If you enjoy walking up mountains, then you can do the trek from the start to Tina's in a long day - but splitting it over two days makes for a perfect trip.
I caught the bus from Lijiang at 8am and everyone on the bus got chatting and we decided to walk together. After a relaxed start (enjoying coffee at Margot's - who very kindly gave us some great maps and advice) we set off to walk the route.
The highlight of the day is a section called 24 bends - an almost vertical climb up well over 1000 meters along a path that switchbacks along the way - hence the name.
The views are incredible - and the walking wasn't as hard as many people had told me.
After about four hours walking we arrived at the Tea Horse Guest House and decided to stay. Another group arrived - including some people I'd met at Stone The Crows in Lijiang. The food was really good, and the scenery and banter were even better.
The next day we set off to walk the final four hours down to Tina's and the end of the trail.
Here's some pics from the trail:
Me!
...and the gorge:
It certainly is :-)
View from The Tea Horse - where we spent the night:
Yes - that is what you think it is - they put it in food here like any other herb:
One of the very few sunrises I've ever seen:
The second day on the trail:
Fried wood - my favourite:
And another view of the gorge:
Most of the people I'd spent the last two days with were heading to Shangri La at the end of the trek. But because I'd left my bag in Lijiang I had to head back there - so wasn't able to join everyone else on the trip down to the very bottom of the gorge - which was a bit annoying. And on reflection - I wasn't really sure why I'd thought to go back to Lijiang in the first place. Oh well...
There was zero traffic on the road - so I ended up catching the Tina's Bus back to Lijiang...
1 comment:
Well in that case, the three of you look like you had a belly full.....of food!
Irish
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