Baby’s Second Adventure

Before becoming a parent I thought having a small child would mean being stuck at home most of the time. Recently I’ve found more and more that while there are some limitations, it is possible to go out and do fun things. Granted you have to make some adjustments to what you are doing and where you are going but still, you can go on little mini adventures. For instance me and my wife used to really enjoy taking the motorbike up into the mountains then go hiking to some semi-remote waterfall. We can’t go by motorbike anymore, but if we take the car, hiking to a waterfall while carrying he baby is entirely possible. Few things you have to keep in mind when doing this kind of thing with a baby:

First, hiking with a baby is like carrying a second backpack weighing between five and ten kilos which puts some limits on how long and how physically exerting trails you can hike. Second, it’s crucial that the baby doesn’t get hurt in any way which puts some limits on how much climbing and jumping you’re able to do. Third, a baby needs to every few hours so if your hike takes more time than that you need to bring food. As long as you take these aspects into account hiking with a baby is perfectly fine. I wouldn’t want to do it on my own however, in my opinion you need to be two people to be able to enjoy it.

Last weekend was the second time we went hiking with the baby and despite hiking a slightly longer trail than last time, I think it went really well. The weather had been kind of unstable the days before so we didn’t want to go too deep into the mountains. Because of this and the fact that we had to bring the baby I decided we should do the lower half of the Matai trail/ Lover’s Valley trail. This trail starts just outside Neiwan and we hiked to the first (unnamed) waterfall then from there back down to the road then followed the road back to the starting point. You can see the details of the trail in the map below.

The trail map.

The trail itself starts with a set of steep stairs but after that it’s pretty smooth walking. After about a kilometer or two you get to a gazebo where the trail splits into two. If you are hiking the Matai trial you go straight from here, but like I said, because I was carrying the baby we took the branch down to the waterfall. There me and the wife took turns climbing around and exploring the waterfall while the other took care of the baby. The reason part of the map looks like a pile of spaghetti is because I forgot to turn off the tracking while clambering around.

Mixed shots of feeding baby and waterfall

Another set of mixed shots of waterfalls and the baby

It was a short little adventure but thanks to taking the things I mentioned at the beginning into account, both Yini and I enjoyed it. Let’s see water other little adventures we can take the baby on in the future.