Non Chinese style - hiking the Tiger leaping Gorge

The Tiger Leaping Gorge, located between Shiangri-La and Lijiang. Yet another legendary mountain! Here the legend says that a tiger jumped over the river. In the pictures you'll find that this tiger must have been scary big to make this jump ;-)

With hiking and climbing Mt. Jerisan far enough behind us and seeing to many city's in the last weeks it was time for a new adventure in the nature. We got what we wanted! This trail is roughly 25 kilometers. Sounds easy but it's on 2500 meter up and down, and falling down to the wrong side (down) could mean the end of it all. 

The trail starts in a small village after a 2 hour bus ride from Shiangri-La. We dropped our backpacks for a small fee in a guesthouse. The upcoming days we would live with 2 small bags filled with water, food, 1 fresh shirt and 1 fresh underwear... Fun to see Nina packing her bag ;-) After dropping the bag we started the trail, right away a French guy came along asking if he could join. In these parts of china the European seem to search for English speakers for conversations, no day goes without meeting new people. Before we knew it we where hiking with 5 Europeans.

The trail, dammmmm! Since we biked the whole day before the muscles were protesting. This was quite hard and especially dangerous. It rained a little which made the way up a bit slippery. When reading the map it states that the first part till half way is the hard part, after that it's supposed to be quite easy. The first part is 15 kilometer, this is our goal. 

We come across a few people who all seem to take horses up, a whole group of 20 Koreans fully clothed for the hike took the silly horses up.. But.. I'll say.. I wish I did the same! It took us seven hours to get to the half way, just before dark, I (Tom) slipped once to the good side and Nina remained steady all the way. But what was the way worth it! Proud once again.

We found a great place to stay with nice Indian fusion food. Everyday you can skip the oil of chinese food is a good day hahaha. Waking up high in the mountains with a magnificent view of clouds playing in the mountains. We would love to sit there all day doing nothing but reading a book. We would have if we had brought one... Time to go further!

Part two (day 2) was indeed a lot easier, good, more time to watch the view instead of your own feet. Yet due to the rain of the night and the morning we slept trough as baby's we had waterfalls over the road! That was something. Seems easy on pictures but so slippery and such a long way down! Yet a few hours later we arrived at the end of the trail.

Due to the view, the atmosphere and the silence we stayed a bit longer. The Two day trip extended to a four day trip. With spending the last two days with a Tibetan family guest house. One of the two days we hiked down to the river and we were struck by the noise and rush of the river. So strong and magnificent. By the way, the way down to the river was something.. Check the ladder picture for example, yay adventure!