Tiger Leaping Gorge part 2
Trip Start
Apr 04, 2004
1
9
34
Trip End
Jun 07, 2004
Lijiang,
China
Friday, May 7, 2004
6th May 2004
We take a shared room adjoining a spacious courtyard. There are peculiar noises coming from underneath the room. We find ourselves above the pig pen. We are in dire need of showers and are shown down to a dark enclosure of approximately two square meters. A rusty shower head pokes down from above but there are no taps nor obvious means to operate it. That's because it's a bucket shower. The owner painfully crosses the courtyard straining at the weight of two large buckets filled with cold water. They are carried up to the garden area directly above the shower cubicle and emptied via the shower head. Perfectly functional and no fuss. Food and beer go down well as we settle in for the evening watching the moon rise above the summit of the peaks
1. An overnight stop
. We reckon on about seven hours hard graft today and feel rewarded with the priceless view around us. Its deathly quiet. The mountain air is still. What a lovely life to be here.We sleep reasonably well in the company of animals. Pigs, three men - all the same to Katie I expect. There is porridge and coffee before we ship out. Today we shall be aiming for Walnut Grove. It's mainly downhill through a pristine wilderness of forests where the trails are softer with vegetation. There are piles of logs stacked here and there. I sincerely hope the cutting of so many trees is not to build cable car stations and casinos. We pick our way down a steep hillside and can see the hard road below us - the lower trail. We're pleased to see the road because we lost sight of the yellow markers a long while ago and considered ourselves lost. The road passes over a high bridge and here I think it's possible to hire kayaks or tubes and complete the journey by river. We follow the road and begin to see more frequent buildings, houses mainly. I am looking for walnut trees. Its something like another two hours before we reach Sean's Spring Lodge. Perched up to our left on a high ledge is a beer garden behind which are basic dormitory rooms. Cold beer begins to flow as we admire the view. Directly ahead of us is a curved wall of rock and forest soaring up to white peaks above. Where it meets perfect blue sky
2. Sean's beer garden
. Flowing down this curve of what is almost like the inside of a bowl are many spectacular waterfalls. Pouring into the river below where there are horses for hire. There is a laundry room and a shower, both of which I make good use of. The very friendly governor, Sean himself, looks Tibetan. He keeps the cold beer coming as he bakes 'happy pizza'. We have noticed a certain species of plant growing in abundance in and around the lodge. There are card games and good humour and soon we are all becoming pleasantly fuzzy. When it's finally time to retire to our bunk house, I see we have no en suite facilities and it is therefore necessary to discreetly launch an arc of urine from the balcony. But what really upsets Katie is that Todd has vomited generously inside the room. On our blankets and floor. It's highly amusing for us blokes anyway and a fantastic grande finale.
Some people hike further still taking small boats across the now much wider Yangtze river. We are content with having seen the best of it and rather than walk back the same way, opt for the minibus that follows the lower trail. Thereby seeing Tiger Leaping Gorge from both perspectives.
Next ; Hells Bells
