Illegal Hikes of Taiwan: Part ....

Trail closed. Or is it? No permits, no problem!

"Bu ke neng"...you can't. Taiwan, for all its glory and beauty, is a land of "No". Everything is dangerous, and closed. Its not actually dangerous, but almost everything is actually closed.



If you want to have fun, you have to break the law. Fortunately, aside from screaming park officials, wayward bystanders telling you of immediate doom and death...there is little in the way of stopping you from breaking the law. We need perspective on this. The law is not being broken in a malicious way, intending harm on others. It is not broken in attempt to gain, or to make others lose. It is broken because if you basically want to do anything other than watch TV and go shopping in Taiwan, you have to break the law. So, declining both TV and shopping, we decide to break a few laws and hit the epic and wonderful trails around the island.

A beautifully named, yet harmless, Stink Rat Snake.

Now, my use of hyperbole is somewhat off, as there are a whack of legit trails within Taiwan that are open and easily accessed. However, there are so many more - mostly within parks - that are closed. This tail actually killed a Chinese hiker some years ago, so they left it as is and closed it. Obviously it is an angry trail and one dead man is an omen of more death to come. I call bullshit. We hiked the trail and, other than the possibility of an asteroid hitting us, death was not our companion at all.

A Sunday romp along the limestone slip on the southern coast.

The mountain, the goal...the illegality of trying to find adventure in the National Parks of Taiwan.

Ok, enough of the back story. We went south this weekend (it was a long weekend as we celebrated - took a moments pause - the Taiwanese remembrance day) and strayed into Kenting National Park. The oldest National Park in Taiwan, and one of the most unique as its forests are arid, open and dry. Very tropical vegetation but a very arid landscape. Very, very beautiful. Very.


We took a 4 hour train Friday night, a 1 hour bus Saturday morning, then rented a scooter and drove the remaining half-hour to the actual Kenting city (the kind of place that has 100 people on a Wednesday and 10000 on a Saturday...many flock here for its beaches). We spent two days hiking in the woods, checking out some sights and coming upon a really weird and rare geologic phenomenon (more on that later).



Hotel/motel in Fangliao, the place we stayed in Friday night waiting for the morning bus. Friendly owner, clean inside....all that you can ask for in Taiwan!

Hiking through the forest; note the roots as they branch and ooze along and through the undulations of the coral bedrock. This stuff was so sharp...no falling allowed!




Saturday we did the regular and popular trail circuit, during which we almost immediately left the main trail and poked around sans-permit in the forest for the better part of the day. The bedrock here is all old coral, and the trees and other vegetation grows out of the most curious divots, cracks and pits within it. The coral would be impossible with bare feet, totally rough and sharp, making it a perfect place to accumulate soil and catch seeds over time. As the sea lowered, the land uplifted and soil began to form...the forest started to grow. Today, large trees grow in seemingly impossible places, roots streaming down the sides of rock like they were tentacles on an octopus. Completely beautiful.

A large coral bedrock exposure that turned out to be a grand photo op (had I chosen the right setting, it may have been better...); Birds, bees and trees of the National Park.

Crystal checking out a bird-wing butterfly...one of the many species we found in one little patch of flowers.

Butterfly on the left, forest on the right. The ocean can be seen in the distance, and this section of the forest was closed for sitka deer habitat. The deer were over hunted and lost vital habitat in the years past, so now there is a large push to help them re-introduce themselves to lost areas and to give them a safe place to live.

A view along a coral ridge. Imagine what this would have looked like when it was a living topographical anomaly under a pre-historic sea!

Forest closeup and a - I think - Taiwan Forest Pie (bird). I will have to confirm this...name sounds strange to me but this is how it was explained to me!

After the hike, some own time and some tea we got our night time gear ready, and hit the forest again to do a night walk. We spent an hour or so in the woods in complete darkness searching for nightlife - a few toads, cool moths, no snakes and no owls (which were our main goal) but overall it was really cool to be in the middle of the forest, alone, in the dark.

Night walk friend (toad) and a pic of us, decked out in flashlights and hopes of night crawly creatures.

Ok, so it was also a birthday and, not one for cakes, Crystal made me a peanut and magi ...platter. They were all gone in minutes...mmm....magi......

