After a couple days in Shangri-la we headed back down towards the south to Tiger Leaping Gorge. It is a wonderful place for hiking as there are guesthouses to stay in at many points along the trail that leads through the gorge. The trail begins in a small town called Qiatou and then leads along the Jinsha river, a major tributary of the Yangtze.
We were positive that this plant was spray-painted pink, but there were a bunch of plants surrounding it that were all pink in the exact same places, including some that had just sprouted...so it seems that this is natural.
The mountain views were spectacular right from the beginning.
The variety of plants did not fail to impress.
This guy had a very animated conversation with Bion in Mandarin about opportunities for climbing in the surrounding mountains...
...after which he declared that they were now friends.
We just couldn`t stop taking photos of the spectacular mountain vistas.
Frank and Bion, after a successful ascent up a steep section of the trail.
After about 6 hours of hiking we arrived at a charming guesthouse with beautiful views, and decided to call it a day.
The next day Bion had to return to his responsibilities in the real world, and so we were left to fend for ourselves against the great wall of Mandarin.
We continued our hike through the gorge, appreciating the wonderful scenery and fresh mountain air.
This cow had a major attitude.
As we were feeling a little lazy we decided to end our hiking for the day after 4 hours, when we reached Tina`s Guesthouse.
The next day we hiked down a very steep trail to 'Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge'. This is the point in the gorge where the river is forced through a very narrow canyon.
The rapids are incredibly huge.
The spray erupts more than 5m into the air.
Note the person at the bottom left.
Some years ago a Chinese rafting team attempted to go down this river. Sadly, they all lost their lives and no such attempt has been made since.
The 500m ascent back to our guesthouse was pretty arduous.
In the afternoon we caught a bus back to Lijiang, at one point in the road there had been a landslide and so we had to climb over it on foot and switch to a different bus.
We were positive that this plant was spray-painted pink, but there were a bunch of plants surrounding it that were all pink in the exact same places, including some that had just sprouted...so it seems that this is natural.
The mountain views were spectacular right from the beginning.
The variety of plants did not fail to impress.
This guy had a very animated conversation with Bion in Mandarin about opportunities for climbing in the surrounding mountains...
...after which he declared that they were now friends.
We just couldn`t stop taking photos of the spectacular mountain vistas.
Frank and Bion, after a successful ascent up a steep section of the trail.
After about 6 hours of hiking we arrived at a charming guesthouse with beautiful views, and decided to call it a day.
The next day Bion had to return to his responsibilities in the real world, and so we were left to fend for ourselves against the great wall of Mandarin.
We continued our hike through the gorge, appreciating the wonderful scenery and fresh mountain air.
This cow had a major attitude.
As we were feeling a little lazy we decided to end our hiking for the day after 4 hours, when we reached Tina`s Guesthouse.
The next day we hiked down a very steep trail to 'Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge'. This is the point in the gorge where the river is forced through a very narrow canyon.
The way down was a little treacherous at times.
The rapids are incredibly huge.
The spray erupts more than 5m into the air.
Note the person at the bottom left.
Some years ago a Chinese rafting team attempted to go down this river. Sadly, they all lost their lives and no such attempt has been made since.
In the afternoon we caught a bus back to Lijiang, at one point in the road there had been a landslide and so we had to climb over it on foot and switch to a different bus.
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