June 6 - June 7: Yunnan, China
The Tiger Leaping Gorge (Part I)
Early the next day we caught a bus to Daju at one end of the
Tiger Leaping Gorge trail. It was a small bus and our fellow
travellers were all twenty-somethings like us intent on hiking
the gorge. The bus ride was one of the more harrowing experiences
that we have ever been through. As we winded our way up and up
the mountains the road became steeper, bumpier, twistier, and
more dangerous. At many points all that separated us from a drop
down thousands of feet to our certain deaths was the skill of our
driver. It seems that he had driven this route many, many times
because he was very casual about the danger and was chatting
unconcernedly with his buddy next to him.
| At the top, we started
descending again, down the other side. |
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In the distance we could see our
destination - a valley between the mountain ranges where
begins the Tiger Leaping Gorge. |
At the bottom of the mountain we disembarked our bus, had a
short rest stop, and then bought tickets for another bus to take
us the rest of the way to the gorge.
| Guess what we found in the
village? Yep - more pigs! These are the miniature variety
that we will some day own! |
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Finally, we've arrived - we set our eyes on the Yangtze river
for the first time since our cruise from Chongqing to Wuhan a few
months before. This time we were much closer to the beginning of
the river, where it winds its way down from the mountains, and
the water moves quickly and forcefully, compared to the wide and
slow-moving current that we experienced near the Three Gorges in
March.
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We started here and hiked down about
1,000 feet to the river. |
| At the river we paid for a
ferry to take us to the other side. The ferrymen had to
skillfully maneuver the boat against the strong current
to avoid being swept downstream. This is one of those
situations where you are at the whim of the ticket
collector. There is NO other option. |
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On the river. |
| On the other side we
started back up again. This gave us the first taste of
what was to come over the next two days: lots and lots of
steep hiking up and down the mountain face. |
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We're gaining altitude ... the river is
below us now ... |
| Bryan's sweaty and tired
but enjoying it. |
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Nancy takes a short break. |
After a little more than an hour we reached the road. This
gave us an opportunity for some easier hiking on level ground,
and for the next two or three hours we made our way slowly
towards our day 1 destination: Tina's Guesthouse.
| Although we were the only
people around (the other hikers had outdistanced us
already), we weren't alone - there was the occasional
herd of wild mountain goats to keep us company. |
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Bryan takes a moment to stare in awe at
the fantastic scenery from underneath his batik hat. |
There were small farming villages here and there along the
way. The stepped fields must be hundreds of years old, at least.
It seems like a peaceful life, very far away from noise and
pollution and just about everything else. Since farmers live all
over this mountain, they use this trail for transport between
villages. These farmers walked the trails like the mountain
goats.
| Hey - a waterfall has
washed out the road! Fortunately, there is a way across
... |
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... unfortunately, it's just a narrow
board with rushing water underneath leading to a
precipitous drop. When you cross this narrow board, in
addition to seeing the water rush by, you hear the roar
of the water and know that one wrong move and ... Don't
look down, Nancy! |
| It's hard to get an idea
of depth from these photographs but it was definitely a
long and deadly way down. |
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But, we made it. |
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A few minutes later a man and woman came the other way with
two horses to lead across the water. Their technique was
interesting: the man waited behind with the horses while the
woman walked across the plank. Then she called to the horses
while the man threw rocks at their rumps. This motivated them to
cross the rushing waters; it was a little hard to watch because
they struggled step by step against the current and at one point
one of them slipped and for a split second looked like it would
go over the edge, but ... they both made it across safely and the
man followed on the plank, and down the road they went.
By mid-afternoon we had made it to Tina's Guesthouse, which
had come highly recommended by some other hikers in town.
| We were certainly not
disappointed with the view from our room - straight out
to the mountain face with the rushing water far below. |
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What to do after five hours hiking? Stop for a rest? No way -
how about another three hours down to the river and back! Most of
the hikers that had been on the bus with us had stopped to eat
along the way and arrived just a few minutes after we finished
off our lunch that Tina made for us. We all decided to hire a
local guide to take us down to the river to see the famous rock
from which the Tiger Leaping Gorge got its name. The story is
that a tiger once leaped across the river from one bank, to a
rock, to the other bank. The rock is the Tiger Leaping Rock and
the gorge became known as the Tiger Leaping Gorge.
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Our descent started behind the guest
house, and down we went. |
| Nancy pushes some foliage
out of the way as we descend. The weather was beautiful -
in the upper 60's/lower 70's F and sunny. But it felt
pretty hot as we were hiking at a decent pace. |
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Look - we're halfway there! |
| Sometimes you have to go up
to go down ... |
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What a beautiful setting.
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We're getting closer ... the rush of the
waters is now plainly audible. |
| Just before reaching the
river we came to another waterfall. |
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The water was so cool, and clean, and
refreshing-looking. It looked like the purest water in
the world. But knowing how filled with microbes that
untreated water tends to be, we decided against having a
drink or a wade in. |
| Finally we made it to the
river. There's the tiger leaping rock. Er, which rock? We
don't know. It's our theory that the river has at least a
few tiger leaping rocks - whichever rock happens to be
nearest your guide's territory is the tiger
leaping rock. |
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It was very loud and the water was rushing by very violently.
Nobody rafts this river and we could see why.
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Hey Nancy - don't fall off! |
| Here we are, on the very
edge. And that's our guide down below us. He was a chain
smoker - he must have smoked an entire pack of
cigarrettes on the way down and back from the river. And
he had a pretty nasty cough - but, he didn't seem phased
by the hike that pooped us out pretty well. We were all
donned in our hiking gear and there he was wearing his
cloth shoes, dress pants and blazer. |
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If only we'd brought our swimsuits, this
would make a perfect shot for Sports Illustrated. |
| The mountain started to
fall over but fortunately Nancy was there to hold it up. |
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One last look at the mountains down the
river that we were going to traverse the next day, before
we climbed back up to Tina's for a nice meal, and
conversation with our fellow hikers, and then to bed
early in preparation for the next day's hike. |
