Walk new crossing No. 30 of Coastal Mountains
Trip Start
Nov 06, 2006
1
65
99
Trip End
Dec 31, 2008
Shiteping,
Taiwan
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Total Distance: 20 km
Altitude up: 400m
Altitude down: 450m
Plan in general:
You may ask yourself what will he do now that he is back on the East side where he has already walked. I had the same question at first. I wanted to go around the island and all crossways from West to East. The East I have done, all major cross ways. Now I want to walk the short cross ways between the East Coast and the Inner Rift Valley in the stretch between Hualien and Taitung, then Green Island and Orchid Island. I am not going to walk the Inner Rift Valley as it goes parallel to the coast I have already walked and because it is too wide to cover on foot - I recommend doing this section by bike, that'll be perfect. It's also very beautiful and has its own South-East Asian charm ( palm tree, rice fields ) - you will see photos as I will cross over the coastal mountain range and into the inner rift valley several times.
Today we will begin with a completely new connection, but we are even not sure it is open yet: No. 30 from Antong to a village on the coast. At 7:45am ( 15 minutes delayed ) we get the bus to Antong, one of the hot spring villages in the Rift Valley. We walk into Antong, past several new hot spring hotels and finally have our breakfast ( pau mien and cholcolate ) in the oldest hot spring hotel from the Japanese time.
View Coastal Mountains /Rift Valley/Central range
Wow, has it changed: A new hotel complex has been built, but the old Japanese wooden building with the tatami rooms has been maintained and restored for sightseeing, no more for hotel use. At 9:30 we begin our walk up to 380 meters on the very new road No.30 with almost no traffic. When we arrive on the top the road is closed in front of a new tunnel, part of the whole new link. Now, what to do? We walk on and hope noone of the workers will stop us. We are almost inside the tunnel when a man calls from far not to go in. We wait a moment and when he does not look we go in. Shortly after a car stops beside us, the man who had called us, an engineer, in it. He asks us very friendly ( walking is no option ) to get into the car and he drives us through the 2.6 km long tunnel. A bus with, we suppose, official visitors we had seen before comes from the other direction. We must be the first visitors of the public who make this new road connection in full length!!! Then we exit the tunnel and we have the full view over green hills till the blue ocean under a clear sunny sky. We walk down the new road, take two shortcuts ( which we would better not have done as it is very difficult and we cross a wild flower area with many bees, one of which stings me.At 12:30 we arrive in the village at the Coastal road I had walked weeks ago We have our lunch from stuff we carried along on a cental gathering place in the shadow. Now the proof for my decision not to continue my walk is obvious - hot, hot, hot! On the Coastal road we see that the bus will only go from the next village, so we walk the short distance and decide against walking the 8 km to Changbin village as we are melting in the noon sun. We go to a forest beside the beach, lie down and I take a swim in the ocean - as always I am alone on kilometers of beach, how wonderful.
Hot sprong resort
We check the bus station and confirm the time with a local aboriginal Amei tribe lady. She asks if we have eaten and as we say yes she picks up two plastic chairs and asks us to follow her to the other side of the road where she and her friends are sitting beside the road in the shadow of a big old tree. She is 76 and her friends over 80 - hi girls. Later a man in his 50s joins the group. Their Chinese is also not very good, but anyhow better than mine. They teach us some Amei words and tell us a lot about their life:- they only went 5 years to school, then their parents said its enough and they had to work in the fields and herd the water buffalos.
- the buffalos were only used for field work, they were no source for meat or milk
- as kids they were afraid of the buffalos when they fought each other with their horns
- traditionally they do not know milk and milk products, now for sure they do.
We show them my pictures of Germany. They immediatelly recognize and pick out the pictures with churches, asking whether these were churches, which I confirmed. As they are mostly Christians they can most closely relate to them. They express that the churches are very beautiful. A car stops and the driver asks how he can get to Yuli ( inner rift, town we were there last night ). I tell him that the shortest way is still closed and he will have to drive up the coast till Fongbin and then go on road 11 minor to Yuli, displaying my in-depth local knowledge.
In this way we stay cool, have great company, learn more about their traditional life and the time flies by like the soft breeze and without any hectic. At 2:30pm the bus arrives and we say a warm good bye. The bus brings us to a small town, Changbin, where we buy our lunch and then catch the next bus to the phantastic Shiteping camping place ( remember I have been here on my walk south ) . The place is just beside the ocean in a park, is well maintained and costs only 200 NTD for a wooden platform with roof.
The later afternoon is only reading and coffee in a nearby homestay with Lavazza coffee. The evening is characterized by many mosquitos, which force us into the mini-tent, which in turn is very warm and no wind - and that beside the ocean!
