Back to the glorious geologic wonder of Taiwan - Taroko Gorge. Mountains of marble, shale and schist, rivers of blue . A green film of biology - saturated with barking deer, macaques, endless avian critters, enough beetles to keep anybody struggling to keep up the count, snakes both venomous and not, spiders of all colours and sizes, pangolins (somewhere out there), mongoose and the elusive and possibly-behind-the-next-ridge-but-maybe-not Asian sun bear. And a whole whack of other stuff. And then some more.
Beautiful geology, blanketed by wondrous biology, and this weekend visited by four other mammals - us wee humans.
Friday was a Hualien night, as we opted for a Italian-esque dinner and night on the town. Early Saturday we rented a car and hit the road. After coffee, that is. Gas, coffee, then through rice fields, banana fields, taro fields, corn fields, a few more rice fields, some more rice and then to the towering majesty of Taroko (no place for fields of any kind here!).
Eternal Shrine on the left, an unthinkable sight in Taiwan on the right - a trail that is *gasp* open!
Meandering through the gorge, stopping for pictures of some sights and a few landslide remnants, we made it to TienXiang just a shade after lunch. Dropped out gear at the Catholic hostel - what I dub our 'heathen in a hostel' moments in Taiwan. Tea, break, digest...go. Splitting up, Crystal and I headed for a trial that we had previously tried but not finished, and her parents headed for another trail behind our hostel and the Buddhist Pagoda across the river.
Birds and cats....these cats were snoozing on our rental as it offered a nice warm napping place!
Of their trip I heard tales of scaling craggy trail sides with the established ropes and chains (when Taiwan trails get slippery, these become your only salvation!), being served tea by the head Buddhist master while teaching the congregation the finer points of text messaging (I made that one up) and poking around TienXiang and it's curiosities.
Our part of the day started rather normally as we made it to the trailhead, suited up and started the trail. We were expecting a hearty trek but not one of Taiwan's most leg-killing kind. After 1km of straight uphill....I made the decision to consider this trail one of Taiwan's most leg-killing kind. Stunning, but tough! The trail from the ridge we got to was thereafter the regular up and down that one might expect from a mountain trail, and along the way we caught a glimpse of three barking deer (and heard a few off in the distance...so eerie!) a whack of birds and macaques. No snakes this time, which is probably a good thing... . We got a later start to this one and about 3.5 hours later we got to the other end of the trail...and were faced with the long walk back to the trailhead to get the car. This we dreaded but, after a few moments on the road, remembered the emptiness of Taroko at this time of day (during the mid-day times there can be a lot of people doing the tourist thing). Empty, just us on the road...monkeys, birds...awesome. We got to the car an hour later, drank a few hundred thousand litres of water and made our way back to TienXiang for dinner.
Crystal along the hiking trail...not long after this we discovered our first leeches of Taroko - trying to get at our flesh. Three only, so it was nowhere near the level of Borneo, thankfully!
Dinner was another extremely "Taroko" event - bamboo steamed rice, veggies and the regular dinner fare. And Taiwan beer. Then we retired to the hostel and played the night away with cards.
Sunday was a slower start but that is the point of staying at the hostel. The mornings are so epic - no noise, no people, just you, a glorious view of the mountains and the river, comforted by the morning sounds of birds and the heat of the morning sun. Totally worth spending a while with a few cups of tea and a camera. Mornings in TienXiang is the best time and the most spellbinding moment for me that Taiwan has to offer....if I could only experience one part of Taiwan, this would be it. So experience it we did.
Cards at night, with new found friends (both of which were trying to get the best spot on my lap....but I always have room for more kitties).
Crystal organzing some breakfast delights (porridge and tea) and me munching away on a starfruit with TienXiang and Taroko in the distance.
After eating and downing enough tea on the roof of the hostel, we packed and hit up the Lotus Pond trail. This, for some strange reason, was open. So was the extension that goes all the way through another valley to a village. In the years we have been in Taiwan, the Lotus Pond has been occasionally open, and the extension trail has never been open.. Something is going on in Taroko...they are opening trails! The danger! The DANGER!! This is one of the trails that the Japanese built in their battle to try to rid the mountains of aboriginal tribes - the took to hurculean efforts and lost numerous Japanese soldiers to try to build trails into the mountains so that they could do battle - eventually winning mostly - and so now we are left with a sordid historical reason for the trials, but absolutely grand trails.
And the grand trails gave us a really nice hike, during which we saw some stunning scenery, landslide damage and enjoyed the tremendous warmth of the sun peering at us through the clear blue sky. Its been rainy in Taiwan for the winter season, so this was a delight. The trail goes along a mountain side, a walkway that is basically carved into the side of the cliff, nothing below you but the effects of gravity (until you hit the river below, that is) and nothing above but a sheer wall of schist. Stunning, scary at points, but safe. I think.
The trail along the mountainside, along which we crossed two suspension bridges. A third suspension bridge that had fallen prey to a massive landslide was the reason that we had to turn around a little further ahead.
More bridge fun and discovering an old village just off the trail. Taroko people lived along here for quite some time until the Japanese incursions fought them out of the mountains - almost. There still exists villages in the mountains but nothing on the historical, pre-Japanese, scale.
More birds and scenery.
We kept walking at this point - trail closures be damned - but not long after this the trail got sketchy and jiggly legs kicked in. A little further up the trail another bridge was washed away, so we basically got turned around at the farthest point possible. A trail that was closed for a decent reason - another Taiwanese mystical moment!
Hike finished, back to the car...home. Our goodbye to Taroko said, we paddled our little rental car back to the city.
