ShiTing Moutain Hike

Today the hiking guru Matt organized for us to go on a six hour hike around ShiTing which apparently means Stone/Rock. Actually I think the trip was more for Georg to try and get fit for his Napole mountain challenge which happens in two weeks from now.

Hiking team.

The first part of the climb was a mega lung buster it’s was practically vertical the whole way up and very steep and we all arrived at the top like a bunch of sweating dogs! This was probably the most challenging part of the hike.

We had wanted to reach 600 meters but I think this was the highest we were able to get!

We were following the route from a book written by Robert Scott Kelly who had a hiking blog called Pashan. The book we had only had words and no pictures so we had to read along as we went to make sure we took the correct way, so the hike had quite a nice theme to it as we would stop along the way to check to see if we were on the right heading, it was almost like treasure hunting.

Matt reading the way we should go.

Top of the rock.

Laid back.

Georg taking in the views.

Simply beautiful, you can just about see the 101 tower in the background.

This was probably one of the best hiking trips I have been on so far and I defiantly plan to do more the views where amazing and it’s such a great way to get out of the city and take in the fresh air and explore the sights.

Nearly home.

The Geysers From Yangmingshan Mountain

I didn't know Taiwan had Geysers but then it's only recently I've been spending most of my weekends trying to get out of Taipei city and head out towards the various mountains for hiking which surround Taipei.

I love the colour of the bright  yellow sulphur on the ground.

Actually it's the fist time I've seen Geysers before, and the intoxicating smell of sulphur is really strong and slightly stings your eyes, or a least that happened with me. Mind you it was still will worth a visit.

 

Letting of steam.

A lovely combination of fog and sulphur.

In the photo above if you look at the right you can see a pile of rusty old pipes, apparently a Taiwanese company had wanted to extract the sulphur for commercialise use. But the steel structure of pipes they built was corroded by the sulphur so the gave up on the refinement.

Team photo.

The geysers are located quite close to Chingtiangang grasslands, you should be able to find your way just from the smell! 

Corina and Andreas.

Hiking Around Yangmingshan

This weekend I got up very early to go hiking with George and freinds as he had oganiseed a special trip for Oni and Zou to see geisers and also visit the hidden hot springs.

We all had to meet at JianTan station at around 9am which is not massivley early, but when your not home from the office untile 3am it's not a vast amount of sleep you get. I smiled though my teeth as every body pitched up 30 minutest later.

Apart from that it was a tottaly awsome hiking trip. I think we were heading towards Chingtiangang grasslands ?

Oni, programing our route with the infamous battery eating GPS device.

Fog on the lens.

When we arrived it was very foggy and rainy, and I did wonder if my shell top trainers with holes in them was going to be a problem. But at least I had a good jacket and my body core was kepted warm which is the most imporant part.

Just double checking our route.

Enter the mist as you can see it was very foggy and raining when we set off, but kind of exciting as I love this weather almost give a spooky feeling to the trip.

A very muddy track and my foot wear did'nt stand up to well!

Slightly lost but just checking are route and altitude?

Found again as we headed of to the geisures and the weather had started to clear up.

Rather nice old bridge we crossed as we headed towards the hot springs.

Georg fully kitted out!

Some of the local vegetation, not sure what these are called but the leaves are huge.

The joys of modern technology in the rain.

The photo below should in large if you click on it. Photo taken somewhere around Chingtiangang area.