Reach highest point Yakou-stay in Hostel
Trip Start
Nov 06, 2006
1
61
99
Trip End
Dec 31, 2008
Yakou,
Taiwan
Friday, May 25, 2007
Total Distance: 17 km
Altitude up: 850m
Altitude down: 400m
It still feels early - 5:15 am and waking up. But then, when you go out into the crisp morning air with the sun rising from behind the mountains flooding them at first in a reddish color, then later turning yellow. We go up to the shrine and the pond we saw yesterday and inhale the beautiful sun-flooded high altitude mountain scenery. At 7:00am we have breakfast - Shi fan with scrambled eggs with tomatos, green vegetables, shreddered pork meat and peanuts. When we leave the man who works as manger in the private Chi Mei Museum Foundation has already left and we hope we will see him during the day as he wants to walk to the Yakou tunnel and then return. We will walk up on the road from 2200 meters to 2.720 m., not counting the detour up a mountain on the side. This area from here to Yakou has many trail heads to different mountains. The day starts beautifully, but clouds and fog move in pretty quickly from the mountain tops. We meet one of the forest bureau workers from last night in his 4-wheel transporter. He offers to bring us about 100m across a section which is flooded and deeply muddy. Luckily we accept the offer because we would have walked in 30 cm deep mud. The car is swaying as it grinds its way through the mud - I wonder how a normal car can drive through here.
Early morning walk to the shrine
A good offer and good that we accepted. On the other side of the mud field we have a smalltalk and he tells us that this section makes problems since the construction of the road decades ago. With every rain the road is blocked by rock and mud slide. He is now observing a huge rock dangling dangerously on the slope above the road. They expect it to fall any time. Later we also pass by the exit/entry to another trail section of the old Japanese trail we had walked yesterday - the other side of the trail is in Tienchih, but we did not take this section as it shows a closed sign.We walk on until we get to the entrance of the Ta Guan Shan mountail trail. The sign says that the mounatin stands at 3.220m and the trail is 2.2.km long with an expected time of 2 hours one way. We leave or backpacks near the entrance behind some bushes, although the likelyhood of another hiker to come by is close to zero.We walk up to 3.000m with 0.7km left. Until here the trail is easy to medium difficult, but thereafter, then the trail becomes really rocky with cliffs and kind of rope mountain climbing. Tsai Chin tries a bit further, but we decide to return as cold wind picks up and blows fog towards us, fully engulfing us with no view remaining. Also my sport shoes, although good for road walking, do not have the right grip for the rocks. The trail is very beautiful and wild. Big cypress trees stand tall and majestically. Groups of monkeys watch us from a safe distance. After a little more than 2 hours we are back to the road ( 75 minutes up and 50 minutes down ).
Panoramic view in the morning sun
Back on the road we walk the remaining 5 km. The scenery gets more and more spectacular with sheer cliffs like in the European Alps and huge, old, proud cypress tress withstanding the harsh weather conditions since centuries, if not thousands of years. A large part of this road is again a huge turn, so that for a long time we can see the Memorial of Tienchih just from the opposite side.Here we are! The famous ( in Taiwan ) 615 m long Da Guan Shan tunnel at Yakou. The tunnel cuts through the mounatains at the highest point of the Southern Cross Highway, crossing over from Kaoshiung County in the West to Taitung County in the East, also leaving Yushan National Park. The area around the tunnel is located above a water source and a fault, so there are many areas which have suffered collapse. It is also a watershed. The weather conditions and and ecological diversity show great differences between the two sides of this tunnel.The western side lies in the shadow, so it is very humid.The eastern side is exposed to sunlight. During the Northeastern Monsoons this area is very windy and often shrouded in clouds. We walk through the spooky and totally dark tunnel, water dropping or better almost flowing from the ceiling and walls, using only a small flash light. Finally we see light at the end of the tunnel, encounter one car from the opposite direction and then step out from the tunnel on the Taitung side - a totally different picture with lower mountains and wider views.
Above Tienchih
A group of young people on motorcycles welcomes us and takes photos. There is a small pavillion, but it is too cold to sit down, expecially as we are sweatting. The wind is blowing cold chills through our bodies, so we have to put on our wind jackets. We see a coffee car, but it's not open - no hot Cappucino to warm up - sigh. Another trail goes off just beside the tunnel. We walk down the road for another 1.5 km to the Hostel, an old romantic building in Tang Dynasty style. We are at this time the only guests and have to look for the only man taking care of the place. We pay 320 NTD for tong pu incl. breakfast and another 120 for dinner. The tong pu is for 8 people and another 6 people are expected for the night - a full room and probably not too much sleep. The place is very clean. We take a hot shower - wow is that good to warm up and soften the cold and stiff muscles. We wash our dirty clothes, find hangers, but no line. Finally I use the outdoor lamps to hang up the clothes around them like Christmas decoration on a Christmas tree. A group of travelers comes and takes pictures of our clothes lantern trees. Our hope that they might dry does not work out as it is too cold. We buy hot coffee cans and cookies from the reception and have our late afternoon coffee in the afternoon sun, which is quickly disappearing behind the mountain range. It is 14 degrees and very windy. I wear all my T-shirts, a sweater and the wind jacket
Dinner is joined by a family of 3, a bus driver and two young men of the expected group of six. As the other 4 are not coming we only have to share the room with 2 others and not 6. Later I build up a tower from chairs to hang our still wet clothes there for the night. The evening is wonderful, clear sky and the moon and stars shining.
Comments
Great blog
I lived in Kaohsiung for a couple of years, and left about three years ago - and now I wish I had walked round the island! What a great idea, and I think your postings are brilliant. Thanks for bringing back memories of all so many great places (I visited many you've mentioned, but on my scooter)
Thank you
It is great to see that someone shares the experience I made from his own memory. Taiwan really has a lot more to offer than shows to most short time visitors. I plan to walk up the Western mountains this year - welcome to join. Your encouragemnet helps me to write the last entries of my previous walk. Kurt