Day 2: nothing to do with day 1!!! It was pretty much flat and downhill. But the fun only began once we decided to go down and trek on the paved road to the ferry. We trekked for 2 hours until we got to Tina's Guesthouse for a Naxi sandwich lunch - in all honesty, more of a western concoction than anything exotic; a sandwich is a sandwich. We then took off towards the ferry. When we asked how long it would take, we got varying replies. However, we had to be in Daju, the village on the other side of the ferry crossing, by 18:00h to catch the 3 hour bus that would take us back to Lijiang.
We were told that it was 17 km, then we were told it would take us 7 hours! Incredulous, we started off on foot. And after 2 hours walking pretty quick down the road and not having gone that far by the looks of things, we decided to hitch a ride to the ferry post. At the rate we were going, we'd still be walking to the ferry post three days from now. Below is a picture of the guys who picked us up. We were sitting on the back of a random vehicle, atop bags of wheat and rice, or so we think. We must've saved about 2 hours walking. 30 Yuan poorer, we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere and assured that crossing the fields, we would eventually get to the ferry crossing and eventually Daju. hmmmm....
Not believing a word and starting to plan our night camping in the middle of the fields, we managed to make ourselves understood via sign language with the local field workers, who assured us we were following the right path. We eventually got to the edge of the cliff overlooking the river and saw the ferry at a distance......METRES AND METRES BELOW! We had to make our way down the steep path to the edge (not too bad) where we met with three locals, their 2 cows and their spare donkey, also waiting to cross. The crossing was spectacular, if not my own personal nightmare inside cause I was getting closer to the other side where I would have to trek BACK UPWARDS what I had descended previously. Not only that but on a time watch cause we only had 20 minutes to spare before the bus!!! One of the 80year old locals and his donkey passed me on the way up - embarrassed at my obvious lack of fitness, I thought, surely, he must do this everyday!!! I was still mortified. I did make it somehow. The human body, the human spirit and the need to survive prevailed like never before in me at that moment!
But when we got to the top, the bus had left ... many hours before!! and there was no other bus until the following day. Pablo signed his way with a local who led us for another 45 minute walk up to the town to figure out either a place to stay or a rather expensive chartered taxi ride back to Lijiang. After much negotiating and a few hundred Yuan less, we managed to get a guy to drive us up the "snow mountain cliff" to Lijiang. Now this van was also something else.....I'll spare you the details but just picture a 2.5h drive at 50km per hour uphill on a gravel road climbing a mountain.
Mom....you called me when we were already safe on the main road and only 20 minutes from Lijiang! It was wonderful to hear your voice! We made it safely and decided to get all dressed up and celebrate our magnificent adventure, and survival!
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