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Published: December 15th 2008
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Mountain cats
Synchronised purring Once again conversation opened up more opportunities for us to discover but this time we found we were running out of time so we had to be selective. Dali the old town by the lake, ShaXi the ancient town and famous market or Tiger Leaping Gorge the dramatic valley.
We chose Tiger Leaping Gorge and found ourselves up at 7.00 the next morning to be ferried by mini bus with 5 others for a 2 hour drive up into the mountains.
We stopped at the start of the trekkers trail and waved goodbye to our travel companions while we boarded a smaller van. The trek takes you up to around 3000m along twisting paths and takes about 5 or 6 hours to get to “Halfway House” By all accounts the views here are great and many people stay the night, others continue for another 1½ hours and stop at Tina's guest house which is perched above the middle of the 3 main gorges. Our van took us on the road cut into the side of the gorge a road which has been subject to landslides and there were several hairy stretches where the road was essentially unmade and the van swerved
Landslide
Road was dug back out again!! from left to right to avoid rocks or pot holes and we kept seeing views of the river far below from much closer to the edge than we really wanted to.
We eventually got to Tina's after about 30 minutes and went in for some calming green tea and a spot of lunch. We sat outside looking down the valley but we couldn't see the water. It was cold and the tea was warming but after about 20 minutes the sun appeared over the top of the mountains opposite and we started to warm up.
We had thought we would do the short trek back to half way house but the trail was too steep and gravelly for Sue to manage comfortably so we continued on the road from Tina's to Sean's. The sun was warm and we stripped a couple of layers of clothes off as we progressed along the side of the gorge but our walk was rewarded with some terrific views of the river surging far below and the snow capped peaks above.
When we arrived at Sean's we were greeted at the top of the steep stone steps by one of his daughters and
Don't look down
Bumping along beside the gorge we settled down with a couple of cold drinks and bathed in the hot sun.
There were two other people at the guest house but they were leaving so we had the place to ourselves and a choice of rooms. We indulged ourselves by paying way over our budget in return for a corner room with views of the mountains through both windows and a deep stone bath.
We enjoyed a nice meal and a couple of drinks sat outside our room under the stars and we were kept warm by thoughtfully provided bowls of glowing charcoal regularly replaced and the evening ended in mellow mood.
The next day we decided to see if we could get right down to the waters edge to where the gold panners used to work, it didn't look that far but after an hour we were only half way there but we got some nice pictures and headed back up to Sean's to our bags and the reluctant journey home. We did get a lift to the next town from Sean's daughter and her boyfriend and they put us and our bags on the local bus back to Lijiang.
The bus soon filled,
waterfall
cascades on to the road first by a man and an air compressor together with a bucket of air tools; then another guy heaving a large bale of fabric or something got on and further blocked the aisle; then we stopped for two women one with a baby strapped to her back carrying a variety of sacks and bags of produce from the market and a cardboard box tied with string that moved every now and again like something from Harry Potter.
The old bus chugged spluttered clanked and weaved its way back towards Lijiang letting people on and off and at one time pulling into a filling station where the driver picked up a rubber tube from the ground beside a pump pulled it through a window and proceeded to fill a makeshift fuel tank located between the driver and the first seat. After obtaining the required amount he plugged the top of the tank with a piece of rag and we set off once more. For health and safety he had told a passenger to put his cigarette out before we pulled in and it was a good 10 minutes after he pulled out from the garage until someone decided it ws
Tiger leaping gorge
Must have been an Olympic Tiger! safe enough to start smoking again.
Happily we arrived in one piece and returned to the Panba guest house to find our friends had left for ShaXi so we decided to follow them on Thursday so we could see the market on Friday.
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cariline
non-member comment
loved pics
hi sue and gorden loved pics of wild cats and also the mountains love caroline