Day 17-19 (bicycle)

Well, I am not sure how to explain the following three days?

The distance from Chengdu to Luding is 310km, of which most is uphill. The weather was absolutely scorching and I ran out of water twice. Damage to my bike had me pushing the bike for most of the uphill. I was nearly run down in a tunnel with no lights (mental note...bring torch next time).

On the flip side of that coin, I have met some interesting locals, seen more of rural china than I would ever have been able to otherwise. I have explored a bat infested cave, eaten weird and wonderful fruit, slept outdoors on both nights and crossed a crumbling brigde suspended over a mighty river, which I followed for most of the way to Luding.

Day 1
It soon became clear to me how wrong my distance estimates were (although I suppose that's what you get for using an A5 size map of the whole Sichuan province, to plot a course). By 3pm I was well out of Chengdu and far away from any cities. Except for some short breaks I cycled straight through until 2:13am, the plan was to keep going until I reached Ya'an, however a snapped chain resulted in me calling it a night. And as Murphy would have it there was nothing around for miles, so I ended up in a corn field for the night.

Day 2
back on the road by 7am (chain fixed) and ready to go, reached Ya'an and continued through, however was not long before I hit the mountains (the map looked so flat, how was i to know that this was the start of the sichuan Western mountains).

Sleeping place for second night.

Day3
Puff Puff Puff...3 days on the road, absolutely broken and litterally 7 hours of uphill with a bike that doesn't work properly anymore. I reached Luding by 4 pm. Damage on the bike, the topography of this area and the time that would realistically be required to continue to Yunnan, could not be justified. I have made the decision to sell the bike and continue from here without it.

I can honestly say that the last three days have been some of the most mentally and physically challenging days of my life, BUT...

...these are the experiences that I live for!!!