Wulai Scenic Area by Bike

2010/03/27

I woke up in 10:00, according to plan we should leave with Andrej in 11:00 to Wulai. Andrej returned from the church a little later, so we departed about 11:45. After crossing Roosevelt Road we joined Xindian bikeway and moved to the southest part of Taipei - Xindian.

In Xindian we bought small lunch. Just on the other side of suspension bridge we found a shop with some sort of potato pancake filled with vegetables. We bought one pancake and also an ice-cream. We checked if bamboo hats are available too as we planned to buy them during our return.

Just behind Xindian we joined national road No. 9 directly to Wulai. Before we actually left Taipei we bought some fruit looking like a apple-size plum. The road started to mount up for about two kilometers. A sudden way down to closest city in river valley was pleasant as we can restore some energy and calm down by the swirling breeze. We passed through this valley 3 times as we always mounted up and went down. There were several scenic areas along the road, however we didn't want to lose the gathered speed so we didn't take a picture.

Close to Wulai we stopped on the highest point of a road around and watched the scenery, took several pictures and also ate our "plums". The taste is exactly same as really good and huge plum, I will have to buy it more often :) (and again I speak about food :D )
We arrived to Wulai around 13:30 and without any break we headed to the Wulai waterfall. We chose the road accessible for cars, which was really big mistake. We had to mount up again one kilometer and then go down almost the same distance and height. The waterfall is not too big but if you stand under it, with Wulai on your left and mountain ridge on your right, it looks really nice :). The disidyllic thing was an excavator broadening the narrow spring under the waterfall.

Back to the town we used a pedestrian path along the spring, which was shorter and all the time headed slightly downward. When I was in maximal speed a dog started to pursuit me and almost jumped to me, fortunately he was on the chain. It was the first problem here with dogs even so wild dogs are wandering through all the land including Taipei park areas.

In the town center we searched for outer hot springs, where we totally failed. The only one we found was in 4 star hotel. Damn! However we saw a lot of people swimming in the river under the town bridge. Maybe we could go swimming there also ... but we wanted to check another parts of Wulai first.
According to Lonely Planet guide I found there is a Scenic area one kilometer to the south of Wulai. Nevertheless the guide forgot to mention that it is on the highest surrounding hill with absolutely horrible access and crossing several private areas. BUT - we climbed there, even with bikes (the second half we had to push them as the mounting was too abrupt).

On the scenic area we encountered another private area, this one guarded by dogs. They looked friendly so we took our pictures and didn't take care about them. They wowed to us but they kept their distance till we took our bikes and wanted to ride downward. In that moment they started to pursuit us! And as we had to use breaks all the time, they were still just behind us till the first turnaround. The breaks started to heat up and in that moment I really regretted bikes don't have ABS as I got a skid and almost ended off the road. Later we checked the wheels - totally overheated by break usage.
Back in Wulai town center we went to check the water. Nevertheless when I touched it and felt the freezing cold I rejected to enter that frozen hell :D Andrej was more brave - at least in the beginning, later he ran from the river as fast as he can :)

Before long we returned to the town center again. I bought a boiled dark corn and we turned back to Taipei. Fortunately the way back was from major part downwards, so we didn't waste too much energy.
Before we returned to the dormitory, we stopped on Xindian again and bought our bamboo hats. They look really cool! We sit with them on the pier for several minutes and then we moved back at the NTUST.

2010/03/27 - Wulai Scenic Area By Bike [34 pictures]
2010/03/21 - Xindian Bikeway [23 pictures]

Wulai
Xindian
Bamboo Hat

Wulai Scenic Area By Bike Phorum [0 posts]
838 views