Taiwan Hiking - Tonho Historical Trail

An old memory post from Facebook provoked me to start writing this blog (or may be series of blogs in future). 

Its about Taiwan, a beautiful island with full of natural beauties everywhere and its friendly people, always smiling and helping nature.

During my over six years long stay in Taiwan, I joined a nice local hiking group called "523 Mountaineering Association", a non-profit organization, founded by Mountaineering Club of National Chengchi University alumnus in Taipei, Taiwan. Their main goal is to conserve the nature and also organize weekend hikings to many nature trails. These trails are ranging from easy to extensive walks through the beautiful scenic spots all around Taiwan. Some of them are day trails, some are longer, require overnight stay in the nature. They regularly organize such trails for groups of people, some are locals and some are originally from different parts of the world, but living in Taiwan that period of time for various reasons.

Today, I am remembering a beautiful nature trail, Tonho old road, which connects Taipei county and YiLan county and was used by people during the Japanese rule in Taiwan.

View of the mountains and Tonho, throughout the trail

On a beautiful winter morning of Dec, we met at MRT Xin-Dian station. A group of nature loving friendly people, from different background. The common bonding is the love for the mother nature. It was an easy but long walking trail. So, we hit the road early in the morning. Just after few hundred meters of walk, as we reached the outskirt of Xin-Dian city, the first glimpse of the green mountains and the refreshing sound of Tonho stream cheered us right at the start of the day, and we knew it's going to be a memorable day. It is a memorable day, and that's the reason, still today I am remembering it even after 9 years. Lots of water have flown through Tonho stream ever since.

Serene and Solitude 

All through the walk, such gorgeous views greeted us at every corner of the track. Capturing photos frequently was slowing us down, but couldn't help much. It was once in a lifetime experience. All we wanted to get soaked into this beauty.

Horse Shoe Bend

Roadside waterfall

 

Walking track along the stream

 

Crossing Tonho Stream

 

Walking Along

We took a short break here, making tea was such a fun. 

Tea Time and little bit relaxing

And then again we are on the way.

Historical wooden bridge

Everything in life comes to an end at one point, and so did this day. After such a strenuous but enjoyable day walking together, we came to the end of the trail. Before jumping into the bus, for returning home, here is the time for a group photo.

The group - physically exhausted but mentally cheerful