Mr. & Mrs. Biky in Yunnan - China

Ragna and I fancied a new name and Mr. and Mrs. Biky sounded like a good fit for the kind of trips we do: Great and remote nature, funny and odd incidents and the human encounters along less travelled routes. Not so much super hero but human challenges the humorous way.

We went to Kunming - China and from there tried to get our cycles on a bus to the historic city of Lijiang in the north. It was not so easy in the first place with the very posh bus with its driver and his white gloves who refused to take us, but eventually worked fine.

Now our plan was to start cycling from Lijiang a day later.
The weather held us back with heavy rains and rather low temperatures at an altitude of 2500m.

So we enjoyed the old town Lijiang whith its beautifully restored old town for some more days than planned. After three days we got really itchy feet and could not wait longer. The conditions where not very inviting with constant rain when we cycled out of the city and no change in sight.

We passed Yulong Xue Shan (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain >5600m) which we could hardly see because of the low hanging clouds. It got colder and colder as we ascended and when we reached the pass at above 3000m it snowed heavily. We were both exhausted and cold. On top of that my fitness level was not too good with the flue I had caught coming from stressful work in tropical Singapore to cold and rainy weather in China's mountains.

Just a few minutes in the cold without cycling were enough to cool the fingers of Ragna so much that we had to find shelter with some heating. A rather desperate situation in this remote spot. Luckily we were close to a tourist centre bringing people to the cable cars that lead up to the mountain.
The only problem was we were late and they were closing without the chance to stay there overnight. Luckily we got at least some hot tea and could warm up and relax shortly.


Totally wet even inside our GoreTex pants and jackets we got back on the bikes hoping we could reach a small hostel nearby before nightfall. The snow was now falling in thickets and we were not really cheering.
According to our info we had another 12km ahead of us with mainly level terrain. The info proved to be wrong and after some km and slight ascends it went steeply down with ever increasing snow. It got so strong that the visibility was limited to below 50m. After the first few bends downhill Ragna had enough and suggested that we turn back because there might but steep ascents following.

A proposal I was not really fond of and had so far in my cycling life never been forced to accept. Let's put it that way: I am generally not to enthusiastic about giving up and taking the same route back, and of course who else is?!

But the facts were against us:

• The info about the route already proved wrong
• We had no tent and no real winter equipment
• Temperatures below freezing point
• We were totally wet, exhausted and very cold
• I had a flue and was surely not prepared to stay outside overnight

I agreed teeth grinding to turn back and cycle all
We had another two hours of daylight and had to be fast.
The way back was easier than expected going mostly downhill.
The certainty of beautiful guest houses with hot showers and a tasty veggy dinner gave us the extra power needed to reach the city before it got dark.
When we stopped at the outskirts of the city to have a quick bite I suddenly felt my frozen fingers and felt incredible pain. It took ages to warm them up at a little stove and I felt like a more like a mountaineer than a cycling day tripper.

Once we reached our guest house we looked like ghosts.
Out joy of the hot shower can not be underestimated and I felt like a little baby once I jumped or better stumbled powerless into a thick layer of blankets on the bed.
Ragna was still a bit fitter than I am and organised an incredible variety of fantastic Yunnanese dishes for dinner.
Soon after we both fell asleep in our warm and cosy home dreaming of freezing mountain scenery and snow storms.