Bicycle Touring to Australia: China, Kunming to Yuxi

My latest bicycle touring to Australia update: cycling in China, Kunming to Yuxi. 72 miles. I was on the road nice and early, and was doing really well at finding my way out of Kunming. That was until the road I wanted to take wouldn’t allow bicycles on it! Well, I’m pretty sure that’s what the sign meant. It was a picture of a bike with a line through it. And seeing as I’m new here, I’m not too sure how the police or whoever would react to me ignoring signs!

Now lost and had to rely on my compass as a rough guide to my direction. My map isn’t much use. It’s on too large a scale and doesn’t show these more minor roads. I just hoped for the best! Eventually, after five hours, I found a road that I could relate to on my map. Unfortunately, it was almost unridable, but I stuck with it as it was the road I needed. And just as well I did, after about four or five miles, it turned into lovely smooth asphalt.

It Didn’t Last

I started to make good progress with a smooth road until the road was again blocked! People put rocks and mud on the road, making it totally unpassable. While they stopped all other traffic, they beckoned me forward and showed me another route to take. I was in two minds about whether to take it or try and get past them and continue on the new road! Luckily, I didn’t. The route they sent me on turned back into the one I needed!

After checking into my 4-star hotel tonight, which only cost me £13! I went in search of beer and got offered a notebook, then a pen, but no beer! Eventually, after about six shops, I found some! It seems like a lot of hard work just to get a pint!

Haha! No Facebook or Twitter here in China. How will I survive? Perfectly well, I think! Tweeting by text works fine! But if anybody replies to me via the above platforms, I won’t see it, so don’t think I’m ignoring you.

Tour Information

It’s been years since I took this ride, but the memories (and the data) are all archived:

• Photos: See my photos on Flickr
• The route: View my journey around the world
• Videos: Check out my YouTube videos
• Tour page: Ride overview

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Subscribe to my blog and follow me as I continue to travel around on my bike. Plus, as a subscriber, you’ll be among the first to receive news and updates on future tours. If you’re enjoying the ride and want to fuel my next mile, you can always buy me a beer. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. I’m also on Flickr, where you’ll find pictures from all my tours, along with regular photo updates that I generally publish each month.

If you want to find out if I’m away touring at the moment and check my location, visit the Where’s Garry page.