Turn right at Bitou

Day 1: Nanya, Bitou, Longdong, Fulong (for more photos, clickski)

I jumped on my scooter and pointed it in the direction of the nearest beach and took off. For the first while, I was driving behind buses and choking on exhaust. Finally, the highway dumped me onto the Rt. 2 coastal highway with a smile smeared across my face as I stared out over the ocean. It was about 10:30 AM and the sun was at full strength above me. Tracing the northern part of the North East coast, I began my journey.

My first stop was at Nanya to see some "peculiar rocks." As advertised, due to rain, wind, and sea erosion over the past few million years, the rock formations were quite peculiar. A few minutes walking around and warming to the task of snapping photos of everything was enough for Nanya.

The next stop was Bitou, which is a cape that is basically the North East corner of Taiwan. As it was listen on my itinerary, I stopped to check it out. What I didn't consider was that I'd be walking over 2 miles of trails, many of which were of the uphill variety. Both the sun and I were climbing for a few hours, and probably reached the highest point at the same time. Although I was exhausted and drenched in sweat, I was still able to enjoy the panoramic view of both the north coast where I began my journey, and down the east coast, where I was headed (barring a heat stroke). Bitou also had some great eroded volcanic rock coasts.

The "I get it" point

My vacation was full of beautiful scenery and a lot of long trails. While it was refreshingly different from my day-to-day life in Taipei, I can't say with full honesty that everything was actually different. Many places I went, I took a lot of pictures, then suddenly thought to myself, "Okay, it's a rock. I get it," and I moved on with my life.

The next stop was just around a little harbor (you can see from Bitou in the pictures) at Longdong where a trail lead to another lookout point. A different vantage point of the same waves crashing into the same cliffs, so I reached the "I get it" point pretty fast. The only real interesting point about Longdong was that it was the first place after rounding the NE corner.

A restless previous night and the unexpected surprise of a hiking in the midday heat (without water) led me to an early end to the first day. I made my last stop at Longmen Campsite, which neighbors Fulong Beach. I set up camp and went for a walk to Fulong Beach, which is one of very few beaches that allow swimming on the jagged coast of northern Taiwan. After gawking at some finely detailed sand sculptures, I got my feet wet with Pacific waters as the sun made its final descent behind the soft sand at Fulong Beach.

As dusk settled in at around 6:00ish, I realized that in order to make the most of my days sightseeing, I would have to operate according to sunlight hours...