After Lancang every valley became more interesting. The mountains gained in height, the valley became wilder, the rivers splashed louder. The passes of course became higher and the vegetation changed every day. Before Shuangjian we crossed the tropic of cancer and the the next day after climbing a pass we were overlooking a totally changed scenery. The landscape was arid, dry a bit simalar to Toscany or some parts of the Swiss Kanton Tessin. There were more and more flowers, trees and grasses familiar to us. We saw a first pinetree and then we heard a kuckuck! And other singing birds joined. In one of these valley we met an «old» friend – the Mekong. Once more we crossed the river now to the east.
Our riding days became longer, as we were motivated to reach the «big» mountains. We stopped in the countrytown Shangyun, the cities Shuangjian, Lincang, Yinxia, the peaceful mountain town Gonglang and «ancient» Weishan, twon of the Nanzhao kingdom in a furtile wast plain on 1500m surrounded by mountains. One day later we arrived in Dali – a milestone in our thoughts. Dali has existed in our thinking already a year ago, was one of the anchors of the route. Now we were there. It was time for a break too and the wonderful climate on 2000m was exactly what we needed.
