The collected writings of a Renegade Tourist

Tag Sense of adventure

Baishuihu, 11:26 am

tall grass line the road and poke up through the cracks. Low waves, little more than ripples on the pond's surface, lap the edges of the asphalt. The ride is bumpy, every now and then I have to slow down to a crawl to avoid hitting a large pot hole too hard, and the weeds keep rubbing against the sides of the car as I go along. It feels like I'm the first person to drive here for many years. The road is long enough that I can't actually see if it connects to anything at the other end or if it gets swallowed up by the water somewhere up ahead. I really hope that it goes all the way across because it's so narrow it would be really hard to turn around. The thought that I might have to drive the entire distance in reverse flashes through my mind but I brush it off and press on. A sensible person would never go down a road like this, but there's something about the dilapidates state of it, as well as the fact that I can't see where it ends, that imbues the place with a sense of adventure and compels me to steer my car down it, heading towards the unknown.

Shuiyun Falls 11:20 am

The two fishermen on the beach warn us that the current is strong but I ignore them and follow my friend as he steps into the water. A few steps out the river bed drops away abruptly and I sink down to my chest, my watertight backpack floating up behind me like a cork. The water is cold and I can feel the current tugging at my body, wanting to pull me away and send me down stream. A feeling of trepidation flashes through my mind for a brief moment but disappears when I see my friend fearlessly continue forward, so I push on with determination. As we round the slight bend in the river I look up to the right where a smaller side stream comes cascading down the cliffs to join ours. Further along the little creak, the water flows over the edge of the high, jungle clad cliffs and comes crashing down into a small pool, sending spray high into the air. This place is imbued with a combined sense of danger and beauty and here and now, at this very moment, that is all I need.

Dark cave side passage, 12:34 pm

We are in a crevice branching off from the main cave. It keeps getting narrower as we walk and we wind our way past stalagtites, stepping over rocks and through mud. The sense of adventure is almost tangible…… Read the rest

The Edge of Adventure

Today was the last day of our central Taiwan trip. We started slow, getting up late and having a long breakfast, leaving the hotel around eleven. The evening before we had checked up a few places we wanted to go and the first one was some kind of statue park. When we got there it was closed even though the sign on the gate said it should be open. The next one was a long suspension bridge across a river. It was, in fact, so long that there were two pillars holding it up, basically it was three bridges connected … Read the rest

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