Away for a While...: Karaoke and HotSprings (and a landslide drive)...

The weatehr is still chilly - sweaters and toques and, at times, down jackets. However, this is apparently all subjective as Crystals parents chose to be perfectly comfortable all weekend in mere t-shirts and shorts. Hmm.....

One of the three main vents for the water; you can see where the minerals have come out of solution (white) and where the moss has taken over despite the high temperatures (green...obviously)

Close up of the picture above. Nature is simply beautiful.

Wulu Gorge, as seen from the top of the hiking trail. This view is looking east.

The weekend started innocently enough with a rented car and a drive down to RuiSui, our old stomping grounds from last year. Checking into the hotel and priming ourselves for some dinner, we ventured down to yet another old haunt, the Karaoke bar. However....although this is a well known place, it was - for us - a place of mere drinks, dinner and that is it. Never before had we actually taken to singing. Until this Friday. No need to go into details...but the night ended with a climb over a 3 meter fence, breaking back into our hotel and an almost endless supply of plates of cabbage. And Karaoke. Lots and lots of Canadian voices singing, if that is what you call it, tunes from our past. Horrid to watch to the videos, but truly fun at the time!

Above and below: Hooligans at the Karaoke bar, attempting to sing....

Saturday we saddled up in the car and headed south, south, south...then west into the mountains towards Wulu. Gorgeous gorge...heh heh...and hotsprings. It is a lovely drive however you do it, and this was our first time in a car. Previous times by scooter, by bike and by foot. By car none of the beauty was lost, and we arrived ready to explore. Popped our things into our overly nice rooms, strapped on hiking boots and headed for the forest. Crossed the suspension bridge and entered the woods...

Up and up, to the road...along the road...stopped at a natural hotspring by the roadside and soaked our feet....on and on along the weaving road that offered us monkeys, birds and epic views. Once back at the hotel, we had time for a soak in the hotsprings before dinner. Then....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ....

Walking along the BeiNan River at the enterance to Wulu Gorge; looking deep into the forest for those impossible to find birds.

A newly recognized species of pine on the left, discovered in the last decade only; walking the road back to the hotel on the right after finishing the trail.

The view, and the view! Note the terraces and tea farms on the right piture.

A night visitor on the left, and peering up at the road hiked yesterday on the right. You might need to biggify the picter to pot the road, but its there!

Sunday we decided to walk to another natural hotspring that is spouting from the side of the mountain itself. Aside from being a curiosity of nature (most hotsprings are seepage springs, forcing water upwards via pressure gradient, whereas these are pouring out waterfall-style from the side of the mountain) these are quite beautiful as the thermophilic moss and algae coats the mineral coated rock...odd shades of white and green mixed together against a steaming shale background. Totally beautiful. We poked around, soaked our feet - I found a pair of socks that somebody had left behind...yay! - we made it back to the hotel, our car and said our goodbye to Wulu.

Looking down at the river below from the Wulu Gorge road. Just past the bend ahead is the (one of the) source of the hotsprings.

The river, the view and attempting to soak in the water (which was, ultimtely, too hot to touch at this point!).

The main hotspring vent on the left; finally found a place cool eough to submerse our feet...sort of cool enough!

Upstream of the vent - biology. Here you can see tadpoles thriving, yet at the vent itself and some distance downstream there is nothing to be found (macro) except moss.

Walking by the smaller vent, and meeting friendly people along the way.

Nature as artist and poet...

Instead of going straight back home, we continued up the gorge through the landslides, tea fields, cabbage fields, landslides, tea fields, landslides, and ended up at a stunning lookout with a view straight down the valley.

Our hotel with a memorial to the god Di-Gong (grandfather of the earth) in the front.

We returned to the trail on Sunday to check out an old foundation and stumbled upon yet another trail...

Life, eh...anywhere; Lidao terrace where some of the finest tea and, yes, cabbage, comes from...high up in the mountains of Wulu gorge.

Clouds above and a few below, mountains in the distance and the memories of a massive landslide under our feet...a nice way to end the trip. Sort of..cause we still had to make it home!