Tour De Dandong - Day 2 Part II

On the evening of Day 2, Craig and his Chinese counterpart Leon, organized the most amazing accommodations for the riders and support crew. We stayed in a set of neighbourhood country homes in the small village of Mu Er Shan about 8 km outside of LiZiFang Town. The ride up from LiZiFang to Mu Er Shan was short but kind of frightening for the night riders as it was along an unlit country road and it was a New Moon. Several riders shut off their engines and pedalled because they were simply going too fast to avoid the many fist sized rocks and huge potholes in the road. It would have been a tragedy to ride for so long only to have a mishap at this stage. Fortunately all riders made it in safely.

As mentioned previously about 2/3rds of the riders made it in before dark but the remaining 1/3rd arrived between 9 and 10 PM. When they did arrive the riders and crew were treated to a great feast of dozens of home made Chinese dishes and enough beer to drown a small army. As some of the riders had been on and off the bikes for 10 to 12 hours the festivities were a bit subdued. It was still great though to sit around sharing a few beers and trading war stories of the day. I was envious of the trials and tribulations of the riders and wished I had been part of a team for this amazing adventure.

When we finally did retire for the evening we did so at the gracious hospitality of the homeowners who kindly offered up their sleeping places for us to rest our weary heads. Each small home had basically 2 rooms which comprised a kitchen/eating area and then a sleeping/living room. The beds were built from brick and are called Kangs which are designed to sleep a small family. Underneath the kang is a place to burn wood or other materials in order to keep the bed warm. So essentially you are sleeping on a stove. For our particular venue they were burning corn husks.

I have mentioned that the kangs are designed to sleep a small family but in this instance they were used to sleep 5 guys. Yes all the team members slept on the same bed in an effort to build team unity I guess. Since Team HongQi only had 4 members I was lucky enough to share the bed with their team. 5 guys, 1 bed and a fire burning below (NO! NO! NO! not what you think .. the fire below the kang) meant for some sweaty good times. For whatever reason I have lost the only photos I took of the "men" on the kang and no it wasn't on purpose either. I am hoping that I can get one from someone else because words do not really do this thing justice.

With all the furor now erupting over swine flu I should point out that we slept only a few feet away from pigs and cows but rest assured they were not actually in the house.

In the morning we arose with the sun around 6 AM and the teams went about their business getting themselves and their rides together for the final push to Dandong. The mechanics were up as well going through their usual morning maintenance of tightening bolts, fixing flats etc.

Probably one of the cooler things happened on this morning. If you remember from the night before Trevor had his frame snap in two and it didn't look too good for his tour. We thought that maybe we could give him a lift into town or even all the way back to ZhuangHe (60 km away) in order to find a welder who could fix his bike. The kindly spirits who had presided over the riders in darkness just two nights previous were weaving their magic again however. Just several meters down the road from the places we were staying was a welder with his equipment. He had Trevor's bike up and running in an hour. It was at this point that I knew nothing could stop the teams from reaching their final desination ... Dandong.

Check back again soon for Tour De Dandong - Day 3.

Some shots of the accommodations taken on the morning of Day 3.