We decided to try for the top.
10km uphill, we discovered as we finally reached the top. So hot, not enough water...but what a beautiful way to spend the day! Here are some pics (slightly out of order...oops!):
The daily harvest of Day Lilies from Chi-Ke Mountain (this is from one farm; the flowers must be picked before they bloom in order to have the potency that gives them their famous flavour. If the flowers bloom, the crop is lost. These are also, originally, invasive species that turned out to be a financial gain for Taiwan!)
Harvesting Day Lilies in the field.
Crystal biking up Chi-Ke Mountain (ABOVE) and Trevor (BELOW) getting ready to continue biking after a short water break (short...because we didn't have enough to warrant a longer break. We intended to go for a 1/2 hour bike ride or so to cruise around, but ended up on this slog. As beautiful, fulfilling and adventurous as it was...is was a slog!)
Crystal at the side of one of the Day Lily fields.
The view of our valley from part way up Chi-Ke Mountain. The humidity was getting ripe, and the next day and a half saw rain showers like no other (outside of a typhoon) we have seen.
M. Day Lily, herself.
On top of the mountain, where the Lilies are, have sprouted little villages and some cafe-style places that sell the lilies in all their forms - whole dried flowers (soup, stir-fry), cut and dried flowers (soup, tea), and myriad other harvested products from the forests and fields (mushrooms, sweet orange leaf, green tea, oolong tea). At this stop a lady went as far as to actually make us soup in order to explain how to use the various forms of the Day Lilies. Coffee, soup, a taste of every leaf of every product they had, and a warm little visit. What an end to a mountian climb!Here are two videos. The first is of us climbing the mountain, the second is a front row seat of a downhill glide. Soon afterward I managed to blow a spoke and had to wobble my way downhill at a meager pace.
