I woke up this morning at 2:15 a.m., itching. I have insect bites all over my ankles, probably from the walk along the canal with Alex back from the buffet dinner last night. A buffet run by a militant and demanding woman, herding everyone around the buffets and charging, as best as Alex and I could tell, an arbitrary amount.
I packed up, ate breakfast, said bye to Alex (again) and headed out.
I headed towards an old train tunnel converted to a bicycle path 30 km away. People rent electric scooters and bicycles to ride through the tunnel as a tourist attraction. Particularly odd when everyone seems to already own a scooter.
I planned to ride around the northeastern coast, where I expected light traffic and relatively constant elevation. The steady stream of heavy trucks in the first 30 km of the day changed my mind. They were all driving to Keelung on the coast instead of following what to me was a more obvious path.
Rerouting, I went over the mountains. Not even counting the converted train to bicycle tunnel, multiple tunnels today, including one 1.3 km and the final one at 2.6 km!
I passed signs for the Shifen Waterfall Park just as I crossed the main pass. The exit? Steep down (that I would have to climb back up!). *Sigh*.
My highway to return to
Both of the long tunnels at least had a wide shoulder. For the 2.6 km tunnel I stopped twice in a pullover spot to let the pack of traffic pass by. I had sun when I entered the tunnel. I emerged to light rain! Fortunately I quickly descended below the rain.
The ride through Keelung to the hostel came with heavy traffic and a steep descent. The ride down to the hostel in Keelung reminded me that tomorrow I’ll have to retrace some of those steps if I return to Taipei directly.
I hope to first ride to Wanli for some “urban exploration”. That’s the same highway on the coast that had the trucks coming in from the east. I don’t know about the truck concentration departing from Keelung to the west. There’s certainly a far more direct route to Taipei, but I thought that last time. If traffic is fine, I’ll continue around the northwest corner to return to Taipei from the west. If traffic is bad I’ll retrace my steps back to Keelung before following a valley into Taipei. The third alternate across the center takes me directly over an 890 m climb, so that’s out!
I’ll visit with John one last day before packing my bicycle for my flight home.
At the hostel this afternoon I met Tom, a mining engineer from Liverpool working in South Africa. We went out to the night market for dinner. He eventually left for a shower and bed. I headed out again for second dinner.