journey to the west: video action

It is now more than five years since I worked out the bike ride I called ‘journey to the west’, after the Chinese literary classic of the same name. The initial exploration was documented in Journey to the West and Journey to the West: Part 2, but it quickly became apparent that there was a lot of scope for improving (i.e. extending) the basic route.

For example, I described the ‘yellow brick road’ that is featured in the following video in Journey to the West: Part 4. Check out the photos in this post: there are no ‘no bikes’ signs. I described why we’ve ignored them since they appeared in Outrageous. However, the most amusing part of this video occurs before we reach the yellow brick road, when a lizard runs across the road in front of us, causing Paula to swerve across in front of me. This still from the video shows the lizard:

The yellow brick road was quite dirty in my original photos, because for some unknown reason construction vehicles had been coming this way, but thankfully they no longer do so:

And these are the offending ‘no bikes’ signs:

I had intended to make this video and the next contiguous, but Paula went to the left at the point shown in the previous image, while I went to the right. The two routes rejoin further on, but Paula decided that she had gone the wrong way, so I had to wait for her to catch up before proceeding.

The narrow path featured in the next video was probably the first I ever explored. I can still recall how it went on and on, and I kept expecting it to peter out eventually, as many such paths tend to do. This is Paula at the start of the path:

Notice how good—and wide—the path is to start with:

It’s a while before the surface begins to deteriorate:

I’ve included the next two images because the fence on the right wasn’t there when I first came this way. In the first image, the original path probably continued straight on to the right of the fence, although it is no longer obvious:

This image shows the original path, no longer accessible, coming in from the right:

I’ve no idea what lay behind this blatant encroachment on the original path, but at least whoever was responsible provided an alternative!

I’ve just realized that I’ve never previously described the narrow path that is featured in the next video. The start of this path (1:18 on the video) represents the furthest point from home on journey to the west. I did try to extend the route hereabouts, but I was not successful.

Here are four video stills that provide a flavour of this path, which doesn’t harbour any serious technical difficulties:

Paula doesn’t appear to be trying too hard here, but the section shown in the last picture is downhill—and exciting if nobody is coming the other way!

The previous videos feature the results of my explorations in the west, but I found two extended diversions on the way back that provided an alternative to simply following the outward route. I described the first of these in Fish Pond Alley, which added 4km to the overall journey. I’ve not included any video stills, because Paula wasn’t sure of the route, so I went in front, but the video follows the causeways between individual fish ponds out in the northwest of the New Territories.

These fish ponds, and nearby wetlands, are important stopping-off points for migrating birds in December and January. I’ve seen cormorants, spoonbills, avocets, ducks and a few other species I don’t recognize—I’m no expert—here, and I plan to try to capture some of this on video next season.

I call the second diversion ‘the Tam Mei loop’, after the village that it passes through. It starts with an uphill dirt road, which I’ve not included in the video. The rest goes along what might be called ‘proper’ roads. There is almost no traffic on the first section, which is something of a switchback—and therefore fun to ride at speed! Each of the following video stills captures a separate downhill section, but watch the video to get a true sense of the excitement. You can find more information in Journey to the West: Part 5.

By far the most difficult section of the entire route is the snake path, which I discovered when I was trying to avoid having to pass through San Tin Barracks and which I first described in Journey to the West: Part 4. I’d only ridden this section once this winter before trying to shoot a video, and this was the first time ever that Paula had been in front, I was surprised to spot her scooting across the fourth dodgy bridge, although to be fair there is no railing on the far side of the bridge and quite a big drop into the stream if you cock up the turn. Nevertheless, I have no hesitation in publishing the evidence:

Not once have I ever put my foot down here!

Further on, I was disappointed when Paula stopped at a section that had become quite overgrown. However, none of this section is easy, and here is a video still from beyond the point where she stopped that I’d been wondering how to handle:

Paula’s handlebar is not as wide as mine, so she can keep left here. I have to drop onto the right-hand section, and although it isn’t obvious from the image, it is canted at quite a steep angle to the right and feels as though it’s about to slide off into the pond on the right, possibly with me on it! I scrape my left pedal when riding across it, which provides a good measure of how steeply tilted it is.

I really must do this route more often, although in justifying why I haven’t, I can point to a huge list of other cycling options that I’ve discovered in the past year, none of which is any easier than journey to the west.