Wumu village is a Naxi Village perched high up the mountain side, with fabulous views and a welcoming feel it was a good spot to spend a couple of nights… or so I thought. Unfortunately the first night was disturbed by a barking dog. Needless to say i wasn’t in the best mood when morning arrived. Luckily there was proper coffee and cereal for breakfast. The first time since leaving Dali.

The days intinery looked relatively easy after the gorge trek but it turned out we dramatically underestimated the walking involved. The ups and downs in Yunnan are not to be underestimated!

We started off with a walk down to the river, with stunning views the whole way but as the sun came up it soon became very hot and sweaty work even down hill. However Middle man, boy and the flintstones kids loved climbing up the various trees and rocks faces whilst waiting for the parents to catch up. BBboy stuck with me also being nervous of some of the drops.

After a couple of hours we made it to our boat at the bottom. The adults soon passed out in the AC whilst the children enjoyed the views of the yanzi river from the top.

Feeling a little refreshed we disembarked the boat and headed straight to the bathrooms. Screams and shreeks of laugher came from the boys bathroom as they all realised that the urinals were not plumbed in.

The next leg rivalled the up part of the gorge trek, compounded by the heat of the sun and the dramatic lack of water we climbed up what felt like a very long way with no shade. Despite the multiple breaks even the children were flagging by the time we reached our lunch point. It took a while but we did recoup enough to appreciate just how beautiful our lunch spot village was.

We ate a simple lunch, downed a truck load of water and avoided the very stinky black pork delicacy that was served to us. Honestly the smell put even challenge the smell of stinky tofu.

Now… as beautiful as this village was… Getting out the village was just a difficult as getting in.

Firstly it was Warren of lanes, some stinky, some very steep, some dead ends, … but luckily the husband had the foresight to use the children as sign posts for those of us behind the leading pack. It was rather amusing, especially when a child said turn left whilst pointing right… not confusing at all. In the end the simple rule of taking the most uphill route unfortunately seemed to be right. That or follow the horse/goat/old but fitter than me lady !

Secondly Middle man and BBboy decided to pick up a catus branch. I don’t know if it is a childhood right of passage… I’m sure I remember being compelled to touch one as a kid and feeling the consequences. It turns out that the catus they decided to touch left tiny almost invisible splinters in the skin. This meant a few pitstops on the rest of the way while I twezzed them out. About 20 out of each of the boys hands and of course Middle man being Middle man had also kicked it when he dropped it… meaning he had over 30 in his ankle. Thankfully boy blue had decided to not partake in the little catus handling experience as he is the one who tends to swell like a ballon when bitten or in contact with something strange. Eventually though we all made it out the village alive.

But the excitement of the day did not end there! The journey back to our accommodation was rather terrifying as we traversed what I assume was (and one day will be again ) a road. Trucks, diggers, mud, boulders and slippy hair pin bends all navigated next to rather steep cliff drop offs. But again we made it, despite on point actually slipping backwards towards a cliff edge the boys seemed in high spirits. I certainly was ready for a strong spirit and coke.