Our friends at ZA Adventures are going to put on another WFA (Wilderness First Aid) Course for us over the Oct 31-Nov 1st weekend in Yangmingshan National Park.

http://soloschools.com/wilderness-first-aid-wfa/

Matt, is flying over from the states again to lead the course, and this is a great chance to get a first-aid qualification from an extremely knowledgeable and experienced professional. The course can also serve as a refresher for WFR (Wilderness First Responder) if you took the WFR in the last 3 years.

WHO IS THE WFA FOR?
The WFA is the perfect course for the outdoor enthusiast or trip leader who wants a basic level of first aid training for short trips with family, friends, and outdoor groups. It also meets the ACA guidelines.

WHAT IS TAUGHT?
The WFA is 16 hours long (two days), and focuses on the basic skills of: Response and Assessment, Musculoskeletal Injuries, Environmental Emergencies, Survival Skills, Soft Tissue Injuries, and Medical Emergencies

WHAT IS THE COST?
The cost is $6000NT and this includes meals, instruction and certification.
CPR certification can also be done over the weekend, and this is an extra $1000NT
The course is limited to 20 persons. Please sign up via the Google Form below, then we will get in touch with you.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jXVVkpKWOLA6qjB8qPf2SvT0Ho3WCIO6JXOB1BnvtWM/viewform?usp=send_form

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Bilu and Yangtou Mountain, Taroko Gorge National Park

Walking through a frost covered forest in Taroko Gorge National Park

Mount Bilu and Yangtou are located near the top of Taroko Gorge National Park.  Both peaks are above 3000m and can be done as individual days hikes, a mad single day traverse or a 2-3 day traverse with camping.

Day 1

It’s a long drive from Taipei to Dayuling for the start of the hike.  With the restrictions on the Suhua Highway, we had to come via Lishan and it took almost 6 hours to get there.  The trailhead starts next to the Dayuling Tunnel which is the intersection for Lishan, Hehuanshan and Taroko Gorge.

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Teapot Mountain and Banping Mountain

Teapot Mountain as seen from Banping Mountain

Teapot Mountain on Taiwan’s north coast has to have some the most amazing views you can get for a day hike from Taipei City.  The hike begins in the rejuvenated Jinguashi Gold Ecological Park. I remember visiting this area years and just thinking how depressing it was, but it’s now fully open and makes for a nice place to visit especially in the morning when the crowds aren’t too bad.

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Yuemeikeng Waterfall

The Yue Mei Keng Waterfall in full flow

Richard Saunders let me know about the Yuemeikeng Waterfall sometime ago and he mentioned that it was a relatively unknown and hidden place and so when I visited last year, I decided not to write about it to try and keep it that way.  But now it has been discovered by the masses and the trail is well tagged and well beaten, I think it’s OK to write a quick post.

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Beidawu – 北大武山

Sunset near the Kuaigu Cabin

Having failed to get a permit in the Yushan National Park because of the snow season, we headed a little further south to Pingdong County to hike Beidawushan which is Taiwan’s southern most Baiyue (top one hundred mountain). In the past this was a reasonable 2 day hike, but a large landslide caused my Typhon Morakot means the trailhead is much lower and further back making it a much tougher walk. We did it in 2 days, but if you’ve got the time, I think 3 days would be more enjoyable.

Although it’s one of the smaller Baiyue (3092m), Beidawu is a mammoth rock that rises sharply from the ground. The strip of land that it lies on is only 80km from the west coast to the east coast and on fine days you can see both (or so I hear!)

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Sandiaoling Waterfalls 三貂嶺瀑布群

The weather in northern Taiwan is notoriously bad in the winter and this year has been no exception.  So f you’re going to hike in the rain, there won’t be much scenery to look, unless of course you visit a waterfall and the Sandiaoling Trail 三貂嶺 has waterfalls in abundance.

Hegu Waterfall, the first waterfall on the trail

When I woke up on Sunday the weather in Taipei wasn’t too bad, just a slight drizzle and so I had high hopes for our hike.  However, the further east we got, the heavier the rain became and when we finally arrived at the tiny station of Sandiaoling, it was pretty much a persistent downpour.  Still, everyone was in high spirits as we headed along the tracks and got onto the very muddy trail.

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Some Upcoming Hikes

We’ve got two open hikes planned for February.  The first is to Snow Mountain on the 10th-12th and the second is to Dabajianshan on the 25th-27th.  February 27/28th are both holidays and so we’ve got a 4 day weekend then.

Snow Mountain is Taiwan’s second highest peak and a great climb.  Some amazing scenery!

