I think I've mentioned before there's a show Dave and I like to watch here called 'Fun Taiwan.' One episode featured the host (Janet) river tracing with a friend of hers. It looked SO cool! Imagine donning a wet suit and special shoes, a helmet, lifejacket and gloves, then going for a hike. When you need to cross the river, you do. When there's a waterfall, you can jump off it/ slide down it. You're in and out of the water the entire time, and, in our case, surrounded by four or five guides and a huge group of people. It's extremely popular in Taiwan as well as a few other places, and there are varying 'levels' for people of different skills. We trekked or traced the Hoacha River in Pingtung, about 2 hours just outside of Tainan.
Our group was a 'beginners' group (thank goodness for that!), so we had almost 30 people from about age 8 to 60 trekking up hill and down through the river and jumping off waterfalls.
I had quite a few apprehensions about river tracing before we went (would I be the 'weakest link?' What if it rains? What if I can't understand what the guides tell me to do? Will I get hurt? Will I be strong enough?), but God totally came through and helped squash ALL the fears one by one as we trekked!!
You can check the group out here or here. It honestly was SO worth it. Dave and I had so much fun- Dave's highlight was definitively jumping off the waterfall (check it out below!), but we also got to travel all the way up to the top of a mountain to start- the view was AMAZING!! (There's a video of part of the journey if you scroll all the way to the bottom!)
I (obviously) didn't take the majority of these photos- the guides were nice enough to take pictures for us, and Amanda also brought her waterproof camera, so I was able to snap some of the scenery (all the scenery photos are mine!) and a few photos of Dave, Amanda and I.
Without any further ado, on to the photos!!
Suited up and ready to go!
Dave taking in the scenery.
Oh, Taiwan and your incredible views. I'll miss this when we go home.
Our group, excited to start!
Check out those boots! There's felt on the bottom so you can grip the rocks better... and they're not that uncomfortable either!
Dave jumping off the falls.
The Amanda and I did it!! I was so scared, but I did it anyways!!
Falls #2. We didn't jump off them, but we did get to swim!
Amanda and Willy- Amanda suggested it to us, and her nephew Willy came with us too!
I will NEVER forget Taiwan's greenery.
Like I said, sometimes we walked THROUGH the river!
Sometimes we SLID down the rocks.
Sometimes we CLIMBED over them.
And then we stopped for lunch!
Amanda borrowed the water gun and squirted everyone repeatedly.
Our chef and one of the guides.
It was POURING.
Our bowls kept refilling themselves with soup... watery, cold soup.
My favourite waterfall.
Heading back up.
Almost home!
We climbed one mountain to get to another. The view from the top. And you can tell how grey and gloomy and wet it was!!
No comments:
Post a Comment