Journey to the Mountains of the Moon - 1994 (14)

Our departure from Guy Yeoman Hut for Nyabitaba Hut at 9:30am was with very mixed feelings. This was the second to last leg of the trek and we were already completely knackered. Dominic was in pain from his dislocated/broken finger and neither of us was keeping up enough food intake to cope with the daily stresses. Nevertheless, waking up in the mornings and looking out at the wondrous views was enough to invigorate us for another day’s effort.

Pretending to fly at the top of one
of the steep descents - Guy Yeoman Hut
to Nyabitaba Hut

This day’s route again went through many bogs and also down some very steep rock faces. We had many slips but only gathered a few scratches and minor cuts. My trekking pole saved me from a couple of potentially nasty falls and ended up with a permanent bow in the middle which it has to this day.

Denisi helping Dominic down one of the steeper
parts of the gorge - Guy Yeoman Hut to Nyabitaba Hut

After the steep descents it was again through more bog. Eventually we reached the Nyabitaba Ridge and then there was only 30 minutes of walking to reach the hut. Along part of the ridge section was a small stream and the stream bed provided the easiest walking. It certainly made no difference to our moisture quotient! The total stage time was around seven hours and we were very tired by now. Before we could rest however there was the now-daily ritual of washing boots, gaiters, and socks.

Till made some minestrone soup which was very good and most welcome. Afterwards I played a bit of harmonica which seemed to be appreciated by all, including the four Austrians – or perhaps they appreciated it more when I stopped? Whatever. But then early to bed again to get some rest for the final day of the trek.

Final Leg - Nyabitaba Hut to Nyakalengija

Till and Pierre had said the previous evening that they wanted to be up early on this final day. I nearly died laughing as they had not shown any inclination to get up early before this. The one exception was their ‘summit’ day at Elena Hut. In the event they showed no inclination to start moving when I announced 7am.

Dominic and I packed up quickly and then started down to Nyakalengija at around 8:20am. It was a warm and sunny morning to walk down and the steep descent was very hard on our thighs which we used to control our speed. But joy of joys - there were NO bogs. We were, of course, overtaken by the others and the porters but we didn’t care.

After the main descent even the few short uphill stretches caused us to tire out but we reached the Park Gate after two hours having seen many colourful butterflies on the way. It took us another hour from the Park Gate to Nyakalengija where we met up again with Pierre and Till. As we arrived another two parties of four were preparing to go up. I had a very welcome ‘Coke’ while the others signed out and then it was into the pick-up truck around 12noon to go back to Kasese.

Pierre and Till were heading straight back to Kampala so we saw them onto the bus and made arrangements to keep in touch. Dominic and I planned to head off to Kampala the following day so we checked into the SAAD Hotel again for the night. We headed straight into the dining room and downed a litre of fruit juice each and then some sweet tea. We arranged for our washing to be done for Us3000 each which was very good value as our clothes were in a revolting state.

We had a back room this time and it overlooked a sort of courtyard in the hotel. here was a huge over-lander tourist truck parked just below us and it looked in pretty knocked around condition. Talking to some of the people from the touring party we heard tails of horror roads through the Congo causing very slow travelling.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and it was good to be able to eat properly again. We had both lost quite a bit of weight over the week but that wasn't really a concern as we both had a bit to spare before that anyway!

Journey to the Mountains of the Moon - 1994 (13)

At Elena Hut it was very cold overnight and snowed lightly in the morning. We enjoyed staying inside our warm sleeping bags when Pierre and Till went off with Denisi at 7am to head up to Margherita Peak at 5109 metres ASL. When I went outside at 8:30am for a toilet break I could see the three of them high up on the glacier.

Dominic was still feeling bad but we packed up and waited for the porters who arrived at 11:45am. Eventually we left for Kitandera Hut at 12:45pm. The route down was very steep and we found it quite tiring at that altitude. Once again our trekking poles proved their worth in helping to stabilise our descent. On reaching the lower ground it was, surprise surprise! once more through bog before we reached Kitandera Hut at about 4:30pm.