Snow Mountain Facebook Event

Dabajianshan is probably Taiwan’s most distinctive mountain.  Look on the back of a $500NT note, that’s the one!  It’s a great 3 day hike to this huge mountain and back.

Dabajianshan Facebook Event

If you’re interested in joining us on either hike or on some gentler day trips around Taipei, then join the facebook group, Taiwan Adventures – Group Hikes.

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Taiwan Adventures Mobile Guide for iPhone and iPod

Well it’s finally here!  Our mobile guide to Taiwan for the iPhone and iPod is available in the app store now.

The features include;

• More that 900 points of interest that cover everything from hotels to hot springs to hiking.
• More than 2000 photos, many of which you’ll only see in the app
• Online and offline maps to make finding you way around so much easier
• Street addresses with both in pinyin and Chinese
• Easy to use:  Search by district, category, distance, map or just browse through our photo albums.

One thing that we’ve really tried to push with the app is Taiwan’s superb outdoors.   You’ll find that may of the points of interest are waterfalls, hikes, forest recreation areas, swimming holes, beaches, wild hot springs etc. and with the online and offline maps, it’s so much easier to find these hidden gems.

The Taiwan Adventures app can be downloaded from the app store for free.  Inside you’ll find a free database containing information about Bali and Danshui and from the store, you can then make in app purchases for the other areas of Taiwan.

Hope you enjoy it!  And look out for updates coming in the very near future!

The entry for the Bishan Temple near Neihu

Entries all have info regarding prices, opening hours and the address in Chinese and Pinyin as well as links to websites

The map shows your location in red and all of the entries are in blue.

Zoomed in the map give enough detail to find your way around

The free database contains info about Bali and Danshui. The rest of Taiwan has been divided into 5 areas, Taipei, Northern, East, Southern and Central

I personally really like flicking through the photo gallery to look for interesting places

Available in Chinese and English

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Yushan Info

A couple of bits of news from the Yushan National Park came out in the last week.   The Paiyun Cabin, which has been closed for sometime now, is set to open in the spring of next year.  It seems that the cabin will be divided into roughly 10 rooms of 8-12 people rather than the old barrack-style that it used to be.  That should mean getting some sleep will be easier when you don’t have to listen to 60+ people snoring!  The Cabin will also have a restaurant too and hopefully there will still be kitchen facilities for those who want to do their own cooking.

The only bad news is that the cleaning fee for staying at the cabin will rise to $700 for foreigners and will remain at $220 for Taiwanese.  Given how much bad English and infrequent updates there are on the website, it seems a little rich for the foreigners to be charged more than 3 times as much.   We’ll have to see what eventually happens.  Fingers crossed the park authority see sense before the cabin opens.

Also earlier this week the dates for the resting period for Yushan were announced.  Climbers will not be allowed to hike Yushan between Feb 1st and Feb 29th.

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Taiwan Adventures – The Online Guide

It’s been a hectic and crazy year for us, but finally our comprehensive online guides to Taiwan are finally ready.  Myself, Neil Wade, Ross Tweedie and my brother, Phil Dawson have spent the last 8 months or so building the two guides.  There is one in English and one that we have had translated into Chinese.

It’s been hard work to say the least.  Working full time jobs and then spending the evenings writing and the weekends travelling and visiting places, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.  It gave me a real kick up the arse to get out there and visit some of the places that I had been meaning to go to for a long time but had never gotten round to.

Some of my personal highlights include Guguan which I knew nothing about but absolutely loved, especially the hiking, getting the car stuck in snow at the top of Hehuanshan,  and motorcycling up and down the east coast between Hualien and Taidong with Neil this summer.

Each guide is divided up into 5 main areas, Taipei, north, east, south and central and then each area is divided up into specific places, such as Kending, the North East Coast or Danshui/Bali.  You can use the site to search for what’s near you or to plan a trip to another part of Taiwan or simply browse through the categories for things that interest you.

We have some 900 places listed including hotels, hikes, hot springs, transport etc.  Each place is listed on a google map and the address is in Chinese and English to make it easier to find.

Hopefully next week the mobile app version will be released in the itunes store and each area will be available for download to your iphone, ipad, or ipod. The app version will have online and offline maps so getting directions will be even easier and there are some 2000 photographs included.  We will continuously update the app and so, unlike a guide book, you won’t have to wait 3 years to pay for a new version., the update be available for free!

We hope that people find these guides useful and we’d love to hear some feedback about how we can improve them – info at taiwan-adventures dot com

 

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