Wow it was sooooo amazing to leave the hustle and bustle of a small tourist town into the big wide world of China.
First we went to Ziyuan. We stayed the night and ate some very spicy food but it was great. we had a team meeting over a few beers to discuess our scouting trip and what we needed to get out of it in 2 days! A lot was the answer.
On Monday we didnt have too much time so we caught a speed boast (not really too fast but a big wooden boat with a motor!) which was faster than us kayaking for 4hours!. We headed down the Ziyuan river which goes into the Ziyuan National Park and Bajiaozhai. It was truly beautiful area even if it was freezing cold and raining. (So nice for a change though. it was almost like being at home!)The area has massive mountains that stick up out of the river and are covered in bamboo forests as you will see in the photos. The hardest part was carrying the kayaks up a steep hill at the end as we didnt even need to take them but there was talk we might have had to carry on down. Thankfully the secton we did will take a whole day with 20 kids learning to kayak.
We then headed to the Wupai river which was about a 2hours windy scary drive over some ranges. Here we went rafting on some pretty cool water. It was class 3 and the ratfs we had were massive 10people bucket boats!! crazy old school but was still cool. We had to wait 10mins for the water to rise as the rafting company have control of the water and dont like their boats to hit rocks. (if they get a hole it comes out of their wages!) there were some pretty neat little drops and lots of rocks to dodge. We get to guide the school group down there on the 2nd day of camp.
We then called it a day and headed to our guest house. the food here was pretty average and didnt eat to much. the served us a whole chickesoup... yes head and feet included. As well as fried bugs, yes bugs like wasps, lava, crickets etc. Not to plesaent!! BUT the beds were soooo compfortable that it didnt matter.
The next day we headed to the lower secton of the Wupai. We blew up our kayaks with the help of some locals who stood round and watched us. We kayaked for 4 hours and there were some pretty crazy rapids. Grade 2 most of it with some grade 3. There were amazing gorges that we went through and lots of laughs had. Im told that we were the first white people to kayak that lower secton and probably will be close to the last as there is massive constructon going on ie making HUGE dams! sad but looking forward to taking the kids down there in a few days.
So for now its rest and relax till tomorrow when it all starts over again and we sit in water all day! Looking forward to it for sure!
