Take a trip to the coast

On Thursday Duncan had a thought: "I've not been to the coast!"
Well he's been to the sea down in Kenting... but that's like saying you've been to Brighton but not Hornsea when you live in Hull... madness.
So using Googlearth to plot a route from his house to the sea (16 miles as the crow flies) and checking his trusty bike compass was still working, he set out on a grey windy afternoon through Yuanlin Westwards.
The day was not so nice, before long a fine drizzle came down that not so much drenched his clothes, but rather dampened his spirits. The wind was not gusty, more of a dark force that didnt want him to get to the coast.
The road too was probably the dullest he'd cycled down... a concrete dual carriage bordered by dirty warehouses and the occasional neon glass box of the beetlenut girl.
After an hour and 18 miles without a change of scenery, the road seemed to veer northwards. He decided to take a left down a random track which ended in a bustling village centre with the typical touristy traders that appear near attractions... what the attraction round here was, he could not tell.
At the far end of the village he took another turn westwards, and cycled what could have been post-invasion Normandy beach... with still no sign of the sea.
The path narrowed and followed a small embankment. After 20 miles and not sure if he would ever see the sea today, Duncan climbed the embankment for a better view and lo behold! There was the sea 5 metres away. Now he knew this was going to be no Kenting, but this really was the worst bit of coast he'd ever seen: a collection of rocks netted together and covered in litter... the place was lifeless as far as the eye could see, not even any ants scurrying around the rocks. No birds, bugs or seaweed.
"Well so much for that idea" thought Duncan: next time he would stick to the hills for a cycle. He got on his bike and headed the 20 miles back home.

Happy Chinese New Year: shinyi quiler

A happy Chinese New Year to one and all!
We spent this evening (CNYEve) at the house of Wallace - our friend and landlord, after narrowly escaping our excitable neighbour by promising to go for dinner there the next day. The people of Taiwan believe that the the dirt of the previous year should be washed away before celebrating the new year... not to do so is considered unlucky. And so on route to Wallace's house I was amazed by the fact that every car on the roadside was sparklingly clean... and the houses were opened out onto the street with small fires burning paper money and tables on the street laden with food as offerings to the Gods. Not being washed in a long, the Pascal van sped along the road: painting an unlucky streak across the town.

Wallace and his father were in the business of producing paper dyes. I'd seen his turbo charged Mini Cooper before and assumed that the house would be a palace. It was however a fairly modest flat... very comfortable. There were seven of us for dinner, his wife, brother and his parents. The evening started with intense Chinese tea in tiny cups. Then paper money was burnt in front of the house for a fortuitous new year. The family then went to their shrine (no house is complete without one) upstairs to pray before we joined them round the kitchen dinner table. Expecting Taiwanese cuisine, I was a little apprehensive as they opened up the pots... memories of my first 'Taiwan' meal last year at our neighbours house... not knowing what to eat how to eat it. However my fears were quelled when I realised i knew what everything was - that's a sign you've been in a country too long! I even answered one of Pascals questions.

Happily everything was chopstick friendly... so I followed suit and stuck in. Octopus, chicken, duck, shrimps, a medley of meat and veg soup, Taiwanese cake... made from rice and raddish, noodles, cauliflower (my first in a year), dried fish eggs, bamboo, washed down with a whiskey type drink and more tea. The whole meal went down without much incident... with the exception of our host offering soup; I held out my bowl and realised it wasnt the soup bowl... I made to swap - but too late - hot soup in my lap! Not to worry.
After dinner we went to see Wallace's wife's family as it was her first New Year away from home. Her whole family were there including her toddler nephew who befriended me and as an offer of eternal friendship made a growing pile of candy, nuts and toys until I was burried under everything he owned. I was touched.
The tradition at Chinese New Year is for families to spend the evening gambling. Fortunately for my finances - we have to get up early tomorrow, so we headed home for an early night.

