Today was probably my earliest day on this Trip. I got up at around 05:45 to leave the hostel shortly past 06:00 to get the 06:30 bus into Taroko NP.

I took the bus all the way up to Tienhsiang in the middle of the park to hike the 19km back to the National Park HQ along National Highway 8 (which goes straight through the park) over bridges and through tunnels. Adding all those sidetrips I did, I ikely did a total hiking of around 32km … overall a long hike, but totally rewarding and in near-perfect weather conditions … and a bleeding knee.

My first sidetrip from the main road was at the Tunnel of nine Turns following the old highway, now turned into a pedestrian walkway with fitting bus parking lots for all those tour buses (which is the reason for all those people around here … some of them barely made it through this 1.9km walk). About 50 minutes later (and another 50 minutes on the main road and walking through a 600m tunnel prohibited for pedestrians) I hit another quiet area – the path around Swallow Grotto.

It took me another 7km (plus side trip for a lunch) stop at Buluowan to get to the Eternal Spring Shrine. Here I took yet another side tour to visit the shrine plus Bell and Jade tower and the Kuanyin Cave.

I now made it back to the main road now … and got back to the park headquarter in the late afternoon – and I had missed the bus back into town by a few minutes … with the next bus not going for the next two hours.

I reviewed my options – and as I felt crazy enough for another hike – I decided to go for the Shakadang trail – a pure hiking path into a side valley, 4.4km one way (or 8.8km round trip) … to get to the trailhead I had to walk through yet another tunnel of about 1km.

Overall it turned out a very busy, but rewarding day … Taroko NP is surely one of my favourite National Parks on Earth … after dinner at Oyster mum’s and a G&T, I had an early night … well deserved and happy 🙂