Mt Baker from Elena Hut

Kitandera Hut was in poor condition although weatherproof. Dominic was still feeling bad so he got straight into his sleeping bag to rest. The four Austrian guys were there and I begged some sugar from them to sweeten a cup of tea I made for Dominic to try to warm him up and get a small amount of nutrient inside him. Pierre and Till arrived at 5pm with Denisi who had fallen on the glacier and gashed his hand on his ice-axe. They had made the summit of Margherita and were glad to have done so. One of the ‘joys’ of Kitandera hut was that it was equipped with a gas burner so preparing a meal was fairly easy. Dominic didn’t have any because his stomach was playing up a bit.

Kitandera Lake (postcard)

Despite being much better acclimatised than we were, the porters do suffer from the effects of altitude and one of them came to me to get some aspirin for a headache. We were to have another heavy day the following day so we were early to bed to get some necessary rest.

Next day we left Kitandera Hut at about 9:45am heading for Guy Yeoman Hut. The first part of the walk was a very steep climb up to the plateau between Mt Baker and Mt Luigi Di Savoia. By this stage we were suffering from exhaustion due to lack of appetite caused by the altitude and that we were using up a lot of energy every day. The plateau led us on through the Freshfield Pass where the climb up and through the pass was very cold. As we carried on across more level ground Dominic slipped on a rock and, putting out his hand to save himself dislocated his right pinky. It may have been broken also but he refused to have it strapped as he wouldn’t have had enough manoeuvrability so we just carried on, with Dominic obviously in pain.

Snow on the plateau near Freshfield Pass

After the pass we started to descend through more of the ubiquitous bog. Our attitude to the bog was now starkly in contrast to how we had felt a few days before. Coming up through the Bigo Bog we had tried desperately to keep our boots dry. Now we just didn’t care so it was just a matter of taking the shortest possible route and ploughing on.

After five hours of negotiating the bog, often with mud up to the knees, Guy Yeoman Hut was a welcome sight but still two hours away and still through lots more bog.

On arrival at the Hut our first stop was down at the river to wash mud off boots and gaiters so that we could settle down knowing that we were prepared for tomorrow. Now that we had reached the safety of the hut Dominic allowed me to strap his fingers and then we got into our sleeping bags for a while to warm up. Dinner was more packet soup but Dominic again couldn’t eat any.

On these days around the middle of the trek, apart from breakfast and the evening soup, our main nutritional intake was sports drink made up from the powdered form we were carrying. We had also taken along some ‘Uncle Toby’s’ breakfast bars but found that they were too tough to eat when our appetites were down. It was all we could do to chew off one mouthful and then try to chew it up sufficiently to swallow. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time too! Early to bed after dinner was a very welcome idea.

Journey to the Mountains of the Moon - 1994 (12)

We left Bujuku Hut at a little after 10am, setting out for Elena Hut which is at 4540 metres ASL. The trail is boggy to start with. We are above Lake Bujuku but the area is a natural catchment at the head of the Bujuku river valley so gets a lot of seeping meltwater from the glaciers in the mountains above. After negotiating the boggy lower terrain it is steeply up over rocky ground and around cliffs. The ascent includes a ‘via ferrata’ style ladder which must be quite interesting for those who don’t like heights. We had time for a rest in the misty atmosphere at top of the ladder before carrying on to Elena Hut at 2:30pm.

Denisi, Dominic and Me at the top of the ladder
up from Bujuku Hut to Elena Hut

On arrival at the hut we found quite a number of people still there including an American Peace Corp lady who was waiting for her party to return from Margherita Peak. They had left for the ascent at yam and were expected back at around 2pm but they didn’t return until about 5:30pm. There was also a group of four Austrian climbers who were about to set off for Kitandera Hut. It was quite crowded with all those people present as Elena Hut is quite small. It has no sleeping platforms – you basically just slept on the floor which we were quite happy to do. There was no room for porters here so they usually go back down to Bujuku Hut for the night and come up again the following day.

