There are multiple trails around Taipei, one of them is the Taipei Grand Hike and I walked a part of it today.
I started by taking a taxi to the visitor center, and walked through a bamboo forest to get to the fumeroles.
Fumeroles are vents that whip up steam. They are surrounded by sulphur and ash, and smell like fireworks and rotten egs. Lovely.
From the viewpoint the trail to the peak started with stairs of course.
The path upwards passes more Fumeroles, some of which you have to walk over to continue the trail.
The Qixing Shan main peak stands at 1120 meters. Too bad the clouds obscured the views of the city, which supposedly are really nice.
The upside of these clouds are that the temperature is a nice 26 degrees and I’m not burning in the sun.
After part one of my lunch (In total I had Sushi, Rice wrapped with fried Egg, a Onigiri, and a box of Oreos), I continued with the trail and the foggy mountain made way for grasslands.
There are wild buffalos, and you can use these things to get away from them in case they attack. I’m not keen on trying it out, though.
When the Japanese took over Taiwan, they built a lot of AA Pillboxes, they are scattered all around the grasslands.
In turn, the grasslands made way for forests shrouded in fog.
This concluded part three of the Grand Trail, but I still had ways to go to the city.
It was about four in the afternoon, and I had already done 20 Kilometers, with very few straight parts, so I stopped at a coffee shop next to the road and bought myself a coffee. I planned to sit down and wait for an Uber driver to come get me from the city.
I ordered the Uber and before the coffee lady had my drink ready, the Uber driver was just a minute away. Great, because it saved me a wait, but now I had to commit to one of the greatest sins you can do in an Uber, and that’s bring a drink.
It took a lot of effort to not splash hot coffee all over the place, as the mountain road was quite bumpy. But I managed to make it. I hope it doesn’t affect my Uber rating too much. My new hotel was located in an area with tons of Japanese places, and I didn’t want to walk far, so Curry it is!
