Arriving in Lejiang (the spelling continues to change every time I look it up) at about 10pm we phoned up our hostel and they came and picked us up, which was very nice of them. The place we were staying in was Mama Naxi's. We heard about it from some people in Wuhan and then again in Kunming. Mama Naxi is fucking crazy! She's so funny though. When we arrived she asked us if we were hungry and proceeded to make a ton of food, herself, which was absolutely amazing. She put us in 2 double rooms when we only paid for a dorm and organised for us to head off to Tiger Leaping Gorge in the morning, even looking after our bags for us for free.
We got up for breakfast at half 7 and left at half 8. It took roughly 2/3 hours to get there in the back of a mini bus with some ball crunching bumps. We got to Jane's Guest House, where we never could tell if Jane was a man or a woman, and were given hand drawn maps of the gorge. Setting off at half 11 was a terrible idea. We were walking possibly the hardest part of the gorge in the searing mid day heat. Hiking along the path at some points was very precarious with massive cliff edge drops, gets your heart pumping! Alice opted to get on the back of a horse for the hardest part and frankly I felt a bit envious!
This hardest part had a name as well - 'The 28 Bends' - though there were many more than 28 and I lost count pretty quickly. As we went further and further up the view has getting more and more incredible. Even more so considering the hike was so difficult it felt very rewarding. The top of the 28 bends was some 2,670 mtrs above sea level (so we technically wouldn't have been covered on our travel insurance should anything have happened) and I saw possible the most stunning view of my life! You can see the gorge right from the thundering rapids at the bottom to the snow capped peaks at the top. We were being charged 8 Yuan to take a picture but we cunningly took about 50 behind his back (not of his back though, that would be stupid).
Climbing down from there took a few more hours and by half 6 we got to the midway point, staying at The Tea Horse. Another great guest house with good food, good beds, and some great banter. Away from the lights I lay down on my back and stared at the stars for a good hour or 2. Kinda lost track of time. It looked pretty incredible though. The next morning we got up early and set off to the end point. It only took another 4/5 hours of hiking to get there and on the way we walked through some stunning waterfalls against amazing landscapes. Oh, and loads of goats!
At Tina's we stopped for lunch and walked down to the rapids. It was a LONG way further than we anticipated but definitely worth it. At the bottom you really see just how quick the water is running. Torrents of millions of gallons of water launching over massive rocks. We went and sat on a rock right at the edge. The way back up was a lot harder than we anticipated. We went up possible the hardest route. It was incredibly steep and at some points even had ladders going up cliff faces that were barely attached to said cliff. Climbing up a 20 mtr ladder with no safety or even anyone around to help if anything went wrong was a bit daunting. Eventually, after sweating out every drop of water I've had in the last 10 years, we reached the top!
On the way back we had a bit of minibus and fire trouble. Being that our minibus was on fire. We waited around near the foot of the gorge with for our rescue which came nearly an hour later. In this time we had been lobbing stones down the cliff and may have inadvertently started a rock slide... oops. Back in Lejiang and we had more great food and a good nights sleep. Today we got a bit of a chance to see Lejiang and I wish I could have spent more time there as the ancient town is very pretty. We caught the bus back to Kunming and I'm writing this now at half 12 at night waiting for my washing to be clean (thought that'll take many a many a wash).
All in all I have to say that Tiger Leaping Gorge has been the hardest but most stunning part of my travelling so far. It's going to be really hard to top this and I would recommend anyone, who is fit enough, going to China to trek the gorge (that means you Paul). I massively look forward to Laos - a 22 hour bus ride leaving tomorrow - but will really miss China. So my next post will be written in Laos. As for China, Zaijian!
1 comment:
Hey lad, been checking the blog every few days, seems like I've got a lot to live up to, don't think my writing is quite as good as yours, Tiger Leaping Gorge sounds awesome, I've made a note of all the names of hostels, etc and I'll definately head there I think!
Paul
Post a Comment