Tomorrow: New Years Day

Well so much for the early night. Having done little but sleep, eat and drink caffeine yesterday; I think I may have got 2 hours sleep a most. Still after a shower and a coffee I perked up pretty quickly and was wondering what the Outdoor Shop guy had planned for our morning cycle.
Adam (American, works at Joy school with Sam) was joining us. We all met at the shop, each wondering how fit the rest of the party were... looking for tell tale signs: Adam and Hike Shop man were both kitted out in lycra and had obviously spent more on their bikes. On the way down I'd been thinking 'the Hike Shop man was over 50 - we can't be going that quickly!' However he turned up with rippling legs sturdy enough to stop a rhino charge.
We set off cruising at a relaxed 15mph. He led us down a series of raised interlinking roads through the rice paddies. As I got my bearings, I remembered a killer road that went up to the temple to the right... I told Adam about it and how I was glad we weren't doing that today.
On the flat I was trailing behind thanks to the friction on my mountain tred wheels... but as our guide turned without warning towards the temple road of doom the tables turned. We stopped to get a swig of water before we took on the climb, much to the enjoyment of many Taiwanese families who were pointing at and taking photos of us, they didn't bat an eyelid however at the black pig roaming the carpark... that was perfectly normal He let me past and agreed to meet us at the temple at the top. I paced myself knowing how it had killed me the last time I'd tried it... but my bike still got to the top first... I had planned to cycle and have a rest where i usually go... but Chinese New Year had turned the Temple into a Honey Pot to hundreds of Taiwanese who wanted to make the best start of the New Year. When the others caught up, we dismounted and pushed ourway through the crowds. A large stage and PA system had been erected where singers and minor celebraties were wishing the best for everyone as loudly as they could. To our delight, our guide informed us that free food was avaible as it is every New Year. It wasn't bad either... noodle medley. Hike Shop man then gave us two options: back to Yuanlin or on to Jiji and back via Nantou. We had the day to use, so we decided to go on to Jiji... he gave us directions but said he was heading back to Yuanlin: fair enough.
The road down to Jiji required little effort in the way of cycling: rolling rollig rolling. As we got closer we saw that a lot of people had had the same idea. The traffic was miles long and only in our direction. We stopped so that Pascal could get a coffee fix. Iced coffee: 2.50! What a rip off! Probably just New Year prices. When we finally got to Jiji it was so packed and full of cars that we decided not to hang around and started to head back.
We took a major road to Nantou which was a bit fumey from the amount of transport on it but when we turned off in Nantou onto the mountain road 139... it rose up out of the congestion and would have been a nice ride, were it not for the incline. I had to keep my mind off the road to prevent myself giving up... it just kept going... I'd lost the other two further down... my knees started to feel jelly-like and then on my left I recognised the temple that I passed on my morning cycles... before long I was sat on a bench and I could see the other two approaching... happily it was all downhill from that point.

One big mountain: 2 snickers and a Powerbar

We had talked about doing the hike ages ago... then suddenly the weekend came with news that there was snow on the tops of the mountain. We popped down to our local outdoor store (where most of my earnings seem to end up) and purchased a thermal baselayer, some crampons, a headtorch, a insulated mug and a cooking pot.
There were supposed to have been four of us hiking up but at the last minute, Andy3 had to cancel on us. This left Pascal, Tom and me. The three of us met at our house on the Friday night to sort out what we were taking. Tom had a small backpack, 3 bags of fresh fruit and some boots that he had bought that day. Pascal had a 60litre rucksack with enough food and snacks for a week, thermal mat, fleeces and 2 litres of water and wondered why his bag was twice as heavy as mine.
We wanted to give ourselves an easy hike on the Saturday, so we woke at 5am... loaded up the van and headed off along the blissfully peaceful streets towards Lushan.
On route Tom popped into a 7/11 to buy some instant noodles and snickers bars. The further we drove the narrower the road became until it was barely a car width winding up round the mountainsides, steep drops inches from our wheels. We were a little shocked to find ourselves stuck behind a coach of hikers. How had it got round those bends... we soon discovered it hadn't. after 3 minutes and a 7 point turn the coach decided to let us past: nice of him!
We were all glad to be out of the van when we finally reached the start point. We donned our bags stuffed the peanut butter and pepperoni sarnies I'd made that morning down our throats and headed down the road to the path. I was feeling confident and fit for all of 2 minutes, after which path got riduculously sleep, i took a while to get a rhythm on. 20 minutes into the hike Tom broke into the snickers reserve.

