Kramer Leaping Gorge
July 6 – tiger leaping gorge
When we arranged this trip, we wanted to do some trekking in Tibet, but the timing didn’t work out. The alternative plan was to hike Tiger Leaping Gorge about 2 hours north of Lijiang and 3 hours north of the Linden Centre by way of the new expressway.
We had arranged the same driver who had taken us from Tengchong to Xizhou to pick us up at 10am. That gave Sue and the kids some time to do some last minute shopping before the drive. Of course, we ended up having a lovely conversation with Brian and Jeanee so the shopping got delayed. One thing that many people don’t know is that when it comes to deadlines, Tom can get pretty agitated. So when the minutes ticked down towards 10am, he got increasingly anxious. Thankfully, Sue and the kids came scampering down the road just before 10am and by 10:15 we were loaded in the van. By the way, 15 minutes late is what we call ‘Kramer On-time.’ Leaving on-time is what we call ‘Kramer-Early.’ Leaving early is almost unheard of, so we call it ‘Farmor’ (Swedish for grandma) because Tom’s mom is always early!
We wanted our Tengchong driver because he drives very fast and this trip was no exception. 2.5 hours after leaving we were at the TLG ticket office, a solid 30 minutes before we had estimated.
After buying our tickets to the gorge, we went to Jane’s guesthouse to drop off our bags so we could hike just with our backpacks filled with water, snacks, and a change of clothes. Next we engaged in some hilarious conversations trying to learn the best way to get to our first stop, Naxi Guesthouse. They are building a massive bridge across the river to allow the expressway to continue, so there was some confusion about the best way to go. Thankfully, we had our amazing mini translator Tyler with us and by 1pm we were winding up a narrow road to the beginning of the trail.
At the trailhead sat an elderly lady selling water and snickers bars. She invited us into the shade to enjoy our watermelon. At that very instant a white dude with a rice hat on wandered up and we invited him to join us in the shade for some watermelon. Alden is from LA but is 14 months into his 3 year journey around the world. He was happy to have some English speaking company and so were we.
Around 2pm we set off for our 1.5 hour walk to Naxi. (3 hours, said the lady. You need snickers, you need walking stick. Little did she know we already had snickers!). Because of the road construction the normally mild uphill had become a rather steep uphill, but despite the heat we all trudged up without complaint. Perhaps the kids didn’t complain because the had each tried to lift Alden’s pack, which full of everything but his tent and sleeping bag, easily weighed 50 pounds. Or perhaps it was because Tom had brought Evie’s iPod and speaker and was blasting Hamilton. Alden, having left the USA in 2015, had never heard of the broadway phenomenon, but within a few songs he was hooked.
We stopped a few times along the way to enjoy the spectacular views but mostly we hiked. At 3:30, we arrived at the cute town of Naxi (Na-see) and stopped for a late lunch at the guesthouse of the same name. We were the only guests at the place as it is low season in July and we were feeling very fortunate to have no rain thus far and clear views of the impressive peaks.
Around 4:30 we set off for the 2-3 hour hike to Tea Horse Guesthouse. Alden decided to stay the night in Naxi as his pace was a bit slower than ours. In between us and our beds were the treacherous ’28 bends,’ an infamous section of uphill. In high season, you will be pestered by locals offering a ride on their ponies but we were only halfheartedly offered rides by two folks heading down the trail. Like many things, the challenge was overstated and after an hour we were at the crest. The views were lovely and after snapping a few pictures we set off down the slippery trail and arrived at Tea Horse around 7:15.
Tom plopped on the wonderful roof deck to enjoy the view while Sue and the kids scoped out the rooms. They selected a pair of twin rooms and 300 yuan later ($45) we were in the restaurant ordering dinner. Surprisingly, we were not the only guests. There were about 10 other guests, mostly Chinese, who had set off from Lijiang at 7:30am and arrived around 4pm.
We enjoyed our dinner of banana-chocolate pancakes, instant noodle soup, Naxi sandwich, French fries and apple pie. At 9:30pm, we finally fell into our moderately comfortable beds exhausted but happy.