The Birth of Sir Newton

Hualien City; to the west (left) are the foothills to the coastal mountains, and to the east (yup, the right) you can see the Pacific Ocean. Ocean to mountains, 20 minutes by bike.

Christmas eve we took ourselves to a Japanese bbq for dinner, grabbed some street roasted chestnuts and lounged on the couch watching The Polar Express. A frigid night in Taiwan, giving that seasonal touch to the evening.



Christmas morning in our bathroom tiled kitchen and Japanese styled living room.



The protector of the presents - Raffy.

Liyu Lake (Carp Lake) as the sun sets on December 25th. We went for a christmas hike around the trails in this park and were lucky to end the hike at the same time the sun had just dipped behind the mountains, giving us a perfect (almost) setting for a picture.

Japanese bbq on the left, waiting for our chestnuts on the right.


So Friday night was a calm affair, at a familiar restaurant and a nice movie at home. Saturday, christmas day, we ventured to a local park that is about 20 minutes away by scooter. It is one of few lakes in Taiwan, and it has a neat network of trails around it that we had passed up for too many weekends. So, we decided that this was the time to explore. A chill in the air, overcast sky and a revved up scooter.....we took to the mountains, again. The trail took us to one point of note, a place where we could look down on the rift valley from west to east. So often we get to see the east to west panorama (from the highway, other trails, our old house, etc...) so it was a nice treat to see the valley from the other side. A totally different perspective of something so familiar!

Christmas eve on the streets of Hualien (left) and a tree awaiting morning on the right.

Putting Gavins train (he will be an artist, its obvious!) on the tree and Crystal showcasing the expensive gifts I got her. Yes, pickings are slim around these parts for gifts! They will make a wonderful soup and muffins sometime this week.

On the trail, looking down to Liyu Lake on the left, and looking eastward down the valley on the right.

Another cross-valley picture from the trail, the mountains in the distance are the coastal range, and we are standing on the first hummocky foothill of the central range. Just past the mountains in the distance is the Pacific Ocean. Click on the pic and look at the big building complex in the middle - that is DongHua University where Crystal now calls home!

Close up of DongHua U and the valley we have adopted for three years now.

Park entrance. With Style.

Overall a serene weekend, which was perfect for us. Happy Holidays, we are back at work as there is no vacation time here until February. But then....Borneo!

BiJia Shan

Another weekend spent among the crispy pinnacled peaks and ridgelines of Taipei County. The most frigid weather on Friday gave way to warm, balmy sunny skies (if a bit windy at times!) on the weekend, and we took full advantage of the perfect weather.

The actual geological feature that we hiked along last weekend (HuangDi Dian) ended at a town called ShiDing. The town is situated in a valley, beside a river that cuts through this ridge line. This weekend we went back to the same town to continue the ridgeline, this time away from town. We were supposed to be able to hike straight along the ridge to another town of MaoKong, but as is always the case with us and the Taiwanese maps and directions, we ended up in a totally different, yet still magnificent area. We started fresh in the morning, made it to the ridge and spent a hefty 5-ish hours exploring before starting our downward trek off the ridge and to the valley below.

This whole section is astounding, with views and actual trails that make our hearts sing. Perfect weather, perfect hike....and we ended it all with a stop at a tea shop along the walk home and then the obligatory celebratory pizza and pint.

View along the way...

So many choices....trails sprouting off of each other along the way.

The first part of the hike was all uphill, through thick, yet penetrable, tropical brush. I can imagine in teh summer this would be a veritable sweat-fest!

More ropes (and ladders and chains and more ropes) to help people along the cliff sections, and in all honesty these are so needed. We are fine on most stuff in Taiwan, but some of these sections really, especially after a healthy rainfall, need some sort of safety. To the left of this picture is a sheer cliff...we are walking actually on a few roots (of the big tree there) that ran parallel along the rock face and gathered soil throughout the years. So....we are walking on a pseudo-trail with notheing below but air to stop us!

Morning, pre-coffee and pre-cereal, in our Taipei hostel room. Cheap, convenient and clean.

Starting early Saturday morning, we took the right buses, got off at the right stops and made it to the trailhead town of ShiDing in better time than two weeks ago when we tackled HuangDi Dian, also starting/ending in this town.

