Lijiang - Tiger Leaping Gorge

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I was up and ready at 7am, this meant I could take my time over breakfast and reply to some emails. at 8 the other 3 people arrived Per from Sweden and an Israeli couple, Chiya and her partner, this time the “minibus” was a good deal more comfortable so the 2.5 hour journey passed quickly while we talked about our homelands. the others all had rucksacks with them which they left at Jane’s hostel for a small fee, we set off but after an hour the Israelis decided to power on without a lunch break, Per and I stopped for a 40 mins lunch break before heading on. it has to be said the toilet block here was a sight by itself, it was a large concrete shed, about the size of a double garage wide with a 2ft wall separating squat toilet areas but the pane less window was a great introductory view of the Jade Dragon snow mountain range, this would turn out to be my second favourite view from a toilet so far in my 26 year existence. after sometime we found the 28 (knee shattering) bends, as the name s suggests 28 bends meandering uphill over scree, boulders and dust, seemingly each one was harder than the last but we made it. at one point a French family overtook us but we didn’t mind, they had paid for guides and mules to take their belongings conquered the last bend we were accosted by a woman selling water, energy drinks, snacks and of course no 22 Km hike at an altitude of 3000M is complete without a bag of grass! For a change rather than a literal translation of every word leading to some great signs in Engrish, she obviously had an English speaker write a short note on how this would ''help you on the 28’’, we decided to pass on her offer. in spite of stopping for several photo opportunities and water breaks we reached Halfway hostel (a much more accurate name would be 3/4 hostel) by 6pm, where we met our Israeli friends and a couple of other Israeli’s they met at the summit. 3 of them were heading to Japan so they were keen to hear my stories, I helped one of them plan his route and recommended some hostels too. Due to time constraints I had planned on skipping Shangri-La but as it was only two hours away from the Jane’s I thought what the hell, I’d make the trip. After dinner we waited for the moon to rise over the mountain peaks, it was well worth it.

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