Tiger Leaping Gorge
Thursday, November 21, 201318 November – 21 November 2013
We started
the day with a really good breakie in our hostel’s sister hostel before hopping
on the bus to Qiaotou on the edge of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Five hours later
we arrived at Jane’s Guesthouse, a wooden crib run by a single, slightly eccentric,
man who was host, cleaning lady and cook. Since it was too late to start hiking
we settled down and planned our next couple of days with the help of various
TLG maps – all produced by guesthouses within the gorge. We concluded that the
map of Shaun’s Guesthouse would be the best one to stick to and enjoyed huge
plates of fried noodles before bed.
The start of the gorge
After a bit of a false start (it was dark outside so we snoozed for an extra half hour) we got up and searched for our host. Despite the fact we had to wake him up for it, dishevelled ‘Jane’ cooked a great breakfast for our first day of the trek. We left most of our luggage there and with an overnight bag we headed up the high path. After an hour of walking we found the Naxi Family Guesthouse and soon afterwards arrived at the start of the ’28 bends’. After bend number 2 we came across a small stall selling a variety of refreshing ‘energy’ products to top up with before the climb… including large bags of weed which we all know provides perfect stimulus for such activities. Politely declining we continued up and reached the highest point of the trek, 2600m, an hour later.
In the meat of it
Avoiding the fee of 8 Yuan to take a photo from a tout claimed/occupied viewing point we bought a drink and admired the view of the gorge. After another hour along the track we reached Tea Horse Guesthouse, where we stopped for a snack lunch and use some of their shade. Covered in dust from the track we continued and crossed three waterfalls.
The middle rapids
A sketchy path down
Halfway Guesthouse
The next
morning we set off early with empty stomachs as the plan was to do the steep
two hours descent to Tina’s Guesthouse for breakfast. After a couple of eggs
and Tibetan fried bread we continued our descent down the gorge from Tina’s to
the river at the middle rapids. We also found the Tiger Leaping Stone here –
according to legend a tiger jumped over the river here and climbed the cliff on
the other side… nobody knows why.
Whilst admiring the wild water, Clara was very pleased to hear that Alby “would probably not paddle this rapid”. All guidebooks/failed expedition reports say this water is UNKAYAKABLE. After enjoying the view and successfully avoiding the inevitable additional fees we made our way back up the valley along a wicked path cut into the rock, called Ray of Sunshine.
Whilst admiring the wild water, Clara was very pleased to hear that Alby “would probably not paddle this rapid”. All guidebooks/failed expedition reports say this water is UNKAYAKABLE. After enjoying the view and successfully avoiding the inevitable additional fees we made our way back up the valley along a wicked path cut into the rock, called Ray of Sunshine.
Middle rapids at the Tiger Leaping Stone
Ray of Sunshine path
Partly due to the low tourist season and the fact that this trail is not known by many we arrived in the terraced farming village Walnut Garden without seeing anyone except a local goat herder with his flock. Quite exhausted from the ups and downs we made our way to Shaun’s Guesthouse, where we enjoyed a very welcome shower and ice cold drinks on a sunny terrace. Shaun is the original pioneer of the TLG, being the first one to set up a guesthouse and mark a trail in the 80s… quite a local legend. Unfortunately we only saw him for five minutes, but his daughter and wife did everything to make us (the only guests) feel at home. We had a big and delicious dinner in front of a wood stove and collapsed in bed.
Out of the gorge and into the haven of Sean's Guesthouse
We woke up early and had a hefty breakfast of banana pancakes and more fried bread in preparation for a final hike in the TLG – up the hill behind Shaun’s Guesthouse. In realisation that we could barely walk we opted to read our books in the cosy dining room and cancelled the plan. We hopped on a bus at 10.30 back to Jane’s to pick up our stuff and seamlessly made a connection with a second minivan to Shangri-La, our final destination in Yunnan. A couple of hours later we arrived in the cosy old town and made our way to the Lamtin Hostel where we bumped into Rik, a fellow traveller who we met on our first night in Beijing. After swopping stories we headed to the bus station where we booked a sleeper bus ticket to Kunming, to connect with our train to Beijing a couple of days later. After a chillaxing session in the hostel we went out for dinner and found a tiny but delicious Korean place in one of the cobbled alleyways around the corner.
Commrades
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