I enjoyed my last night in Taipei (till my
return when I have to fly out) at a Rock and Roll bar, I met some nice people
and had a great night. The next day I was up late, I had no rush to get to my
next destination or sit on a train for 4 hours…
I arrived in Hualien a small town on the
east coast of Taiwan a bit after 3pm and tried to find the hostel. The place
was meant to be 10 min walk from the train station but in my normal fashion the
instructions I got from the information center and my logic got me lost… so
after 45 min of walking around with 35 KG on my back I called the hostel owner
to say WTF… I almost fell over with his reply. “Look up” the guy was standing
on a balcony on the other side of the road. The hostel had no signs, no number
but a big RED door… Great.
The next day I was up at the crack of dawn
and out the door. I was going to catch the 6am bus to Toroko National Park. Now
I knew where the train station was to the hostel it wasn’t a problem. I boarded
the small mini bus and we were away.
The night before the hostel owner had
warned me of a lot of the walks being closed and that I should start at the
main gate and walk to the 2 places open then walk back out because of rock
slides. But he said, normally people start at Tianxiang and walk to the main
gate… Stubborn as always I was at Tianxiang at 9am and keen to get the most out
of my experience. Real smart Steffen….
At Tianxiang there was a large bridge
with orange railings and a temple up on the hill, at this time in the morning it was only just lit
as the sun was still not hitting all parts of the gorge.
I started the walk down the road and having
naturally slept the whole way to Tianxiang I had no idea what was ahead of me.
The first of many tunnels that day would great me, at first I took a double
take.
If people had walked this before surely
there would be a path or something, but no. I had to walk though the tunnel in
between trucks, busses and cars. 
With a grasp of uncertainty I set down the
first dark tunnel, no problems. It had a
small walk way on the side I was able to hug and it was semi lit. The next
tunnel would prove a bit more of a hazard, there was no walkway and no lights.
About ½ way through the tunnel I could hear the roar of a bus coming from
behind. I was on its side of the road and it had no lights on.. (Oh crap), I
ran to the other side of the road and missed the gutter on the other side, tripped and
fell back, and went rolling
on the road. 
I cradled my SLR camera in my chest and I managed to land on my backpack which took the full force. The bus stopped and I’m sure the people in the bus got some nice pictures of me picking myself up of the roadside. Somehow I managed to only scratch my leg and arm and not get run over by the passing traffic. The next place along had a ranger station I walked to, to get cleaned up and some iodine to clean the scratches… no help from the bus driver.
Moving on, I was determined to not let it
phase me. I continued passing the tourist bus and walking down some of the most
amazing scenic spots I have seem to date. The trails were closed due to
earthquakes and rain that caused landslides. The road was pelted with rocks
that had fallen but it didn’t matter, the large number of rope bridges,
waterfalls, Road bridges and massive amounts of marble seemed to make it all
worth more. 
One of the rope bridges took me to the
perfect spot to see this huge waterfall crashing over the marble. The entire
gorge seemed to be out of marble, all the rocks were smooth and pure white in
color. I knew the town had a lot of marble factories but didn’t realize this
area was so rich in it.
The walk continued on till I hit the nine
bridges trail, it was again closed because of rock falls but I had a problem,
this tunnel going around it had a sign clearly stating no walkers.. and the
busses had all stopped stopping here because it was closed. 
So I hitchhiked for the first time in Taiwan. A German couple picked me up and took me to the other side, I had to squeeze in the back of there Mercedes Benz in between to toddlers on high chairs, take a mental picture of that, I only just managed to fold my leg in. They were very nice and offered to take me further but I was enjoying the sunny day and the walk. Everyone was waving to me as they drove past, I must be the only person stupid enough to be doing it that day.
They dropped me off at the other end of the
tunnel and I was on my way again.
After 3 hours of walking I arrived at the
only section that was open that day, the Swallow Grotto. It was marked by a
couple if bridges with large swallows on them, it was also where all the
tourist busses seemed to stop again, I had not seem a tourist group since the
early morning. I found it quite funny that they all walked around with hard
hats on. If there was a landslide or one of the boulders that you see on the
side of the road was to fall on you a hard hat really wouldn’t help. Guess it
would help with small ones but meh. 
The Swallows Grotto was named so as it had
holes in the wall that looked like nests, we walked through a series of under
cliff tunnels to the end of the walk.
The raods seemed to have more and more
people on them after this people, mainly with people on bikes not walking
though.
A few hours later I arrived at a temple
which, the temple was perched on the cliff side with natural water springs
spewing water out of the rock wall. The path to the temple was a series of tunnels one of which took you to a room with a Buddha statue, it was all lit up with a orange light and magical.
I talked to a old guy walking on the road
shortly there after and he told me I was 2KM from the entrance, so I decided to
run the last 2km just for extra punishment.
I had beaten the first bus back to the main
gate, the first bus was at 2:40 and I had arrived at 1:30. I took a seat on a
bench and had no less than 30 people come up to me asking if I walked all the
way from Tianxiang and wanting a photo with me, I had not only beaten the first
bus but I had leap frogged the tourist busses the entire 22km walk and seemed
to become a “where’s wally” moment.
I was stuffed the next day and spent the
day at the hostel doing bugger all, was nice to sit still for a change. That
night I did go out to a local bar but it was nothing special.
My last day in Hualien, I rented a bike and
wanted to see how far I could get. I started and found a nice bike path that
followed the coast line. It took me past some ship yards and things but after a
few km it took me back to the city. I tried again taking the highway out of
town. 
I ended up finding a large river after 12km or so of riding (several
hours), I met a group of Taiwanese bike riders and they were heading back to
town. 
I had to return the bike before 5pm and it was 2pm so I asked if I could join and they were really nice company. I tagged on the back of the group and didn’t realize it but the last 10km had all been up hill, very slight but still. The riders stopped 2km and had to wait for there friends so I sped on, it was downhill but strong headwind. It didn’t take me anywhere near as long to reach town again and about 2km from the train station the bike group rejoined me again, they had taken a shortcut through town where I went around. We rode the last 2km as a group and it was a lot of fun to talk to them, they had started at the south of Taiwan and were riding to the north for charity.
I’m now researching where to head to next,
a big city or the beach or another national park… who knows. I do! ;)
Till next time. HAVE FUN!
Steffen.
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