Coffee, of course, in the courtyard cafe with the lady who apparently remembered us as she gave us a warm welcoe and asked if we wanted the same drink as last time, a stroll along the road and a few questions asked to people walking by and tostore owners got us to the trailhead in good time. Sun on our backs, we took to the trail.

ShiDing, the town with the trailhead! To the left a man takes away the refuse from the tofu shop, dried bean fibre essentially. Cant figure out if they do anything with it, or if it becomes pig feed. What we do know is that it most likely doesn't go to waste...not in Taiwan. On the right, one of the various ways they write the name for the trail - same trail had different chinese characters on the signs along the way to the trailhead...oh, Taiwan, you adorable confusing place!! Also note the sign above which denotes the next place of interest is but 3.8 kilograms away.

Crystal, along the riverside trail/walkway. Such a placid place, ShiDing.

The first section is all uphill, but not too long. It goes pretty much straight up for about half an hour and then it flattens along the ridgeline and undulates its way across the Taiwanese forest.

Early section of the trail, walking through the forest for a short while brought us to an opening and a small farm/garden. This is an aspect of Taiwanese hiking that comforts us so often...the trail meanders along epic ridgelines and perilous valleys of sloppy soil and randomly pops out at a little village or garden or something. The people there are ever so happy to guide us on our way to the continuation of the trail, and in this case the grandfather motioned us along his property and to the corner of his house where the trail began again...smiles and a nod goodbye, he helped us along the way. This plant on the right is a very tastey number that I dont know the name of yet, but always a delight to eat (albeit a little daunting to cook right!).

I learned about 'cauliflory' in Taiwan, and love pointing it out to myself each time I see a tree exhibiting it. So freaking cool! On the right, a typical trail marker in Taiwan.

Crystal takes a pause along the way to adore the view, while two massive mosquitoes do their best to make baby mosquitoes on the exposed root of a tree.

The ridge itself is not a totally exposed rocky cliff as much as the HuangDi Dian trail was, but still offers epic views and a hearty workout. With the sunshine and wind working together, it ended up being one of those perfect days - not too hot, not too cold. And clear views.

Both of us along the ridgeline...it was forested with multiple open areas. Nice view along the entire length.

On top of the world! A peak along the ridge...sunshine and the sky above.

Crystal at lunch. Another delicacy we created for the road - carrots and homemade buns! And a __?__ insect we spotted along the way.

Along the trail...scrambling along roots and up roped sections which were, um, a little messy at times. Best of intents, worst of outcomes?

The trail was nice and dry, with only a few muddy spots along the way. The best part were the rope sections which are made easier by knowing that it was the mountain association that put them in, but always gives us a few scares when we see exactly what trees (or branches or shrubs or ...) the ropes are actually affixed to! Mostly they are secure, but there is that odd one that make us shake our heads. For the longer hauls op the cliff faces or steep sections that we cant see around, we hope for the best.

A final climb along the undulating trail and the last of the ropes. After this the camera went away and we were in "find the way" mode...

We got to the end of the trail, descended back into thicker forest and more wet ground and eventually made it to the road at the bottom. There was apparently supposed to be a trail connection here that would take us to MaoKong, but somewhere along the ridge we took a wrong turn and e weer nowhere near where we were supposed to be. So, we took to the little road, past houses made of old doors and fences made of used fridges, through the poorest of the poor and out to a nice little tea shop and sat down for some black tea in the fading sunshine of the late afternoon. Afterwards we continued our walk, down down down...until finally reaching a main intersection and a beautiful bus stop sign! We figured out where we were, which way to go and set about the inevitable task of waiting for a bus. Twelve songs and a drum session with a bamboo stick later, but 923 came and whisked us away, back to our hostel.

Another Taipei hike, another gem in the mountains discovered!

Ni kan F***ING dao wo ma?

A beautiful integration of chinese and english....

Me, hit by a blue pickup...screaming in the middle of the street, bike splayed on the ground, stuff splayed further around the street...obtuse ignorant driver spouting out "duibuqi...duibuqi.." (im sorry, im sorry) which is the utter rediculous repsonse to everything they do wrong here. It is meaningliess, just a cultural norm.

So, I get off my fallen bike...stomp towards the blue idiot machine and start unloading the contents of my mind in delecate and precise chinese at the driver. Thinking that this was not enough, I approach the truck closer - somehow my fist ran into his rearview mirror - whip open the door and ask defiantly "did you see me? Did you Fucking see me!?!?!?!?!?!?!?". After a few moments of this chinese-spittle-anger profusion of questions, I slammed his door with the might of a monster and gathered my bike, things and set off on my way.

