Taiwan’s East Coast adventures Part 2 – The last bit

After another false Google pin 📌 🙄, we ended up at Lake Liyu and had a walkabout.  It was cool seeing guys training for the dragon boat racing in really slim boats.  We watched a few go for a swim 😀😀

Then, we drove to our hotel for two nights and the friendly owner Johnny who was full of information for us.  Sadly, the Taroko Gorge area suffered a 7.2 earthquake last year, which decimated all the hikes along the route, along with the road.  The road is easier and more of a priority to fix, so almost a year to the day the road was reopened. The rest they say will take seven years to repair!!! Cars are only allowed to pass the road blocks at certain times, so forewarned we planned the next day’s drive.  As we were sitting in the car, waiting for the road block to open, we both turned to each other and asked, “Was that an earth tremor?” It’s a bit disturbing knowing you are just about to head into an area that has had lots of landslides and feeling a bit of seismic activity – eek!

Honestly, what a stunning drive it is 😍😍  It’s only 18kms but just amazing surrounded by huge, steep walls of a marble gorge. 

We took our time but still had lots of time before the next “down” drive was allowed. So walked around a temple, saw some monkeys 🐒  and then drove on higher into the remote hills.

Up there, it was all jungle and still steep ravines but the steepest and most spectacular were still in the gorge on the way back down.

Dinner was in a little cafe that did lots of varieties of egg roll pancakes – the menu was vast.  We were taking time using translate so the owner asked if we wanted help. He pointed at the House special and started to type in his Translate and it said ” carrot cake with Ferrero Roche sauce”. Deal us in 😋.  What came out wasn’t that for sure but it was delicious 😋

The next day, we drove up the coast, unfortunately there was evidence of many more landslides and works projects happening to repair roads.  There is no chance yet to walk the old walking trails. 

We drove to Toucheng where Janet had decided to splash out for our last night in Taiwan.  She booked a room witha balcony overlooking a surf beach with a roof top onsen and sauna.  It was a crazy £68. 

We watched some paragliders landing on Waiao Beach the next morning and then visited Beiguan Tidal Park, as far North as we would be going.

And then it was time to head to the airport.  Boo hoo!  We skirted back through Taipei on some very high overpass roads and 1600km later, we were back at Taoyuan Airport.  Our lucky crisps had made sure the car served us well – finally we could eat them!

Next stop, Singapore for just three nights.  Haven’t been there for 26 years … we’re sure it hasn’t changed 🤣🤣🤣