Day 41 - Arriving At The Southernmost Place In Taiwan, The Long Walk South In Taiwan
Day 41 - Arriving At The Southernmost Place In Taiwan, The Long Walk South In Taiwan
For me, the whole Kenting National Park area of southern Taiwan, with its beaches and surfing towns, is the most beautiful and scenic part of our walk.
We have had many interesting days and pleasant memories along our walk, but this last week was the most scenic.
The morning started with a drizzling rain, but by the time we started walking, it quickly cleared up, and turned hot and humid.
We walked down the street to have our complimentary breakfast, to a family-run breakfast restaurant.
The place was lively because many of the guesthouses don’t have a kitchen to serve breakfast, and just give their guests vouchers for breakfast to eat at any of the town’s breakfast restaurants.
We sat at the same table as two of the family’s young children.
The older girl, who seemed to be about 7-8 years of age, had started to help out in the restaurant, cleaning tables and delivering orders, in between playing her video games whenever she could.
Her younger brother was about 3 and like all young children, was living in his own world, chattering away to no one in particular and asking his sister to help him work out his game on his iPad, crying when she refused.
We had a vegetable sandwich and a glass of soy milk tea and kept walking.
There was a Starbucks only about a kilometer south of us, where we planned to stop to pass some time, drink matcha lattes and to write.
We had a lot of time today, because it was our last day walking south.
Tomorrow we will be starting our walk north east, to complete our walk around Taiwan that we had started back in 2020.
It was a spacious Starbucks cafe which clearly was designed as a rest stop for the many tour buses that bring visitors to the coast, and it even had comfy sofas.
We continued walking about noon, walking on the main road south. Almost all of the buildings to our left were accommodations, some in great shape, others looking closed down or under renovations.
To our right, we had views of the ocean in between the trees.
The waves were breaking close to the shore, looking muddy and strong.
As we walked, I suddenly got dizzy for a moment and had to stop and take a deep breath.
I wasn’t sure what had happened, except that I was looking at my phone and walking, and I suddenly felt dizzy.
Could it be that walking and texting was just as dangerous as driving and texting?…
I wasn’t thirsty or hungry or overheated, and otherwise I felt very strong, so we just kept walking.
But Jules was concerned about me, so when we came upon a bistro that looked very clean and welcoming, he suggested that we stop for lunch.
We checked the menu and saw that the chef had won numerous awards over the past few years.
He seemed to be a culinary lover, working with his wife, both wearing white aprons.
The food was very tasty, and we were happy that we could enjoy a warm lunch on a relaxed day of walking.
We stopped at a convenience store to buy some food for dinner, since our accommodation had no restaurant offering dinners.
The coastline was beautiful.
We arrived at the southernmost part of Taiwan.
In front of us was the Bashi Channel, where the Pacific Ocean meets the straits of Taiwan.
We stood there admiring the blue Pacific, the lighthouse and the confluence of the waves, having a sense of accomplishment mixed with relief.
We have made it!
We have walked to this point from Taipei, and even though we used some transportation on rare occasions, we still have extra kilometers in our “walking bank”, meaning that we walked more kilometers than the actual route.
Then the road turned inland, and we walked to our accommodation for the night.
We had to climb a very steep hill to get there, since we will be spending the night up on the grassy plains.
Tomorrow, we continue our hike north to the east coast, and up to the train station where we will be closing the circle of walking around Taiwan, that we started back in 2020.
The walk offered terrific views in all directions.
Our accommodation was very well designed, with cabins built in curved concrete painted white.
Without asking, they upgraded our room to a very spacious villa with a patio.
We asked for more drinking water and the friendly staff brought us also a bag of snacks, saying we must be hungry from the walk up here.
I giggled to myself, because this was such a short day of walking, and we had taken so many rest breaks that I hardly felt we walked at all.
There were other lovely places to stay in this area, some built in a modern architectural style and some built to look like beautiful ranches.
It is a lovely area to stay in, away from traffic and with great views of the ocean and a nice breeze.
The wind reminded me of the strong winds awaiting us on our walk tomorrow, as we cross the plateau.
I have heard that the wind always blows strongly on sections of the grassland prairies, making walking or cycling difficult.
The lady at our guesthouse said that it is reputed to be the hardest part of the path, both because of the mountain pass and the winds.
But if I have learned anything from doing pilgrimages, it is that you have to take one day at a time, celebrating
small victories and letting tomorrow take care of itself…
With love,
Tali
Today’s Stats:
Steps - 11,996
Daily Distance - 8 km
Total Distance To Date - 640 km