While waiting the American lady was playing cards with two porters to pass the time.
When the Peace Corp party eventually arrived they still had to go on to Kitandera Hut – another three hours walking. Some of them would have stayed but it would have cost them another US$50 each for the night so eventually they headed off.

Elena Hut is near the bottom of the Elena and Savoia glaciers and the view of Savoia Peak and the other surrounding peaks is spectacular when the clouds lift.

Main Elena Hut and Porters Huts

Dominic and I only had soup for dinner as neither of us had any appetite – a side effect of high altitude. We knew we had to try to eat something, however, to keep up our strength. In the event Dominic chucked up some of his meal, reminiscent of his reaction to the dried fish noodles we had eaten at Old Moses Hut on Mt Kenya.

It was obvious that Dominic was suffering from the altitude – he was headachy and cold and very fatigued so we decided that we would not try for Margherita Peak the following day. Pierre and Till were raring to go so they would start off with Denisi early in the morning. We would wait for the porters to come back up and then go down to Kitandera Hut and Pierre and Till would follow on their return from the peak.

Till, Pierre and Denisi near Elena Hut

The outside toilet at Elena Hut sits a little way to the south-east near the edge of the cliff. The eastern side is open and has the most spectacular views of any toilet I have ever used. Facing east it looks out over the Mt Baker peaks about 400 metres higher than Elena Hut and about two kilometres away on the other side of the Scott-Elliott pass.

Elena Hut dunny - best view in the world!

Shanghai Nights (7)

My second week was taken up with fairly intensive training and I tended not to stray too far in the evenings for dinner. I did go out a couple of times - once to The Great Tang restaurant which was just a block away behind the hotel. The food and atmosphere were good but with the usual problem of eating alone and being unwilling to order dishes which wouldn't get finished. I guess I have a strong aversion to wasting food so I'd rather order too little and eat it all than order too much and waste a third of it.

On Wednesday evening I chose a restaurant just down the block near the corner of Dongfang Road and Weifang Road. It was absolutely packed with people but looked reasonably 'homely'. Being alone I got a table, even though there were people waiting in the foyer so I guess that's one advantage of eating alone. Looking through the menu I spotted a bowl of 'short' soup and indicated to the waitress that I would like that please. She responded with a most definite 'No!' so I tried again to make sure but got the same result. I ended up choosing a 'small' wok meal of stir-fry chicken. Two wok sizes were shown so I chose the small one thinking it would just be a nice sized meal for one. Wrong! It turned out to be at least 30cm wide and piled up with a fairly large meal - certainly enough for two hungry people without any rice etc to go with it. IN the end I don't think I quite made it through half of the meal but at around 50 Yuan (AU$9) I certainly wasn't concerned about the cost.

On Friday night, my last working day, Kyo kindly invited the whole team for dinner. Being the visitor I was asked what cuisine style I'd prefer. I'd already had Hunan cuisine but thought I would try it again. The restaurant Kyo chose was on Weifang Road not far from my hotel which was quite convenient. I can't remember the restaurant name but it had a bust of Chairman Mao, who came from Hunan, in the foyer.

Young, Jasmine, Me, Kyo, Charlie, and Frank at dinner

It was a very nice dinner and a fitting wrap up to my time in Shanghai.

During the week Kyo had asked me if I was planning to buy any presents for the family. I intended to go back to Yuyuen Gardens and just play it by ear. Pat had asked me to look out and see if I could find any embroidery silks so I mentioned that to Kyo. It turned out that Charlie's wife knows where to get them - just near YuYuen Gardens so it was arranged that Jasmine and Charlie and his wife - Ice - would meet me on Saturday and we would go shopping together. They would not only take me to the right place but also do the bargaining to make sure I wasn't overcharged.

