i won't lie but i think the sound of birds woke me up, either that or some strange dream within which the previous happened. we threw what we had with us in our backpacks and headed down to the bikes....paid off our last night here.....took to the road again like seasoned veterans of taiwanese scooters. the day was beautiful. another sunsoaked sky. the descent was slow and lovely, smoothing into corners, heads up the majority of the time looking at the wall-like-mountains above, snapping back into reality whenever a bus came head-on in the middle of the road ( a frequent occurence). at the entrance to the gorge we took the mandatory photos and headed off to 7-11 to get some water for the ride. instead of driving back to hualien on the highway we heard about another gorge to the left of taroko which was virtually unexplored.. we decided to try find it.
after ending up in a few parking lots and factories we found a road that seemed to be heading in the right direction. we passed perfect little villages with trees and rice fields adding colour and contrast to the dusty sky and overpowering mountains. after winding around one village we saw a path heading to an opening in the valley. we drove our bikes down there and discovered a dead end, however, there was a path across the river and into the valley which we were sure was the entrance to the unspoilt gorge.. save for time we would have gone in.
the trip went quickly and within minutes we were back in hualien, had booked tickets on the 12.05 train and had 40 minutes in which to eat and return our scooters. the first proved difficult. we drove around for ages trying to find somewhere to eat, ended up failing miserably, sped across town, got some burgers and then sped back to deliver the scooters, almost got pulled over by a cop, then went down a wrong road and ended up momentarily lost, found the way again, dropped off the scooters, ran like hell to the station, down the stairs, up an escalator and basically boarded the train, sat down and we were off.... a bit too close for comfort since tom had a plane to catch that evening in taipei!
but reclining with a good book and even better memories the journey was quick, and sooner than expected we were back here at PS cafe, sipping a latte and chewing on what the past two days had brought us.
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