Epilogue

Days 15-27 (2-November-2013):  540 km. Mr. Iik had decided to end the tour. He rides back to Dali and takes two trains, first to Kunming, then to his final destination, Chengdu (成都). He soon starts to regret quitting: the pills seem to have worked to keep the disease at bay, his schedule wasn't too bad and he probably could keep his Achilles's tendon injury under control. But, there was no way back. In Chengdu he had a brilliant idea to at least partially save the tour: to cycle to Balang shan pass which is at altitude above 4500 m and only about 200 km north-west of Chengdu. He cycles to Dujiangyan (都江堰) and stations himself there, waiting for good weather to attack the pass. The good weather never came and all he did was to spent his waiting days in daily trips to the base of the pass at Yingxiu (映秀), then finally cycle back to Chengdu and fly back home.

P.S. He later discovered that the road S303 to Balang Shan pass had been in repair for some time and had been damaged in recent earthquakes, so the climb would be very difficult even in fine weather.

This is hardly a school example of proper packaging of a bike,
but it was free of charge on the train.

Yingxiu. Uninspiring weather to start a 3800 m ascent.

Meditation by the river side on a daily trip

Impressions from the market.

Mr. Iik's tour ended in stunning similarity to his last visit to Asia.  He could repeat the epilogue that he already wrote there: to complain about this and that and to conclude that he won't come to the 3rd world ever again. But he is a bit older now, a bit more experienced and has a different attitude. Even so the tour was a "failure", he did learn something from it. He knows now that a far-away tour is not a magical retreat where you get away from your everyday life, "fill the batteries", make a change, have a doze of adrenalin or adventure. You should not idealize it, it is just a continuation of your life. A big positive aspect of it - the remarkable freedom of travelling from a place to place, leaving everything behind you every day - will only be evident once you return home.

This is hardly a school example of the proper packaging of a bike for the flight, but,
weighing less then 10 kg it was free of charge on the plane
and arrived unscratched to destination after 3 connecting flights.
Ingredients & tools required: roll of scotch tape, piece of cardboard and a razor blade.
Pedals and seat were taken as hand-luggage,
tools & tent spikes (not allowed as hand-luggage) were taped to the rack .

Riding statistics: 1727 km, 19702 m of climbing, 94:38 h of riding, 14 cycling days, 0 rest days. Average per day: 123 km, 1407 m, 6:46 h, 18.2 km/h.