postscript

I’m finally back in Penrith, after a slightly strange but uneventful journey. The airport in Hong Kong was like a ghost town, and the flight to Doha was only 20 percent full. The Doha–Manchester flight had more passengers but was nowhere near full. Paula had booked our train tickets to Penrith three months ago, but I didn’t expect the trains to still be running. However, they were, although we had to wait an hour longer than we had anticipated because the airline had brought forward the timing of the second leg. And although only 25 percent of the seats on the train were marked as available for occupation, we actually had the entire carriage to ourselves.

May had been my best month in terms of distance covered on my bike in more than two years. I’d been out no fewer than ten times in the first 17 days of the month, usually with Paula but often by myself. I began to wonder whether I could manage 1,000 kilometres in the month, a feat I last achieved in December 2017, but the weather became unstable, with a lot of rain and frequent thunderstorms. And the mercury was hitting 30 degrees Celsius every day. Phew!

Nevertheless, 1,000km still seemed a realistic target, even though with a week to go, I was more than 275km short. However, I went out with Vlad on Sunday, 24th May, and as well as doing the new version of fruity pie, followed by my newly revised version of the final frontier, which avoids the village of Ha Shan Kai Wat and the psycho dog that attacks cyclists, I then thought that I’d show my Romanian friend temple mount, which is a lot harder than it looks, not just physically but also technically. We also included swiss roll, which I didn’t think Vlad had done (but he had). So that was 70km added to the target.

Then on Tuesday, with Paula preoccupied with family matters, I thought that I’d start with the Hok Tau country trails, which I hadn’t done for quite a while and are fun to ride rather than difficult. Then I headed west, where I embarked on a mini-circuit that starts and finishes at the witch’s house. Unfortunately, about 500 metres before reaching Luen On Bridge, the heavens opened. At least I knew that there was a Chinese-style gazebo next to the bridge where I could take shelter, and the route there was along a fast—and wide—concrete path . During my sojourn there, I noted five or six lightning strikes that were so close that the thunder followed almost instantaneously. At least I felt safe in my temporary refuge.

When the rain stopped, I thought about aborting the ride, but my route would take me back to the witch’s house in any case, and if I’m there, I might as well do swiss roll. And if I’m doing swiss roll, then I can also include on the money and oriental garden (video link), not to mention around 5km on fast roads that don’t carry a lot of traffic. So that was another 73km off the deficit.

On Thursday, I started with the Luen On Bridge circuit in bright sunshine. However, I’d just emerged from the top of swiss roll onto Kwu Tung South Road, with 25km already on the clock, when I had that strange experience of hearing the rain a couple of seconds before feeling it, which I’ve only ever encountered in Hong Kong. I had no idea where I might find shelter, but as I reached Kwu Tung Road, I spotted a covered bench on the opposite side of the road. That would do!

I stayed there for just a few minutes, and it looked as though the rain had stopped, but I had just reached the bottom of a hill that I wasn’t prepared to cycle up again when it started, this time much heavier. I thought I remembered some kind of shelter next to the entrance to oriental garden, which turned out to be covering the mailboxes of the people who lived along this alleyway. It was also used as an impromptu minibus stop, so I had to share it temporarily with a couple of people.

I was there for at least 20 minutes, but the rain eventually stopped. However, the road had been thoroughly soaked, so as I continued I continued to get wet from the spray. Eventually, though, everything dried up, and I headed, via a long detour, to the part of my own neighbourhood south of Sha Tau Kok Road, the only road that leads east out of Fanling. I stopped briefly at a gazebo opposite the Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall, but the expected rain never developed, so I continued across the swamp (one of Vlad’s favourite cycling segments) to Po Kak Tsai Road.

The rain started again, this time in earnest, so my target was a shelter at the junction with Lau Shui Heung Road. I made it without getting too wet, but in the course of the 20–30 minutes I spent there, I was joined by seven other people, also seeking shelter. And it would not be exaggerating to describe it as cramped. This location has restricted visibility, either by trees or by mountains—or both—so it’s impossible to gauge how the weather will develop, but the rain did eventually stop. I was the first to leave the shelter, because I still had more to do, but I eventually made it home with another 84km added to the total.

That left less than 50km to do on Saturday, but when I awoke at 5am, it was already bucketing down. It didn’t stop until around 2pm! I don’t usually do any cycling on the day I’m due to fly out, even though the take-off time is always after midnight, and in any case, the forecast for the following day was ‘more of the same’. It looked as though I’d missed out.

Wow! It was sunny when I woke up. I had to take advantage. So I was out early, and I took the following photo of the Ng Tung River, from a slightly different vantage point to the photo I included in Photographic Highlights: 2019–20 (Part 2):

I then continued to the Luen On Bridge circuit and included swiss roll, before heading south towards Taipo. My intention had been to go as far as the lumpy footbridge that you have to use to cross the railway before doubling back, but guess what? It started to rain. Luckily, there was a gazebo nearby, and the shower lasted less than five minutes.

I then thought that while I’m here, I might as well tackle the detour de force, which I hadn’t done in ages, before heading home. On the way, I spotted this newly painted graffito on the side of the ramp leading up to the first footbridge crossing the railway south of Fanling:

Crude, but you don’t see much of this kind of thing in Hong Kong. It will probably get scrubbed before I return.

On the way home, I decided that I’d like a bit of fun, so I headed for ignoble hill. I still haven’t worked out the optimum route through this squatter area, but for now it starts next to what I deem to be some kind of community hall at a long and meandering ramp that gets steeper around the second bend (20–25 percent gradient). The community hall has an interesting mural painted on the opposite side of the hall to this ramp:

To date, I haven’t been able to get a straight-on photo, because that view is invariably at least partly blocked by parked cars.

There is another mural on the house next to the mural that I included in Photographic Highlights: 2019–20 (Part 2):

The Chinese characters are a transliteration of the English word ‘store’, although there doesn’t appear to be any kind of store here.

And that was my final cycling excursion of the month: 68km and back home by midday. My final distance total for May was thus 1019.32km, which I shall be trying to beat next winter.

What keeps me going? When you’re in your sixties, you can kid yourself that you’re still middle-aged. When you hit seventy, you’re an old man. However, by keeping going, I can say to myself: not bad for an old man.