After crossing the Xiang River by ferry, I got off on a dirt road which transversed an area of thick, marshy, fields surrounding small farming villages. One of the advantages of independent traveling in China is that, based on the sheer of China's population, any road is bound to have a bus every twenty minutes or so (at very least). The buses usually stop to pick up people waiting by the side of the road, so as long as you have a map and can read Chinese characters, you can figure out where it's going.