There were two hiking groups on the trail from Taipei and a few other families out to get to the snow while it was there.
The environment kept changing dramatically. One minute we were hugging the bare cliffside looking like Gollum, Frodo and Sam crossing Mordor; the next minute we were in a tropical forest touched with a false ice that wouldn't look out of place in Narnia; and then we'd be in a pine forest. The term 'in the shade' had a new meaning here on the mountainside. "Today Lushan will be nice 19degrees; that's 5 degrees in the shade!"
After a couple of hours and 4km we reached the first camp. Eager to test our stuff, we set up the stove and made some tea and finished the fruit and eggs we'd brought. I'll admit, looking around at all the knackered faces, I felt contentedly fit... until 2 kids - no more than 11 years old - came strolling up the path.
From there we carried on. Every now and then, we'd see a patch of snow and we hoped that we'd get some use out of our crampons at the top. Half way up, Pascal's back started giving him grief and Tom was not used to climbing so our breaks became longer and more frequent. After ten km and too long in the shade, we emerged on the mountainside: the peaks in full view. We stopped and cooked up some cuppamagic. Pascal didn't look too good. He'd had a cold before he set off and the climb didn't seem to have improved things.
With 3 km to go before the camp; I put my rucksack on backwards and strapped Pascals bag to my back. Before long we could see the tents on the opposite side... the joy was shortlived... every few minutes the path would zig zag to the left following the shape of the cliff... "so near... and yet so far" eventually and finally feeling physically drained... we cut across onto the campsite. We received a lot of attention from the Taiwanese hikers. There was an hour of daylight left. Tom and Pascal went for kip... but I took Tom's watch and followed a sign to a "Power Monument 2 km>" Round the first bend of the track I met a Taiwanese couple from Taipei who were staying in our dorm. We were heading to the same place. Every now and then we crossed a patch of ice or snow and they watched in awe "You know how to walk on the snow!" they said slipping about behind me. I explained that in England it was an annual thing and that there were many more accomplished snow walkers than me. After almost an hour, a group of walkers past us. "A sea of clouds" they said and looking around: yep- i could see cloud everywhere... but round the corner I was blown away by the gigantic cotton bud swirl down in the Eastern Valley. There was a large concrete monument to commemorate the linking of the East and West power grids constructed by the Japanese when they were here. I took a few photos but the sun was rapidly descending and my hands were suddenly painfully cold. I looked at Tom's watch and saw that I was going to have to hurry if i wanted to make it back for dinner.
I was glad to find when i got back that we were not sleeping in tents as told earlier but in the hostel with many other hikers. The meal laid on was hardly gormet, but it had variety and certainly filled a hole: rice, soup, with fried tofu, bamboo, beans and meats of questionable origin. Not long after I'd finished and started supping on a cup of ginger tea... one of the hostel runners pulled out a guitar and started singing much to the delight of the happy campers.

Before long everyone was in a circle singing and doing syncronised arm movements. An old man on the side slipped a cup of whiskey to the singers whenever he got the chance.
Everyone was very friendly... a couple of ladies invited me to go hiking at 4 in the morning to get to the top of both peaks before midday and see sunrise from the first. I was all for the idea, but a doctor in the hostel had told Pas he had bronchitus (no peaks for him) and Tom was not looking forward to the return leg anyway... let alone after another 7 hours hiking. The compromise was to do one peak and then get back at 8 ish to start the slow descent with Pascal.
Well that night, I wore everything I'd been wearing that day, bar my waterproofs and boots and I was not cold... and probably would have slept soundly had somebody not been snoring all night. I eventually heard the sounds of the cooks coming back into the kitchen to make breakfast... time to rise. The generator was not working this morning so everyone was getting ready for the climb using their headtorches. I felt like part of a SWAT team. Breakfast was even nice than dinner, sweet fried meats fruits and veg... little of which I could identify.

