Head in the clouds!

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Had another good breakfast at the bnb, can't say as much about the quality of the sleep though....my goodness that bed was hard !
Loaded up the car and before we left Lukang, went to have a look to see if there was anything going on in the old street....well it was buzzing. The town had come alive!!
Again lots of stalls selling various foods, not sure if I've mentioned stinky tofu....well it is rank....but they seem very keen on it.
David got excited by the hand made knife stand and bought something sharp to go in the luggage and I bought a few bits that might appear in a dem !
Next stop Alishan National Scenic Area.
At it's highest 2600 mts.
The express road to the area was easy and fairly quiet but as we started to climb the mist got worse and worse and the roads got exceedingly more and more windy (I counted them on the way down and there was over 54) but we could hardly see a thing and David was relying on the Sat nav to see the road.
Our homestay was on a family run tea plantation....apparently...we couldn't see it.
We were given some Oolong tea and shown how to make and smell the tea properly. All very lovely but this is outside the house sort of in a lean too and it's bl###y cold. The room is not much warmer either, they don't seem to have any heaters...
We went down to the village to get some dinner...well it was almost impossible to make anything out. Again every one cooks outside and they have seats sort of inside but everyone eats in their coats! I slept with mine over me!
Chinese breakfast...congee (I think) sort of rice porridge, pork fluff (I think it is dried pork that has been shredded to look like candy floss and slightly sweet) and peanuts...actually not bad! Still in my coat!

We had a half hour drive to get to the actual park and again it was misty in the morning but being day light it was slightly easier to see the road. We were questioning the point of going to see the views ...would there be any but once we got to about 2400 mts. The clouds cleared and the sun was out !
Once again dozens of tour groups. The view that everyone wants to see is the sea clouds when the valley below is full of clouds(like the sea) and the mountains pop up through them.
We covered quite a few miles on the various trails and our calf muscles definitely felt the after effects the next day. But a good day.
The bnb were giving us an evening meal as we had booked two nights do we didn't have to go out. A nice meal, still in our coats...but an extra douvet for the bed!
So ,so much for being on the Tropic of Cancer!

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Comments

[Karen]

Hope this works
Each time I've tried to leave a comment nothing has happened. This is a test.

[Karen]

Hope this works!
It was obviously worth climbing a few hundred metres higher to get the view. Imagine what it must be like permanently living in the clouds! We've just returned to the cold weather so understand just how miserable it is to feel cold? Hope it warms up soon ?

[carysharri]

Yes it did!