Wait, Judy, aren’t you the one who keeps complaining about the heat, but then you go on a day hike?? Umm, yes, but our friends, the Roy’s, are a very active family so any outing with them will involve some form of exercise, usually hiking. Jules and I braced ourselves for the usual onslaught of intense heat, sweat and mozzies and headed northeast for the hour long MRT ride to Neihu where we’d begin our ill-fated adventure.
The trail head started at Dagouxi Park, which was lovely even during its off season. In the spring the grass erupts with flowers and locals taking selfies but the scene in front of us was perfectly sufficient. What was even better was the rushing stream down below, which at first I thought was just a mirage either from the 105 degF temperature or the profuse amount of sweat and sunblock clouding my vision. The kids and I were overjoyed and practically ran down the hill for the chance to just dip our toes in the cool water.
I nervously looked around to see if any of the locals were furtively snapping photos of us in the water to send to the police. The current restrictions in Taiwan are very strict when water is involved. For example, you can look at the beach from afar but no stepping on the sand and definitely no stepping in the water. Buut, the regulations don’t say anything about fresh water. I’m not sure why going in waist deep in a stream is given a pass when you can’t touch the ocean with your toes, but at this point a 500USD fine seemed absolutely reasonable for a quick dip in the water. The heat here does funny things to your state of mind.
We practically had to throw the kids over our shoulders to get them out of the water, but we had ground to cover since we had only walked 1/100th of the trail Chloé planned out for us. This part of Taiwan used to be a coal mining site, and there are still remnants of the old mining car tracks and tunnels.
We came across this temple and the kids rushed up the stairs to put their hands in the Chinese lion’s mouth to bring good luck. In this case, they put their hands in the male lion’s mouth representing power and dominance. One can hope.
The trail past the temple brought us to a very lush and humid tropical jungle full of unfamiliar bird calls, the whooshing of rushing water and the deafening vibrations of cicadas. Emma is a confident and brave outdoorsman, and she’s a good influence on Jules who definitely takes more risks in her presence. It was a joy watching the two of them clambering over large boulders and doing some river tracing. Anything to reduce or eliminate screen time during a pandemic is a plus in my books.
At some point along the trail Chloé decided to take a path that no other tourists were taking. Cool. I was busy taking photos, but when I looked ahead I saw Chloé chatting to an elderly Taiwanese man and pointing towards a temple atop a distant large hill to her right. I was confused for a couple reasons: 1) What language is Chloé speaking, since she doesn’t speak Mandarin or Taiwanese or much English? 2) Why is she concerned about some microscopic-looking temple that looks like it’s a day’s hike from where we are?
My fatal error occurred when I paused for more than a few seconds to take some photos. A horde of invisible mozzies launched an all out attack, piercing naked skin and even through my leggings. The visible large mamas went so far as to land on my hand in plain sight. They continued to suck my blood even as I swatted them away, which completely skeeved me out. I am not exaggerating when I say that I had to pinch their bodies between two fingers to actually pull their nasty needle-like proboscises out of my hand. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.
I was already overwhelmed with heat exhaustion and mosquito spit by the time I fully realized Chloé’s intentions. Yep, she was asking the man for the path to get up to that far, far away temple. Awww, hell no. She was ready to continue our trek when I asked the man how long would it take to hike to the temple. He shook his head and said at the minimum 1 1/2 hours. Considering that it was already 5pm and we had already hiked about two hours then we would optimistically return to our starting point at 10pm. I had to stop the madness and told our friends that this is where we’d part if they continued to the temple. Fortunately, Chloé decided to change course and offered that we hike another 20 minutes to reach Yuenjue Waterfall.
I’m so happy that we redirected our course or else I wouldn’t have been able to capture the next series of photos of one of my favorite animals in Taiwan, the Formosan Blue Magpie, a bird endemic to Taiwan that captivated all of us when we lived in Taiwan for a year.
What a relief it was to finally arrive at Yuenjue Waterfall where the unsaid agreement amongst those present was that no one was going to rat you out for removing your mask to drink water. Phew.
We were all starving while walking back to the trail head, so we again risked it all by trying to stuff bites of sandwiches into our mouths without anyone seeing. This ultimately proved to be too stressful for me and killed my appetite, so I just settled on super quick sips of water. One of the best parts of the trip was the air-conditioned subway ride back to Taipei. Unfortunately, this hike set me back a day as I ended up with a dull headache and overall sense of malaise the entire next day. I realized that I was suffering a mild form of heat exhaustion due to a combination of high temperature and humidity, a deadly duo since the sweat on your body can’t evaporate and cool you down. On top of that I’m prone to developing mild fevers after reaching a certain threshold of mozzie bites. Not ideal when your temperature is constantly monitored by the government. Thankfully, Jules fared much better, since he and Emma were waist deep in water for significant portions of the hike. Lesson learned — no more long hikes for us on this trip.
