Post # 87 Nanyue

Day 102 888 days to go. Distance: yesterday 119km today ‘hiking’ total 6216km. It’s 8.15am Sunday 11/3/2012 Nanyue. I’m so cosy propped up in bed in my woollies rubbing feet prrrr with my thermos posting to you fine folk. Ive read up on the hike today and mini bus/cable options if I get lazy up or down or both 😉 It’s so nice not to have to go brave the cold with Rube. She’s a trooper but enjoying the day off too all tucked up in the incense shop downstairs. We arrived at 6.00pm and asked about for accommodation options and this fella pointed us down a tree lined small street. I asked at a restaurant and he walked me across the road to a shop front selling incense. The husband and wife rent a room in their home above the shop. I went with the old fella up flights of stairs round corridors through doors to my room which is cosy under the doona and clean. At 60 yen its the right price for a town based on tourism for Heng Shan and the temples around town. The couple are very dottery and cute. I asked if there was an Internet cafe and he popped me on the back of a young fellas moped an off we went to a back street. The door inside had a poster out front of a video game so that’s one to look out for next time. It’s still got such an underground feel. I got some more emailing to do tonight so I should be good to find my way back easy enough. For now I’m psyching myself up to explore Heng Shan which will take most part of the day once I get my sorry back side out of bed… soon. Yesterday I saw the sun very hazy but Rube and I had shadows. It took the edge off the temperature which was great. It was a challenging day as we were not sure on distances and no road signs to help. But we had full bellies to start the day with the couple serving me up a rice and omelet for breaky yum (80c). The man wrote down in English ‘where are you from?’ ‘What is your name?’ and could read my writing but couldn’t understand my accent. They and the nearby shop owners who had joined in on the conversation, waved us off a 9.00am. We got to and through Hengshan and onto highway 107 thanks to some top notch help from my moped cabbies love them. They are a unique folk amongst the unique Chinese and I have a soft spot for them. The don’t bat an eyelid at helping and enjoy the interaction and challenge and novelty of Rube. We almost stopped short of Nanyue. At the 85km and ‘I’m getting over it’ o’clock and old fella told me 50km to go mmmm deflating bugga!! I was deciding what to do while getting rubes cleaned for 50c. It had been a red muddy morning and she was a very dirty girl with mud to match her dress. The hose man said it was 20km so onwards we went all smicky again. I continued to ask for directions and distances. Ive been given three business cards from folk offering for me to call them if I get into trouble. How cool’s that? They cant’ speak English so I’m not sure how that would look bu the though is lovely and very appreciated. It turned out to be about another 40km so I’m glad I didn’t know that then otherwise we would have bailed at the next Truckee stop which are dotted on the highway. I stopped at this tiny town for a snack to get us through the last couple of hours (I thought). All on offer was rice and stir fry so I bought a tofu and greens mix for $1, ate a few mouthfuls and the rest is for snacking of today yay. The only Benefit of the temp is that you can keep stuff that would otherwise need refrigeration. It’s 9.00am so I suppose I should think about getting up and into the day ahead. Talk soon x 

 

It’s 9.00pm and Ive just been yahoo chatting with my partner so nice yum!!! It’s a bit late for a head needing calories after a huge day of it so Ill keep it breif and to the point!! That’ll be a first I can hear many say 🙂 What can I say I like candid detail and butterflying. What can I say about Heng Shan to ensure I rave enough about the experience. Thank you Janet!!! Great great suggestion!! Chinese folk pilgrimage up the mountain and down again with their loads of incense to make offerings at the temples along the way. Each temple has a furnace and they throw quantities of this packaged stuff – it must cost them a fortune!! The town is full of retail vendors selling all variations. While it burns they lay crouched head down and facewards to the ground in a praying position. While they chant their prayer, they sit up intermittently then resume their praying position repeating the process til done. Very interesting to watch. The walk up is no picnic. Heng Shan is 2200metres high and its a 20km walk up mostly steps with some paved walkways and road sections. It took the full four hours to get up but that’s including lots of stops to enjoy it all. The first section is green footed hils and waterfalls and cascading rivers. You pass shrines dotted amongst the scenery and it’s gorgeous. Then it becomes more pine forested and the temperature drops. The rain on the pines had frozen and was dropping in clumps to give a refershing burst on the head. The last section was cold and misty and foggy with the atmosphere perfect for the setting. A storm must had blown across the mountain top over night. It was so cold that the rain which had blown in horizontally had snap frozen when it hit anything in its wake: trees, antennas, rocks, pathways. So it was like wild jagged ice shreads frozen on one side across all the land features ontop the mountain. It must have been a unique event as the local folk were enjoying breaking off the ice pieces and taking picks. Mother nature was in full tempest and having a bad night clearly – it was quite unsettling the fury of it captured in a frozen snap shot of what must have been a violent storm. I had on my wollen underwear, down jacket and 3 layer gortex, gloves scarf and beenie of course and was ok on a very mild day comparably. At the top the temple was clouded in burning incense from the furnace – it looked awesome!!! I sent a spot track message while I soaked it up and nejoyed a coffee and the leftover stirfry. Great moment!!! It takes 20minutes to send the message and that was about the limit of my stay ontop so I headed back down. Along the way I was given an orange from a lady just cause she could and she was very happy to say ‘hello’ and that I accepted her gift. Further down I was walking behind two girls who were chatting away and I thought, ‘that’s not chinese.’ They were English teachers from the States teaching at local schools. Real conversation yayayayayaya. I’ve become a bit socially needy I suspect or at least for conversation cause I talked their heads off for half hour of so. It was very interesting listening to their ‘trying to understand China’ experiences. They both have such apparent respect and big enjoyment factor for the local folk. They speak very little Chinese but manage with their classes ok. I mentioned to them about how people will write dowen what theyre trying to say in Chinese like that’s going to make a difference. But they said that there’s so many dialects in China but the writtewn language remains the same. They will write it down in case you cant understand their dialect. Makes such clear sense now. While we were talking this young man was doubling what looked like his grandfather on the back of his moped and had such a big spill with the bike landing on the old fella’s leg. But he eventually picked himself up and got going again tough old bugger. It was good we were there to give the young bloke a hand to lift the bike up on the sloapy and muddy hillside. What he was doing trying to double up there is beyond my reasoning but they sorted and got on with it – all in a day’s tough life hey? I ran the second part down to give the legs a stretch out and they felt so much better for it. Beautiful area for running!! I got back in time to chat with my partner for a couple of hours and that’s been me for the day. So time for dinner and bed. Big time tidey wides tonight. Great day. PS Rubes very jelous she missed out and fair enough so Im playing it down a bit when talking around her. Don’t let on you know better!!!!! 🙂 Talk soon x