This is Rupert at the bottom of Tiger Leaping Gorge, recovering after having descended the sky ladder. We decided to visit Tiger Leaping Gorge as a day trip, most travellers trek for a few days through the gorge but not being great hikers we decided that a nice little four hour trek through a section of the gorge was more appealing. We expected some big drops, cliff paths etc. but were quite shocked by what we found. First we had to descend something called the sky ladder. This is a series of steps, ladders, scree slopes that take you down to the river (bearing in mind that this is the deepest gorge in the world) which took us well over an hour and was definitly one of the scariest experiences of my life. Ru has a fear of heights and was petrified whenever he was faced with a big drop - pretty much the entire trek. I don't mind heights but discovered a new phobia - ladders. Actually, maybe it's just ladders when the ladder is attacthed to a shear cliff and one false move will send you bungee jumping without a rope but anyway by the time we got to the bottom we were both completely exhausted and sat on this rock for a while in shock before attempting to move on. Our legs were really shaky and it took us both days to recover. During the following week we both had great difficulty walking and Rupert even had to buy a walking stick just to take some weight off his legs, going down steps was the worst and had us both yelling in pain once we got to the bottom, much to the amusement of the locals. However this day was a highlight of the trip, the views were breath-taking and sadly this gorge, like the famous three gorges further along the yangtzee will one day disappear as they are flooded due to the huge dams the government deems necessary for supplying water and power to this vast nation.
# posted by Unknown @ 5:35 pm
This is Rupert at the bottom of Tiger Leaping Gorge, recovering after having descended the sky ladder. We decided to visit Tiger Leaping Gorge as a day trip, most travellers trek for a few days through the gorge but not being great hikers we decided that a nice little four hour trek through a section of the gorge was more appealing. We expected some big drops, cliff paths etc. but were quite shocked by what we found. First we had to descend something called the sky ladder. This is a series of steps, ladders, scree slopes that take you down to the river (bearing in mind that this is the deepest gorge in the world) which took us well over an hour and was definitly one of the scariest experiences of my life. Ru has a fear of heights and was petrified whenever he was faced with a big drop - pretty much the entire trek. I don't mind heights but discovered a new phobia - ladders. Actually, maybe it's just ladders when the ladder is attacthed to a shear cliff and one false move will send you bungee jumping without a rope but anyway by the time we got to the bottom we were both completely exhausted and sat on this rock for a while in shock before attempting to move on. Our legs were really shaky and it took us both days to recover. During the following week we both had great difficulty walking and Rupert even had to buy a walking stick just to take some weight off his legs, going down steps was the worst and had us both yelling in pain once we got to the bottom, much to the amusement of the locals. However this day was a highlight of the trip, the views were breath-taking and sadly this gorge, like the famous three gorges further along the yangtzee will one day disappear as they are flooded due to the huge dams the government deems necessary for supplying water and power to this vast nation.
