Next morning we stuffed our tent in the bag and departed once
again. Daisy had to work later that
afternoon but we had a bit of time to explore so I took us up a couple of
random roads in the village. What a
treat this turned out to be. As we
drifted through these backcountry orchard roads, I couldn’t help but stop every
few meters to snap some photos and take in the some of the most incredible
colors I’d ever seen. Some of these
folks lived a very simple life in an amazing location. Cruising along these mountain roads peering
over the river and village in the valley below, I realized how easy it is to
forget places like this exist in Taiwan when living in a place like smogville
Kaohsiung.
On our way back up the mountain, we spotted a waterfall off
in the distance. I couldn’t resist. I pulled over and told Daisy if we hurried,
we could trace the riverbed up to it and still make it back for her work in
time. So she reluctantly agreed and I
took off. I estimated it to take us
about 30 minutes, but I was essentially running up the riverbed and cut that in
half. Parkour-style river tracing over
big boulders- one of my favorite pastimes.
Finally arrived at the falls huffing and puffing but it was
worth it for me. Though the water flow
had slowed significantly due to the changing seasons, there was still a pool at
the bottom of the cascade filled with thousands of tadpoles and algae though it
was. Once again, the colors and contrast
of old and new algae was positively stunning.
A bit later Daisy made it up to the crag and had had her fill. After a brief pause, she stepped off back
down the riverbed while I continued up the mountain around the waterfall over some serious rock scree. I essentially ran up
the mountain sliding the whole way. Nature was definitely working against me in this case. It
was like trying to run uphill through a pile of marbles. Almost nothing was solid but I set a goal for
myself and after another 15 minutes or so, I made it halfway up the
mountainside. Unfortunately the view was
muggled by several patches of trees but it was worth the effort. I’d only made it about halfway and the trail
only got ever-steeper and ever-more dangerous from there.
Fearing a serious landslide that would almost certainly bring injury or death, I calculated the risk to be too high and not worth
it so I did an about-face and began slidin down the mountainside Bear Grylls style,
continually cycling my feet in front so as not to lose balance. Every now and then the boulders I was sliding
on would give out and tumble back down the trail so I’d have to lie back and
wait for the maelstrom to calm before it took me with it. Imagine trying to skate down a sand dune and you've just about got it.
After making it back to Daisy in one piece, we high-tailed
it back to Kaohsiung. Not without one
final pleasure though. Daisy’s friend
owned a farm along the way and she’d done a bit of work with him so she gave me
a little tour of the squash and bean plots.
Once again in an amazing location. With storm clouds rolling in and our time
running short though, we didn’t stay for long.
We gassed up and started the four-hour journey back to KS. The slow transition from open roads and clean
air back to traffic jams and smoggy skies made me reluctant to complete the
journey but hey, that’s life. Until the
next trip, I hope you are enjoying the Myriad wanderings.
No comments:
Post a Comment