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Published: September 25th 2018
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September 15th - Getu1 - Dia 86
Nice to sleep in a private room and not a Hostel ?. I was up and ready to explore the nearby climbing areas in look for some climbers.
I visited some really remote places, at one point in the day I changed my mindset and was just happy exploring ..not caring anymore if I found climbers. Just enjoying the different areas and admiring the landscape and Chinese farm life.
At one point in the day I found myself in a trail leading to a cave with a couple of climbing routes. The trail winded up through a village and eventually started disappearing the farther I went in. Eventually I was crawling through thick bush getting myself all scratched. I knew I was for sure not going to find any other climbers but I still kept going. Finally getting to the cave and confirming my doubts on not finding anybody ?. Exhausted I bush walked all the way back and suddenly felt a huge burning sensation on my arm. So painful! Turning around I realized it was an extremely colorful and pointy worm. I panicked, worried about what was going to happen with me. With
not many options at hand I just did the best one can do in nature... Rub mud in the affected area of skin. It helped ? Passing back through the farm fields I could hear two Chinese girls talking to each other from far away. Getting closer to one of the voices I suddenly saw the adolescent girl squating. She all of a sudden gave a high pitch scream when she saw me and then I realized she was taking a piss. Jajajaja. She freaked out!! Not much else to do I just kept on walking ?
Already 1pm and I had walked everywhere in search for climbers with no apparent signs of one. I still had one other area to go... Worth the try. The sun was peering through the clouds and it was getting Hot! I stopped for a while to take a rest and suddenly heard some people nearby. Not giving it too much attention, thinking they were farmers. I kept on going getting closer to the climbing area and then I heard voices coming from the wall high above. My heart started to accelerate as I look around trying to identify the noise. Finally seeing a
little monkey human up in a limestone wall ??. I had never felt such excitement to see another human climber before! It had been a couple of days since I had not found somebody to properly talk to! I WAS SOO HAPPY! JAJAJAJAJA
Rushing up to the wall I confirmed my doubts and found 3 other climbers! I found myself talking non-stop to them. I wonder what their first impression of me was ?. Unfortunately they were complaining about the heat and had decided to call it a day for climbing. More bad news as well: two of the three where heading out tomorrow and the last one had a girlfriend he wanted to climb with only. Ah damn, my luck runned out I guess. I honestly did not mind, I was happy with finding people to talk to ?.
We headed back to Getu Village to have lunch and chillout for the rest of the evening. I managed to find the Petzl Hostel I was looking for at the beginning and thus decided to change rooms. A much more comfortable and quite place.
The rest of the evening was relaxing. I stayed around my new 3 friends and managed
to convince them to go see the Getu Arch before heading out. Accompanying them to the arch I found out I had been lucky to get in yesterday without a single guard grabbing my attention. This time we tried, 2 guards approached us and did not let us go through. Me and one of the guys distracted the guards while the rest of the team kept on walking in. After some time we gave up and hoped the rest of the crew had made enough distance to maybe have the chance to glimpse the arch before the guards catched up to them. Unexpectedly one of the guards looked at us and sayed we should run after our friends and tell them to come back. ?? Surprised by the response we took the chance and walked slowly towards our friends. Slowly enough to catch up to them once they had made it to the Great Arch ?. Hilarious.
The funniest part was that the guards were not even angry. They seemed to play along while laughing and smiling. Successfully we all managed to see the arch before deciding to head back since we had like 6 people behind our shoulders. ?
Before heading back to my room to relax a bit I asked my new friends if they wanted to try and hike up the Arch tonight. Check out if it was even possible and if it was.. maybe try and go for a night climb the next following days. All of them unfortunately sayed no and left me alone in the mission. ?
At 10pm I got myself out of bed and prepared for the night hike up to the arch. With construction still continuing through the night I was worried of getting caught. But I walked through easily and got myself away from all the construction noise. Eventually arriving at the base of the stairs leading up to the arch. The only noise I could hear was myself walking up the stairs underneath a spectacle of stars.
So many stairs! They just did not seem to end. Until finally I was underneath the great arch. It was as if the arch had its own beating heart. Once you where engulfed around its huge walls you started hearing so much night life. So many bat's and birds flapping their wings above, most probably eating tons of insects. I walked around
the arch admiring its huge walls and identifying a couple of climbing routes. Ahead and behind me I could see the dark black arch opening up to a sea of stars. I wish I had somebody with me to share this special moment ?. I could also start seeing what the arch was going to become in a couple of years. There where empty wooden houses all around and most probably this unique place was going to be a big market soon enough ?.
Happy I went up to the arch, I walked back alone to my sweet bed. What a beautiful day!
September 16th - Getu2 - Dia 87
Today without the essential climbing partner I just decided to go on an adventure and explore some nearby villages.
It was a nice sweet walk venturing away from the busy construction work of Getu. Walking past many rice fields, amazed by the irrigation system they have in place. Walking past a small village with so many ducks and chickens everywhere and a type of bird I could not recognize ??. Loving the farm vibes.
I walked past the last visible village and started following a rocky trail, wondering where it was going to take me. I started passing through corn fields and watching strong Chinese woman carrying buckets filled with corn up and down the hill towards the village ??. This woman were not young and it filled my heart with amazement seeing them work so hard. I don't seem to understand how their backs manage with all the corn they carry around.
Leaving the corn fields I saw an attractive looking hill which I decided to climb it to see the surrounding views ?. Not one of my best ideas since nobody seemed to have ever climbed it and there was a lot of vegetation to push aside. And there was a lot of loose rock ?. But slowly and steadily with determination I made it to the top. First ascent I imagine! Jajaja. I decided to pile some rocks on top to leave my mark and as a sign of a first ascent. I honestly think I will be the only ascent that little hill will ever receive ?
September 17th - Getu3 - Dia 88
Today was the rainiest day of my entire 87 days traveling. It rained literally non stop all day.
I spent it all in the Hostel, bing watching a TV series. Jajajaja something I rarely find myself doing. But I unfortunately did not have anything else to do today ?
Forcasting rain for the next following days and still not finding anybody to climb with I decided to head out of Getu tomorrow. Time to move on.
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