I thought it was over, the adreneline and the scorn of the injustice of absolutely stupid chinese drivers being allowed on their own roads (they honesltly don't look....this is not a stereotype or an unjust assumption...they simply dont look at intersections. They stop. Wait a half moment. Look straight and then go. Sometimes they hit things, like me. Sometimes I do something about it, like today).

So, yeah. Thought it was over. Then a block later a nice man on a scooter races up beside me (as I stopped to fix my seat that got twisted in the ordeal) and told me that he saw it, has the plate number and can help me if I want it. I politely declined, he made sure I was ok, aplogized for what happened (in a kind of "Im sorry this happend to you in my country" moment) which made me feel all warm and fuzzy - honestly - inside. Polite people do exist. He made sure again I was ok, apologized again and patted my back...and set off on his way.

Im fine, totally. Just a hair raising way to start the day. And an encounter with a gentleman on a scooter that helped start the day off right.

And on the lighter side, a whole lot of people in morning traffic got to see a foreigner give out a grand old tongue lashing!

Marathon Repeat...

Here are some pics from the organizers of the Taitung Marathon. They were just posted on the marathon website, so I grabbed them:

HuangDi Dian Hike

[Update: So....I uploaded some picture without rotating them, and some pictures were uploaded to be left justified, centre justified and some with no justification. Because of that it jumbled up the orientation when I actually poseted this...but.....its time consuming to go back and figure out what needs to be re-uploaded and changed and, since time is dripping away and there are other things to be done, im going to leae this looking a little ugly for now. Apologies, all around. ]

Another weekend in the mountains!



This weekend we made our way back to Taipei to check out yet another hiking area. Two weeks ago we landed in PingXi village and hiked around the crags and up the ladders for a solid day and realized that there was so much to do in this area, so much that we had not yet seen. So much, that it required us to get right back on the horse and get our boots tromping around on more northern Taiwan trails. This time we hit HuangDi Dian, and the most popular and quite spectacular YangMing Shan National Park.



Two epic days, one on a sandstone ridge with minimal purchase on the narrow ridge line keeping us one step ahead of gravity and its urge to draw us down the cliff face on either side, and the other on a basalt flow turned grassland among undulating mountains in the north. Taiwan really doesn't dissapoint....




Us, at the end of the HuangDi Temple hike and just a touch prior to us jamming our faces with...pizza!!!


One of the peaks along the HuangDi Dian hike. Most of the trail follows a ridge line that, at many times, is sheer cliff-faced on either sides of your little sandstone pathway. Ropes help....sometimes....but not always...to cure the vertigo!


Yangming Mountain National Park - the scenery of Taiwan in the distance from the heights of the grassland (old lava field).




Crystal, pausing after reaching the first summit of the HuangDi trail. Off in the distance is the southern extent (the beginning of it) of the central mountian range.




Looking back the opposite way of the photo above, making the final steps towards the first pinnacle of the HuangDi trail - the trail follows a hectic ridge line that weaves its way through the mountains, usually a knife edge of rock to walk along.



The weekend started out without a hitch, got to Taipei, found our new hostel (half the price of every other hostel we had found, and still quite nice (enough - a bed, communal stuff like shower and kitchen, etc and a locked door). A nice base camp of sorts for future Taipei-based hikes. Weaving around looking for a place to hang out for the evening we found a nice German place, and sat down for a pint of Germany and then retired for the night. Plans made, we knew what we were going to do the next day, how to get there and we had that feeling that the weather was going to work in our favour.



But then we woke and realized that it was Taiwan, and nothing ever...ever...goes as planned. Simple enough instructions - take transit to a specific stop, grab bus 666 and get off in the middle of a well known yet tiny (300 people?) town to the northeast.



