18-Aug-2010 -- Continuing on from my success earlier that morning from 30N 104E, I drove on to find this next point. The little Chevrolet has some good power to overtake the Blue East Winds and Orange Road Kings carrying much more than their allotted 10 dun I would guess.

Stopping at a turnoff point near (as the crow flies) to the point, I saw that the road, while concrete and smooth, was not much wider than my little Chevrolet. That would not be wise to carry on as almost certainly down the road one would meet a mini Dong Feng or something other coming the other way. There were half a dozen moto taxi men there, and none would come down in price. I could have predicted that so I wasn't too disappointed. Xiao Pang (just kidding) and I set off then on his motorcycle towards "Wang Jia Bei"(at least as it's called on my map - village's true names vary according to proximity to the village and depending on with whom you speak to).

We made really good time and it was fun to just sit back and enjoy the breeze on a moto. Xiao Pang knew these roads from his youth and took every curve as if he knew it well.

Once at Wang Jia, I decided to tell him about my confluence intentions. He heard of a GPS before (they are more common now) and was not doing anything more interesting at that moment, so we continued on, following the movements of the arrow on the GPS pointing the way. We got within 1500 meters and then the distances started to grow again instead of shrink, so I had Xiao Pang turn around and hey, wasn't there a dirt road back there that we could try? So up the rocky "creek bed" we rode, both of us straddling the moto and "paddling" along with our feet to give us more upward momentum. The rocks were worn smooth, perhaps this really was a creek bed and not a road. The suspension bottomed out often, Xiao Pang and I didn't mind.

He asked, "how much further?" and I excitedly told him only 500 meters, "up to that ridge up there and I'll get off and walk" I guessed. But once we got there we were still on a trail and the numbers still kept going down. So on we continued on his moto. Finally, at 100 meters we came to a turn right up a steep rocky hill, I said, have a rest here and I'll go check it out.

Xiao Pang though came up quick after me and we took a few pictures there. We had ridden to within 100 meters of the confluence, and could have ridden the entire way if we really wanted to, steep and rocky as it was though.

True success is only achieved when one is safe at home, and so we rode back to the little Chevrolet (safely watched over by Shopkeeprs who no doubt told all passersby that this was owned by a foreigner) on the moto in the cool breeze past the drying corn and tea plantations.

Watch videos of the ride back after visiting the confluence: (suggestions: turn down volume and click on 720p button to view in HD) Here:

Video 1

and here:

Video 2