Since my flight back to Australia was not until 8:20pm I arranged with the hotel for a 4pm checkout which would leave me plenty of time to get to the airport etc. I was already mostly packed up by the time Jasmine, Charlie and Ice came to pick me up so there would be little left to do on my return from shopping.

By now the taxi ride over to the western, Shanghai, side was becoming familiar and I no longer felt totally lost when we got into the narrower streets of the old town on the way to Yuyuen Gardens. That's not to say that I could confidently navigate myself but at least I felt that I could probably find my way back to (say) the Bund without too much drama.

Being Saturday the Yuyuen Gardens and surrounding areas was packed with tourists and local people. We walked through the gardens shopping area and I surveyed the shops and stalls to see if anything triggered the 'that's it' response for something for Dominic, Garth and Leonore. A few things had some appeal but then we were exiting from another portal to go to the more modern market where the embroidery silks would be. Charlie and Ice went in to find the particular stall while Jasmine and I just ambled around the narrow aisles to await Charlie's call. The building was full of stall selling a huge variety of goods. The aisles are about a metre wide but some of that is taken up by the stock overflowing the fronts and of course people stopping to examine the goods made navigation very slow.

Eventually Jasmine's phone rang and we met Charlie at the front to go to the particular shop Ice had chosen. True to promise, the shopkeeper had a wide range of embroidery silks in 15 metre hanks and a price of 3 Yuan each (Au 50c) had been negotiated so I bought an unchosen assortment of 50 from the bag. Trying to choose them would have taken half the day and I probably wouldn't have come up with a better selection anyway.

Street scene near Yuyuen Gardens, Shanghai

Leaving the crowded market building we went back to Yuyuen Gardens shopping area. As we moved along I decided on a name seal each for 'the kids' with their name in Chinese characters. Several shops were selling these with promise of about 10 minutes to do the actual name carving. I chose some nice seal stones which had the appropriate Chinese Zodiac animal on them and then Charlie and Jasmine started the bidding war. The starting price of 280 Yuan each was obviously too high and little pprogress was made until Charlie turned to me and said "OK - let's go - we'll find somewhere else". The atmosphere changed very quickly and a price of 100 Yuan each was agreed, inclusive of name carving. I duly pointed out the correct names in the book which they have and then we had to go to another shop where the actual carving is done.

Carving name seals, Yuyuen Gardens, Shanghai

After the carving was done we wandered back out looking at some of the other stalls on the way. One could spend a whole day or more in there and still not see everything of interest. One shop of interest to me was a musical instrument shop where they had traditional Chinese instruments like the Erhu, as well as western instruments. I would dearly have liked to bring something back like an Erhu but I didn't think it would pass AQIS controls with the snakeskin soundhead etc. One instrument they had was the most enormous harmonica I have ever seen. It must have been about 30 centimetres long and would be quite heavy I imagine.

Leaving the Gardens we found a taxi to take us to lunch. Jasmine, Ice and Charlie had chosen a Korean restaurant at Peoples Square where the food is cooked on a gas-fired barbecue at the table. It was very good but again I had trouble with the metal Korean chopsticks. I must be improving though as I did get enough to eat. After lunch I bid farewell to Charlie and Ice and Jasmine and I took a taxi back to the hotel. Jasmine lives nearby the hotel so it was convenient for her to go home from there. After I farewelled Jasmine I had a couple of hours to kill before heading off to the airport and this gave me time to finish packing etc and mentally prepare myself for returning to Australia.

I had decided to use the Maglev train to get to the airport, just to say that I had done it. The terminal is close to the Longyang Road metro station so I took a taxi there from the hotel and paid my 40 Yuan. The one-way 30km trip usually costs 50 Yuan but bona-fide air travellers with an airline ticket for that day get a 10 Yuan discount.

The train left soon after I boarded and was soon up to 200 km/h and rising towards its maximum speed of 430 km/h. It only holds maximum speed for about 2 minutes and there is little to guage the speed by. It sort of felt like a jet aircraft going down the runway for take off. Fortunately it never left the track. The jpurey from Longyang Road to the airport takes only 8 minutes - considerably less than the taxi ride.

