After spending a few days in Taipei we travelled south to Hualien, where we spent Christmas. And on 26th we arose at 2:30 in the morning to catch a train to Chihshang. We arrived at 5:30am and found a small restaurant close to the station, where we ate the most horrible breakfast I've ever eaten. The restaurant was run by a strange little old lady whose vocabulary seemed to consist of only mumbled who's and ha's. After that we returned to the train station to find out where to get the bus. We ended up having to take a taxi to a bus stop a few kilometres away, and then found out that the next bus was another hours wait. So we decided to start hitching a ride.
After only 10 minutes a van with 3 local labourers picked us up. One of the guys could speak a little English. He would ask us a question about something then they would discuss it in Chinese for a while then ask us something else. They were all chewing on betel nuts, which seems to be a very popular pastime in Taiwan. The driver beeped his horn twice at every vehicle and pedestrian we encountered. We drove for about an hour and a half up winding roads, through valleys and gorges of incredible beauty and enormous size. It was a misty morning so our view was hindered for most of the journey. I saw a red faced monkey sitting on a wall.
We arrived at the visitor center and collected our permits from the police station. I quickly realised I had gotten myself into a situation I wasn't physically prepared for. Our bags which contained our equipment and 7 days worth of food weighed about 30 kgs each. I found out that this was the highest mountain range in Northeast Asia. The visitor center(2600m) was higher than Mt Chōkai(2236m), the highest mountain I had ever climbed. When we entered the park an attendant handed me a leaflet describing the dangers we faced, and how to deal with them. It included info on dealing with leeches, snakes and bear attacks; I laughed uncontrollably for while at the whole situation, and when I regained myself, we continued.
The first kilometre or so involved many stops, with many strap adjustments of my bag. Though the adjustments helped, they didn't make the bag any lighter. I reflected on the 4 times I went for a 30 minute jog in the preceding weeks and concluded that it had not been enough preparation for what I was entering. Shane on the other hand who regularly climbs mountains and bikes around the country didn't show any signs of struggle. He soon offered the second walking pole which I greatly appreciated. The first section was about 4 km, but all up hill. My legs were not impressed, nor was my heart. Eventually I made it to the first stop, a cabin. Our plan had been to continue to the second stop on the first day. But I was in no condition to continue, so we decided to stay there for the night. And we realised that the full hike was no longer an option. I felt pretty bad. Shane took a hike up a nearby mountain and returned.
We met a load of really nice people at the cabin. All were from Taiwan; we were the only foreigners there. They spoke to us in English and shard delicious food they had cooked. My bag would have to wait for another meal to get any lighter! There was one crazy guy there who was drinking whiskey and singing all night. He tried to get us to drink some, we kindly refused, I wanted to be as fresh as possible for the next day.
The next morning we arose to see the sun rise through the mountains. We had some food and were on our way again. I started slow but felt better than I had the previous day. The views today were inspiring. We were able to see over the mountains and soon we were on top of one of them! We were now well above the clouds, and could see for miles and miles! The sense of achievement dulled the fatigue. But we had to keep moving. We passed two groups out along the way, it was then I started to realised that I wasn't doing as bad as I thought; we were just moving at too fast a pace. A few kilometres later we reached the 2nd cabin.
But when we arrived we discover there was no water!! A sign had been at the first cabin informing us of this, but unfortunately it was written only in Chinese. Some guys were cleaning the water tank, and had just tipped it over, a small amount of water and a dead bird spilled out. We rested for 30 minutes, divided what water we had left, 300ml each, and set off in the scorching heat to our next point, Jiaming Lake, 4.7km away.
Being above the clouds is a very beautiful place to be, but there isn't a whole lot of shade up there. And having not thought of bringing sun cream was a bad mistake. We continued. The hiking was much easier now, as we were travelling along the top of the mountains as opposed to up them. But then we had to descend one mountain and climb back up another. The descent was fine, the climb wasn't. Shane is much faster than me so he had gone on in front. I could see him about a kilometre ahead. I was taking regular breaks, and conserving my water as best I could. Many people I passed were looking at me with great concern asking "Are you ok?" I lied and said I was fine, I could have asked for some of their water, but I knew that where they were travelling to had no water. I struggled forward. Eventually when I made it to the top of that mountain, Shane appeared in front of me walking towards me, without his backpack, and holding out his bottle of water! He had raced forward to the lake, filtered water for himself, then refilled the bottle again and came back to meet me. Man was I happy to drink that water. I felt bad for all the things I had thought about him an hour earlier when I saw him marching away 1 kilometre ahead of me!
When we got going again, it was an easy km before the lake appeared before us like an oasis in the middle of the mountains. I was hoping the lake would have clear water and I could go swimming. It probably would have been to cold anyway. The sun was beating down on our heads and we realised how burned we had gotten. We put up the tent and rested inside until it became too hot. Later, under the watchful eye of a large deer, we prepared food. After dinner we climbed up from the lake to watch the sun set behind mountains that appeared like islands in a sea of cloud. Many deer appeared as it got dark, I'm sure many other animals too, as it's to only water for miles around. We thought we saw a bear too, we could only see these blinking eyes with our lights, and no antlers! But as it came closer we could see its antlers, we breathed a sign of relief, and I changed my underwear! We watched the amazing starlit sky for a while and then retired for the night.
We were going to take a different route off the mountain, but with lack of maps and an uncertainty of water, we decided it was a better idea to head back the way we came. Going forward would have meant going the full hike with a very long days hike the next day.
We awoke the next morning at about 4:30 from the worst weather we encountered the entire trip... some wind! We though it might be a storm coming in, so we got up around 5, packed up and headed for home. We were just on time for sunrise, and the wind already had faded away. Today the sun was shining on our left side, and to avoid having the left side of my neck as red as the right, I wore my scarf all day.
We were heading for home and back to the cabin with no water went with relative ease. After that the downward slopes began to take their toll on my legs. Pretty soon I was no longer in full control of what they were doing! But we pressed on, and soon we reached the 1st cabin, and it was only about 10am! Shane arrived there about 20 minutes before me, and he met some people who were so amazed that we made it to the lake and back in one day that they took his picture!
Not too long later we were back at the visitor center, and ready to head for home. We asked about buses, but were told there were none. So we took out our hitching thumbs. Many cars slowed down, looked at us, and then drove away. Perhaps they were able to smell us, I'm not sure. But after a half hour we decided to thumb a tour bus, and to our surprise it stopped and we were heading back towards sea level.
The tour group were a very nice bunch from Taipei, who gave us water, coffee, tea and snacks. When they stopped for lunch they invited us in with them and refused to accept any money from us. After lunch the haze which earlier prevented us from seeing 50 feet ahead had lifted and we could see the gorge clearly. We were travelling much slower than the way up, and we could see we were on the edge of a cliff which dropped of for hundreds of meters, we couldn't even see the bottom most of the time! Later they turned on the karaoke machine and insisted we sing for them, and they recorded every moment of I did it my way, Danny boy, and Sailing; our song options were quite limited! It was the strangest bus journey I've ever had.
Eventually we made it back to a hotel in a place called Jiaosi, a hot spring town just south of Taipei, and had a well deserved shower. I slept like a baby that night!
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