Today was the stereotypical day I was hoping to have when I planned a trip alone. I rode on the back of a scooter with the wind in my face, hiked into a cave with water pooring down from the ceiling, and saw Taiwan's incredible coastline.
We got up early to make sure we had plenty of time in Taroko Gorge. It's an incredibly limestone and marble canyon that was formed when a coral reef was compressed and pushed up from the ocean floor as the Eurasian and Philippine Sea plates push against each other. It's a pleasant ride from Hualien, made extra exciting for me by the fact that I got to ride on the back of a scooter.
Apart from the general beauty of the canyon, the trip was highlighted by the two hikes we did. The first was to the "water curtain cave," which is an area where there are huge fissures in the rock walls below / near a river. After hiking 2.1 km to this cave, we were rewarded by an incredible (though very short) walk into this cave water water is pouring down through the ceiling. Photo credit to theorientalcaravan.com.
The other hike we did was along a river on a path called the Shakadang Trail. Brian had written in his Lonely Planet guide book that there are huge spiders on this trail, but we thankfully didn't see any. The hike was beautiful and (for us) culminated in a walk down to the river where we waded around. I stuck my feet under some of the mini-waterfalls, which really reminded me of building "foot massagers" in Israel with Shira. Definitely a really very day.
Afterwards, we continued riding north, which gave us an incredible view of Taiwan's coastline. Finally, we got to a train station in a small town called Heping where we said our goodbyes. Embarassingly, I only asked for his name once, forgot it in the morning, and was too ashamed to ask again... But I gave him my email address and if he emails me it'll hopefully include his name in the header.
Back in Taipei, I had dessert with and said goodbye to Brian and Fiona. Thank you for being such wonderful hosts! You made my trip here so much more fun and comfortable. Tomorrow I'm having lunch with a blogger I admire (Ben Evans) and then heading to Shanghai!