Oct 6, 2015
Today was good and bad: we had fun but my shoes are soaked with rain.
Milo in Yuangshuo (China)
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Today was good and bad: we had fun but my shoes are soaked with rain.
Milo in Yuangshuo (China)
View from the bamboo-boat by magical-world on Flickr.
Beautiful Yuangshuo, an idyllic paradise in China!
More scenes from the outskirts of Yuangshuo, China
Yuangshuo
Although climbing dominated many of our days in Yuangshuo, we still had plenty of free time to explore the area, with my old school friend Damien acting as our tour guide and principle means of transport. Although Em and I squeezing onto the back of Damien's bike made for cosy journeys, we generally didn't have too far to travel, and as the days passed we took in scenic lookouts, hidden 'beaches' surrounded by limestone cliffs, and even a remote plateau in the nearby mountains which looked untouched and undisturbed by locals or other tourists.
Although Yuangshuo can be an overload of human traffic at times, you only have to travel a few km out of town to find somewhere nice and relaxed, which I'm told is rare in the rapidly urbanising and construction-dominated modern China. A lot of the surrounding limestone hills have yet to be fully mapped and we undertook a few cave explorations which were great fun, although a little cramped at certain points.
In the town itself there are the usual tourist shops closely huddled together down West Street, where we picked up various souvenirs to bring back home. There are also a variety of eateries, including one of our favourite spots 'Kellys'' where they do a mean snickers shake for dessert! Yuangshuo, despite its high tourist populations is a relaxed place and it was easy to see how Damien had decided to make his home here.
Climbing part 2
We climbed with Sky and his colleagues a total of 7 times over our 3 weeks and during that time we learnt all about anchors, bolts and belaying. We even had to practice falling - my screams reverberated around the peaks and it took Tom about 10 minutes to build up the nerve to let go of the rock! My greatest achievement was leading a 25-30m high route. This was considerably higher than anything I had led at my local climbing wall, and included a crux move right at the top that I really had to commit to. We also enjoyed climbing sone more difficult climbs on top-rope. Most of the climbs were very high, which as well as being psychologically more difficult, are a lot more energy sapping as you have further to climb. The course did wonders for our confidence and we now feel ready to take on leading at the climbing wall once when we return!
Em scaling the heights in Yuangshuo
Scaling a 6B in Yuangshuo