Day 10: Friday March 26th, 2021.
The one with the rock inscriptions.
On Day 10 we decided to walk the Caoling Historic Trail from Dali to Fulong, a route none of us had done before. The Caoling Trail is the only section remaining of the old Qing Dynasty Trail, constructed 130 years ago to provide a land link from Tamsui to Yilan. The Trail has been rebuilt by the Tourism Bureau and is well maintained but nowadays, instead of meeting travellers carrying goods to and from market, your fellow walkers are all out there simply to enjoy the scenery and fresh air. Rich MN was feeling slightly under the weather and wasn’t able to come along but Jasmine was again available so the three of us took the slow train out to Dali Station. You can walk in either direction but we wanted to finish in Fulong and that had the added advantage of getting most of the climbing out of the way at the beginning of the hike. The train ride out to Dali may have been long but we were rewarded the moment we stepped onto the station platform with a magnificent view of the ocean and Turtle Island 龜山島.
After our customary pre-walk photo, we had no need to go on the road and instead followed a pleasant tree-lined boardwalk that led through the TianGong Temple 天公廟 and to the start of the trail.
As so often happens in March in Taiwan, the weather was perfect, with the sun shining in a blue sky interspersed with fluffy white clouds but none of the overbearing heat of mid-summer. The road snaked back and forth for a while, making for an easy start before we hit a series of steps and the only thing to worry about was the rather ominous sign warning of venomous snakes and hornets ahead. Thankfully though we saw no sign of stinging creatures as we continued up the steps and, on a Perfect Day, we passed the ruins of the Lu Reed House. It’s a site that requires a vivid imagination, as the only thing left is a few stones overgrown by the forest, but with a bit of effort, we were able to picture weary travellers in previous times being glad of a resting place on a stormy night.
We continued to climb until we reached the high point of the walk; we could now see the beauty of the ocean behind us and above us the track to the higher Taoyuan Valley trail, along with goats on the upper slopes. It was now a pleasant stroll downhill and shortly thereafter we passed the next point of interest, a large boulder on which the Taiwan Regional Commander, Liu Ming-Deng, had inscribed the Chinese character for Tiger (虎) in 1867. Apparently, he’d got lost in bad weather and the Tiger character was a nod to the saying “Clouds obey the Dragon, Winds obey the Tiger 雲從龍，風從虎 ”.
As we moved downhill, the path began to run alongside a small stream and the sound of running water was added to the delights of birds calling and frogs croaking. We met very few other walkers, so for large sections we walked on in silence, other than the sounds of nature. We weaved back and forth over the stream and soon came to an even larger boulder and another inscription from Commander Liu: “Boldly Quell the Wild Mists 雄鎮蠻煙”. His words of wisdom were certainly working for us today, as the nearest we got to wild mists was the occasional gentle breeze.
It really is an enchanting walk on a quiet day but eventually we reached the end of the trail when we got to the Yuanwangkeng Riverside Park 遠望坑親水公園. Having walked through the park, we still had to get over the other side of the hill to Fulong. A pleasant, if slightly muddy, path led us slightly uphill, through a forest with numerous colourful flowers, ferns and fungi to keep us interested. As we came out of the forest we were rewarded with majestic views of the mountains and coast, which we were able to enjoy all the way down into Fulong
We’d been hoping to have a late lunch at either the ScuBar or Wow Café, both of which serve Western food and beer but our luck was out at this point and neither was open. We settled instead for a local noodle shop, where we had Liang Mian涼麵, or cold noodles, which tastes much better than it sounds, along with juice and Taiwan beer. It certainly hit the spot after a three and a half hour walk and with plenty of time before our train left, we took ice creams and cold beverages over to Fulong Beach. There were only a handful of people on the beach, plus a few surfers and paddle boarders in the sea; the only blot on the landscape was the ugly site of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant way over to our left. The Lungmen Plant was built at enormous cost but following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, construction was halted and it’s never been started again. Anyway, to slightly misquote Tennyson, ours is not to reason why, so we ended the day by cooling our tired feet in the ocean before getting the express train back to Taipei, having walked just under 15km in total.
End of Day 10: Richie Rich.