Walnut Garden – but where are the walnuts?

Saturday 9th December 2006 

A day to discover the Walnut Garden but I found no walnuts I was so disapointed. Instead I decided to go with the boys 800m up the mountain. We opted not to take a guide but to make our own way, through villages, across rice fields and scrambling up rocks whilst Emily took a more relaxing option of looking for Walnuts in the Gardens. We were eventually pointed to the proper path after it may have looked like we had destroyed one whole villages’ crops for the year tramping across their rice paddies. Some strenous two hours later we made it to the summit of 2775m with breathtaking views of the gorge, well worth the climb despite the mid day heat. Exhausted some 5 hours later we made it safe and sound back to the guesthouse, the forth “intrepid” group to make it to the top and the first group without a guide. We are a clever bunch! My throat was now feeling like triple thickness sandpaper so this evening I opted for steam vegetables to keep off all that oily chinese food.

We’ll be coming round the mountain …

Friday 8th December 2006

A very cold morning but fresh mountain air was a godsend after the busy cities. The girls at the hostel were very accomodating serving me green tea as I was the first one up to admire the freshness of rural China. A much easier 11k walk was ahead of us today today, mostly flat around the cliff edge through waterfalls and over rocks, we’ll be coming round the mountain when we come….sing a long now. Lunch was at Tina’s Guesthouse, a spicy concoction of dishes, tasty but still very spicy for my poor insides which were being grated down to nothing. I am finally getting used to chopstick life and if things don’t go to plan then just stab it with the chopstick. Our arrival at Sean’s guesthouse in the late afternoon we were blessed with tea for myself (a Tibetan tea) and beer for the other guys, guess the English amongst our group. The evening drew in as we chatted through dusk. One of the girls at the last hostel had decided to stay with us for the evening, so once there were four now there were five. As it got darker we realised the whole village was in pitch darkness – we had no power. Powercuts are not infrequent in rural China. The torch and candles made an appearance and food was served via gas stoves.

Donkeys, Tigers and Naxi Pancakes

Thursday 7th December 2006

Another early morning rise to catch a mini bus a few hours to a settlement called Qiaotou the begining of Tiger Leaping Gorge walk – the deepest gorge in the world. Before catching our bus we had time for an authentic chinese breakfast which Bora ordered for us, steamed buns with soya sauce. The steamed buns were great but the soya sauce first thing in a morning does not do it for me especially when my insides felt like coarse sandpaper. What I did love though was the authenticity of it, this was daily life in china with four foreigners sat at a little street table eating real chinese breakfasts. What a great feeling that I couldn’t even begin to explain on here. We met our “guide” Sean once we got off the bus. Sean is a remarkable guy, not only did he make the path through the gorge himself, but he taught himself english through offering free accomodation to those who trecked through the gorge, all this ontop of having a disability with his arm. We set off for our first of two 11k hikes. Local’s were perched at farmhouse gates with donkeys, at first I thought this was show for the benefit of the tourists but then they began to follow us. Flash backs of the great wall came to mind, were they going to try and sell us a t shirt? Surely not in this unspoilt environment, perhaps they were just on their way home or something…. Our first two hours we passed through a few qaint villages – Landou village and Nuo Yu village with a luch stop at the Naxi GuestHouse where we were greated with free green tea and water. However the donkey men were still following us. We soon found out why after lunch. The walk got tougher as the afternoon sun came beating down, what started off with three layers and waterproof ended up with 1 t shirt and zip off trousers into shorts. All in the name of “28 bends” up to the highest point on the treck. Emily was struggling a little, so this is where the donkey men came into play. Throughout the walk they kept asking her “you want donkey” – eventually she gave in and “had donkey” through much negotiation whilst the rest of us struggled on with our sweaty backpacks. It was well worth the struggle up the mountain, but to greet us at top were 2 Little ladies who had set up stall of walnuts, chocolate and water – prices probably represented that of a pretentious bar in the middle of London. To add to this exploitation of treckers one of the ladies was charging to take a picture of the view, so onwards we walked to take picture of the view further along. I wasnt aware that the ladies owned the view. The rest of the walk was downhill to our home for the evening “tea horse guesthouse” a quaint guesthouse with a courtyard. Showers were outside but clean, and although the toilets were not even squat but more gutter style they too were clean. The view was impecable mountains rose tall all around us, as we met others on the treck and settled down to playing cards for the rest of the evening – a full international group of spanish, isreali, russian, english and australian. Some of the guys tried “rice wine” – no thanks not for me, I stick to the tea. Free banana pancakes went down very well.