Tiger Leaping Gorge

27/04/09

The bus trip from Lijiang took about 2 hours. They let us off at the western end of the trail by the roadway - about 11am. It was a great day - sunny and warm - probably not the best time to start a hike but we only have a 2-3 hour hike our 1st day.

Jack and Jay (from our GH in Lijiang) were with us. They hiked with us on and off throughout the day.

The hike wasn't too bad - gradually up hill the whole way.

We made it to Naxi Family GH about 1pm - had some lunch, got checked in and took a nice nap. Jack and Jay weren't sure what they were going to do. When we woke up - they were gone.

Information regarding Tiger Leaping Gorge Hike....some people do it in one day. I don't know how they do it and enjoy it. For us, it really is all about the journey. We decided to take our time and do it in 3 days. It's a fairly steep hike at high elevation and pretty rocky - so for us to enjoy the scenery we need to stop - look around - and then proceed.

The evening was pretty quiet at the GH - Jim and I played some cards and crashed early to get an early start the next morning before it got too hot.

28/04/09

Up early to a beautiful sunrise!!! We had breakfast and took off before 0800. It was cool and a little overcast - great hiking weather.

The next part of the hike was the hardest - it's called 28 bends, though that number is disputed in all the books - maybe more like 30 (once we got to the top - it wasn't as hard as we were anticipating). It was all up hill and switchbacks - about 3 hours to the summit. At the summit, there are a couple of guest houses - we stopped at Tea Horse GH for lunch and ran into Jack and Jay - who were just getting started. They had made it that far the night before and with a few more guests - there had been a bit of a party that night. After lunch, we started off again. Our plan was to make it to Half-Way GH or Five Fingers - another 2 hour hike - but mostly level or down hill.

We got to Half-way and found Jack and Jay and the GH was (as reported by other hikers) under construction - so we headed off to Five Fingers and Jack an Jay headed to the end (another 2-3 hour hike).

Our experience at Five Fingers was unique. We ended up being the only guests. The rooms where small but clean and the shower facilites were ...basic. (see photo). Our host didn't speak much English - a few words - like ?shower? - of course but then we got the message that we would have wait until he heated the water - over a wood stove. The water then went into a cistern. When the water was ready there was not waiting around - it was shower time.

Dinner was good - homemade dumplings. After a few more hands of rummy - we were ready for bed and slept really well.

30/04/09

Up early ...literally with the chicken...and the pigs. A cup of coffee and breakfast and we were off. The last leg of the hike was ALL down hill and really rocky.

Jim and I agreed that going downhill was actually harder than 28 bends. I took a slight slip and ended up on my butt about 1/2 way through. We took our time - rested when we wanted and made it in about 2 hours. At this point, we really could have taken the late bus and gone back to Lijiang but we hadn't made reservations and we decided to stay at Tina's GH. We decided, if the weather was good in the morning, we'd do the hike down to the gorge (about 2 hours but pretty strenous).

We checked in, had some lunch and just enjoyed the view. For dinner, we found a little cafe - The Bridge Cafe - next to....the bridge. We were the only people there but the views and the food were great.

01/05/09

Up early, breakfast at the Bridge cafe and we decided (or maybe our calves decided) that we weren't going to do the gorge hike. We made reservations on the 11am (instead of the 4pm) bus and headed back to Lijiang.

Apr 27, 2009

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