First thing in the morning one of the newcomers to the group came knocking on my door asking for some rehydration salts, she was not looking good. 3hrs on a bus later and she was pulling out of the trek, one down and we haven't even started walking yet. It took quite a lot of time to get her into a hotel in Qiatou as she was quite agitated at being left alone and not knowing what was wrong with her. But the trek must go on! We have a doctor in our group who I think managed to come her down and he himself had an accident as we were leaving, slipping on the wet pavement and landing on his tailbone! The toughnut he is though he was determined to carry on. Not a good start to a 3 day hike!
It was pouring down with rain but we finally headed off (or I should say up). We hiked for 2hrs before stopping for lunch at the Naxi family guesthouse. Everyone already soaked to the bone, I'm so thankfull I brought the poncho cause whilst I might be saturated at least my bag and camera are dry. We scoffed down a great lunch and just as the shivers were starting to set in it was off again.
3hrs more hiking on the first day but it was the hardest 3hrs of my life. We hiked from 1800m at Qiaotou to 2700m at our highest point at the top of the 24 bends. And most of that altitude gain was during the 24 bends, and ardous, painful ascent as we hiked up trails that had turned to rivers with the unseasonal weather (according to Margo out trek leader the trail had been dusty and hot the week before).
At the highest point we were to reach on the trek you could see the clouds gushing through the gorge with the occaisional glimps of snow on the peaks opposite, gushing waterfalls and the river below. I exclaimed to Megan that I was in heaven, it was the most amazing site I have ever seen made even the sweeter from what we had to endure to reach it.
From the top it was an hours hike down hill to or overnight stay at the Teahorse Guesthouse. I imagine we arrived somewhere near 7o'clock although I can't be certain as I headed straight for the jasmine tea and warmth of the dining room.
What a feast we had that night! I slept like a baby which I haven't done in years.
We found out at dinner that due to the rain an mudslide had washed out the road we were to exit from on the third day, so were going to have to go back the way we came. For those adventurous enough (or stupid enough) a 10km hike good be taken in the morning along the stretch of a trek we would have hiked to the Halfway guesthouse. 7.30 in the morning, half an hour before leaving time and I was still telling myself I wasn't going to do the extra hike. I got up for breakie (chocolate pancake :)) and found my excuses were lame and that regret would take hold if i didn't go. So the stupid few headed off into the rain, we crossed amazing waterfalls, stumbled upon mountain goats and made our way to the halfway point and had thee most delicious apple pie EVER!
Hiked back to the Teahorse to find the others still in their PJ's! Apparantly we had made faster time than they were anticipating. Whilst we had been away, news had come in that conditions of our fellow group member had worsened back in Qiatou and Gag, Megan and Elinor (our leader) would have to head back and deal with the situation. It is unlikely she will be returning to our trip.
As they headed off we ate lunch and tried to dry our clothes, rather pointless though as we were about to head back out into the rain anyway.
The plan was to hike back to the Naxi guesthouse and stay there the night. This meant only a 1.5hr trek up hill and a 1hr trek down. The trek up wasn't quite as harsh at the 24bends but its gradual incline meant travelling was still slow. For about half an hour the skies cleared and we had magnificant views of the gorge, I thought to myself that it would be nice to reach the top and be able to see the bottom (which had been covered in cloud the day before) but no sooner did I have that thought that the clouds swept in again and by the time I reached the top you could barely see the other trekers let alone any of the gorge. We reached the Naxi family about 4 and set to drying and warming ourselves out. I almost died when I found the showers were hot, my body felt alive again!
The next day was a stroll in comparison to the last two days and we got to remove our ponchos as the sun came out and gave us spectacular views. It breaks my heart to think that this time next year the dam could be built and the water levels 400m higher than present, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and forever ruining the most amazing place in the world.
44km and 3 days later we hiked back into Qiatou and soon after jumped on a bus to Zhongdian.
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