I was a bit early for the flight but was well placed for when the check-in opened so that I could get the seating I wanted. Once through to the gate lounge I was struck by the similarity between Pudong Airport building and the new international airport buildings in Bangkok. I haven't researched it but they appeared to be very similar in design.

Anyway, the flight left on time and the rest, as they say, is mystory.

Shanghai Nights (6)

Continuing my wandering through the lanes of Zhujiajiao I crossed yet another bridge and headed towards the City God Temple.

Gates of The City God Temple, Zhujiajiao

Just opposite the gates of The City God Temple is a large frieze but I couldn't see anything that tells what it portrays. Possibly it's a tale of The City God vanquishing some evil foe.

Frieze opposite City God Temple, Zhujiajiao

Leaving the City God Temple I ambled further on and came to the Qing Dynasty era Post Office.

Qing Dynasty Post Office

The Qing Dynasty Post Office was one of 13 around Shanghai established around 1903 as the notice board says. There is a large cast iron post box with a dragon entwined around it just outside of post office itself.

Qing Dynasty cast-iron Post Box

By this time I had been wandering around for about four and a half hours, and apart from a half-hour at lunch I hadn't sat down at all. The previous day I had developed Plantar Fasciitis in my right foot (although I didn't know what it was at the time) which mad walking quite painful. Anyway I thought I'd call it a day so I crossed yet another bridge to get back to the main part of the village and headed towards where the buses would be. I got there just as the bus I came on was getting ready to leave so I jumped gratefully on board for the trip back to Shanghai. I think they just fill up the bus and when it is full they head off - pretty much like the practice with buses in rural East Africa.

On arrival back at the bus terminal in Shanghai I had my first experience of hailing a taxi by myself. Having flagged one down I showed my St Regis Hotel directions card to the taxi driver who got me back their without getting lost, for which I was very happy.

Not being particularly hungry that night I thought I would try out the in-house Chinese restaurant at the hotel. There weren't many people in the main part of the restaurant but a couple of the private rooms were in use. I had a dish with crumbed chicken served in a very nice orange sauce - very tasty.

Shanghai Nights (5)

While talking with Peter on Saturday evening over dinner, he asked me what my plans were for Sunday. I had thought to go to Suzhou, a well known 'silk' city. Getting there would probably be a bit difficult but I could go by train. Peter suggested Zhujiajiao as an alternative. This is an old canal village situated near Tai Lake to the west of Shanghai. To get there I needed to get a taxi from the hotel to the Tourist Bus Station (Xujiahui Bus Station) and then ask for the right bus. To help me with this Peter kindly wrote the names in Chinese and Pinyin in my 'Best of Shanghai' Lonely Planet guide. He suggested that I start out earlyish from the hotel as it takes about an hour for the bus ride, so I duly set off on Sunday morning at around 8:30am. With less traffic on the road it only took about 20 minutes by taxi (about 35 Yuan) to the bus station which was already crowded by the time I arrived. The bus station is, of course, on the Shanghai side of the river beside a sports stadium. To get there we crossed the Nanpu Bridge again which gave me another opportunity to marvel at the engineering. Here is a Google Earth view of the on/off 'ramp' on the Eastern side of the Huangpu River.

On/off ramp of Nanpu Bridge, Shanghai side

Peter's notation in my guide book was invaluable when I 'asked' at the information desk how to get to Zhujiajiao. The very helpful girl pointed to the right queue and told me 'line 4'. As I joined the queue I noticed a young Chinese man and woman just in front of me reading an English guide sheet for Zhujiajiao so I asked them if they were also going there. They were, as it happened, and I discovered that Christopher and Laura were from Australia's Gold Coast and Mary, a Shanghai girl, was taking them to the village for the day out. Since we were going to the same place I knew that if I kept an eye on them then I'd be able to make sure to get off the bus at the right time. Once we were on the bus I sat with Christopher and we discussed his business trip to Shanghai. It turned out that he is a travel promoter for Dreamworld and was in Shanghai to promote tourism to the Gold Coast and, of course Dreamworld, at a travel trade conference.

