Day 28, 117km: (by Chris)

After our mammoth hill that took us 3 days to get up, this morning we were treated to 90km of downhill, passing through rustic dirty farming towns where, oddly, a lot of houses had knackered old pool tables outside them.

In one town I saw a woman selling fried bread sticks. i skidded to a stop and got very excited about this because the biggest loaf of bread I have found in china outside major cities so far was the size of my thumb and was actually brioche. I love bread, especially fried bread so I bought her entire stock.

After 90km our luck changed. The road suddenly turned uphill and turned into a gravel track. I normally like gravel tracks and uphill, but not today, with trucks kicking up clouds of dust. Amy doesn't like tracks or uphill at the best of times so she had a terrible afternoon which just got worse when our progress was slowed so much that we ended up bouncing over rocks in the dark and the dust until we reached our destination at 20:30. Amy's bad day was topped off when she dropped her shampoo bottle into a grotty, crusty brown pit toilet.

Day 27, 44km: (by Amy)

Today our lovely road got steeper passing through grassland with free range pigs and eventually turned into a gravel track in forest and ascended to 9800ft. I decided very quickly that I hate tracks. It was like riding on a stream bed. We stopped for pasta (which i have been carrying since Chengdu) 5km from the top when I realised we weren't going to make the pass at any reasonable lunch hour. A sign at the top said the area was a nature reserve with wild giant pandas and jaguars. The veiws were fantastic down the valley. We looked for a camp spot on the way down but the land was too steep and the bamboo forest too thick. Instead we ended up in a guesthouse where Chris got bitten by bed bugs (I used my own sleeping bag) and the toilet was a concrete pit in the yard with maggots climbing up the sides.  Nice.

Day 26, 58km: (by Chris)

We continued up the gorge, uphill all the way. We bought supplies from a mountain town full of curious Chinese people and found a bag of biscuits the size of a pillow. I was very happy.

We lunched by the river where miraculously we found a spot where we could not see any houses or people so I took the opportunity to go skinny dipping. In the evening we found a guesthouse that required walking through the pig house and the chicken coup to get to the shower which was a tin box mounted on the wall with a shower head on the bottom.

On the way to the shower:

    

Day 25, 83km: (by Amy)

Now we were out of the tourist area the cycle path was gone and it wasn't long before Chris had ear plugs in to dampen the horn noise.  We could only find mini packaged bread for lunch about which Chris was not happy.

Later, I got to the top of a pass to find Chris talking to a group of young people who gave us a massive orange and invited us back for dinner although we couldn't go as they lived way off route. 

After an industrial town we left the trucks behind and headed up a lovely gorge road. We were guided to a guesthouse by a helpful man on a tiny bike.

Days 23 & 24: (by Chris)

Today we set off up the holy mountain Mt Emishan. Starting at 700m and climbing to 3070m over two days. The lower slopes were shrouded in mist and sub-tropical forest with the occasional monkey jumping out and attacking you and your biscuit-filled rucksack. No monkey gets between me and my lunch and his onslaught was short lived.

We stayed in a Buddhist monastery dormitory for the night and woke to a glorious golden sunrise well above the clouds. We stood in the crisp morning air captivated by the glorious scenery, until a Chinese man loudly snorted up a huge lump of green phlegm and spat it onto the floor with a wet splat. This the more usual morning experience for us; most Chinese do this without the slightest hint of embarrassment wherever they might be. We climbed hundreds more steps, Amy found an earth worm 16inches long and we passed lots of snack bars. These were wooden shacks where someone is selling refreshments that they have hauled up the mountain on their backs. A lot of vendors were selling bottled water and if nothing else I admired the challenge they'd set themselves on a mountain riddled with fresh-water springs. At the summit we found a wide stone staircase below a huge golden statue of a golden multi-headed person sat on lots of elephants. The view was spectacular and we saw gargantuan snow covered mountains in the distance where we are heading next. The leg burning climbs of the Himalayas Beckon, much to Amy's displeasure.

Day 22, 38km:

I was dreading today. 38km on an A road from one city to another. Chris already had his ear plugs ready for the horns. We were both pleasantly surprised to discover a beautiful cycle path cornered off from the road for the whole way! Someone was definitely looking out for us today. We cycled safely cocooned away from the trucks side by side arriving just after lunch to Baguo village at the base of Mount Emei Shan one of China's 4 holy mountains. Tomorrow we are planning on leaving the bikes here for a 2 day hike to the summit.

Day 21, Leshan Rest Day: (by Chris)

Today we visited the Grand Buddha, who is 71m high and has toes 8.5m long. This was good news because after three weeks of eardrum rupturingly loud horns and infuriatingly impatient Chinese drivers who think the horn is an excuse to drive like a tit, I needed a calming influence. I was hoping that if I was going to find any 'at-one-ness' i might have found it at the world's biggest Buddha. The day was indeed relaxing and although i think I'm a long way off enlightenment, i did find a huge fascinating centipede in a cave which excited the zoologist in me. Feeling lazy we rode a rickety rickshaw half way back to the hotel and the rest of the day was spent resting and reading.