Up early, 7:00am, to get to our 8:00am bus to Qiaotou, the start of Tiger Leaping Gorge. The guest house owner drove us (and another 3 people) to the bus station.
It's a beautiful day, blue skies. The weather forecast was for rain all week.
Arrived at the start of the hike, bought our park pass, left our big bags at Jane's guest house and started off.
Beautiful views. The hike starts up this valley with a range of snow capped mountains towering over the valley.
There are guest houses approximately every 2 hours or so, and locals selling drinks, fruit and snacks all along the trail as well. A few locals were even selling marijuana at their stands ("good quality" they would say). Some locals have also setup photograph platforms, where you can pay a few yuan and get a picture. Usually you can get a free picture by just hiking around the next bend.
We stopped at Naxi Family Guesthouse for lunch, then started on the hardest part of the hike, the 24 Bends, a series of steep switchbacks going up and over a huge ridge.
The views from Half Way are amazing. They have a rooftop terrace (Inspiration Terrace, they called it) with just a grand view of the snow-capped peaks across the valley. And, I have another bathroom for my WorldsGreatestThrones.com website!
We showered, had a beer, then had supper on the rooftop terrace, as more and more backpackers crowded into the guesthouse. It started raining about 6:30 (after a beautiful day) so headed inside to the restaurant.
A huge Korean tour group came into the restaurant, making lots of noise and filling up the place. Headed to our room and read and to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment