Tag: Toucheng

Day 4: Toucheng – Su’ao Township

Distance: 21.95 miles

Time: 2:12

Elevation Gain: 433 feet

Luckily, the comfortable Kailan hotel had an Onsen-style bath for me to soak in for a while, to rejuvenate my spirits, but the rain had continued for most of the evening, and it was raining again when I left the hotel the next morning.

I’d seen a couple of cycle tourists earlier in the day, from my hotel room window, and when I approached the lights to rejoin the main road, there was another one waiting to join from the junction opposite.

Soon he pulled alongside, his name was Fabian, and he was originally from Luxembourg, but had been living in Dublin for the past 27 years. He had a wife of Japanese descent, and two kids, and earlier in the year he had cycled in Japan. He had also been in Taiwan 10 years prior, and had ended up in hospital for a significant period with a broken leg. A lot of his comments about the scenario were positive, due to the people that he had met and supported him while he was there, but he did mention that several of the other patients in the hospital had been involved in scooter accidents, which was a concern.

He had previously been an amateur triathlete, and in his youth a competitive runner, running a 31 minute 10K, back when he was 21. Having only narrowly broken 39 minutes myself, I knew that was an impressive time.

It was nice to have some company for a bit, especially as I was feeling demotivated by the rain, and the fact that after the next 20 miles or so of flat riding, the terrain was expected to become a lot more interesting, with steep climbs and tunnels along a very unforgiving coastline, and one that Fabian was intending to bypass on the train.

We continued on the coastal cycle path for a while, before we deviated from the route, as Fabian was ready for lunch and there was a 7-Eleven nearby.

After lunch, the cycle route turned away from the coast and followed the river in a large loop, before we cut off towards Fabian’s accommodation for the evening.

It seemed to be a very reasonably priced guesthouse, but it was fully-booked, otherwise I might have opted to cut my day very short and rest up. I considered other options in the area, before deciding to push on to the other end of town at Su’ao Township, which would position me right at the start of the mountainous section, for the next day.

Thankfully, the road continued on the flat through town, though the rain started to get heavier again, and I was delighted to finally arrive at the Su’ao hotel, just as a couple of Swiss cyclists arrived from the other direction. Fortunately, the hotel had an excellent bike storage room, with plenty of room for our bikes and many many more.

I was fairly sure this was the two riders I’d seen passing the hotel in the morning, from one of the cyclists’ distinctive green waterproof jackets, so I was surprised that this was them just arriving, here, now.

As it transpired – they told me later when I caught up with them outside a cake shop on the high street – they had taken the road towards Yilan, and had been intending to carry on up towards the Wuling Pass at 3200m, but with the awful weather, they had literally taken a rain check and decided to turn back and take the coastal route instead.

That evening, I headed out into the torrential rain, making for a small restaurant that had good reviews online, but when I walked in, there weren’t any customers, and the woman used Google translate to ask if I was wanting to eat there. Well, it felt like I’d committed now, and I was glad I did, as the pork fried rice and beef and green pepper stir fry I had were excellent, and the large side of prawns wasn’t bad either.

Day 3: Keelung – Toucheng

Distance: 48.31 miles

Time: 5:34

Elevation Gain: 1,424 feet

Having had the hot pot for dinner, I thought I should carry on with the theme of trying out Taiwanese specialities, so I wandered through the night market, and picked up a bubble tea, a boba milk tea with black sesame to be exact, before wandering back to the harbour to drink it.

The next morning, for breakfast, I discovered that there was a popular place across the road, selling scallion (spring onion) pancakes, and after one bite, I could see why they were so popular.

I took the road out of town, passing a giant port on the way out. I didn’t think about it at the time, but it soon dawned on me, that the one thing that a large port generates, is a lot of lorry traffic moving in the opposite direction, mostly along the road I was headed, it seemed.

Thankfully, there was a good shoulder at the start of the day, and before long, I had crossed the road and was tracking along it, on an excellent cycle path on the side nearest the sea.

The day started off brightly enough, but suspiciously dark looking clouds started to roll in over the coast, and as it reached mid afternoon, the light was already starting to dim, as I peered up towards the precariously positioned town of Jiufen, draped down the hillside high above. I knew it was one of the ‘must sees’ of Taiwan, but would it still be a must see to those people if they were on bikes?

Stopping in the small harbour town of Bitou village, I pulled in at the 7-Eleven for lunch. Ubiquitous throughout large parts of Asia, 7-Elevens are a grocery store chain that I had encountered before in Thailand, and knew would provide a vital service to me during my trip: due to them providing 24 hour shopping, and the possibility of hot food and somewhere indoors to sit, in many locations across the Island.

Handily they sold Bento boxes in a variety of flavours, which could be heated in the microwave by scanning the QR code on the side of the box. Today’s selection was Grilled Pork with Scallion-Salt Rice Bowl, and in this branch, the shop assistant popped it in the microwave for me, himself.

While I was eating, it struck me how unusual it was for such a prevalent global brand with such high visibility in multiple territories, not to be American. So I looked it up, founded in 1927 in Texas, and renamed in 1946 to match their new opening hours. Wholly-owned by a Japanese company now, though.

With the remains of the daylight, I pushed on along the coast, interest piqued by the tiny specks that were evidently fishermen balanced out on rocky outcrops far out by the water’s edge.

After dark, I was thankful to the powers that be for the first class cycling infrastructure in Taiwan, as I followed the streaks of blue paint – denoting the route – onto immaculate off-road paths, and past a toilet block with well placed vending machine, just when I needed a little energy boost.

I was keen to make it to Toucheng by the end of the day, so I persevered, even when the rain poured down. Don’t bring waterproof trousers to Taiwan they said, it wasn’t worth the extra weight, and it would be too warm to wear them. Well, I was glad that I brought them, but I wasn’t stopping now to get them out of my bag.