After a very cranky night, we woke up early and had breakfast: cold eggs, "pancakes," and fruit.
Once again, I am a huge brat and complained about the whole thing. It wasn't bad, just cold. Why do people take me anywhere?? It wasn't that bad! Quite picturesque even.
I hated it. Especially that bathroom door. Anyway, after breakfast, we loaded up our bikes and helmets and were off to pick up the Rexs. Then it was a quick stop into town where we rented a scooter for Jeremy to ride with the kids (much easier/safer than having them on bikes with the rest of us).
Then we headed up the gorge, but not before picking up some lunch to take with us. From where? 7-Eleven. Asian 7-Eleven. And I don't even eat at American 7-Eleven. -___-
We finally got to the top of the gorge and it was hot, but beautiful! Matt was a little worried about me biking, and rightly so. I hadn't ridden a bike in probably 4 years, and hadn't exercised in probably ever, so he wasn't sure I would be able to hack it. But we took it easy and it was actually great! We had planned several stops on our way down the 16 mile gorge, the first of which was a little hike to some beautiful hot springs:
It was so gorgeous! (Pun intended, I'm married to Matt.) We walked around the pools until Finley had had enough of the butterflies... which she was apparently terrified of hahahaha. We jumped back on our bikes and rode down to a little bit longer hike to Baiyang Waterfall, which is a natural aquifer that was discovered kind of by accident, then turned into a park attraction.
We stopped at a little rest area for a quick lunch break, and I will admit that those 7-Eleven Doritos were like manna from heaven.
The "falls" were inside this little cave that we all hiked into, even the kids! We all had our ponchos on and it was crazy to walk right under the water and have it pound on your head and back without getting wet! I laughed at dad because as he was standing under the water, it actually pulled his hood off for a second and he got soaked... and then the same thing happened to me exactly .5 seconds after we took this picture.
Serves me right I guess. But I didn't really care about getting wet because Taiwan is ALWAYS SO HOT ALL THE TIME.
On the hike back to the road, sissy fell asleep and needed a nap bad, so dad volunteered to stay behind with her and hold her while she slept so the rest of us could hike on. We rode down to a bridge and took a little hike up to a pagoda and a little temple.
Double staircase inside the pagoda at the top of our hike
By the time we were done exploring, Fin had woken up and her and dad had joined us again. I told dad I felt bad he had to stay behind, and his response was, "Are you kidding me? I got to hold my granddaughter in my arms while she slept. That was the best 30 minutes I have had in the last two years." All the heart eyes!!!
The next stop was a little suspension bridge
That apparently went to nowhere. The path literally stopped 20 feet after the end of the bridge on the other side. Whatever.
We hopped back on our bikes to ride the rest of the way down the gorge. There were a few more stops and about 10 more miles to go, when it started sprinkling. This didn't really surprise me, since mom had warned us that it is often drizzly inside the gorge... but then it started really raining. Like a lot. And then we were all riding bikes down an extremely narrow two lane mountain road on the side of cliff with an endless stream of cars and tour buses flying by us in a complete downpour for 10 freaking miles. Water was hitting me in the face from above as well as being flung up off the road by my bike tires from below. I could hardly see anything, but I could hear the buses and cars honking as they tried to avoid us. And I kept losing Matt! I looked back several times and he wasn't behind me anymore!! Turns out, he was having major troubles with his bike chain and he kept having to stop and put it back on, so he ended up way behind all of us.
Don't let this pic fool you, it doesn't look like we're that wet. But we were all COMPLETELY SOAKED. Like, puddles-of-water-in-our-shoes soaked. I don't even remember how mom got us to get off of our bikes long enough to take this picture of the temple in the background, because she sure didn't get us to go on the tour. We all wanted to get to the bottom of the gorge as fast as we could and not die along the way. Also, we HAD to get to the bottom of the gorge as fast as we could because suddenly we were going to be late to catch our train back to the mission home. CRAZY. We raced down the canyon and had just enough time to return the scooter, grab some more snacks/dinner at 7-Eleven AGAIN, run back to the hotels, change into dry clothes, and make it back onto the train for the long 4 hour ride back home.
Good thing the train ride was relaxing and beautiful! I took a nap, and when I woke up I realized Matt was getting a little antsy: he wasn't sure where our stop was and none of the notices were in English! We were 7 train cars away from the rest of the family, and we weren't sure if there would be enough time to go looking for them and also make it back to pick up our things. We were just starting to get worried when Mom came running down the aisle with Fin in tow to us to let us know ours was the next stop!! She had run down 7 train cars to make sure we knew! So we all made it off the train at the right stop and our Toroko adventure was over.
By the time we got back home, we were hungry again, and also we had basically eaten our last two "meals" from 7-Eleven, so we wanted real food! So we dragged our exhausted selves out to the night market in search of ANYTHING edible.
The night market was closing down, but luckily I found this little baked potato stand that was still open. Randomness FTW.
Toroko Gorge was incredible and CRAZY, and something I will never forget.
