Day Fourteen

Today is the day. The weather is finally nice enough. No rain and a pleasant 23-26 degrees instead of 30+. Time for a hike!

After breakfast and a bus ride to "Sanxia," a district southwest of Taipei, I had another bus to catch. I was expecting a "proper" bus, but it turned out to be a minivan, which I only noticed once it had passed me already.

Not wanting to wait another half an hour, I opened the Uber app, and lo and behold, there were actually cars that could take me to the starting point of the trail.

The Wuliaojian trail is well known for its "Razor edge" sections, but before we get to those, we must go up first. Yes, with steps, lots of them.

But not only steps. There are sections where you're presented with a rope, and you have to figure out how to use it to get up whatever the rope is attached next to. The first one was easy, but some presented some real challenges!

Soon the amount of rope sections started to increase, and eventually, I found myself on the first razor's edge.

I'm not afraid of heights, but the drop is steep, and you only have a tiny foothold to walk over.

After the second section, I found a nice place to lunch with a view.

The most challenging section came up after this, you have to descend a 30-meter wall with just a rope with some knots!

At the "bottom," you can go up another cliff to see the one you descended from; I was there anyway, so why not. It looks a lot more scary in person.

The trail kept presenting more challenging obstacles. It's one of the most fun hikes I've ever done.

At this large tree, I paused to check for return trails, and there were a couple of options.

With plenty of daylight left, I chose the most roundabout way to get back, which took me to the peak for some excellent views.

One element I hadn't used yet were ladders, and it takes a leap of faith to step onto a ladder that is seemingly only held up by a short piece of rope.

(It was secured halfway with iron rods stuck into the rock wall).

From here, the trail became less challenging and meandered its way down the mountain.

At the bottom, I took an uber back into town and visited an "Old street" with traditional shop houses.

Here I bought some snacks, drinks, and eventually dinner before taking the bus back to my hotel.