We had every intention of being up at 5 and hiking by 6 to escape the heat but the entire village was shrouded in cloud so we took it easy and got a decent breakfast in us before slowly climbing our way out of Ping’an to the start of the ‘contoured path’ to Dazhai. The walk on top was pleasant – it was early with few tourists and we were not harrassed by the Long Hair Ladies in their traditional costumes. Shortly after passing over the ridge we came across a large lake/dam and the first fork in the road. In our defense both paths looked equally well used, there was no indication and all the maps we had seen were equally shocking. We went right – that turned out to be VERY wrong !

For an hour and a half we followed the path randomly chosing directions at forks through thick forest, past long since abandoned rice terraces and buildings and over rickety log bridges until we were well and trully concerned. The largest living thing we had seen since the Ping’an valley was an unidentified black snake – no locals or tourists, nothing ! Faced with retracing our steps and spending another night in Ping’an we pushed on again. Fortunately we came across a lone farmer on the trail and managed to discern that 1, We were a VERY long way from Dazhai and 2, at the next fork in the trail we should turn left. It was good advice that eventually led us to a tiny village (albeit with at least one satellite dish) and the hope of being on the correct trail.

The village was almost entirely deserted but an old woman in traditional get-up sensed our presence. Asking directions we could not decipher her replies but it was obvious we should follow her – to her house as it turned out! She wanted us to eat – we were only interested in directions – I would have emptied my wallet for directions – she just wanted to sell us food. We declined as enthusiastically as possible before continuing up and out of the village (possibly she was just being hospitable – it’s so difficult to tell). Shortly after leaving the village I was considering SMSing Dad with our location and requesting the position of Dazhai but we spotted a large village possibly 5km across a massive valley – that must be it – and we started following the trails that loosely followed the contours now doubling back towards Ping’an. The trail dissapeared on an exhausting climb up to the top of a pass. Reaching the top we plonked ourselves down in the middle of a well worn trail. Within 10 minutes two French girls ambled by and confirmed our error – we had added a 3 hour loop to our hike and the town we had seen across the valley was not our destination but the half-way mark ! (seems we are getting very good at wandering AND getting lost).

From this point we crossed paths with a lot of hikers (all Western) and the walk was rewarding. Although our packs were feeling very heavy and our legs tired, the cloudy conditions granted some respite. We passed through the halfway point village quickly grabbing some snacks and trying to get away from the villagers heckling us with food, accomodation and trinkets. The last section of the walk was incredible (even when completely spent). We walked through endless picturesque rice terraces that extended from the valley floors to the upper edge of the Dragons Backbone range – in our opinion, this part is more impressive than Ping’an.

Arriving in Dazhai on jelly legs we caved at the first tout that came our way and within 10 minutes I was in a shower (with a gas heater that looked like it would explode at any second – so we turned the supply off at the bottle when we were done). The hostel/hotel had the architectural aesthetics and structural design of a tree house that I would build – but we really didn’t care. We successfully turned a max 4 hour hike on contoured paths into a 7 hour slog up and down mountains – an impressive days work 🙂 Tomorrow is going to hurt. PS. V is just plain amazing.

[Pictures: Some of the Terraces (once we had actually found the trail). The view of Dazhai from our ‘treehouse’ – the terraces extend to the top of the hills]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi