Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Mid - Autumn Festival in Wu Ling Park

Hi all,

Jo and I decided to get back into the woods over our 4 day holiday here called Mid-Au
tumn Festival. We decided to go to Wu Ling Park, about a 5 hours drive from Taichung on windy switchback roads through some of the most gorgeous mountain ranges anywhere and we just got back a few hours ago.

We did not go for 4 days since there was another typhoon warning, we figu
red at least a 2 day excursion would be enough and it was. Below are some of the pictures we took (the good ones are prolly Jo) with some write ups.

Mid-Autumn Festival or "Zhong Chiu Jie" is the most important holiday a
fter Chinese New Year here and many families and friends get together to BBQ and hang out. We did our own little BBQ with some friends and then took off to Wu Ling Park. We can't wait to go back!

We are on our way to Wu Ling Park - a 5 hour trek through some of the most beautiful scenery, yet coupled with some of the most dangerous roads to drive on (at least for me - Jo loves it). Anyway, this is a shot from the car about an hour into the trip.


See that little line up the mountain there? That is our road and while you can see for many miles, you can also fall for many miles if the little girders didn't work. Course, I have to keep telling myself - look up! And it is weird since I am not afraid of heights, but while driving, it is different. Anyway, that cloud just rammed against the side and kept floating up!




Here is a vid of the area above.


This is a pic of another Cloud Sea since we moved above and below the cloud line on our travel.

This is a lake called Bi Hu that we saw after coming out of that cloud sea....(we are not even there yet and it is so cool!)



AH! We arrive at Wu Ling Park Recreation Facility, which has been in operation since the 50's. It was clean and comfortable and since we were the only people there besides another couple, we had a great time! (We purposely went on the last day of the holiday to beat the rush and took off another day as well! Great idea!)


Here is our first walking trek - up to a waterfall about 2 hours away. We arrived around 2 pm and did the trek to return just in time for dinner. Was a nice time to spend walking and communicating with the birds along the path. Oh, plus the waterfall was nice, too!

Here we are in front of the waterfall.


And here is a Vid of the waterfall (so fresh!)

We trekked a bit more the next day and just absorbed being surrounded by trees (and bugs) and very few people! Such a nice change from Taichung!



Just breathe...
In and .....


Out......


And the coolest thing of the whole adventure was seeing the moon on our night walk. I mean, that IS what Mid-Autumn Festival is for - to mark the Autumn Equinox when day and night are equal times (and just another time to eat lots of food!).

But imagine a crisp clear night punctuated with so many bright stars, plus the brightest moon that we have ever seen! Holy Cow! It was so bright we could see our moon shadows!
Jo did a great job taking the pics!



Ok, that is our newest news. I will try to get on more to upload vids and pics of Mocha, who is now almost 35 pounds!

Here's to wishing you all a great Full Moon Festival!

Jeff & Jo




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