Yangshou

Woke up at 6pm and went into the town, seeing in the light just how big the
hill we decided to climb really is!
We walked around town and walked down to the docs, as soon as we made it to
the docks we felt the wind pick up and as we dived into a hotel lobby the
torrential rain started.
I had my trusty new umbrella but even that was useless so we waited half an
hour in the hotel with a few equally stranded chinese and watched the
lightening.
After a while we made a dash down to the next hotel which had a bar and
drank beer and ate onion rings while waiting for the rain to stop.
Eventually it did and we found a nicer (and cheaper) Chinese restaurant and
ate dinner before going straight back to bed.
This morning we hired some bikes from the hotel and used my frommers guide
which has a section devoted to finding secret parts of yangshou.
Chris demanded a cycle helmet which they provided but I decided to brave it,
but could imagine my.mothers face so almost left that out of my blog!
We cycled out of town to a tiny path through a villiage and eventually over
a tiny bridge, then an even smaller bridge, and then some very old stone
steps. The steps apparently contained parts of a temple pulled down during
the cultural revolution. At the top was a tiny goat farm with three loud
but.harmless dogs and we walked through into a hidden valley. Im pretty sure
few tourists make it there and so we walked down overgrown tracks and
through small groves of pomello trees and even around the odd sink hole!
We walked around for an hour or so before making our way back to the bikes.
The dogs followed us all the way back to the bikes and even along the road a
way, very confident in their area.
We cycled further and saw the most popular thing in yangshou, bamboo
rafting. It is just floating down a sedate section of the river on a bamboo
raft but with a literal constant stream of rafts being carted up hy lorry
and then one going past every few seconds down the river.
We gave that a miss and cycled on to a riverside hotel for lunch.
After lunch we followed our crazy directions through various tiny villages
including through a small school before finding a semi secluded place by the
river to stop. We were about to take a swim when we noticed another guest
was already using it, a water Buffalo!
Keeping well back we had a paddle and a quick swim to cool off before
cycling on.
Eventually we got back to yangshou town and went through the town and up
river to a small beach.
We locked up the bikes and climbed down the bank and went for an evening
swim in the river. We ended up swimming right across the river despite its
width and strong current which was fun.
Chris also has a water proof camera and so we messed around and got some
cool photos of our heads sticking our of the water and the mountains behind,
even some crazy underwater shots!

That evening after a much needed shower we went out for a meal and some more
shopping, I managed to resisit but Chris was taken in more than once!
Back in the hotel room that now smells vaguely of river water hoping to
sleep earlyish as Chris is climbing in the morning and we are hoping to do
some other stuff in the afternoon before the long train back....