It was half past three when we were eating breakfast... we had been led to believe that the teams would be off at 3:40 to get to the top in time for sunrise. However another hour past before the team that had recruited us set off. "We are a quicker group... we are younger" they told us. Well that was true: they were a quicker group, but everytime they caught up with another team on the trail... they just stopped and waited for the gap to grow again. After an hour, we had reached a frozen lake and stopped. After five minutes... I discovered that after all the waiting... this team weren't even aiming for the main peak at sunrise. Tom and I had two choices... settle for sunrise over a hill and be back to camp in an hour; or leg it, try and catch up with the other groups and get to the top of the mountain before 6:30. Tom flipped a coin... it ruled we skip the mountain and head back: "How long will it take to get to the peak?" we asked a guide. "2 hours" he said "unless you really rush... then maybe 90 minutes."
Sod it! We left the team and trekked up the path and we could soon see the peak ahead of us. No torch lights though. We sped on paying little attention to the ice beneath our feet. The moonlight was so bright that the path was easy to follow: still no torchlight; and then we looked at the hill to our left... there in lines on its sides were streams of little lights. The peak ahead must be the one people were doing later... we turned and cut across towards the southern peak.
As we reached the steep sides a faint orange line rippled across the far horizon.... this was not a good place to be for sunrise... energized by the countdown to the inevitable... I charged up the mountain to the sounds of surprised Taiwanese hikers "You are very strong!" I didn't have time to explain i had just eaten a Powerbar... so I took the complement and continued upwards.
I got to the Southern Peak at exactly an hour after we'd left the other team and quickly snapped up the stunning views of the mountain range before my hands had time to freeze. I had brought a hand warmer with me... but at this height... it did little to help. The collection of hikers on the mountain grew as the sun peeped over the horizon.


It wasn't long after the sunrise that we decided to get back to Pascal. The route back seemed longer than the one up the mountain with an endless set of steps.
Pascal was still asleep, as were most in the campsite, when we got back to the hostel. We were given another breakfast and a healing cup of ginger tea. He didn't feel much better for the sleep so we rearranged the bags so that I could carry the bulky stuff in his bigger bag. We were soon on the path down the mountain, we passed a snowed up waterfall and tried to have our photos taken standing on it... but the icy water prevented us getting the shot. We would just have to find snow someplace else to try our crampons on.
Despite having two breakfasts and finishing my energy bars that morning, the suggestion of lunch at half eleven was very appealing. We found a water pipe which we hope had clean water and cooked up some noodles, sweetcorn, tuna and cuppa soup and mixed it all up. 'Went down a treat. Tom's feet were sore so he took off his boots ... and noticed that only one was his 'oh dear' I thought 'you've pinched someone's boot-they're not gonna be happy!' but then I noticed the boot he was holding was mine.. I looked down... lo behold Tom's boot on my right foot. In all the dirt, they looked pretty similar "Size 8?" I asked ... "Yeah" said Tom.
We continued and past the sign saying "Warning: rockfall" the path looked different somehow... there was a mound of dirt across it. As we got closer we saw stones bouncing across our path... some a few inches across - enough to leave a nasty gash... we got past without any harm... but the path falling away to the left seemed suddenly more dangerous than it did on the way here. After walking ten kilometers, the other teams that had gone on to their second peak, had caught up with us. We made our last cup of tea with the stove and Pascal suddenly seemed to get a boost... the last 4 km were the quickest of the entire expedition... leaving the others in the dust.
We got back to the van not long after four, there was a lady selling pears near where the buses were parked up, which we happily devoured. It was a windy road on the route back... but we were all too tired to notice. Who knows just how epic next weekend will be.