Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Getting to Tiger Leaping Gorge to begin the two-day hike was really simple, thanks to our hostel, and with little to no effort on our part we were at the start of the trail. This first part of the walk was was easy enough; uphill, but barely, and very quickly you were high enough to be able to look down on the valley and river below. We were all equipped for the walk with plenty of water and backpacks stuffed with Oreos and Snickers bars, which appalled Carter, who was hiking with us and had instead packed a corner-shop's worth of dried fruit and nuts. After about two hours' walking, we reached the bottom of a stretch of the hike called 'The 24 Bends', which was easily the hardest section of the walk. The views got more impressive as we climbed higher though, and plenty of spots where you could stop to appreciate them. Local women had tried to commandeer several of these spots though, setting up tables of water and snacks for sale and nailing "Photo - 8 yuan" signs beside the best 'viewing platforms'. One of these was particularly impressive: past the price sign, you clambered down across the rocks and scree and stood looking out at the mountains across the gorge, with huge drops on every side. We all went down for a look, half of us equipped with cameras, and spent a good long time looking about - and taking photos. Master of subtlety that I am (ha), I hid my camera behind my fan as I took photos, though I'm not sure whether this cunning ploy worked. Returning to the path, the woman stationed there was not very happy with us, and less impressed when we refused to fork out for the photos we'd taken. A couple of us set off, to get a head start on those who were still taking photos, which was apparently the right decision. When the others caught us up, they were telling stories about how the woman had caught Carter's arm and threatened him with a rock when he refused to give her any money. In the end, Henry had paid her.
Not long after this incident, we escaped the 24 bends and the path flattened out again. We walked through a light forest for a little while, stopping to rest at a waterfall, which we ended up climbing. From here, it was less than an hour until the half-way house where we'd be spending the night, which was set amongst several other small buildings. An old lady with four teeth to her name saw us approaching the hostel from the roadside, and apparently the sight of us was hilarious, because she creased over laughing at us. I stopped to turn around and giggle back and accidentally triggered a multi-minute cycle of her cackling at me, me laughing at her, both of us bent over double, slapping our legs etc., which Cat had to come back and rescue me from.
The hostel, when we finally arrived, was set looking out across the mountains on the other side of the gorge, which is how it came by its "most beautiful toilet in the world" claim to fame. The toilets themselves aren't even remotely beautiful (they're squat toilets halfway up a mountain, low expectations are rewarded) but the fourth wall cuts away at hip-height to show the hillside dropping away and the vastness of the mountains beyond, which is pretty impressive. We spent an uneventful but pleasant evening relaxing at the hostel. The closest we came to excitement was when clouds of enormous moths descended on our lit table as darkness fell and everyone flipped out, Nold worse than anyone, snatchiing up his penknife and leaping about trying to stab the moths.
We only had about 2 hours walk remaining before we finished the route the next morning, but there was the opportunity to hike an extra 2-3 hours by climbing right down into the gorge itself. Those of us who wanted to try this last part, Cat, Henry, Naomi, Nold, Rob and I, left the others to a lie-in and set off early. We wasted a significant part of our head start by walking straight past all the arrows marking out the route and heading down the face of the mountain along a small farmer's trail, only turning back as the path disappeared and it seemed we were about to march right off into the gorge itself. Back on track though, we made good progress, despite stopping to take photos of the scenery at every opportunity. The scenery on this second leg of the walk was much more striking than it had been the day before (sheer drops, misty waterfalls, narrow walkways clinging to the cliff-side...) and the path was mostly flat as well, so the walking was really easy and enjoyable. I managed to fall off the path later on, when a large bug startled me, but by this point we were close to rejoining the road which follows the gorge at a lower altitude, so I only toppled over and landed in a pile in a bush, rather than down some ravine.
The extra climb down into the gorge was similar in terms of dramatic scenery. This bit was extremely steep, with some stretches impossible except by ladder, although that hadn't deterred the local people from setting up refreshment shacks at regular intervals. Water was thundering and churning past in the bottom of the gorge, and you could walk out onto massive boulders lodged in the slip-stream to watch it go crashing by. I would've stayed longer to appreciate how impressive it all was, but I was desperate for the loo so I had to turn and flee back up the mountain sooner than I would have liked.
Our whole group reunited at a cafe by the roadside and we caught a bus back to Lijiang together, where we went back to the Naxi restaurant we'd visited previously for a big meal together. That night we were back to staying up late, this time chatting and drinking with the hostel bartenders, who taught us a new drinking game and a couple of new catch-phrases: "heeey girl!" "drinking, drinking!" "double, double!" We left late morning the next day to catch a bus to our next destination, Dali.
- comments
Jim A lot of drinking and a great preoccupation with toilets in an amusing trAvel tale. Sounds exhausting.