3 Oct - to Ruijin

A somewhat longer day - 140 km - all on good highway without too much traffic.

You've probably already figured out that 'coke stops' constitute one of the major distractions from making the pedals go around. Unlike Africa where you were lucky to find a coke stop at all, and in our case, not travelling at the front of the pack, even luckier to find anything cold in a cooler, here in China you are never more than ten minutes away from a small store with a cooler full of cold drinks, everything from beer to water, coke to other fruit drinks and juices.

Last week, at one of our coke stops in a small town just outside Shang Rao, we met Claire, a teacher and later emailed her a copy of this picture of the three of us.

In her reply to us, she said,

"Maybe you don't know it is a rare opportunity for us to talk with a native-English speakers in my hometown. That is why you can saw so many people gather around you guys when you were here. I really hope I can see you next time and talk with you in English. So next time you came here you must let me know and drop at my home, actually my home just right across the place where we chatted."

We were impressed with her English - no corrections were made to spelling or grammar.

Well, we sure got some gathering around us today. At the first stop in the morning, first the young boys started taking our pictures with their cell phones.

Pretty soon the little ones were there too, to get their pictures taken...

...and summoning the courage to touch us...

We gather quite a crowd. Despite us speaking not a word of Chinese and them not a word of English, we succeeded in communicating quite a lot. They brought us the stem of a lotus flower with the seed head and taught us how to get at the fruit/seed which is edible as is, not a strong taste, but it would be a source of fluid if you needed it. 

Back on the bikes...

After lunch, across the road from our coke stop was a group of Chinese cyclists. Again with no common language, we managed to have great fun with them.

It is the Chinese national holiday celebration right now... thought you'd like to see Mao in stone... we found him beside the route today...

...and no day on a TdA trip is complete without some competition... I made it... last place in today's King of the Mountain competition as we pass beneath one an arch on the highway... we saw two of these denoting (we think) a tourist area.

A bit longer tomorrow - 145 km - with a long climb in the afternoon.

Bye for now.