Location: Hualien, Taiwan

Danny and I woke up early this morning to catch a bus to Taroko National Park! This was really high on my list of places to visit while in Taiwan so I was excited, however we had a quick pit stop to make first since I didn’t have a rain jacket…

7-11.

For a tourist poncho! I had literally no choice, as we needed to catch the bus right away and both of us had no rain jacket- although at least Danny was excited about himself wearing a pink one and me wearing a blue one. To our dismay they only had yellow and blue at this particular 7-11 but you know what? They would keep us dry.

I laughed and laughed as we put them on since they looked like old lady nightgowns but man were they necessary. There was a 100% chance of rain forecast and it came down in absolute buckets, flooding the walkways. I have to hike… and I have to do it in this?! Again no choice here as I had only one day – but we were determined!

We bolted into the visitors centre to grab a map and some bus schedules, then hopped the next bus right to the end of the line as I really wanted to do Baiyang Trail. I actually really wanted to hike Shakadang Trail (a well known one in the area) but it was closed because of the typhoon damage from last month. Okay this seems safe sure let’s go in the pouring rain. The drive to the end was well worth it on its own, showcasing amazing views as we delved deeper into Taroko Gorge. Natural black and white marble walls taller than I could have imagined jutted upwards, too tall to fit completely in my camera view. The water was icy blue from mineralization, which contrasted the whole scene beautifully.

When we finally got to the end of the line, the sky broke, the sun peeked through and we ended up doing the whole trail with no rain! One hundred percent chance of rain my ass. It turned out that Baiyang trail was more of a long walk than a hike – much to my delight. Yay! This whole day was turning out amazingly! Swallows dipped and dived around the cave openings that reminded me of a Miyazaki Movie scene. Tiger Hornets THE SIZE OF MY FINGERS buzzed about and I managed to only scream one time when one came near my face. Little yellow butterflies, and giant black and purple ones flitted about our ankles in pairs. We passed many marble walls, turns in the river, gorgeous gorge views and ice blue waterfalls, and near the end even got to pass under a water curtain inside a cave! (We had to remove our shoes and don our rain nightgowns again for this part).

We stopped at the Tunnel of Nine Turns on the way home, walking through a long tunnel cut into the side of a smaller gorge to showcase some particularly stunning marble folds, as well as a waterfall called ‘Fish Leaping Over Dragon’s Gate’. The tunnel was held up by long archways that reminded me of ribs, or of the pillars on the backside of La Sagrada Familia. Every once in awhile Chinese scripture was carved into the side of the walls and painted red.

Our last stop on the way home was the Changchun Shrine, also known as the Eternal Springs Shrine. Although the trail was unfortunately closed we did get to see the shrine from afar across a wide rocky riverbed. Nestled in the midst of lush greenery near the bottom of the wall, it was hard to imagine how people accessed the bell tower much further up (it was an insanely steep looking ascent).

We had been walking a lot and I was getting sleepy and a bit headache-y, so we made our way home where I showered and lay down for awhile. I decided to just stay in tonight, and ate some instant noodles from the hostel kitchen while Danny went out to grab dinner. He has decided to stay in Hualien a few days longer, while I will catch a train into Taipei in the morning (I could only get a flight out of there the day after). For tonight I plan on heading to bed early to hopefully ease the headache and get a good rest. It’s looking like it’s going to be a big weekend so I’d like to be prepared!

Today was so lovely, and well worth coming down even just for the day.

Sav

P.S. Happy Halloween!