Day 5: Yangshuo

Another bicycle breakfast and on the cycles this time to the ticket office of the water caves. We locked up the bikes and got on the bus to the cave entrance, I say bus but it was really a mini van which crammed 9 people in. The road to the caves was unmade and very bumpy, an experience in itself! We entered the cave on a boat with a man pushing us along with bamboo. Unfortunately the water was low and we bottomed out and so to get moving again we had to stand and hurl ourselves along using the roof of the cave!

Luckily the boat ride only lasted 10mins then we walked. After a few minutes, our guide stopped by an umbrella inside the cave and said follow the lights until they stop, turn around and come back! Amazed and a bit scared, we continued alone with nobody else in the caves. It wasn’t so bad until the lights stopped only just round the corner and we thought this cant be the end so we put our head torches on and kept on for a minute or so in the pitch black until we saw another light in the distance. We carried on slightly apprehensively and slightly claustrophobically as some of the openings to the next light were tiny tunnels.

Finally about an hour later we came to a sign that said tour stop, very relieved we turned around and then were much more relaxed and were able to wander back taking our time to stop for photos. The caves themselves were ok but made were made more exciting due to the lone venture. We got back to the umbrella man just as 3 other people were arriving. There were some mud baths that Kris just had to go in which were freezing but a must apparently!

As we were waiting for our bus back, we sat with an old dude who lit a fire for us as it was still freezing and cloudy. We made it back to our bikes and we cycled back to the hostel for sweet and sour chicken and rice. We could get used to having a Chinese take away for 3 meals a day!
We then decided to take the bikes up to Dragon Bridge the majority of the way being on dirt road which was more of a tiny path! We got there an hour and a half later covered in mud. The bridge was not that great but it was more about the ride to get there as it went through several local villages.

We put the bike on the back of a bamboo raft and drifted half way back. This was very peaceful and picturesque, except for the dams every 10mins that were slightly white water slopes where we got soaked. As it was getting dark and the raft man wanted to get back to his village we got off and cycled the rest of the way back. At this point we were freezing and our bums were major bruised! We think we are out of practice! Back and showered to warm up we will now chill for a bit as our time here has been great but busy and exhausting. Bring on the beers and that log fire!