From Suao down the east coast

From Suao we went to Taroko National Park, where we could admire the amazing Marble Gorge. We continued along the coast and through the hinterland via Yuli to Hualien, where we stayed for a day. Unfortunately, Kai has a cold and we canceled our planned hike in Yuli due to the rain.

Supply is really easy. There are 7eleven or Family Mart at regular intervals. There you can find everything from coffee to potatoes, tea eggs, noodle soup, bananas and sandwiches. If necessary, the food is heated straight away - there is always hot water anyway!

There is always a large selection in the evenings, but not always for vegetarians. So we were often sent on our way with a shake of the head...

Cycling is a lot of fun - in the hinterland and when there is a separate highway it is nice and quiet, but otherwise there is a lot of traffic. Most of the time there is a wide shoulder, sometimes a separate bike path, but I think two days of complete solitude would be great - but Taiwan is too small for that. In any case, cycling is very important here and we have seen a lot of cyclists and really large groups. There are racing cyclists with really stylish bikes - 90% of them Giant and Liv and everyday bikes that people sit way too low on. You can't see much in between.

The weather was quite good apart from one rainy morning, it was always cloudy and mostly around 20 degrees. The last two days were very stormy and you had to be careful not to get blown off your bike.

Everyone is so polite and friendly and the traffic is very orderly. I had to get used to the traffic lights - there are an incredible number of them and they are red for a very long time - often 2 minutes. There are turn boxes for cyclists and mopeds if you want to turn left. You basically put yourself in front of cross traffic. I'll try to photograph one.

Everything is very exciting and I'm excited to see what happens next.