After the success of the first hike we set off on another one. This one started down hill! I’m good at down hill! 😂 but starting down hill means coming up at the end 🤦‍♀️

Again we were soon surround by beautiful views. Hiking down the valley gave us shade in the forest and it was a truly pleasant experience. For about 1km we had a local dog join us. And just as I was wondering if we now had a new member of the family, a whistle from back up the valley called our new friend returned home.

True to AWrightAdventures nature our pleasant walk was interrupted as we hit a section of the path that had been wiped out by a landslide. I of course had some reservations about the wisdom of taking 3 children across the narrow mud squashed path which had since been created. The boys however thought it was amazing. Middle man practically raced over before we could stop him. BBboy with the fear of heights he inherited from me, was a little more tentative but made it over no problems. BoyBlue followed with daddy support and then my turn. I didn’t want a audience so shooed them all on. Thankfully I made it without any of the mud giving way!

After the landslide the rest of walk down felt super easy and soon enough we were at the village at the bottom. Again most shops and stalls were closed but we did find a stall selling cola ice lollies, the taste took me back 30 years to my childhood. The boys however were not so impressed that after a few sucks all the flavour was gone and you were left with clear ice on a stick. They looked at me like I had lost it when I said these were a treat when we were little, their expectations are more that of a twister or magnums 🤦‍♀️. Grandparents words echo in my mind “Kids now days, don’t know they are born”.

At the very bottom was a cable car back up… not quite in the right direction but my hopes that we could avoid some of the walk up hill, pushed me onto it despite the heights involved.

Now these little cable cars moved quite quickly and as we approached it became clear they didn’t or didn’t really slow for us to get on. As BBboy watched in fear, BoyBlue, Middle Man and Daddy were told to stand on the markers on the floor. Behind each of them stood an assistant. As the cable car went past, the assistants quickly picked up and unceremoniously dumped the boys inside the cart. Husband however nimbly jumped in and managed to untangle the two boys off the floor and get them all sitting before the doors slide shut. Next mine and BBboys turn. “I don’t want pushing” he said in chinese to the assistant who stepped back. Part of me wondered if he actually needed the push but as the cart passed he managed to get in without much trouble and I followed. Both of us sat incredibly still as the cart climbed up the rice terraces. Thankful i wasn’t in the cart with the bouncing middle man and boy blue, I actually managed to enjoy the views. BBboy also just about held it together and soon enough we jumping out at the top with no hesitation.

As we left the terminal we were met by hawkers selling a cheesy photo of us photoshopped in front of the cable cars and view. I used to walk straight past these but now sometimes find myself been drawn in to the celebratory side of the tackiness. So much to husbands bemused face I brought one to now add to our collection of family photos in cheesy tourist spots. And you know what looking back at them does bring a smile to my face.

Now at the top we’re the normal mostly empty stalls and the fake wood concrete barriers. These barriers seem to be an attraction to all sorts of creepy crawly. On the previous walk we had seen many catapillars (poisonous ), spiders (poisonous), bugs (all colours), praying mantis, cicadas and hornets using these man made fake wood structures as some sort of bug highway. Despite this BoyBlue decides to lean on one without checking first and subsequently screams it sting me. To this day we actually don’t know what “it” was but given Boy Blues habit of getting stung/bit on holidays and having bad reactions we were all concerned.

With no antihistamine on us (another fail) we couldn’t do much other than wait and see what happened. our mission now was back to the hotel to get some medicine.

However I wanted to avoid going back down and up. On the map there appeared to be a track leading around the valley back to our hotel… but finding it was another failure. We walked up and down the same bit of road 3 times trying different possible paths that all turned into impassable forests, mud or brambles. And given we had already navigated a landslide, when I say impassable, I mean it.

So after about 30 mins, scratched and frustrations showing we gave in and stopped at a restaurant for dinner. The bemused owner let us in after watching us walk past 3 times I can’t imagine what they thought of the crazy Laowai. Anyway not long later with full bellies and more water stocked we decided to indeed head back down and up.

The boys did their usual trick of asking for the toilet no more than 2mins after leaving somewhere with a toilet. So we found a pull off away from the blind bends on the road and the boys lined up to pee under a cliff face. Mid flow we heard crash and some rocks fell down…. But not just rocks had fallen… slowly uncoiling was the largest snake I had seen in China. Needless to say as soon as I shouted snake run, there was wee flying everywhere 😂😂😂. Fortunately the snake appeared slightly concussed after its fall down the cliff and didn’t follow.

As we set off again, I couldn’t help but reflect on the numerous times we had recently walked through undergrowth where we couldn’t see the floor and thankful that we hadn’t encountered a snake until now. However the boys seemed to think it was the funniest thing ever and started talking about snakes and wondering if they liked to drink wee.

The hike down and up actually wasn’t that bad, especially as I found a youth hostel serving ice coffee at the end of the walk up. In fact it was where the dog was from 🤦‍♀️.