I took a tour with Cycle Canton to escape the city (after all I need to get out of this city of 17 million and get to nature). We cycled through the beauty of rural Zengcheng district and celebrated the arrival of lychee season in the countryside.
We traveled 2 hours by bus before assembling where they had the bikes. There was a Taoist temple there and snacks and water. It is supposedly bad luck to take a picture of the Temple. How could this year be any worse?
I took the shorter of the 2 bike rides for a total of 23 km. We stopped often as it was very hot and we needed to drink water and allow others to catch up.
We passed through lychee, banana, and papaya orchards as well as gardens.
We passed through several villages. At one, there was an old factory that had a chimney. A banyan tree started growing at the top and it was considered bad luck to remove it. When the factory was abandoned the village decided to keep the chimney as the tree was growing roots through it to the ground.
Another had an old building that was used to protect the village before China was unified into a republic and warlords protected each village.
We had snacks of hard boiled eggs, sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and fruits (enough for a lunch) in a village before finishing and ending up at the lake.
Unfortunately I have no pictures of the lake as we were so hot we spent the whole time just standing in the water. During that time, we were about to see the solar eclipse. It was not as easy to see as it was very cloudy out but I was still able to get some good pictures.
It was also lychee picking season. This area is renowned for it’s lychees. We enjoyed them at every stop.
A very tired day and slept on the bus ride home. It was nice to get a different exercise besides running and walking.