Cross Coastal Mountains via No.11 minor/Rueishuei
Trip Start
Nov 06, 2006
1
66
99
Trip End
Dec 31, 2008
Hongye,
Taiwan
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Total Distance: 26 km
Altitude up: 350m
Altitude down: 350m
Wake up 5:20am, pack tent and backpack and then up to the main road to catch the bus at 6:10. We wait for the bus of the Hualien bus company, but no bus comes. The answer we get from the locals is that the bus has already passed earlier. Damn - the next one will only arrive an hour later and we will lose this valuable hour which we wanted to use to beat the heat. The owner from the homestay we had coffee last night comes by with his wife from their morning walk. He stops and says he has the feeling that he knows me - this deja-vu feeling is also on my side, perhaps not as strong
Bamboo stripes used to make mattresses
. When he asks where I would be working I tell him and he knows. He has been a supplier of printing material to this company for 5 years when the company had still been at its old location. He leaves and comes back after 10 minutes with two Tombretta coffees - very nice of him and for us a "real" wake up elexir in the early morning hours. We get the next bus, which comes also early - this time we are prepared and take the advantage - and we arrive in Fongbin short past 7:00am, walk a bit through the village and have breakfast at a local breakfast store. 8:30 we are on our feet to walk the 19 km to Guanfu in the inner rift valley via cross mountain road No.11 minor. The road is not very spectecular, but a nice country road through rolling green hills until km 15. Almost no cars on the road, not one house. A water buffalo herd is drinking water and bathing in a river below the road. At 9:00am it becomes already increasingly hot. Only very little shadow as the mountains are not steep. Only an intermittant light breeze gives shortterm relieve. I must say I feel terrible, a bit dizzy, no power, exhausted - the heat and humidity is killing. The walk goes up to 320 meters and there breaks through the highest point. We throw off our backpacks and more sink down than sit down on a grass patch in the shadow. My vision is blurred. Tsai Chin is not much better. We eat something and drink water .
Stretching bamboo stripes with weights
. water...water... I am sure I was/ still am dehydrated. After a longer break we walk on for 2 km on a high plateau always slightly up and down, before dropping down on the inner rift valley side.At 11:30am we arrive in the small Amei tribal village Taibalang, I think pretty nice, but Isorry, for now I have no eyes for beauty or interesting things. My eyes are glued to a small grocery store with cold drinks. The old lao ban niang ( grandma owner ) is very nice. I suppose she sees that I am not in top form and offers us always present small plastic chairs and turns the van from herself to us. Now cold drinks - a few liters - some rest and life might look more rosy again, I hope. The problem is it is not only hot, it is sticky humid and no leave moves. Dark rain clouds are forming by now over the central mountain range - couldn't they have come earlier, providing shadow and as much rain to cool down as they would have liked.
In Guangfu we eat in a Chinese buffet shop. When we arrive at the train station the station guy waves us through without ticket ( we can pay in train ) as the train is coming any minute. The train ride is only 15 minutes. We pay our ticket at the " fair adjustment " counter at the exit. Outside I check the prices of the hotels, which are acceptable between 700 and 1000 NTD, a taxi driver tells us that prices in the Hongyue hotspring hotel are 500 pp and in Rueishuei hot spring 400 pp
Beautiful flower
. We take the taxi for 150 NTD to Rueishuei Hotspring hotel, the only original hot spring hotel from the Japanese time with a 100 years old part and add on parts over the years. The kind of outdoor living room is very homy. The landlord couple is retired and comes from Taipei. He speaks very well English. The tatami tong pu room they give us is a corner room with 2 sides windows looking out into the green and the inner rift valley and coastal mountain range. We keep our options open and walk the two km to Hongyue. Many new hot spring hotels have been built in Rueishuei. When we arrive at the Hongyue hotel we see that it is also from Japanese time, in better condition because it is renovated, but also less " original ". The landscape is already mountainous as we are at the lower elevations of this mountain range. We opt for the first one in Rueishuei. Just when we want to return, it begins to rain, and how it rains, as if Petrus has opened the floodgates. This is the rain we saw in form of clouds hanging over the central mountain range earlier this afternoon. Luckily they have a nice outdoor coffee shop under trees, but with a plastic sheet roof. Here we spend the next 1.5 hours when until the rain finally subsides. At 6:00pm we arrive again in the Rueishuei hotspring hotel. We go for dinner at a simple place in the village ( too tired to try the a bit more expensive very nice restaurant ). You won't believe it, sleeping at 9:00 pm and a g o o d sleep.Tomorrow? Let's see.
