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Walk along the river I want to understand why every day at 5:30am this rooster is taking to the airwaves. Good for him that he’s so excited to see the sun rising again but why not let the rest of us come around on our own schedule. Seriously what evolutionary advantage have roosters derived from crowing from the arrival of dawn to the settling of dusk? Just take a break, we humans all got alarms and don’t worry about the coming morning the physics governing the universe have that covered. So if you won’t mind I’d appreciate it if could refrain from participating in the daylong chorus of noises. The continuous honking from street traffic and the siren alarms of million parked scooters carry well enough throughout the day.
That afternoon we went to Chaun Mountain Park in Guilin to hike up one of the many rock pillar mountain in Guilin. They’re unlike anything I’ve seen in American where the mountains are rolling in the Appalachians or jagged in the Rockies rising from miles out here it’s just massive rock mounds rising out of nothing. Most sides are relatively gradual, but the most captivating are those that are purely vertical. To make
it to the park we started our hike alongside a river were we moved single file along a thin cement walkway separating the riverbank from the running river. Later we crossed the river at a small bridge where no one else shared my exuberance when I pointed out the shedding vortices (eddies) from the bridge supports. I guess only an aerospace or ocean engineer would even give it notice, so I can’t really pass on blame. Starting our ascent we first went up to a pagoda. The path we followed up the mountain was laid in stone steps and where the climb was serious each step was higher than it was wide. In the humidity and heat it was exhausting work. Our break at the time provide us our first scenic overlook of Guilin at large. It begins to put in perspective what is considered small town in China would by in large not be considered so in the U.S. Our rest was then hastily cut short when someone’s over generous reapplication of bugspray inadvertently set off the swarm residing in the bushes. I’m not sure what these things were, certainly not mosquitoes though there were enough alongside them, they
looked closer to flying ants. Regardless they got us moving off that mountain in a hurry.
Our second ascent just took to another mountain top for a different vantage point of the city. My favorite thing to see was the gridded farm fields dominating portions of the landscape and the seeming endless mountain pillars ascending into the haze of humidity and smog. Again pushed out by the annoyance of bugs we descended to the park entrance were those tried retreated to the restaurant early while the strong continued to one last climb. While the previous paths had been tough they were at least clear to follow this last one wasn’t so cared for. Already thinner then on the other mountain the route was also practically completely covered with underbrush growing alongside it. With portions of this route grazing the vertical mountain sides it was only too easy to consider the disastrous possibility of a misplaced foot. From here we got our last look over the city before returning to the restaurant for dinner with the rest of the group.
Now if only that rooster shut up I know I could get a decent night’s
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First ascent sleep through the morning, or if I’m lucky I’ll be tired enough to sleep through it.
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