31 March 2007
It was a short walk through the rice fields to the
road-head below Dai Zhai. The path was narrow and our
progress fairly slow. Two minibuses were waiting to
pick us up, along with many ladies in minority dress
selling fruit, silver bracelets and trinkets. They
were keen to collect empty water bottles too, for
which they can collect a small deposit ¨C about one
pence.
On our way to Yangti we stopped at a tea plantation,
where we had lunch following a short tour of the
hillsides. The hills here are small rounded mounds,
and the close cropped tea bushes give them the feel of
elaborate topiary gardens.
At Yangti we crowded on to the river bank to collect
our gear for the Yangti ¨C Xinping Trek. The scenery
here is fantastic. Huge limestone towers rise from the
riverbanks and rice fields. Grey and orange cliffs,
some of which must be 500 feet high, hang ominously
overhead. There are hundreds of these ¡®karsts¡¯.
Everything that isn¡¯t overhanging or vertical is
covered with trees, creepers and mosses. It is as
though you have spent a lifetime looking at Chinese
paintings of mountains and suddenly your imagination
has been able to fill out the detail.
As we stowed tents, sleeping bags, food and water for
two days, old ladies crowded around trying to sell us
oranges and peanuts, collect our water bottles and
steal the empty cardboard boxes. A cormorant
fisherman, precariously balanced on a raft made of 5
long pieces of bamboo pulled alongside the dock in the
hope that the kids would give him money in return for
taking photographs. Bizarrely, A small van was
floating in the middle of the Li River, or so it
seemed. A concrete jetty extended into the middle of
the channel, hidden just beneath the surface. A small
boy was washing there too, naked and happy. The sight
of 47 foreigners all carrying ridiculously large
backpacks and boarding a small ferry to cross the
river held no interest whatsoever.
The trek to our campsite in a beautiful mountain
meadow above Yangti took about 2 hours. It was quite
steep and a little slippery. None of the kids would
have had any problem with it if it hadn¡¯t been for
the packs£¬ but with a full load, trekking had taken
on a new dimension. It was hard and there was a
certain amount of winging.
At camp, our guide Dan gathered us in a large circle
and asked the kids about camp craft. They knew a lot
and he was able to draw out all the information he
wanted without much prompting. Following that setting
up camp was a breeze. Some erected tents, some
gathered firewood, others cooked. The tents up and
dinner underway, a group of boys did what boys seem to
do naturally ¨C destroyed something. Not satisfied
with dragging down huge dead trees from the forest in
order to make seats, they found a large branch,
perhaps 3 inches thick, and set about dismembering it
with little more than a rock and brute force. It kept
them busy for a couple of hours.
Dinner was pasta cooked in huge pots over the camp
fire. Delicious.
