yWe’re back in Dali, where we started our tour. It took us just over 1000 kms. We will stay here for a couple of days to take some rest, clean the bikes, send some things (warm clothes, thick book) that we don’t need anymore back home, extend our visa and prepare the second stage: the route to the Lao border. So far things go as planned.

From Shaxi we knew that we had to cross a high mountain ridge to reach Eryan on the way to Dali. Shelly’s advice was to take the short version, immidiately from Shaxi over the mountain. But after some reconnaisance we discovered that this was a cobble stone road, so we decided otherwise. We rode south (we thought a good 30 kms, according to our wonderful Chinese map) and intended to cross the ridge there. This we thought would be a good road, because "the busses take that road". After 50 kms we reached the junction and we were tired, since the road went up and down continuously. By a nice 18-year old girl, who more or less compelled us to stop and take a rest in her parents’  house, we were strongly adviced to take the bus from there. We agreed gladly. The girl was very eager to speak English with us, we were her family and she called us uncle and auntie. Things can go very fast sometimes. Once in the bus, admidst hyge bags of charcaol, we realized how happy we should be to have taken yhe bus. It was cobblestones for nearly 50 kms (I love Chinese maps) and we went over 3000 mts altitude. So we skipped an extra climb of 1100 meters, that we at that moment really couldn’t have done on our own. After that things went smoothly and the day after we reached Dali, where they recognised us in the guesthouse. We have the same room, regulars you know.