After Lijiang the next stop on the tourist trail was the famous Tiger Leaping Gorge. The first day I barely managed to find the start of the trail - the signage is non-existent - and walked to Tea Horse Guest House and stayed the night. (I was to find out later that the trail is officially closed to all visitors due to major road works, hence the lack of signage). The scenery in the western part of the gorge is pretty spectacular and the location of Tea Horse near perfect. The hike was hard and hot for a portion but overall not bad, even with a full pack. On the second day I walked with a guy Max from Quebec and we stayed at Sean's GH for the second night. Despite rave reviews the attitude of the people at Sean's pretty much sucked and I was thankful to be there only briefly. The second day included a very adventurous trip down a series of sketchy ladders almost to river level, at the narrowest part of the gorge. In this area I was lucky to get very close to the roaring Yangzi river and was really in awe of the power of the water through the narrow gorge. The exit trail blasted into the shear cliff face was definitely not something you'd be likely to find in NZ, Europe or the US but made up in interest what it lacked in safety. The scenery surrounding Sean's was also incredible with near-vertical roack walls rising up and up and up to the almost 5600m peak above.
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