Tiger Leaping Gorge - Bamboo saves Ginger !

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Tiger Leaping Gorge - Jan 08

We booked a coach one day from Lijiang for the following morning to make our way to Quintao, the start of the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek. We got on the bus with other tourists all looking to do the same thing, we were worried about who our company would be for the next two days ( remembering the nightmare aussie couple in Nepal ) but on this occasssion we got lucky ! We did have another Aussie couple, but this time they were really nice people ,also another Aussie lady, an American guy and a nice bloke from South London who we got on with really well.

We started our climb up about 10:00am on the first day, it was really steep in places and hard work in the sun, at least the sun made the pictures look better! We stopped off at a guest house for some lunch and a rest after a couple of hours. It got even harder after lunch as we had to go up what they called the '28 bends', they didn't put much thought into the name as it was literally just 28 bends up a very steep hill to the top, we were absolutely knackered when we got there! It was well worth the hard work though, the veiws were amazing along the way with the height of the gorge and the river running through it far far away down below.

It got the name Tiger Leaping Gorge due to an old tale about hunters trying to kill a tiger who made two massive leaps , one to the large rock in the middle of the river and one to the other side. Looking at the width of the river , this was a very athletic tiger as its a rediculous distance ! ( As with many Old Chinese tales, I have my doubts ! )

That night we stayed in a hostel that was ok with decent enough food but more importantly it had beer ! I had been dreaming of cold beer all the way through the afternoon. We were introduced that night to the drinking game 'kings' , i won't explain the rules but it was good fun and left us in an absolute state the next morning ! There was also some pitch black drunken toilet searching from both of us around 5am, the longest trip to the loo ever made !

The Second day was memorable for 3 things .... 1) a stinking hangover 2) more great views 3) a crazy german and aussie lady trying to out do each other with ideas for the most ridiculous route to take. It started with a group of 6 of us trying to make our way to the higher gorge path for better views. When there wasn't a clear way to go , the above two decided to come up with their own way to get there involving really steep climbs and descents and fighting through/clinging onto bamboo forests. Gill was feeling a touch delicate anyway and all this extra effort needed wasn't filling us with much joy ! Especially as we didn't seem to be making any progress apart from putting ourselves in more and more ridiculous positions. In the end it was decided to turn back as we were heading towards a sheer drop with nothing but a river flowing hundreds of metres below. The pictures don't do justice to just how crazy this comedy route was ! There is a picture of Gill who looks like she is in a bit of an Outdoor Clothing Catalogue pose, she had actually just slid around 20 yards downhill whilst frantically grabbing at bamboo to stop herself sliding further, i can't describe how funny it was !

We finally, after our mini adventure and hours later, arrived at a cafe and had a rest and some food. From there we got a minibus to take us back to Lijiang. The gorge was amazing and at times the scenery as good as the everest base camp trek.

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Photos

Beltin scenery2
This donkey came all the way with us on day one, its chinese owner was desperate for someone to 'give in' and pay to ride the donkey uphill !

Gill reflects on a 20 yard bum slide...
...whilst still hanging on to the bamboo that saved her ! I am still crying laughing while taking picture