Day two of our time in the hills is in the Jiuzhaigo valley. This is much, much closer to our hotel, being a mere five or ten minutes away. I guess this is why our hotel was chosen for us. The entrance is a classic piece of hawkerish business - there is no way to go through to the entrance without passing down a huge corridor of shops all selling local curios and souvenirs, many of them identical between stalls. The only thing that catches my eye is a man with a lathe making horn combs right in front of us. It looks fun.
On the walk from the entrance pavilion, our guide Helen gets talking to another guide, a rather tall and dark-skinned guy with a scar on his chin but a nice smile. He is guiding for a family of Americans from Massachusetts. She explains to us that she calls him her "brother" because he and his wife had been so kind to her when she first came to the area. Apparently there is not a great deal to do up in the mountains so to have good friends is very important. They clearly get along well - it's always good to see people laugh as they do.
The Juizhaigou valley park is huge, and to see a fair amount in a day necessitates busses between the different legs of the area. Very broadly, the entrance is the bottom of a huge Y shape of three routes, with a central hub of shops and restaurants in the middle. The plan is to spend a little time in all three, and we start with the longest drive up to the top of Long Lake. We pass a network of otherworldly pools and lakes, almost all with this deep, deep aquamarine hue which I can only guess is some cobalt or copper based deposit. Whilst these pools look divine and resplendent with this utterly enchanting colour, almost all have the most eerie air of death around them. Tree trunks and branches just beneath the surface are calcified and lifeless like fossils. Tiny shrubs and moss clumps sprout from the tops of any trunks or branches that breach the surface, but nothing lives underneath. I can't help but think that this landscape would be worthy of a Tolkein novel, with enticing but fatal blue waters to torture the weary traveller.
Much like Long Cat, Long Lake is as it's name suggests. It curls away in front of us so we can't see the far shore at all. Obviously a first stop for tourists, there is a bevy of people trying to rent out traditional costumes for us to wear for photos, but we run down steps to the waters edge, where I swiftly layer up due to the tremendous cold. After briefly appreciating, we wander through the scrubby forest to another lake, this one slightly drained but still beautiful. Good photos are got, but the rest of this particular arm of the "Y" is sadly populated by wholly drained and empty lakes, with dusty paths criss-crossing their dry bases as if they'd been like this for some time. I imagine that some sort of water management is in effect to maximise the flow to their better attractions when meltwater is low.
(As an aside, I'm gently amused that with my leg brace combined with my somewhat large western frame I need to sit on the park's busses with my leg draped up over the wheel arches to be able to fit)
Our next stop is a huge expanse of shallow waterfall/water system that's only about a foot deep but all on a delicate incline through more scrub but with a duck-board bridge (without any guard rails) over it. Photo bliss, although I notice my battery is beginning to die on me. We cross the whole 150-200m of bridge a mere foot or so above the water, then are brought round to the base of the waterfall, which is a complex area with around a 10m drop on average. Ancient limestone at its very best.
Lunch back at the centre is on the balcony of a huge atrium, the bottom floor being given over to a market selling more local crafts and nik-naks from panda hats to back hammer/scratcher implements. Our guide has a problem with her pass so doesn't come in to eat with us, but the buffet is extensive and very good. There are even passable hot brown drinks :-)
After lunch we head up the second upper part of the "Y" to an area known as the Virgin Forest, but when we get there Nicky decides that trees aren't nearly as interesting as water, so we jump back on a bus and wind back past Arrow Head Lake (so called because of the shape) and Swan Lake (so called because there's a thin layer of grass over most of the surface that can hold the snow and keep it white much longer than any of the other lakes after winter has ended) to Peacock lake (so called because from above it has the shape of a peacock), also known as 5-colour lake (so called because the colour changes dramatically with the depth of this lake) where we finally crack and decide to dress up in the local finery and have our photos taken. It's a lot more fun that I thought it would be. We also walk past a darling couple of newlyweds having their wedding photos taken with this lake in the background. The guy gives me a great smile when I snap a photo of him having his photos taken. And you can't blame him, with surroundings like these. We make it to one more waterfall system but have no time to dawdle, as we've got fun things planned for the evening.
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