Muddy hell

Total distance: 5201 km
Lincang - Mengku - Shuangjiang - Shangyun - Lancang

When we left Lincang the hotel receptionist mentioned that the road to Shuangjiang on highway 214 would be bad. Well, we thought that she must have been mistaken and meant highway 323 that branches off the 214. We knew that highway 323 to Pu'er was under construction and in bad conditions because Xavier, with whom we had cycled from Chengdu to Leshan, gave us his first-hand information. Smooth asphalt on the way out of Lincang confirmed our assumption ... for a while. Some kilometers later we realised that the receptionist was right. The smooth asphalt stopped abruptly and muddy dirt road began. Heavy construction machinery and many people hammering on stones with their bare hands were everywhere. Poor workers! The lucky ones with a rock-hammer did not wear any ear protection (remember the vicious circle?).

After 10 km riding on dirt road Sarah asked me whether or not we should hitchhike but I didn't want to. 1 km later she cursed me. We rode through deep mud, too deep so that we had to go off the bicycles involuntarily. Our shoes sank into the mud ... argh! Mud got stuck under the fenders and the tyres stopped rolling. Breaking felt like pushing sand paper against the rims. It hurt! We tried to wash away the mud from the rims but it was useless. We went through mud again and again.

At the junction where the 323 branches off the 214 we breathed a sigh of relief when we saw that construction continued on the 323. Highway 214 was impeccable but a long and painful climb began immediately after the junction. We reached the top, exhausted but happy that we made it. The descent was a long one and normally enjoyable if there wasn't ... construction again! Ohh, muddy hell! We pushed and pushed our bicycles and tried to get rid of the mud. It was so tiring! At the end of the day we spent some 90 km on mud roads. We were fed up and decided to hop on a bus as soon as possible. The next day was a short 30 km on mud road again to Shuangjiang.

From Shuangjiang the bus was supposed to take us 160 km to Lancang in a couple of hours. Before we left we had to pull up the bicycles onto the bus' roof. The bus driver did not have anything to fasten our bicycles to the rooftop rack. The only thing that we could get hold of was cheap, thin, unreliable plastic strap. We didn't trust this plastic strap at all but in the end it made its job. Hallelujah! Our bicycles did not fall off the roof on the bumpy road.

The bus ride was longer than expected: 160 km in two (!) days! The road was hell! All vehicles in front of us and behind us got stuck in mud again and again. On a 300 meter stretch we got stuck three times. 3 hours later and thanks to many pushing people we could continue. The weather wasn't helpful either and it poured down several times. Accordingly the road became worse and we got stuck even more. Have a look at the photos!

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