stretch after Tamsui was a little light on accommodation options, and I also knew that there would now only be a few hours of daylight left, so I set my sights on Tamsui and decided to reassess my accommodation options again when I got there.

The cycle path along the river was smooth and flat, and quiet, other than the odd jogger, and an assortment of youths going hell-for-leather on the locally-sourced rental e-Bikes, ‘YouBikes’, that was.

Tamsui district was still a heavily populated area, of what is known as New Tapei, and I realised that there was a large swathe of Tamsui some way before the area in which I was planning to stay. I resisted the temptation to bail out early, and as the darkness set in, I was glad of the sanctuary of the cycle path and some other nighttime users, in keeping me to my task.

On arriving at my destination, I selected the rather pleasant looking Fisher Hotel, and was pleased that the reception staff allowed me to store my bike up against the couches in the reception. The breakfast slots available for the following morning were 7 o’clock or 8 o’clock am, I would definitely be up earlier tomorrow, it seemed.

After a restorative shower, I made another late night foray for food, and found to my delight that fried chicken would be the available option for the evening, and it was really rather good, popcorn chicken, sweet potato fries, and some grilled baby corn, which all went nicely with a beer from the shop across the road.

• bikepacking