Day 07

Auhua (Haenben) to Beipu

We’re approaching Hualien today and looking forward to some home comforts, which for me is an internet access and a washing machine and for Kevin and Neil is a McDonalds. Kevin is being chased by a big buzzing fly which he must sprint from at each stop like a man running for his life. However, he persuades me it’s actually a poisonous Japanese hornet and ought to be avoided.

The first 10km leads us back into the mountains and through plenty of long tunnels, providing shelter from the sun but little room between the walls and the zooming trucks. They really are a great place to get dirty and all of us are particularly grimey today. Candice found us on the side of the road. She had driven through the night from from Taitung on her 50cc scooter. I think you can call this commitment! We are happy for the extra addition to Neil’s “Support Team”. We are excited about Toroko Gorge today, one of Taiwan’s most beautiful locations and Neil and I have heard lots about it from friends here who insist one must make the trip.

By all accounts it’s some of the most spectacular scenery in Taiwan, and as we enter the park we are only momentarily saddened on finding a two inch nail in my rear tyre. The bike’s left behind after a shouting match about who drove over said nail and punctured the tyre. As Neil had been riding the bike for the last
10km to the Gorge, I’ll let you decide who was the guilty party. (He may kill me for saying such. He insists it was me.)

I’m not thrilled about attempting to describe Toroko Gorge. Would it suffice to say that the winding river that twists its way between the towering mountains of this marble canyon is simply magnificent? As the road, carving through archways and tunnels, follows the river heading inland through the mountains, the motorbikes are a perfect way to explore and the four of us pass boulders the size of houses, spot waterfalls forging their way down from the mountain tops hundreds of feet above and find hanging ‘Indiana Jones’ style bridges dangling way above. The scenery here is all of those words that spring to mind : spectacular, breath-taking, stunning. I cannot do it justice. You will just have to go there.

Unfortunately we had no time to take a hike through Toroko. The nature of Neil’s adventure requires a lot of pressing on. We find a great and inexpensive hotel in Hualien and Neil finishes the marathon in his usual excitable and seemingly unexhausted way.