However, bus 666 doesn't stop at the station we were told to go to. So...taxi to another station. Wait. Get on bus 666....only it is going the wrong way. Get off...wait for the same 666 bus but heading out of town, not back into it. Wait. Wait. Get on. Take it to the end of the line...where the driver stopped and asked us exactly where we wanted to go. Shiding...HuangDi Dian. Simple enough. Town name. Hiking Trail name. No problem. Except, his bus didn't go there. The 666 bus does go there, just he wasn't driving his specific bus that far. Get out. Wait. Wait. Wait. A nice man who was busy making sesame oil stopped to help us figure out the bus situation....apparently only random 666 buses go past where we were. Wait. Next bus...666...no. Wait. Wait. Wait. About an hour later we get fed up and start walking towards the direction of the trailhead....then get a taxi....then get sorta lost as the taxi driver has to stop and ask a few people at random intervals where this place is that we want to go to. Then.....finally....trailhead. Lunch, liquids, go!



And go we did! This trail is about half an hour or so of direct uphill stairs....painful and steep but the wonderful reality of reaching the top and realizing that the majority of the rest of the trail is along a sharp ridge line (that in part really should be illegal to hike along...Taiwanese have weird sense of danger). Hike, hike, hike....up and down roped sections...up and down ladders to get from unmanageable ridge to unmanageable ridge...stepping bravely along a backbone of the mountains that offered death on either side. Totally a wonderful, exciting and beautiful hike. Totally worth every moment of pain and confusion to get there. For the sweat drenched views, the heart pounding climbs and being on the verge of vertigo induced limb-failure at times....we will return!

Again, we must mention the care and energy that the Taiwanese have put into these hikes. Without their ladders and ropes in sections, it would be totally impassable. But with a little technology in place, a whole ridge line is open to everyone who is willing to sweat it out to get there. The beauty of Taiwan is made open-source, so to speak.

Waiting for the bus...on the left we wait at the MRT station bus stop for the 666 bus that would eventually take us the wrong way; on the right a scenic moment as we waited for the 'other' 666 bus that could take us the final 10 minutes or so down the road. As it never came....a taxi helped us out shortly after this pic was taken.

Finally! Made it to the trailhead, grabbed some lunch and then started the uphill climb. Along the way a beautiful little caterpillar made a guest appearance!

Another fine view along the forested section - post stairs, pre-peak.

Crystal taking time to (trust) use the first roped section....its a little steeper than the picture lets on...

The view from the top on the left, crawling along the peak (ok, I froze....calmed my vertigo and started to crawl backwards down from the peak....im not ashamed of the truth!)

This is the approach to the first main ridge line. We finished the stairs, hiked through the woods for a short while and then finally popped out into the clear sunshine and rocky tipped peak.

Walking along the final ridge-line section on the left, waiting to start the longer ladder climb on the right.

Crystal climbing up one of the longer ladders, and descending the last one. Check out the video below...

Descending the last ladder on the trail. The sandstone is so soft here that the rungs of the ladder each make their own little divot in the rock ... years of use and friction have dug out a veritable imprint of the ladder on the rock!

Sunday we awoke to another splendid day, perhaps better than Saturday. So, we hopped on the easily accessible bus and made our way north to YangMing Shan National Park. A beautiful park that is super close to the city. Good for day trips, but diverse, big and technical and exciting enough to spend a few days on an overnight journey. Someday, perhaps. Today was a day trip to an area that we wanted to explore for some time - the grasslands. Still mountains, this old volcanic area was recently - geologically - a region of extreme activity and the ground on which we walked was a well defined lava bed. Time has turned it into a biologically diverse undulating region. surrounded by ridges of mountains as far as you can see. And, if you are lucky (or unlucky) you can see Taipei itself. So close, yet in such a different world. So goes the paradox of Taiwan.

Ahead is an extinct volcano (I do believe it is the main source of the lava flows that formed the current landscape of the area we were hiking in). Some of these mountains - the ones that are directly along the main fault - still puff out steam and provide ample hotsprings throughout the park. On the right, me standing beside the 'grass' that took over this lava field.

Peering off towards the south-east of Taiwan, sitting on a geological wonder.

Where are we....were can we go....what is the name of that mountain....

Making it back along the trail to the bus stop...getting the bus back to the city and hopping on the train home, we (without seats, so we had a nice 3 hour ride on our arses by the door...) made it home alive and well....and pumped once again to go back and explore another nook of Taiwans vast and endless secret spots!

On the train...three hourse of this. You will have to turn your head because I uploaded these before I realized I forgot to rotate them. Anybody versed in blogger.com will tell you that to upload a pic after writing a post is the most frustrating thing you can do, so im not deleting and re-uploading. You can use this as neck exercise!

Crystal climbng, below: