Another sojourn to the isle with a photosynthetic tapestry...Green Island. Still not unpacked from Malaysia, we head off to the sun once again...
We made it to the island late morning, rented a scooter, packed it with our tent and hit the road. We did the customary one-lap of the entire island (a solid 1/2 hour) and then busied ourselves throughout the day finding an appropriate campsite - we found a nice spot on a beach in the middle of a very old volcano - and hiking, scrambling and checking out the hotsprings. After we had hiked, soaked and set up camp it wa time for dinner (ok....a common thread we are learning not only in Taiwan but also in Malaysia: Vegetarian, to them, includes meat. "This is the vegetarian noodles" "Oh, thanks...um....is this meat?" "Yes, chicken" "but I ordered the vegetarian noodles" "Yes, there is no fish or beef in it!"... It went totally further this weekend when the menu, perfectly segregated into seafood/noodles/meat/rice/vegetables had an oddity. Under the vegetables section it had cabbage, spinach, seasonal veggie and lobster. Lobster. A vegetable. This was not an english translation issue....this was a perfectly translated menu, and in chiense we asked her to explain the decision to put lobster with the veggies...no reason. Its just were lobster goes....hmmm.....).
After dinner we scootered back to our camp access, meandered through the brush to get to our perfectly moonlit beach. Alone, just the crashing waves and the illuminated moon.
It was calm as we tore oruselves from the view and went to bed...no wind. Then, about couple of hours later...apparently a typhoon had decided to visit us (ok, ok...not a real typhoon....but strangley strong winds) and we both woke to the sound of the tent pole snapping.
CRACK!
Then a constant onslaught of fierce winds shaking the fly and the tent all night. I think we got about 20 minutes of sleep afterwards! When we woke up and surveyed the damage, it was bad. just a tent pole, but a rip in the tent along with it was like a shot to the heart. The tent becomes a part of the family. This family member was broken in half, ripped and unable to play with us again until some significant surgery. Woe is us.
The next morning we woke to the sunshine, an empty volcanic beach and a nice breakfast and coffee in the tidepools. Then we packed up again, did a couple of hikes (short 2k diddies..) and grabbed some lunch and hit the ferry for the ride home. 50 minutes on the ferry, watching the green chunk of rock recede into the background, watching Taiwan itself get bigger as we approached it, and watching flying fish scatter and....fly.....across the ocean.
Then to the train, then home.
Another awsome Green island weekend, hot and sunny, saw some new birds and found a totally new place to explore in the mountains. We think it is either a reforestation project, a sustainable farming plot or some sort of illegal plant that is being planted among a nice clear area of the mountain forest. We have pictures...we will find out!
Enjoy the pics!
The ferry ride over to Green Island is a little under an hour, and it is time well spent with crates of eggs, open barrels of diesel (beside which people smoke) and boxes of unknown effects. To the right is a nice view of the intertidal zone of the island itself.
A bird - yet unknown - on a craggy pinnacle, and Trevor on another.
Crystal climbing up from a basaltic abyss that took us to the ocean, then pausing later to watch the "fishies" while I waxed poetic in the background about the geology...
Nothing like brushing ones teeth in the basin of a dead
volcano, watching the sun rise over the pacific!
Drying squid, trad style, and a glass lizard (?) or a species of skink. Either way...a cool critter.
Warbler? Jen....want to step in here?
Mating insects and a goat. Many goats on Green Island - brought there as a remedy for grass and quickly turning into a biological quandry. Now the population is controlled, but the word on the street is that they took their toll before they were controlled. Most are now paddocked, or hereded, and this little guy was hanging out with his mother by the side of the ocean.
Trevor on the beach, Crystal setting up camp.
The tent, with the horrid truth masked by the fly. Unsheathed....ouch. That angle of the pole does not look proper....
Trevor, on rock, scampering about, happily.