I love water caves, hot springs, Doritos, and nature!
I do not love 7-Eleven, sketchy "hotels," and death defying bike riding in the rain.
I hated it. Especially that bathroom door. Anyway, after breakfast, we loaded up our bikes and helmets and were off to pick up the Rexs. Then it was a quick stop into town where we rented a scooter for Jeremy to ride with the kids (much easier/safer than having them on bikes with the rest of us).
We finally got to the top of the gorge and it was hot, but beautiful! Matt was a little worried about me biking, and rightly so. I hadn't ridden a bike in probably 4 years, and hadn't exercised in probably ever, so he wasn't sure I would be able to hack it. But we took it easy and it was actually great! We had planned several stops on our way down the 16 mile gorge, the first of which was a little hike to some beautiful hot springs:
Just a little trail signage that we all kind of blatantly ignored hahahahaha
It was so gorgeous! (Pun intended, I'm married to Matt.) We walked around the pools until Finley had had enough of the butterflies... which she was apparently terrified of hahahaha. We jumped back on our bikes and rode down to a little bit longer hike to Baiyang Waterfall, which is a natural aquifer that was discovered kind of by accident, then turned into a park attraction.
Matt was excited about the "venomous snakes"... Too bad we never saw any.
We stopped at a little rest area for a quick lunch break, and I will admit that those 7-Eleven Doritos were like manna from heaven.
The "falls" were inside this little cave that we all hiked into, even the kids! We all had our ponchos on and it was crazy to walk right under the water and have it pound on your head and back without getting wet! I laughed at dad because as he was standing under the water, it actually pulled his hood off for a second and he got soaked... and then the same thing happened to me exactly .5 seconds after we took this picture.
Serves me right I guess. But I didn't really care about getting wet because Taiwan is ALWAYS SO HOT ALL THE TIME.
On the hike back to the road, sissy fell asleep and needed a nap bad, so dad volunteered to stay behind with her and hold her while she slept so the rest of us could hike on. We rode down to a bridge and took a little hike up to a pagoda and a little temple.
Double staircase inside the pagoda at the top of our hike
By the time we were done exploring, Fin had woken up and her and dad had joined us again. I told dad I felt bad he had to stay behind, and his response was, "Are you kidding me? I got to hold my granddaughter in my arms while she slept. That was the best 30 minutes I have had in the last two years." All the heart eyes!!!
The next stop was a little suspension bridge
That apparently went to nowhere. The path literally stopped 20 feet after the end of the bridge on the other side. Whatever.
We hopped back on our bikes to ride the rest of the way down the gorge. There were a few more stops and about 10 more miles to go, when it started sprinkling. This didn't really surprise me, since mom had warned us that it is often drizzly inside the gorge... but then it started really raining. Like a lot. And then we were all riding bikes down an extremely narrow two lane mountain road on the side of cliff with an endless stream of cars and tour buses flying by us in a complete downpour for 10 freaking miles. Water was hitting me in the face from above as well as being flung up off the road by my bike tires from below. I could hardly see anything, but I could hear the buses and cars honking as they tried to avoid us. And I kept losing Matt! I looked back several times and he wasn't behind me anymore!! Turns out, he was having major troubles with his bike chain and he kept having to stop and put it back on, so he ended up way behind all of us.
Don't let this pic fool you, it doesn't look like we're that wet. But we were all COMPLETELY SOAKED. Like, puddles-of-water-in-our-shoes soaked. I don't even remember how mom got us to get off of our bikes long enough to take this picture of the temple in the background, because she sure didn't get us to go on the tour. We all wanted to get to the bottom of the gorge as fast as we could and not die along the way. Also, we HAD to get to the bottom of the gorge as fast as we could because suddenly we were going to be late to catch our train back to the mission home. CRAZY. We raced down the canyon and had just enough time to return the scooter, grab some more snacks/dinner at 7-Eleven AGAIN, run back to the hotels, change into dry clothes, and make it back onto the train for the long 4 hour ride back home.
Good thing the train ride was relaxing and beautiful! I took a nap, and when I woke up I realized Matt was getting a little antsy: he wasn't sure where our stop was and none of the notices were in English! We were 7 train cars away from the rest of the family, and we weren't sure if there would be enough time to go looking for them and also make it back to pick up our things. We were just starting to get worried when Mom came running down the aisle with Fin in tow to us to let us know ours was the next stop!! She had run down 7 train cars to make sure we knew! So we all made it off the train at the right stop and our Toroko adventure was over.
By the time we got back home, we were hungry again, and also we had basically eaten our last two "meals" from 7-Eleven, so we wanted real food! So we dragged our exhausted selves out to the night market in search of ANYTHING edible.
The night market was closing down, but luckily I found this little baked potato stand that was still open. Randomness FTW.
Toroko Gorge was incredible and CRAZY, and something I will never forget.
I love water caves, hot springs, Doritos, and nature!
I do not love 7-Eleven, sketchy "hotels," and death defying bike riding in the rain.
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