Trekking The Tiger Leaping Gorge

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To anyone who is a bit jealous of the amount of sun that Lewi and I have been enjoying on our trip so far you might be secretly pleased to know that it was cold and raining on the morning we woke to start this
trek. So we left Lijiang and 'Mamas' a little later than planned, received a ticking off for sleeping in, but also a good luck necklace, a kiss on both cheeks and some good old fashioned motherly fussing when Lewi couldn't get his raincoat on! What a lady: she made our stay in Lijiang so memorable.

Now we were off to the Yangtze, more specifically a section where this mighty river cuts through a gorge where a legendary tiger is said to have jumped. It was a two hour bumpy bus ride to Qioutou, starting
point of the trail, which was a rather dreary town and not helped by the rain and mud.

As we trudged towards Jane's G H where we planned to store our big bags we were stopped by a soldier. He gruffly pointed at a sign and repeated "You take care yourself" until we understood. He wasn't just being over-protective, due to construction work on the lower road the entrance fee had been waved and therefore the government holds no responsibility for our safety.

We found Jane's G H no probs and over some spicy fried rice began chatting to Marissa a friendly Canadian lady. She was travelling solo but didn't want to trek by herself so we invited her along with us,
and the three of us set off at about 3pm.

The hardest part of this short two hour hike to Naxi Family G H was finding the start of the path! After that it was plain sailing and as soon as Qioutou was out of sight, wonderfully beautiful. The path was
gently uphill and we soon had dramatic views down the gorge, mountains shrouded in cloud ahead of us and swirling waters below. It was only drizzling now so walking wasn't too bad and with such stunning scenery to take in time flew by.

We arrived at the gorgeous Naxi Family G H at 5pm and were greeted by the whole family, they ushered us to some seats presented us with green tea and even brought a pot of hot coals for us to warm by. The old converted farm buildings, drying maize hanging from the walls and huge blooms of pink flowers made it a stunning place to rest for the night. While we stood on a terrace admiring the misty view we were again given more treats, fresh peaches from the garden and sunflower seeds. Soon the clouds had completely eclipsed the surrounding countryside and we retreated to the courtyard for dinner. Excellent
food was devoured whilst finding out about our new companion and then a game of badminton finished off the activities for today. We slept well in our electric blanketed bed ready to leave early tomorrow. The
only slightly strange part of the G H was the toilets, a lean-to shed covered the trough over which waste was flushed to the waiting pigs beneath, very funny indeed.

We got up and ate well in preparation for an eight hour trek today, we'd need plenty of energy! Especially as the first stage was the 28 bends, all uphill and much steeper than yesterdays gradual ascent. It was pretty tough going (nothing to Lewi the Yeti) but ultimately we were rewarded with an incredible snow capped panorama from atop our 2600m perch. It was amazing, the dense clouds parted just at the right moment to show us this amazing scene of immense craggy peaks dusted with snow on the opposite side of the gorge.

We stared across at the Habba Snow Mountain for almost half an hour in total awe of it's beauty and then began the gentle descent to Halfway G H. As we ambled through a pine forest we passed Mhari and Colin (the Scottish couple we'd met at the border) and stopped to catch up. It's strange and nice how often you meet the same people along your travels. We wished them luck on their journey and continued on our way, perhaps we'll meet them again later.

The narrow path cut a fantastic route along the ridge through forests, past clusters of stone houses, and at many points there were plunging sheer drops hundreds of metres down to the gushing river less than one metre to our right. It was an exhilarating walk with ever-dramatic, ever-changing views. The river itself became such a narrow width, it's waters bubbling with speed, and the towering gorge cliffs lent
towards each other I could almost believe a tiger did jump across.

There are lots of small guesthouses along the trail which makes planning a route easy, the majority of people trek all the way to 'Halfway' on their first day but I was glad that we'd started our day late yesterday and therefore stayed at the Naxi Family G H. The owners had been so kind and the house had so much character, both these things were less evident at 'Halfway'. However there was a fantastic veranda with stunning mountain views at 'Halfway', where we sat and wolfed down a huge plate of noodles and some chips. I think Marissa was rather shocked at our enormous appetites.

We'd nearly finished our food when the rain came. We sheltered inside until the heavy lashings had lessened to a light drizzle and then set off carefully as the rock strewn path would be dangerously slippy now. The next two hours trek was treacherous, tiny scree covered paths with dizzying drops gave way to rocky passes cut into cliffs. The scariest part was crossing a waterfall that cascaded over the path, we hopped gingerly from stepping stone to stepping stone trying not to look at the huge drop just one slip away. Hearts pounding we hugged each other in relief, and as we walked on the rain gradually stopped.

It had been a long day, utterly beautiful sights, crazy paths and we still had another hour to go. The downhill was causing Marissa some pain in her knees and so we slowed the pace watching a rainbow that glowed in the mist squeezed between the now wider gorge.

Leaving the goats and their steep pastures behind us we climbed down all the way to the low road. We looked at the L P mentioned Tina's G H (these people are so original with their G H names) but were
disappointed with the bland and expensive rooms. So across a long modern looking bridge we came to the 'New Bridge Cafe' guesthouse (again original name) where we found probably the most spectacular
view from a bedroom we've ever had. The room was simple with exposed stone walls, wooden floors and a Japanese style low bed. But the floor to ceiling windows with an amazing view right down the gorge was the best part, oh and the £4 a night price.

Both low and high pathways do continue further but we decided that we'd stay here and head back to Qioutou tomorrow. This was more difficult than usual because of the work being completed on the lower
road; they are using dynamite to blow huge holes in the cliff, causing avalanches and blocking the road with piles of boulders. So driving back would have meant two different vehicles and a scramble over a few heaps of rubble in the middle, and for this privilege they wanted to charge 150 Yuan (£15). This is a lot of money for such a short journey, so we went in search of a better deal or at least more passengers to share the cost with.

Our quest took us a further two kilometres down the road to 'Sean's G H' where a very rude Sean barely greeted us. He wouldn't even serve us food let alone help with transport because we weren't staying at his G H. What a horrible man we thought, trying not to get angry as what can we do about it? So, with our legs shaking from tiredness we marched as best we could back to our lovely G H and enjoyed a feast of a dinner in the cabin-like restaurant before collapsing onto the comfy bed and falling straight to sleep.

We had the restaurant all to ourselves again the next morning and as fortune would have it a troop of six people also heading back passed our window during breakfast. So we packed and paid quickly, joined
forces with them and headed back together. Rather than take two cars we just walked 40mins until the first road closure and after stepping over the dynamite lines and precarious piles of rock we caught a
minibus back to Jane's, only 15 Yuan each-much better.

As the driver sped along the unfinished road, sending showers of rocks flying to the Yangtze below I remembered the soldiers warning and crossed my fingers that this madman driver would get us safely back. And as I'm writing this you can see that he did! Just about.

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Photos

tree climbing
gotta get higher