The hour-long bus trip to Zhujiajiao (cost 12 Yuan each way) was along good roads with a mixture of residential development, light industrial and trade buildings, and what we would normally call 'market gardens' along the way. Two fo the roads were actually toll ways and the bus had to stop on each to pay the tariff. On reaching Zhu Jia Jiao the bus stopped at a large car and bus park which already had several empty buses waiting for the return journey as well as being pretty full of cars etc. As we got off Mary made sure that I understood that I needed to get back to the bus by 4pm at the latest otherwise I might have trouble getting back to Shanghai.

Zhujiajiao
Peter had described the village to me but I really had little idea of what to expect. Since I've been back home I looked up on the internet and came across a bit of a write up here (Zhujiajiao). Following the people streaming from the car and bus park I reached the entrance and my attempt to follow some locals in was thwarted by the ticket police. Ten Yuan later I was in the actual village and following the crowds down narrow laneways filled with food and souvenir vendors on both sides. Not far from the entrance was an Archaeological Museum so I paid 8 Yuan to have a wander around. There were many artefacts retrieved from archaeological digs in the local area, with finds dating back about 5000 years.

Out of the museum and wandering the crowded lanes again I avoided making eye contact with any of the souvenir sellers and ignored their entreaties to buy this that or the other with a dismissive, but not rude, wave of the hand. Periodically along the lane ways, there are openings off to the side where a bridge rises to cross a canal. Some of these bridges date back to the Ming Dynasty period which makes them many hundreds of years old, although they show no signs of disrepair. Here is a view from the top of the first one I climbed, showing the typical building structures along the canal.

Canal view, Zhu Jia Jiao

Its important to realise that, although much of the village is given over to tourism and extracting money from same, the buildings are also used as village dwellings. In the picture above, the Sampan style boat is one of many taking tourists to view the village from the canals. I didn't bother going on one of these boat rides as I was happy just to roam along at my own pace, even through the jostling crowds. You can also see from the picture that it was a beautiful day, although cool, and I even ended up with a bit of sunburn on the forehead. I didn't even think to take a hat with me.

View of boats for hire on the river, Zhu Jia Jiao
Note the solar panels on the roof across the river!

I was able to resist most of the street vendors offers to relieve me of some cash but I bought a soft hat for Pat and a couple of 'devil mask' fridge magnets. I wasn't attracted by the food on offer at the street stalls as it had a smell which I found strange.

Strolling on I came to one of the oldest and most famous of the bridges in the village - Fangsheng Bridge. Here is a shot of it from further down the canal.

View of Fangsheng Bridge, Zhujiajiao

As you can see there are many people crossing the bridge. Most of the tourist shops are situated on the right side of this canal/river. The restaurant where I had lunch is just over on the right although I approached it from one of the narrow streets behind the buildings. While I was wandering around the streets and canals on the left hand side prior to having lunch, I had seen a group of three women who were singing some local folksy song to entertain the tourists (for money of course). While I was sitting at lunch the same group of women wandered in through the restaurant and came to my table to sing to me - without invitation.

Lunchtime entertainment, Zhujiajiao

I let them sing their little song and gave them a couple of Yuan each for the pleasure. I had no idea whether that was enough but I was pretty sure it wasn't 'too much' as 2 Yuan is only about 33c Australian. They seemed happy enough though because they went on there way without trying to toss me in the canal.

After lunch I wandered along more crowded byways and ended up across another bridge. I was amused to see 'pop the balloons' attractions using plastic pellet guns, just beside the pedestrian thoroughfare.

'Pop the balloons', Zhujiajiao

This struck me as a possibly dangerous practice that could result in someone losing an eye or otherwise being caused injury. However, I didn't see anyway actually trying their luck so perhaps 'casualties' are as few as patrons!