Hiking and Biking In The Countryside

This past weekend I went to T.'s and we spent some time in the countryside. We biked to a mountain, then climbed up the mountain with the bikes, then stashed the bikes and continued over the mountain into a farmer’s valley. I felt so like Maria Von Trapp!  But I didn’t sing anything. There was a lake at the bottom of the valley, so we headed down there for some drinks and relaxing before hiking back out.

Here’s a picture of the valley we hiked into:

 

It’s hazy from humidity, but you can see the lake down there in the bottom, and white farmhouses dotting the mountain side. It’s amazing to me how they can farm on the steep slopes of the mountain.

We hiked past a farmhouse and the owners met us and brought us into their home. They gave us fruit soup to drink out of a pan— frozen apricot-like fruit that had been made into a sort of compote, then watered down and boiled. You could drink the fruit broth and eat the little fruits with a spoon. We sat on tiny chairs and took turns with the pan. I tried to get the name of the fruit from them, but they didn’t speak Mandarin and didn’t write, and I couldn’t understand their Chongqinghua name for it. Sad.

They wanted us to stay for dinner and spend the night on the farm, but we told them we needed to get home. That is just such Chinese hospitality, to invite strangers to stay at your home just because they are passing through. I am in awe of how giving people here are.

Here’s a picture of T. with the farmer’s dad hacking up greens with a machete-type knife. We’re not sure what they were going to be used for. I said I hoped not eaten, as they were all over the ground, but who knows! You can see T. holding the fruit soup pot:



They live in very humble circumstances. I felt like I was in another era of China, it was so different than life in the city. We stayed there with them for a little while, then finished hiking back out.

The path up the mountain was very muddy, and I must be part piglet, but it was this gorgeous, thick red mud and I wanted to lie down and roll in it! But I sort of got my wish because I kept colliding with my muddy bike tires, getting mud all over me. And on the downhill ride home, all that mud came flying up off the tires, splattering all over me. I took a shower when we got back, and T. was teasing me that it looked like Pig Pen had been in there. Ah, I was a happy little piglet, though. Here’s a picture of me when we got back to T’s apartment, many hours later. As you can see, I was wiped out, but it was a good feeling to have worked out that hard. And I’ve got mud splattered all over my face and clothes. It’s a good look for me, I think!



I slept like a dead person that night. It was a really good weekend.