Day 9: March 16th, 2021.
The one with the Barking Deer.
We are extremely lucky living in Taipei, as despite it being a thriving metropolis, the coast is within an easy hour’s drive and this was how we began Day 9; a leisurely drive out to BiTou Cape. We were joined by Rich’s youngest daughter, Jasmine, who despite her insistence that she really doesn’t like walking, proved to be a very keen companion for the day’s activities.
BiTou Cape is a quiet outcrop on the north east coast and commands spectacular views of the surrounding cliffs and coastline. We began our walk at the harbour, which is sleepily quiet during the day, as the local fleet predominantly consists of squid boats, which go out at night for their catch.
Leaving the harbour, we made our way past the local primary school, situated in a beautiful location overlooking the ocean and complete with fake goats on the hill above its playground. We wondered whether the goats were to make up for the dwindling number of pupils due to Taiwan’s declining birth rate, which is currently one of the lowest in the world, having gone from 7 births per woman in 1950 to 1.2 last year. In fact, 2020 was the first time where the death rate exceeded the birth rate, pushing Taiwan towards a super-aged society by 2025, meaning, in four years time, one in five (20%) of its citizens will be over the age of 65, thus necessitating even more fake goats in the future?
The path from the primary school leads up to a disused military installation, which is now home to a coffee shop. We passed the staff carrying boxes of supplies up the hill and commented how, on a day trip out to the coast, it would be nice to walk up from the harbour to the café for a relaxing drink, whilst taking in the spectacular view of the ocean. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to stop today, so continued up to the viewing platform from where we could see the military communications station perched on the opposite peak.
Descending the path, we passed a number of local walking groups and had to do our customary good deed – helping to take a group photo – much to their appreciation.
Back at the primary school, there were a couple of options – down the hill and then through the tunnel towards LongDong harbour, or ascend the hill, through a graveyard and head over the top of the tunnel. We chose the latter and this definitely transpired to be, ‘the road less travelled’.
This path uphill was quite overgrown in parts, but the hiking ribbons tied to various trees and branches egged us on, indicating that it was indeed a path leading to somewhere. By now, the sun was high in the sky and as we paused for a rest in the shade of some trees, we saw a small barking deer. These deer, also known as muntjacs, are normally only seen at higher altitudes and our sighting was certainly the highlight of the day’s walk. Unfortunately, we were too slow to get a photo and it sped off into the undergrowth, leaving us to wander on not quite knowing where we were heading.
We were hoping the path would lead us to LongDong, as we could hear the noise from the road on our left and caught the occasional glimpse of the harbour in the breaks in the foliage. However, this wasn’t the case and at a crossroads we luckily saw signs indicating we could either carry on towards NanYa Shan 南雅山 or turn to the right and return to our starting place at the harbour. A quick google search showed us that NanYa Shan was a five-hour hike in the wrong direction so our only option was to head back toward the harbour via a steep path, which in parts had to be scaled using ropes and was quite precarious. Luckily, we were rewarded by nature’s spectacular beauty; the blues of the sea and sky, offset by the greens of the trees and the earthy tones of the mountains – it was simply magical.
We could see the main road below and as the path was now much wider and easier to navigate, we were able to stroll quite leisurely. Looking up from the path, we saw a bird of prey perched high above us on our right and on our left, we noticed the rock looked like a funny face, with two round eyes and a big oval mouth. Maybe, nature was laughing at us?
Finally, back down on the main road, at marker 83.9, we were extremely pleased to see a sign for the local 7-11 only 20 meters away and headed there for a cold drink and a rest. Our little ‘detour’ had taken almost 2 hours, so we decided to call an Uber to take us to the path above Long Dong from where we would continue in the direction of our final destination – Fulong.
Jasmine is currently attending university in the UK via virtual learning and as she had work to do (yes, she had climbed a mountain with her laptop in her bag!), she continued on in the car to the marina, where she worked and waited for us in the resort café.
Meanwhile Rich S and I headed over to the XiLing Temple to look for a path heading southeastwards along the coast. We could see fishermen on the rocky outcrops and found a path leading down towards the water, but unfortunately it was impassable in the direction we wished to go and we were forced to head back up to the temple, where we encountered a tourist bus reversing back down the road; it was one of those ‘large vehicle, tiny road’ moments and we were happy to pass by safely and not to have been stuck between a bus and a temple…
Just ahead of a statue of a local deity, we found an old path, previously used by locals to access the shoreline where they would collect oysters. Nowadays, possibly as a result of overfishing or pollution, there are no longer any oysters on this section of the coast, which is a shame and the surrounding area is now home to the resort car park.
Jasmine was waiting at the resort and as she still had work to do, we decided to leave her to it and said we’d call and ask her to pick us up at some point further towards Fulong.
Leaving the resort, we walked past the dive centre and the harbour, which is overlooked by two large concrete, whale shaped structures. The furthest one has “Marry me”, clearly painted on a blue background, however the nearer one is more difficult to read and only when we were very close, were we able to decipher the words, “Yes I do!”. Someone was obviously being creative with his or her proposal and thankfully, it was accepted!
Passing the inevitable local military block house, we walked along the concrete walls of the harbour and saw some diving students from the local dive school, being instructed in the remains of the square, manmade fishing traps. It looked like a good place to learn, as the waters are very calm, yet clear and deep enough to get a feel of the real ocean.
Walking away from the harbour brought us to a rocky stretch of the coastline, which unfortunately was once again a ‘Garbeach’, littered with single use plastics and various other random pieces of rubbish washed up from the sea. By this time, we had been walking for over six hours, so decided to find some form of roadside civilization and call Jasmine to come and pick us up.
We spotted the HeMei police station and made our way across the road from the beach and as luck would have it, found the local convenience store, come seafood restaurant. We drank a couple of beers as we waited for Jasmine and were entertained by an industrious swallow who was busy protecting its nest, high up in the rafters.
It was a quick taxi ride along the coast, passing by AoDi harbour, Yanliao, then into Fulong, which was our day’s destination point and also our dinner location. Fulong was originally an aboriginal village, but nowadays is famous for its long sandy beach and railway, bento boxes. We toyed with the idea of sampling the bento boxes, but with encouragement from our taxi driver, decided on a meal of fresh veggies, tofu and fish instead, washed down with some beer and finished off with fresh bananas, which were a gift from the friendly restaurant owner.
There was still almost an hour to wait for the train back to Taipei, so we headed down towards the sea and walked around to the Dongxing Temple, which stands proudly on the south side of the beach, with its back to Laolan mountain. Circling back towards the train station we passed the Scubar, which is run by a couple of South African expats who do a wicked barbeque (braai), but still full from our recent meal, we were unable to partake of it this trip, so with the beautiful new crescent moon shining above and having walked 15kms, we decided to call it a day.
End of Day 9 – Elaine.