Sunday we returned to the park and, after asking a couple of people where a certain more rugged trailhead was (who all told us that it was closed, impossible and deadly) and passing assign warning of huge fines for anybody who stepped past the fence, we ...now don't tell anybody....we drove to a non-descript part of the road, packed our things and headed out, blindly, into the woods. We knew the general direction of the mountain (it was the tall thing sticking up in the foreground!) and we assumed the general place where a , if any still existed as we didn't get a feeling of when this trail was closed, trail might be. To cut the story short - we buschwacked through vines and thorns for a long while until we came to ....bleeding and hot....a trail. A perfectly pefect, perfect trail. Rugged, overgrown in parts and overall...perfect. We slinked into the forest, found the winding trail and cooked up a story in case anybody saw us (we were bird watching and got lost...) and trekked on and on. The views were great, the trail amazing...countless birds (for real!), a monkey or two and a lot of Sitka Deer scat. No snakes.

Morning meal in our room, with the birds and the mountain (to be scaled, we hoped) in the background.

Stopping along the way to the makeshift (ok, invented...) trailhead. One of the few flowering plants at this time (which is freaking huge!) invites many birds, making it a perfect birdwatching spot, especially in the early-ish a.m.

One of Taiwan's special birds, the 5-Coloured Bird in all its beauty!

We made it to the mountain, started to ascend and then near the point where the trail turned to a rock climbing adventure, we decided that we should call it a day. A lot of trails in Taiwan are over weird and crazy terrain, requiring bridges, ropes and such, but sometimes we just don't trust our lives to a rope that somebody - sometime - tied to a tree we cant see up ahead. This was oe of the times. I tried to climb for a bit, then hit a section that I just could not convince myself it was worth continue climbing. A fall here....not good. Saying our pleasantries to the mountains, downing some water and raisins, we headed back.

Once we were able to actually find the trail, crossed a little trickling river and got going with a good pace...it turned into a healthy thorn fest. Gorgeous hike, but deadly on the arms!

Crystal roping up to the first little lookout where we, after trying to go higher but realizing the ropes did not give u any sense of trust, called it a hike. On the right is the southern most point in Taiwan, with Crystal decorating the coral below.

Overall the trail back was good - there were a lot of thorns and we are pretty scratched up at this point still, but overall it was a grand trail. A good find in the face of "no" from the regular Taiwanese folk. Once we got back near the trailhead, we went into stealth mode. This is where we would be caught if we were ever to be caught. Sleek movements through the woods, then the grassland and then towards the fence....stopping with bino's to check the scene ahead...and we were safe. A few cars passing, a few scooters but nothing of the "your in trouble" variety (aka park vehicles or police). Nobody knew we were in there, and nobody will ever know (until now).

Again, the southern most point on the island...you can't get any more tropical than this on the island of Taiwan.

Later in the day we did some sigtseeing to the most southern point of Taiwan and a cool limstone collapse landscape. Lost of sun, lots of fun, legs burned with walking and the pleasure of, yet another, illegal adventure in Taiwan!

The picture on the left is added for comic relief...for us, at least. Yes, its ol' Trevor at the southern tip of TW. But, that is not the reason for the picture being up here. Notice (if you click for a larger version) the dude on the right...a guy who has no doubt traveled for a healthy amount of time to get here, is standing at the tip of a geologic playground and he chooses to take a picture of a foreigner. People here love...and I mean love... to take our pictures. Not because we are suave, cute, amazingly fit or perhaps ugly and fat. No, its because they can show people at home "the foreigner" they saw. Quite bizzare.

Along the southern coast is a chunk of land that has slumped over time, creating a really neat limstone landscape. Caves and the like here, though we didnt find them. Or look, really.

As we were getting ready to grab a coffee and watch the sun call it a day, we spotted two amazing things. A _______ bird and somebody selling fresh coconuts.

The sun (the bright dot in the middle) setting.

Monday - the holiday - we separated. Crystal got the first chance at taking the highspeed train fro Kaoshiung to Taipei, while I poked around the south for a bit more, checking out natural flares (ChuHuo) and a little birdwatching in the sticks.

Chu (go) Huo (fire). These are natural gas vents that, during the dry season when no rain and mud gets into the vents themselves, flame all day and night.

What better place for an afternoon nap...

Along the way home...the truck on the left is actually quite regular and the shirts on the right are...actualy quite regular. The weirdest phrases and idoms mashed together, though this one stands above the rest as it is seemingly grammatically correct.