Lovely Liming

Ok, so we were meant to be going into the wopwops, but it turned out that Liming has been developed, theres a tarseal road and at least one lovely guesthouse with hot water and a great cook. Its hardly surprising really because this place is absolutely stunning, massive sandstone formations and cliffs rise high above the tangle of valleys, awesome.

We spent one day in Liming exploring the local trails, taking photos of maps on digital cameras is such a handy technique. The dotted lines of indistinct trails attract us like a magnet and this day turned out to be absolutely magic, heres a memory from my journal...

"We found the right saddle. The left one. Our first attempt had seen us stranded high on a curve of bedrock a staggering view of the Liming landscape at our feet. We lunch on a little outcrop that we climb by its tortoise back (apparently these formations resemble swarms of tortoises clambering to heaven). We can see the hamlets up the valley we started out in and can hear the bells of their cows and the occasional barking of dogs.

The wind is picking up and whistling through the trees. We have our choice of three passes between giant rocky pillars. The furtherest right is safest as we have seen the way down. the way left looks interesting a giant snail formation beckons with overhangs at the bottom that could just be caves. I glance around one last time, rain threatens from the north, terraced fields of maize rise below to the left, west more rolling mountains which we must cross on our way to Weixi beckon. Time to move on".

That evening we returned again to our lovely guesthouse and feasted, no Yunnan mushrooms this time, which caused restless dreams, but rice and bok chai and carrot. The only problem with food in these parts is sometimes you order too much. But anyway great day, to sum it up...