Shan Ding Lu

Living on the heavily populated and industrialised plains around Koahsiung it is difficult to believe that just 25 km away there exists a great mountain range that is hardly populated, clean and mostly untouched. That is not to say they are completely covered in virgin rain-forest. No, all the really good timber was removed years ago through logging, any flattish area is used for cultivating something and many of the slopes are covered in betel nut plantations or orchards. But large tracks of the Taiwan mountain area are completely isolated and only accessible by foot.

For the southern two thirds of the island there are really only two roads that allow west to east travel through the mountain range. The middle road passes over at Hehuan shan at 3200m . The southern road passes over at Yakou at 2722m.

Travelling these roads it is easy to see why there are only the two. Much of the roadways hug closely to the rock walls, or pass over large gullies and streams. There are continuous teams of excavators and rock clearers keeping the road passable. When a typhoon passes through, the roads are normally closed for a few days to weeks at a time as they clear the rockfalls, rebuild the washouts and carve new tracks into the walls that have slid away. A drive along highway 20 is a drive along a geological work in progress.

We travelled on a weekend when a north easterly had drawn cold and dusty air down from the Gobi desert in northern China. The dust made the vista views of mountains quite misty. The cold made us realise we needed warmer clothes.

As it all happened, geologically speaking. A Taiwan vivisection.

A carefully crafted suspension bridge had its foundations washed downstream.

Some keen young campers on there way over the pass. We met them here at around 1200m preparing for the 4C air at the 2700m pass.

A rock scree that joins the main river.

A large landslide has resulted in the road being rebuilt over the rubble.

Maintaining roads in the precipitous mountains where a typhoon can drop over a metre of rain in 24 hours is hard work. Here are a few of the images of this road.

Oops.The embankment here has slipped a little as the rock scree from above the road has made its way down the slope.

Finally at the top of the pass is a tunnel that saves the road climbing another 300 metres

On the other side of the tunnel there is a crowd. And where there is a crowd in Taiwan there is always a food vendor. This one is selling hot broth soup to add some warmth to the cold souls who venture to the 4C air.

Just over the pass on the Eastern side is a guest house that offers warm beds and hot food. A welcoming place that seems precariously placed on a flat piece of ground adjacent a crumbling rock face. A large filled crack runs across the floor of the dining room, down the stairs and through the guest rooms. We reassuringly slept in a room on the uphill side of the crack.

The Southern cross island highway is a very worthwhile trip. One I hope to do again with a little more time to hike the many trails to the peaks along the way.

Tags: Mountains, Taiwan // 7 Comments »