Tiger Leaping Gorge

Many loyal readers to this blog will no doubt realize that Monica is perhaps not the most active of overlanders. And a 2 day trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan, China would have no more appeal then actually having a tiger leap at her. But I, on the other hand, could never pass up the opportunity and duly set-out with a few fellow travelers to hike the Gorge. What this means for you, dear reader, is that for this entry you will have to do without Monica's witty banter and listen to my drivel instead. You also won't get pictures (unless I can beg, borrow or steal them), as I didn't bother to take the camera because even if I did I would have simply forgotten to ever take it out of my pocket. Anyway, about the trek...

We (there were 7 of us) got up at some ungodly hour to drive from Shangri-La (aka Zhongdian) to Qiaotou, where Jane's Guest House is at the trail-head. Jane's does a great breakfast; not only can you get a Full English, but apparently also a Full American. Of course, I am not sure that I have ever seen an American eat broccoli for breakfast, but that's not the point. The point is, we had all the bacon, eggs, toast... and broccoli we needed to fuel us up for the day's hike. And yes, for those moaning, I do realize I have not updated the food blog in some time. But be patient, it will come in time... hopefully.

The early part of the trek was easy enough, if not as flat as I was originally lead to believe by Mr. He, our guide. Basically we were walking towards the upper trail of the Gorge. Now to give some perspective, the Gorge has a number of peaks on both sides which rise 4,000 meters basically straight up from the river flowing through it (a tributary of the Yangtse). So although we never got anywhere near that high, we still had a bit of climbing to do. It took us about 2 hours to get to the Naxi Family Guest House and our appointed lunch break. Interestingly, this place had free-Internet access and we conveniently found ourselves seated next to the computer. Normally, this wouldn't rate a mention, as we were able to get on-line in Shangri-La, so we had all just checked our e-mail and what not. But I will mention it, because a good part of the conversation on the way to the Naxi guest house was Rich telling us all how he rarely plans ahead and does all his travel bookings, etc very last minute. What then do you think he wants to do as soon as he gets on-line? How about check out the ticket situation for the Rugby World Cup in 2011! Not sure if he ended up buying any tickets or not, as I was thinking about the 28 Bends.

The 28 Bends was the next part of our trek and would take up most of the rest of the afternoon. The name says exactly what it is... 28 bends or switchbacks as the trail quickly climbs 900 meters to its highest point. When we got to the top, we were rewarded with some magnificent views over the gorge... although it cost you 8 Yuan if you brought a camera... ha ha victory for my camera-less self! We then had an hour or so of descent until we got to our accommodation for the evening, the Tea-Horse Guest House. It rained a bit that evening, but that just lead to an amazing rainbow over the mountains, we were able to view from the covered terrace. Otherwise, a fairly quite evening of Yak-meat pizza and a few beers.

We woke at a reasonable hour the next morning for a 10 o'clock departure. The trail on this section was a mix of wooded areas and views over the gorge. In addition, there were 3 waterfalls, one of which was quite spectacular, coming down right over the trail. It was a fairly flat section until the big descent prior to arrival at Tina's Guest House for Lunch (and where we would stay that night). In the afternoon, we hiked right down to the river-side. This was a near vertical drop and was quite tough on the knees. But it was worth it as I can not say that I have ever seen such a ferocious river. I also proved quite popular with a Chinese photo shoot down at the bottom. I have a strange feeling I am going to be appearing in some deodorant commercial soon.

It is just as well they got be prior to the ascent from the river, as no way they would have wanted me afterwards. If the descent was tough, going up was pure hell. We went up via different route, tagged 'The Ladder'. And there were two sections where you did exactly that... climbed up a ladder built into a vertical cliff face. Where there wasn't an actual ladder, there were steps cut into the cliff. It took us about an hour and half to get up, whereas to come down took about 40 minutes. Needless to say, I felt the beers afterwards were well deserved. Even better that one of the rounds was bought by the Korean James Bond (that is how he described himself) who was at Tina's filming a 3 hour documentary on Yunnan. They interviewed/filmed most of us talking about our experience in Yunnan. Should they use it, I do hope they dub it into Korean, instead of just using sub-titles, so as not to leave Koreans wondering where Deck Chair (to the rest of the world, Deqin) is in Yunnan.