10 May 2023
Fortified whine
Lovers lake and Danwulun fort
Not great photos today. Blue sky and plain green scenery. A strange thing to whine about. A bit more cloud, some rocky terrain and coloured trees would make for far better pics, which requires a non tropical environment. Weather update - fantastic, clear blue sky, nice breeze, not humid, maybe 25c.
OK, I thought today's walk would be quite short, so instead I made it long. First up was the lovers lake. Lots of old people were there doing a slow lap of the lake. Many were keen to talk to me in English. They were quite annoyed to learn that this is my 5th visit to Taiwan, I do not think they really understood that I have been 5 times as a tourist.
Around the lake you can see thousands of turtles, swimming in the water or basking on a log, but they are hard to photograph, even with zoom. Getting to the lake was about a 3km walk up a concrete path from a busy road with a bus every 2 minutes, I think there are buses to the lake park entrance, but they are irregular. There were a lot of tour buses though, even at the early hour I was there.
After lapping the lake, you can then take the mountain trail. Not much of a mountain, but it does go to Eagle Rock, where Daddy Cool jumped off, then to Lovers Tower and then if you have still not had enough, you can go to Danwulun fort. Obviously I went to the fort, because it's a fort!
I then saw a trail down to the ocean, ok... But there are only about 4 buses a day along the ocean road, it is a long way, with no shops and no shade, so be prepared to walk another 10km back to Keelung station. I did just that.
Keelung port, on a very bright, blue day. I learnt today that that there are a lot of military bases around here, with fairly weak security, you can look at the tanks through the fence for example. There were cameras everywhere so I did not take a photo.
The park entrance has an 'ancient engine'. In Taiwan they had trains in ancient times, such an advanced civilization.
A giant cock and a rooster statue.
Here is a small part of the lake, it winds around a bit.
Sadly, the best I could do for a turtle shot. I can go eat one later. Also grass jelly is made from turtle shells.
A very bouncy suspension bridge. A lady doing Tai Chi here was keen to tell me about how she had visited America to see her sister. Thanks for that.
Onto the mountain trail. That is an island. There is an island here somewhere you can take a day trip to. I do not know if that is the one. Either way, I won't be taking a day trip to an island.
Down there is a tourist beach, according to the map. Only tourists allowed?
Lovers tower. I went up there on my own, to jinx it.
A view from lovers tower, with a ship and the little island, and a lot of green.
The paths today around the lake and up to the fort were all top quality old person friendly.
From the fort entrance, you can see... a lot of green, and a bit of lovers tower.
Danwulun fort. It is not clear when it was built or who built it. The signs say it was mainly an ammunition warehouse. The brick bits in this shot look new to me.
This bit is old though.
I suspect it used to be more of an underground labyrinth but has been closed off with stones.
Next I spotted the path down to the sea, the haixing trail to be precise. A slightly less developed trail, but of the non slippery kind.
At the bottom I saw a collection of dog thrashing sticks, refer to yesterdays hike for details.
The view back up is.. all green.
I could have gone around there to the tourist beach, but I decided to head back to Keelung in the opposite direction. I think it is probably easier to find a bus if you go towards the beach, or go back over the hill to the lake even.
It is a long way around the coast back to Keelung, but there is a footpath, so that was refreshing.
I went through both Santorini and Mykonos.
And then I arrived at a tank farm, and nearby, a giant power station. Excellent.
Despite this being a very industrial area, there is an open sea pool for old folks to strip off and strut about. A couple are swimming in it though, including a snorkeler beyond the sea wall. It is well known that in general, Taiwanese people are terrified of water, and most cannot swim, this might be from something called the Ghost Festival - 'People should avoid swimming, and bodies of water, so that evil spirits cannot drown the living, and gain a second chance at life'. I just looked up Taiwan fear of swimming and there seems to be scholarly articles about the topic, with the suggestion being that they have the lowest percentage of people able to swim in the world, and when they tried to introduce it to schools, there were protests.
Instead of swimming, you can cross the road and hang your washing out in the street. This was a feature for much of my long walk back to Keelung. Time for a cake for lunch!