This morning saw the inclement weather closing in even more than yesterday. When Steven (our guide) picked us up, he thought that the weather would improve as we head south later in the day. He’s the local, so he should know. The Hotel at Taroko is 670 metres above sea level and we the road took us up into the clouds pretty quickly.
This part of the road is very narrow and some of the older tunnels are also quite small. The really big tour buses are not allowed to use this road. Our first point of interest today was the first of 6 red bridges that were built in the 1950s using steel sections that were fabricated in France.
These steel sections were originally made to rebuild bridges in Europe in the second world war, the war ended before all the sections were used, so they sent them to Korea instead. Again that war ended, so Vietnam was the next option. With the French being thrown out of Vietnam the steel sections were sent to Taiwan where engineers had to turn the sections into bridges without plans as these had been lost in transit.
We continued to wind our way up the mountain range until we stopped at the ‘Divine Tree’, a 3000 year old Fir Tree, which is 2150 metres above seal level. The fog had closed in again and it was raining, so we stopped to take some photos and have our morning tea break. There is a ‘coffee shop’ at the Divine Tree and they do a very nice black ginger tea sweetened with local honey made with nectar that is reputedly from peach trees only. I have found that tea is ofter a safer alternative when you are not sure about the coffee. In this case the choices were coffee or tea sweetened with honey… and a betting man I was sure that honey goes better with tea. My view is that a bad cup of tea is always going to be better than a bad cup of coffee.
From the Divine Tree we continued upwards and while there were some brief breaks in the clouds and we did get some glimpses far down into the valleys below, there were no opportunities to stop. There was plenty of traffic going both ways, but in ski season this area gets really busy. We reached the peak, at 3275 metres, but totally rained and fogged in, but with a chilly 8 degrees outside the car we made a quick visit I don’t think I’ve ever been that high before and did notice being a touch short of breath after running up the steps to the marker.
It was all literally down hill from there as we descended the range. We sampled some of the local fruit from a roadside stall just near the town of Renai. We tried some local raisins and did taste some local wine, which wasn’t really to my tastes. We bought some very tasty apples that had been grown locally.
As we passed through Renai, it became apparent that this was an eclectic town, that boasted a wide range of B&Bs in styles from just about any country you could think of. There was an English castle, german style residences, an Australian sheep farm, Japanese lodge and some Mongolian yurts to name a few.
Our last stop before our hotel was in Nantou at a shop called Feeling 18 Degrees, so named because the owner of the chocolate shop feels that 18 degrees is the best temperature to serve chocolate. There is also a very good coffee shop and a very good gelato shop. We sampled the Gelato, coffee and bought some chocolates for later. There was also a stall that sold passionfruit, one of my least favourite fruits, but with typical Taiwanese enthusiasm, I was made to taste some. Debbie said they were very good.
We arrived at our hotel which overlooks Sun Moon Lake. The lake has significance to the local Aborigine tribes and swimming is not permitted, except for a 3KM marathon swim held each year. If the rain stops I’ll try to grab some drone pictures in the morning. But in the meantime here’s a photo I took from the balcony.
Still an interesting day, despite the weather. Hoping conditions will improve tomorrow, but in typical Taiwanese fashion there is even a serious message to be found on your coffee cup.
Until tomorrow!
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