Minivan from Mamas, left some of my gear there. Wicked views on the way, rivers, mountain, villages and rice paddy's. Got to the Villages where most people start hiking from at around 11:30am, left Dorit and Eyal behind at the first corner, I walk kinda fast, long legs and fairly fit. Track gained in altitude fairly quickly and pretty soon was high above the Yanzee river and looking at the two huge mountains that it flowed between, I was on Haba Shan which towered above me to a height of 5396m and on the other side of the gorge is Ylong Xueshan at 5500m. T.L.G is possibly the worlds deepest gorge with the water level at 2000m. The wall of rock that is the back of Ylong Wueshan looks a bit like the cliffs riing out of Milford Sound but alot higher.
The trail is well trodden but I did not overtake many walkers, some sheer drops of the side of the trail in places. Met an English guy with just the clothes he was wearing and his wallet, walked with him for the rest of the day as we were walking a similar pace. Stunning views the whole way, up there with any of the things Ive seen at home and abroad. Tried to finding the high trail all the way to Sean's guesthouse but ended up dropping down to the road a bit earlier, the road is still a way off the river level. Made it to Sean's at around dusk which is about 7pm in Yunnan at this time of the year. Met another British guy Adrian at the Guesthouse and we sat and talked over a few beers, its always good to chat to poms as they give me ideas on what England's going to be like once I get there. Mostly I hear, January... poor you (mid winter is supposed to unpleasant in England).
The next day James and Adrian headed off to take the bus back to Lijiang while I walked the high trail that we had failed to find the night before. Took about four hours to walk with alot of side detours and off the track adventure, went as far up the side gorge as I could, the had to drop way down to the bottom of it and then climb back out, lots of tests to my fear of heights, which seems to be happening alot in China. Was pretty tired by the time I made it back to the road, decided to walk back to Sean's along the river so took a path down to the middle rapids, long way down and more tests to my fear of heights, was worth it though, walked along the river then climbed back up the cliff another way, was alot steeper and more direct than the way id come down. Took a crazy ladder part of the way up and at the top it had a sign saying <----- Dangerous ladder, Safe path ------> excellent was almost wetting my pants on the ladder, was imaging worse case as I do when im near heights....what happens if the ladder pivots off the cliff and I plunge to my doom... anyway enough of that hrrm him. Made it to the top safely and then walked back to Seans where I met an Aussie and a Brit and chatted with them, then in the morning set out for haba.
Haba
Decided to walk North from the Gorge, so headed out of Walnut garden early and took the road along the gorge for 7 km or then then branched off on a trail to Haba a small minority village on the side of Haba Snow Mountain (Haba Shan), was a walk of about 40kms by the road but managed to shave a bit off that by taking some trails, took me about 6 hrs of solid walking, most of it uphill. Nice scenery on the way, mostly pine trees and snow capped mountains, crossed over the road a few times and took a few false trails but made it easy enough. Found a nice guesthouse in Haba with a lady who spoke good English. Organised a ride up to Bashutai on the local bus for the next morning.
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