Time to move on from out beautiful spot in the mountains. A quick check of BoyBlue’s sting and it finally seemed to have stopped growing… still read and swollen but not expanding. What a relief. Just incase though checked the map and there was a hospital in our next town so we decided a few hour detour to Guilin hospital was not required.

We had been to Yangshuo two years ago previously and love it. Last time was the tail end of the first wave of covid in China, when no one was travelling. But this time although it is actually more complex to travel, Yangshuo was much busier. But no less beautiful.

In 2020 we stayed at the giggling tree and can throughly recommend it. This year we stayed at the tea cozy. Both have great views from the pool, super friendly staff and amazing apple crumble! Unbeknown to us when we booked, they are actually owned by the same person. The apple crumble should have been a clue 🤦‍♀️.

It is rare we travel back to the same place, the choice was made for us by covid, but it is fun to look back and compare the photos. There are certainly a few more grays and wrinkles for the adults and few more inches on the boys.

One big change, probably for the worst, was that now scooters were allowed along the river path. Certainly making the walk less peaceful, however given the heat were incredibly tempting. The views however are still just as mind blowing. The karsts go on and on. The scale of the landscape is unimaginable, it really does like something from a storybook.

After a day of chilling in the pool, a gentle walk around and BoyBlue sting rapidly reducing in size and swelling, we intended to go on the bamboo rafts….. but were told they were sold out for the day. In fact for a few days… So instead we let the boys flick through the activity brochure and ended up booking a caving trip. We had done the tourist caves last time, which were impressive with the mud pools and lit up rock formations….

But this trip into a cave was much more adventurous. Wearing trainers that could get wet and fast drying clothes we set off with a young man in his early twenties up to the cave entrance. Locals were swimming in the pool of water at the entrance to the cave and our guide unlocked a metal gate towards the back to let us through. BBboy was already nervous, worried about cave ins etc, but when the guide locked the gate behind us panic set in.

His new ability to catastrophise everything seems to be connected to the mental growth of seeing past the immediate and make predictions. Trying very hard to stay patient and not to minimise his feelings but also help him continue to grow in his ability to rationalise out these fears we took a quick break, explaining why we believed it to be safe, organising our helmets and torches and talking to the guide about the number of times he has done this and what to expect.

Although keeping middle man and boy blue from rushing off down some unknown canyon took some effort, I’m pleased we took the time to reassure BBboy because after a few mins he made the decision to push through and followed the guide further into the cave. After only a few mins he settled into the adventure and was pointing out interesting rock formations or bats.

It was a great trip! Walking in waist high refreshing unground streams, scrambling up waterfalls, squeezing through tight gaps and exploring massive open spaces. Certainly off the beaten track and away from all the other tourists in Yangshuo.

Our next plan was to head to the beach but Beihai had exploded with cases in the last couple of days so instead we choose JingXi. The problem was going to be getting there, as it was well and truly off the beaten track. And the first challenge would be getting a covid test!