28 March 2017
Windy teapot
Hiking the teapot mountain in Jiufen
There were 3 things I was sure I wanted to do whilst in Taiwan on this trip. Go to Taroko gorge, go to sun moon lake, and climb the teapot mountain near Jiufen (9 minutes? the characters suggest the place is called 9 minutes).
Today I completed 3 of 3, so thats a good outcome.
Like the other 2 of the 3, teapot mountain is quite well known, and Jiufen is very well known to all visitors to Taiwan, indeed I had been to Jiufen previously and climbed a different mountain, which will be seen in my large number of photographs below.
Teapot mountain was very exciting, there are cave sections to haul yourself up through using ropes, with openings so small I had to take my pack off to fit. Fat people cant do it. Claustrophobic people would hate it.
The scary part of the day was not that though, the scary part was that it was so very windy. Windy enough that I had to hang onto ropes to make sure I didnt get blown off the mountain. There were a few other people, and they all told me it was too windy as I passed them or as they were coming down the other way.
The wind certainly made it challenging, there were sections on ridges where I had to stay down on all fours and almost crawl along whilst hanging onto the rope.
You can see how cool my hair thought all of this was below.
Another good thing about teapot mountain is that there is another mountain behind it, with lots more ropes and abseiling and high winds, and then there is a road to walk back down to Jiufen. So its a hard struggle to get up, and then an easy long walk back down to a tourist city with good transport.
Since I took so many photos, I better get to adding my unfunny comments to them, but as it was so windy they were not always taken from the best vantage points, I could only take photos where I thought it was safe enough to get my pack off and take my camera out.
Oh and also, im a bit sore from todays efforts, so dont expect a huge update this evening.
Oh and also also, Jiufen is a great place for anyone to visit, even if you dont want to climb anything. Well, just walking around the place is a bit of a climb as its on the edge of a cliff, but there is lots to see and do there and its very easy to get to. I am starting to sound like the Taiwan tourism association.
WESTERN BREAKFAST! My hotel insisted when I checked in that I selected my breakfast and my breakfast time to the nearest 10 minute slot. I did not select a hot dog sausage and chips, I selected egg and bacon, but it was labelled western breakfast.
I did not want egg and bacon breakfast either, but the other option was salted fish congee, and not making a selection seemes to cause great offence.
After finishing my fries, they were very insistent I select my breakfast and time for tomorrow, I will not be having western breakfast tomorrow. I will get whatever the Chinese breakfast is. Hopefully not ground up rice with added salted fish guts and soy milk.
Boring photo from inside the bus to Jiufen, or is it? Note the woman up the front has put her umbrella up, inside the bus. Another new way to terrify me with umbrellas.
At one point the driver slammed on the brakes, hard enough for a guy sitting at the back in the middle to fly down the aisle, and for everyones phones and bubble teas to go flying. No one was hurt, and my phone remained in my hand.
Thats the mountain I climbed last time I was here, which is a never ending stair case with little rest pavillions all the way up. It was excellent fun if I recall. My mountain today is a lot more challenging. A shame that the pollution haze is impacting the view.
The entrance to teapot mountain is inside the gold mine museum park. This entire area used to be gold mines. There are lots of tunnels and old railways. Not for me today, I have climbing to do.
Nice view down to the ocean.
It is starting to get rocky and windy. I had to put my gloves on at this point and start using the ropes.
A bit more view. I will probably say that a few times today.
The rocky peak ahead, with the red warning sign. Look closely and you can see other people, they warned me it was very windy.
Inside the cave, looking for the opening to crawl out of. Excellent fun!
I am already looking wind swept, little did I know the wind up until now had been but a gentle calming breeze in comparison to what was to come.
I climbed out the last hole.
Picture of hole.
A bit more ocean before I start to go down to the terribly windy ridge joining two peaks.
It would have been impossible to get down without the rope. Eventually these ropes must wear out and break. Thankfully not today.
The back side of the teapot, doesnt look as steep in the photo. It never does.
More view. Yep, that view word again.
Actually this was still a calm before the storm as far as wind goes, it was very windy here, yes, but not windy enough to be picking rocks up off the ground and blowing them off the cliff.
Time to do some more climbing, I appreciated that there was no wind whilst climbing up this crevice.
I am at the top, in the wind, jesus christ.
The view was great but I had to crouch down and hang on.
Excellent photo of me getting wind blasted.
Finally some respite, in the form of a mossy valley below the ridge.
The worst of the wind was over, just this easy bit of path back to the road.
Finally back at the road, still windy at times, but less of an issue when you are not standing on a cliff hanging onto a rope.
Time to use the zoom and see how far it is back to Jiufen, about a 45 minute walk as it turns out.
Thats the path I took at the back of this photo. The rocky bit sticking up on the left was the cave hole, then over all those rocks hanging from ropes, and then back down the ridge line disappearing off the right edge of the screen.
And then I descended down a random stair case in the city built on the side of a cliff, and I was inside Jiufen old street. You can tell, because theres a huge penis sign.
'A piece of Gayke'??? Gay cake I guess. LGBTBBQXYZI is very trending news in Taiwan.
Old street is very popular with tourists, I must have looked a bit weird with hair going every which way, and sun screen running down my shirt.
The street seems longer than I remember, it snakes around on the edge of a cliff, I think there are tunnels but its hard to tell, a fascinating place.
Theres a bit of the city itself, not a great photo, light was no good.
One last photo of the view, this time with temples and an island. On a clear day it would be awesome.
As a reward for my climbing efforts today, a series of tiny white sandwiches. Delicious. These ones are better than yesterdays as there is no mystery salted possibly horse meat included, and no mayonaise.
Mayonaise on a sandwich is worse than salted horse.