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!

The legend of Shiangri-La

Shiangri-La, supposed to be a legendary story about eternal youth. This small village, 3200 meter high in the Himalaya mountains, renamed itself to this supposenly legendary hidden place. It's a shame that half of the old town is burned down to ruins in January 2014. We still smelled the fire, but the rebuilding has begun.

We arrived from Chengdu by plane. This seemed like a good plan! Since we would not have to travel dubble from kunming to dali to lijiang to Shiangri-La and back but in one way. But! From 100 meter high Chengdu to 3200 meter high Chengdu in a hour, you feel that in a dizzy way. Luckily it stayed with dizziness, and not really attitude sickness! It is quite commen the locals say. 

Shiangri-La is the closest we will get to Tibet and real Tibetans. You can clearly see the difference between Tibetan people and chinees people. I (Tom) find the Tibetan woman a lot prettier then the chinese but ye hahaha. It is a quite traditional place and due to the fire there were not so many tourist especially no chinese tourist which is a warm welcome to us. But even here we met a dutch couple who was biking the north of china. Imagine biking these mountains higher then the alps up and down.

It was only around 15 degrees Celsius outside!! I loved it. No need for airco, but Nina needed to use her warming blanky hahaha. Perfect weather to be a little active. We hired two bikes a road across the grasslands were horses, yaks and pigs are walking freely and around the lake. Beautiful area, especially wit he good weather.

Dragon backbone rice terraces

Yanshuo is the most beautiful place there is so far for us in China. Not far from here are the dragon backbone rice terraces. We all know Nina loves rice and everything about rice, so a must go day trip this was. The rice Terrace is famous for the mountains all covered with rices plants. Unfortunately, we could only go there with a chinese tour bus, so we had to attend a weird hair show (the folks that live there are famous for their long hair) yaaaay. But to finally see the rice terraces was totally worth the trip!

  

Last hike (for now)

A few days ago we did our last hike (I think/hope) in Daejeon. It was not as high and crazy heavy as Jerisan the last time (my legs were still hurting when we started this hike). So the last mountain was Gyeryongsan this mountain has nine peaks all around the same high, you are able to do all of them, which is crazy. This time we did not go crazy (pffft). We went up the first peak which took about three hours as it was not very steep, just a really long path to walk. Better then 30% steepness like last time! more like a normal walk in Trimbs, or still steeper then that i'd say, haha.

At the top we got a stunning scenery as you can see in the pictures below, click to enlarge them.
While chilling at the top, we met a men named 'Bag', he was also hiking the mountain and came from the other direction. This man traveled the world, literally, and only had countries like Uzbekistan  left on his bucket list. We talked at the top for over an hour, which I was fine with me cause Nina wanted to hike another peak. And now I was able to sit chill and chatter a while. Bag is a teacher in Daejeon and we discussed everything from school systems in Holland, Germany and Korea. At the end, we walked down the mountain together and Bag brought us back to town with his car. A very nice, open minded Korean men, that made us like this country even more.

 

 

 

Living on the edge

Today was the day that we accomplished something impressive, or rather stupid as we won’t be able to walk for at least the next two days. No joke.

We hiked the mountain Jerisan in South Korea. This seemed no problem at all, the tourist information told us it was a beginner path even though it was a hike of nine hours long. Well I could honestly say, that if I see that tourist information girl again I’d give her a piece of my mind. But anyway, how it began:

After being in Busan for a few days, eating Korean barbeque on a daily basis we decided it’s time to do something active. We are now in Jinju, a nice hub to several national parks in a Korean motel (google Korean motel). So today we visited Jerisan National Park to hike the mountain Jerisan. Not knowing this mountain was 1915 meters high which we had to hike up and that this was certainly not beginners level.

Basecamp, the mountain is in the far back (highest

Peak is getting closer (half way)

We decided to start as early as possible for this hike so we got up at 6 in the morning. Finally, at 8:30 we arrived at the base with the bus. The hike started well, we had to climb some big boulders but furthermore, it was okay, even with my crappy knees (never been so happy that I brought my knee bands with me). After 1 kilometre it started to get heavier but still everything was fun, we told each other this is so great blablabla. Then we came across a sign that said, from this point the steep level would be at least 30% to the top for over 4 kilometres. The part we had done was nearly 17% so we had to double up.

 

 

Halfway to the top

At this point Nina was giving up (notice +- 3 kilometers before the top) but she kept going and going until we reached the temple which is located around half way, 2 hours before reaching the top. We told each other that it might be the best to return to the base as we had to walk back as well! Walking back with 30% steep level will not be easy, and not that save either. But of course we thought, we might as well try to reach the top! And we DID! I’m so freeking proud of Nina, as she was giving up several hours in front of reaching the top and kept going. The scenery it delivered us on the top was stunning. It was (of course) the highest mountain in the area so you could see everything. I was about 13:00 something when we reached the top. It took us 4.5 hours to get up. And then we had to go back the whole thing….

The Top statue

 

The Top

 

Victory

 

Stunning scenery

The way down was at least as heavy as getting up, especially for my knees. Also it was dangerous, if you slip and fall you can fall down several meters with your face on those big stone boulders. We both slipped several times, but luckily enough we never fell as that certainly would have ruined the day. We arrived at the base at 17:30. We had been hiking from 8:30 till 17:30, a total of nine hours. Around 13-14 kilometers, 30% steep mountain. And last, apparently, ON A ….. EXPERT LEVEL TRAIL!!

 

At this moment, we are both simply laying for death in bed. While applying softener cream on my knee praying I’ll be able to walk the day after (which I know won’t be happening anytime soon. BUT, I’m so proud. Enjoy the pictures!