Birthday adventure

After the meal I had planned to go and climb a mountain but Chris
decided at the last minute he didn't feel like it, so I ended up going
with Elaine instead, no problem. We drove out to NanYan, a locally
famous mountain about 1.5 hours drive away from my town. We left after
lunch and arrived at around 3.30pm, not bad for an afternoon/evening
look around.
This mountain has a chair lift to get halfway up but we chose to
ignore this and packing my camera went from the carpark down to a
river you have to cross to get to the mountain. We crossed the river
and paid our mountain entrance fee at the pay booth before starting
off towards the mountain! We climbed the first hill and took some
pictures, including of a beautiful deserted temple on the side of the
steep hill. We went through the temple and took some pictures in what
turned out to be their gardens before a gardener started shouting at
us in Chinese, apparently the gardens were closing at 4.30, and it was
already 4.35 and the huge entrance gate would be locked and everyone
would go home! leaving us trapped inside the temple! Beautiful though
it was we decided against this and so rushed through a few more
pictures and hurried out of the temple again.
Once outside we saw over the valley the true mountain we had come to see.

As we went down the valley more and more mosquitoes appeared, in the
blink of an eye i was covered in bytes, even on my cheek! cheeky
mosquitoes!
I had brought sun cream (an expensive luxury here) but not brought the
mosquito repellent! We carried on into the valley, past a huge house
destroyed by a fire and down to a stream at the bottom which was
lovely in the evening and through a small village with a small hotel.
Going up the other side of the valley we could see a lovely small
temple nestled into the hill and so we hoped to take a closer look at
that whilst we climbed. As we climbed we also climbed through various
caves and passages between rocks which was fun!
As we climbed higher we found a small school nestled into the hillside
with a huge circular door leading up the mountain, we were worried
about closed doors by this time and so made sure to ask the guy nearby
if it was ever closed, he said not so we continued on up!

As we got higher the evening set in with some lovely evening light
across the valley below and over to the nearby town with all its
lights starting to come on. As it started to get towards dark we
arrived at the top, a pavilion right near the top of the mountain that
we saw from all the way down at the road just before and stopped for a
little rest, luckily we brought so much water. After taking some
pictures on the top we started back down using my phone as a torch.
The path was long and in the dark a little different but there were
some lovely photo opportunities on the way down which was great!
As we got further down we started to worry about how we were going to
get back, the boats would have stopped running by this point, and so
would the chair lift....

We finally got down to the school and found the only path off the
mountain ended in a large circular door that was firmly closed and
locked tight!
Despite the man promising it would be fine, someone had closed and
locked the door and all the lights were off, oh dear! We knocked on
the door, and then banged on the door, but nobody answered, we were
stuck!
I managed to climb up the side of the hill overhanging the huge door
but the other side was a 3 meter drop onto stone, not fun, and there
was no guarantee there would be a key in the door either! We tried
more knocking and then vigorous banging and finally a light came on in
a top floor window, success! A guy stuck his head out and said what
the hell were we doing, when he saw a foreigner however he got dressed
and came down.

He opened the door and it turned out he was a night time security
guard of sorts, he let us through and opened the door the other side
for us too but he asked us how we were planning to get out of the
valley, there really were no boats or chair lift now. We asked if
there was a way around and he said he didn't know, but to go down to
the village and ask there, they might know!

We carried on down the mountain and into the village near the stream
bed, once there we saw all the village was asleep, Elaine walked up to
a random house and knocked and a guy answered who said he also didn't
know if it was possible to walk out but that it should be, but we
would have to go over a new mountain on an unmarked path! Apparently
difficult during the day it would be very hard at night! He did
however point to the next village along following the stream this time
and say that they might be able to help, maybe we could find someone
to guide us for a small fee!

We followed his advice and walked down the stream into a small village
with three street lights this time and as we walked through again we
saw that each window's lights were off and everyone was asleep. Then
just as we were leaving the village and thinking what to do we saw an
old woman sitting on a chair, Elaine asked and she herself volunteered
to help us! First she had to go and put some trousers on... not a
pretty sight, and then we could leave. She grabbed a piece of bamboo
as a stick, no torch in the pitch black, and away we went!

She led well along the path and up the mountain, as well she should,
she has lived here for 60 years, and now is 78! It was hard to learn
this however as she doesn't really speak Mandarin Chinese very well,
only a local Dialect, but luckily Elaine's speaks this too and so we
walked and talked, kind of.

She led us well through the path, over a smaller mountain and down the
other side through some twisting paths and eventually onto the end of
a lovely new road bridge over the river, she walked over with us and
we stopped for a quick photoshoot under a street light before she went
her separate way with a few pounds guide fee and we walked back to the
car after a very very long day. Luckily got some good pictures and had
a great time, and it all ended with a good story to blog, what more
could I want, at least it's a memorable birthday!