This is a very incomplete schedule of open-to-all trips.
June 23- 28th Southern-Second Section (6 days)
July 7-12 Snow Mountain Range traverse
July 16-17th Yushan
August 21-22 Yushan
August 26-28 Yushan Traverse (3 days)
Early September Batongguan Cross-Island (7-9days)
Late October Snow Mountain traverse & Nan-hu
Late November Neng-gao
Christmas/New Year Batongguan Cross-Island (7-9 days)
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Goodbye Winter. Hello Summer.
As you can see, this blog tends to skip the occasional season. Then again this winter seemed to drag on for a bit longer and spring was fitted into a single April afternoon.
A recent photo of northern Kaohsiung County to get you in the mood for the winter that will come around before too many more posts here.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Puli, Alishan and Yushan.
I'll try to be polite.
Recent trips to Puli and Alishan have reminded me that the point of those places is as a base to areas nearby, not to them.
Puli is just another dull town (I await a defense of it) with lots of great mountains, rivers etc nearby. Ensure you have transport to get you out of the urban area.
Alishan is fine if you've grown up hearing about its wonders. For more outdoorsy types it's essential to get away from the main zone. I strongly recommend Tatajia (watch out for the excellent grey leaflet published by the Nat. Park) within the boundary of Yushan National Park, and the villages Fenchihu, Taihe, Rueli (good colorful info from the Alishan Scenic area admin) etc further down the mountains.
Transport is as with many places in Taiwan problematic - without a scooter anyway. To get to Tatajai I suggest hitching (yes yes I know I shouldn't mention this...) the 20 something km from the Alishan entrance. For the villages down the mountain get off the small gauge train halfway up and walk!
Yushan closed After changing their minds several times the National Park decided to keep the main peak open without a 'rest' this year. The recent cold weather though has forced them to close the higher peaks in the last few days due to 'heavy' snow and ice.
Recent trips to Puli and Alishan have reminded me that the point of those places is as a base to areas nearby, not to them.
Puli is just another dull town (I await a defense of it) with lots of great mountains, rivers etc nearby. Ensure you have transport to get you out of the urban area.
Alishan is fine if you've grown up hearing about its wonders. For more outdoorsy types it's essential to get away from the main zone. I strongly recommend Tatajia (watch out for the excellent grey leaflet published by the Nat. Park) within the boundary of Yushan National Park, and the villages Fenchihu, Taihe, Rueli (good colorful info from the Alishan Scenic area admin) etc further down the mountains.
Transport is as with many places in Taiwan problematic - without a scooter anyway. To get to Tatajai I suggest hitching (yes yes I know I shouldn't mention this...) the 20 something km from the Alishan entrance. For the villages down the mountain get off the small gauge train halfway up and walk!
Yushan closed After changing their minds several times the National Park decided to keep the main peak open without a 'rest' this year. The recent cold weather though has forced them to close the higher peaks in the last few days due to 'heavy' snow and ice.
Magpies and Pheasants
Last week on the Shau-kuan-shan Forest Road we came upon 2 usually hard to spot birds endemic to Taiwan - the Taiwan Blue Magpie, and a male Swinhoe's Pheasant.
Swinhoe's Pheasant (lophura swinhoii) named after the 19th century naturalist.
Soon to be our national bird, the Taiwan Blue Magpie (urocissa caerulea - member of the crow family, I think). As well as both parents mucking in, adult siblings help out in feeding the young. Wholesome!
.jpg)
Swinhoe's Pheasant (lophura swinhoii) named after the 19th century naturalist.
Soon to be our national bird, the Taiwan Blue Magpie (urocissa caerulea - member of the crow family, I think). As well as both parents mucking in, adult siblings help out in feeding the young. Wholesome!.jpg)
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Christmas Hikes
Finally got some details of a couple hikes taking place around Christmas. The first is a vigorous 5-day rivertrace December 24-28, and the 2 day is also a not-for-the-lazy ascent of the not very famous Sinwangling Dec 29&30. Details at http://sanminvalley.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
No dumping
Would prefer not to get into publishing this kind of stuff... Shiny new signs above the toilets in at Pai-yun Lodge. If you don't understand why I have posted this here forget you saw it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)