Minor road

We chose to take the minor road south from Danba, as we thought it would be quiet and peaceful. How wrong we were.

A combination of local road works, land slips, and works depots for the motorway being built through the valley, meant that we cycled for 10 hours through what was effectively 108km of construction site. It was a very bumpy, muddy and slow ride!

We spent much of the day looking up at the monstrous tunnels and bridges being built for the new motorway. Towards the end, however, we found ourselves riding through a maze of new tunnels, with numerous branches to serve the various project sites. The scale of the operation was immense. With flashing red Chinese signage, deafening construction traffic, steep gradients both up and down, and the biggest dump trucks we've ever seen, cycling through was a surreal experience.