Route 11 is an amazing road, it runs along the south-east coast of Taiwan and has enough sweeps and turns to entertain the drivers, and plenty of scenic spots for err, everyone else. The sun lasted just long enough for me to get some pics in before the first few drops started painting the roads and my weakness of riding in the rain slowed me down to a crawl.
I'd reached Hualien by 11am, the rain was really bawling down and so I decided to wait it out in a cafe, give my waterproofs a chance to reconsider their intended purpose in this life.
By 12:30pm, I'd regained the feeling in my left bumcheek and the sun was teasing just enough to chance setting off again. The original plan was to just take Route 9 back into Taipei through Yilan and be home by 6pm, no problem.
Then I saw the sign to Taroko Gorge.
From a map I'd briefly glanced at, I vaguely remembered a road that headed back north from the middle of the Gorge. Memories of waking up a little disappointed from sleeping through an earlier trip into the Gorge fresh in my mind I decided it shouldn't be too much of a detour to have a short blast into that big hole and then back out again. After all, I wasn't in any kind of rush.
So I stopped at the last petrol station for over 100km, brimmed it, and headed down Route 8.
Heh!
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