Tiger Leaping Gorge

Halfway between Shangri-La and Lijiang lies Tiger Leaping Gorge – it’s 16km long and from the river that runs through it to the mountain peaks high above it’s around 3900 metres plus it is meant to be one of China’s best small treks. Having got to Lijiang we decided that heading straight to the trek seemed like a good thing to do so the following morning we caught a bus back the way we’d come the day before and jumped off at the start along with Norbert the german. The trek started as a gentle amble through farm land and a small village before slowly starting to gain a little altitude and get a little stiffer. We soon came across the first traditional Naxi village where we stopped along with Norbert for a quick spot of lunch, now sitting at lunch with the German fellow in a Naxi village was almost too good an oppurtunity to miss with war jokes, funny walks etc but I resisted! Having stocked up on some rice for a bit of energy we set off to tackle the rest of the days trek knowing that the tough section was still to come – its called the 28 or, 24, 26 or 30 bends depending on what book you read and is meant to be a leg zapping 700 metre ascent in around a 2km walk and to make things worse the rain we had been dreading hadn’t materalised so instead it was about 35 degree’s! As we got to the bottom of the first bend, minus Norbert as he was slacking, there was a little local lady selling some goods from her shack, as we approached she said “Water, cola, chocolate… marajuana”! Now I can see the benefits in 3 out of the 4 of those offerings but how on earth is feeling slightly lethergic, having the munchies and giggling lots going to help getting anyone up a mountain!! Well, lots of giggling and 4 Mars bars later we finally got to the top and monged out maaannnn….not really mums! Got to the top very very sweetily without any stimulants before enjoying the descent the other side in the shade! We made it to the halfway guest house around 4:30, about 6 hours after setting off, the hostel had an amazing view of the mountains and we sat on the roof balacony enjoying a well deserved beer watching the sun set. In one of Michael Palin’s many journeys he declared that the view from that very guest house was the best in the world – ok he was talking about the view from the toilet as it looked out of the gorge, but I can see where he was coming from! That evening we sat talking to our very own Michael Palin’esqe English guy called Graham who had the misfortune to be retired and had to spend his time ‘summer’ hopping between the UK and New Zealand stopping for 5 months at a time in each and spending the remaining time finding new exciting routes to travel between the 2! Such hardship! Was a nice evening and we got lots of tips and hints on India and Nepal, plus even Kashmir but I don’t think we’ll be going there – my brother visited once and said it was a nice place but the people were a bit hostile! Having downed lots of beer the previous night we still managed to get up for sunrise at around 6am, shame when we got outside the clouds didn’t seem to appreciate our efforts and lingered just too long to see it perfectly, was still nice though! The rest of the trek was a quick descent down to the bottom of the gorge to check out the river before climbing back up to a small road and another guesthouse for lunch before catching a bus back to Lijiang.