Don't go chasing waterfalls

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There's a song by TLC called "Don't go chasing waterfalls" and after this adventure it is definitely something I think everyone should live by!

Laura and Val had read about a mountain that had beautiful cherry blossoms, gushing waterfalls and fruit you could pick from the trees and eat. The waterfalls, cherry blossom and fruit were all on the same hike path so we decided to do it.

We found out where we had to go and met at the tube station. We then had to take a bus. We thought we knew which bus we wanted but a Chinese lady said we needed a different bus. Why wouldn't we listen to her? She's local and knows the area better than we do. The bus she suggested arrived and so we got on.

The hike was in a national park and the entrance to the park was through a building site. To begin with we thought we were going the wrong way but we came out of the building site and found the park entrance. We had to sign in to be able to enter, we didnt have to pay just leave our name and a phone number.

The first part was a road and after a little while we got fed up of big lorries going past us, there was more building work further down the road. We found a path off the road leading in the direction we wanted so we followed it. We went up the hill and wheen we got to the top found that the way down consisted of hundreds of steps, some so narrow even with our feet sideways we couldn't fit on. They were steep too. We managed to get down the steps slowly and found the bottom of the path was closed because of the building works ahead!!

None of us wanted to go back up those steps so we decided to go through a bush and see what was on the other side. After a few fights with bushes and trees, we found a pond with a waterfall flowing down in to it. It wasn't any of the waterfalls we were looking for but it was nice all the same.

We realised we had two options, go back the way we had just come and back up those stairs or climb up the waterfall - so up the waterfall we went. IT may not have been our cleverest idea but it worked and Laura, Val and I were at the top. Fiona had hurt her foot and couldn't make the climb up. It was still early in the day so she decided to go home and promised to keep in touch through We Chat.

The three of us then carried on with our hike. There was no path and so we had to fight through bushes, trees, bugs, mud everything. One tree even had spikes on it so you couldn't use it for support without getting hurt, nature was out to get us.

We carried on in the right direction our phone maps were telling us where to go and ended up going down a hill. When we got to the bottom there was a river. We could either turn around and retrace our steps or walk along the river, in either direction. We decided to walk along the river and go left, following the current. You couldn't walk on the riverbank because of bushes, so we walked in the river. The river slopped downwards and suddenly we found it blocked by boulders. We couldn't pass them and it was getting later and later in to the day.

We turned around and went back up the hill. It was getting dark and even though Laura and I knew where we were and in what direction we had to go to get back to the construction site, we also knew it was still a couple of hours hike until the waterfall and by then it would be pitch black and none of us wanted to climb down a running water fall in the dark! We were discussing which other direction we should go when we noticed Val was on the phone - to the police. She was calling for help.

We rang our company to explain what had happened and we told to get a taxi we told them we'd already rang the police for help and gave them the number of the police team for them to contact.

So there we were on a mountain side, a person down, slightly lost, in the dark with the police coming to find us. We were told Mountain Rescue were also coming to look for us. As there was no path or road close by we had nowhere to actually tell them where we were. We could just send pin points on We Chat and tell them where we entered the park and the direction we had hiked.

We sat there for hours, keeping contact with the police, mountain rescue and our company. Finally we heard police sirens in the distance. We sat waiting, getting cold, no food or water. It was dark and getting very late.

After three hours we heard people shouting and saw flash lights. We walked a little in the direction of the shouting but with it being so dark we couldn't see anything. We waited around another 45 minutes for them to get to us and the first thing they did, before giving us water or asking if we were OK was to take our picture!

We then started the hike back. They had come from a different direction so we followed them back towards the river. There were two police men at this point. When we got to the river they told us we had to walk a little way in it, so we got in and followed. One of the police didn't walk in the river - he walked along the path. Why we couldn't do that I'll never know. He had taken his torch with him and the other policeman was at the front with Val so Laura and I were walking in a rocky river with no light. Luckily we didn't hurt ouselves.

The police had stopped next to a ridge and realised we had to climb up it. So with their help we climbed up to find more police men who gave us a bottle of water and we stopped to have a drink. We then had to climb up a cliff face. The police had put a rope there when they climbed down so using that rope to pull ourselves up we managed to get to the top. One of the police man was cutting the vegetation down around us, he nearly got us with his knife more than once. We asked him to stop as we were using the vegetation to pull ourselves up and we didn't want to get cut by his knife also there was no need to destroy it.

Then we then had to go up again and twice Laura and I nearly died. There was a hole in the path that we both fell down and both of us at one point fell off the cliff and were dangling over the edge with just tge rope to hold on to. The people behind us kept switching sides which caused the rope to kbe ve and us trip and fall. Val was lucky she had around five police men helping her and carrying her at one point. Laura and I had one police man between us who we had managed to annoy when we carried on because he didn't know the way.

We finally got to the road where we found a lot more police men waiting. They took more photos and we found out over twent police men had come to help us. It was then we found out that at first no one was sent out to help as they thought we were joking!

We were taken to the station where they took our details and spoke to our company. Alistairmfrom our company had come to meet us and he had bought McDonald's and blankets. We ate and told him what had happened while wrapped in the blankets. The police then bought us noodles.

Finally after more pictures we were on our way home, the company paying for the taxi ride home. It was around midnight by the time we got home. We knew Fiona had made it home safely so at least we hadnt had to worry about her aswell.

We learnt a lot that day but the main lessons learnt were - don't listen to strange Chinese women at bus stops, don't go off the path and don't go chasing waterfalls! Saying that it was still one of my favourite days in China.

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Photos

The steps
You can't even see how steep they get