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| A restaurant with a lovely view |
Nothing like taking your group to the wrong starting point! I must have been half asleep for the first part of our trip!
I took eight Taipei Hikers out for the day! We were to start our hike at the parking lot of the
Zhinan Temple but since the weather wasn't cooperating, I suggested we take a miss of the temple and head to the trailhead which is just above the temple.
We arranged three taxis to take us to the
Maokong Gondola. On the way up the mountain, I thought the ride seemed long and the road unfamiliar. When I got out of the taxi, I was surprised as I'd never been dropped off there before and wasn't sure where we were exactly. I was momentarily confused until I saw the name of the station. I had asked the drivers to take us to the Maokong Gondola station not the Zhinan Temple station which drops you off above the temple where the trailhead is. Oops! Duh!
My group was very understanding and offered to buy me a coffee! Ha! According to Google Maps and the signs for "
The Grand Hike" it suggested that the walk to the temple was 2.5KM along a small mountain road with little to no traffic. We were above the temple which meant the walk would be downhill. At some point we began to realize that 2.5KM couldn't be correct. I checked Google Maps again and it said we still had about 4KM to walk before getting to the temple. Sigh.
The day was sooooo not turning out the way it was supposed to. Thankfully the tiny mountain road had some interesting things to look at and the group was happy to be out and about doing stuff. About half way to the temple, I recognized a bus stop that I had waited at a number of times in the past. I knew where some trails were that would take us up on the mountain to where we wanted to be. It was a fun climb up on an off the beaten path trail and it brought us exactly we needed to be! Perfect!
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| An old house along the mountain road from the Maokong Gondola |
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| A tree in the garden near the 100+ year old teahouse |
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