This past weekend, Daisy and I traveled the South Cross
Island Highway in Southern Taiwan. Well,
as much as we could rather since major parts of the road were gone due to
landslides and one portion was completely blocked off. We’d seen video of the drive but we weren’t
sure of the treats that lay ahead. Along
the way we saw deep green rivers, stunning mountains, aboriginal tribal lands, forested
valleys, hot springs, landslides, lots of construction, a couple of museums,
and one remote waterfall.
We took off early Saturday morning on a rented scooter in
typical fashion with Daisy as navigator and I as driver. After several hours,
we made it through the pollution and congestion of the Taiwan west coast
industrial wasteland into the real beauty of the central mountain range of
Taiwan. The first day was quite overcast
so our view was a bit muddled but it didn’t stop us from continuing. Our first stop was an Aboriginal village in
Taoyouan. We visited the heritage museum
where we learned a few things about the local tribe’s clothing and tools. We also asked about camping to which the
curator welcomingly offered us the front of the museum as a camping refuge from
the terrific weather. It was quite small
and thus probably didn’t see many visitors.
It was at this village we learned that the road ahead was cut off
about halfway through and we would be unable to achieve our original goal of
driving coast to coast ending in Taitung County. Countless typhoons begot countless landslides
begot total road destruction. Entire mountainsides
had disappeared and many have lost their lives over the years. Nevertheless we persevered. Once you learn enough about travel, you come
to realize that something always goes wrong and learn to expect and accept
it. Along the way there were parts of
the road that had utterly disappeared, cast to the riverside like a wadded
piece of paper to the waste bin (recycle bin). As a result, there was a proliferation of road
construction all along the route creating detours for traffic. At one point, we paused to take in the
enormity of the massive destruction. It
was here that a van of locals just happened to shout to us about a hot spring
nearby. We had been looking for a
certain natural hot spring all day and the best answer we had gotten along the
way was, “there used to be one a long way away from here but I don’t know if
it’s still there anymore.” And “I’m not sure if you can get there on a
scooter.” Well I’ve been on
four-wheelers, dirtbikes, and 4x4 vehicles my whole life so I felt confident
enough to maneuver a scooter through any reasonable terrain. So they told us it was nearby- just around
the bend actually. |
| "Daisy, I think we have a problem" |
So we hopped back on the scooter and plowed through the
mountain roads (all other drivers were in 4x4 vehicles as we mockingly scooted
by on a 125cc road motorbike). We
finally arrived after dark had fallen and as we drove up the mountain side to a
nearby shelter, we were greeted by a slew of elderly people and the caretaker
(an elderly gentleman wearing a hot spring polo shirt) who told us we could
camp and have unlimited access to the hot spring for 200 NT. Lo and behold we had found the mythical
hotspring. Mythical indeed because, as
we soon learned, this hot spring is extremely vulnerable to every major storm
in the area and in fact, had been buried four times already this year
alone. I’ll give props to the caretakers
continuing to dig it up, considering it’s no easy task due to the enormity of
the project. So after a bit of debate,
we decided to settle down for the night, pitching our tent in a wooden open-air
shelter.
 |
| Cold spring |
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