Les Aventures d'une Baroudeuse en carton // Tales of a Novice Adventurer.
It’s also about an indigenous tribe and its very own peculiar culture, it’s about a nuclear waste facility that’s disturbing the landscape as well as the heart of its inhabitants. It’s about politics and history, about people and rocks and the sea.
There are several warning signs along the way about the Black Bears of Taiwan (as well as snakes, wasps, leeches and rock slides) and it’s starting to get on my nerves all those stories about deadly animals, to the point where I completely overreact and jump with fear at the sight of… a bird flying away. So long for my cold sweat followed by my laughter.
When I travelled down from Taipei to Hualien, my main reason was that I really wanted more nature, more crazy-wild sceneries and let’s face it: I was craving to go hiking again. I guess this is why I fell in love with Taroko (and the whole Hualien County) right away.
The mountains and hills are then covered with an orange bed of flowers, which really contrast beautifully with the blue of the sky. It feels like an alive painting while the clouds are playing with us the game of unlikely shapes. On the top of the mountain, there’s a path leading amidst the flowers up to the Wanyou Pavilion – The Forgetting Sorrow Pavilion. At 964 meters high above sea level, it is said that all of our sorrows and sadness will fly away at the sight of this sea of Daylilies spreading downhill.
I knew the rock formations I came here to see were there, on the other side of the road. By the sea. But there was a path just here, leading to the mountains. I couldn’t help but follow it. It was a bit muddy and slippery and started to get narrower and narrower as I walked into the jungle. The butterflies and dragonflies were dancing all around me, in a festival of colours.
Geocaching is like a huge treasure hunt, on an international scale. Yep, that’s right, you can actually find little treasures everywhere in the world. When I say treasures, I’m obviously not talking about tonnes of gold, opals, Aladdin’s lamp or I-Phone 6 –no, no, no. The Geocaching’s treasures are more or less like the little surprises you can find into Kinder Eggs or the things you were secretly keeping into your child’s treasure box, the one in which you used to put tonnes of stickers, boondoggles, or finger puppets.
Ex-libraire, boulimique d’images et de rêveries en papier. Reconvertie en agent de voyages adepte de nouveaux horizons. Reconvertie en apprentie baroudeuse. Baroudeuse en carton depuis 2015 en Nouvelle-Zélande, au Japon, à Bali, à Singapour, à Taïwan, à Hong-Kong, en Equateur et au Mexique. J’ai chopé la bougeotte et je compte bien ne pas m’arrêter là.
A former bookseller, who couldn’t get enough of pictures and paper dreams. Retrained as a Travel Agent, who couldn’t get enough of new travel inspirations. Retrained as a novice adventurer. Novice Adventurer since 2015 in New Zealand, Japan, Bali, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong-Kong, Ecuador and Mexico. I caught the travel bug and I won’t stop anytime soon.
Let’s take a walk with me!