Sunday 10 November 2024
We are halfway around the Island of Taiwan. This morning we cycled to the southern most tip and to Eluanbi Lighthouse. There were bus loads of people at the lighthouse. It cost 120 NTD to get in and we really enjoyed walking to the viewpoint and wandering around the grounds and lighthouse. We asked a lady if she would take a photo of us. (I didn’t post the photo as she cut our legs off and Ralf had his eyes closed !!) She was originally from Taiwan and now lives in Vancouver, she was visiting family. We had a nice chat with her about Taiwan.
Due to the frequent shipwrecks in the area the construction of the Eluanbi Lighthouse began in 1881 and was completed the following year. The lighthouse was established in 1882. The lighthouse base served as a fort with trenches en-clrcling the outside. It was manned by armed soldiers. This made it one of the few fortified lighthouses in the world. It was blown-up, rebuilt and bombed again in World War 2. It is now a well-preserved historical site within the Kenting National Park. Eluanbi Lighthouse is the most powerful lighthouse in Taiwan and is known as the “Beacon of Southeast Asia”.
A note of interest about Taiwan’s National Parks. It was only recently (1980’s) that Taiwan decided to create National Parks, Not to be confused with National Scenic Areas. Kenting was the first National Park in 1984. There are nine National Parks in Taiwan. The rules to build or develop in a National Parks do not appear to be too onerous, so long as you get permission from the National Park Commission first. They do restrict height of buildings etc. However, we did see long four-storey hotels built in the hillsides.
As we were leaving Kenting to cycle to the lighthouse, we noticed a lot of high-end road bikes in our hotel and along the main road. We chatted to a young guy who was waiting for a bus to take him and his bike back to Kaohsuing, where he would take the high-speed train back to Taipei. There had been an Audax yesterday. This is a challenge ride and can consist of different distances from 200 km to the famous Paris Brest Paris ride of 1200 kms. Yesterday’s challenge ride was from Taipei to Kenting a distance of 620 kms this had to be completed in 24 hours. The young man we spoke to had lived in New Zealand and had quite the kiwi accent. He did the ride in 22 hours!! I asked him how he was feeling and he said very tired, but he had a big grin on his face.
Other riders had done 520 kms. We gave everyone we saw wearing a 520 or 620 kms T. shirt a thumbs up. When we were loading our bikes a group who had done the ride yesterday commented that we were doing the Huan Dao, (the Round Island) they gave me the thumbs up. If they only knew how easy we were taking the ride.
In Kenting and at the Lighthouse there were two fabulous sculptures created with steel rope cables.
Kenting and area is a really nice beachy area. There are surfing beaches, and smaller beaches and rocky beaches. At the moment swimming is restricted because of the rip-tides and there were red flags on almost all of the beaches we saw.
We left Kenting for the second time at about 11:30. It was going to be a relatively easy ride to Checheng. We very rarely back-track on a route. However, we really wanted to see the most southern point of Taiwan and the easiest route over the central mountain range is from Checheng and not following the coastal road up from Kenting.
Of course we were way too early for our hotel check-in. The owner allowed us to leave our bags and we headed into Town, only a couple of minutes away.
There is a very large and famous temple here. (Fu-An Temple). Built during Qing Dynasty and dedicated to the deity Tudigong.
Obviously he likes a spot of Jack Daniels as there was an offering of a bottle for him. Ralf went in the temple first and I watched the bikes and people. There were several groups of worshippers who came out of the temple, banging on drums, cymbals and chanting. The groups were always carrying a banner and some sort of offerings.
While we were making our rounds of the temple the lady from Vancouver spotted us and chatted again. She said this was a very famous temple and the deity was very special. I asked if it was Tao or Buddhism. She said it was a combination of both, sometimes with these large temples they mix both divinations together. Although the official story is that it is Taoism
At about 2:45 we headed back to our hotel. The owner who spoke a little English showed me the room and where we could keep our bikes. He also asked if we needed to do any washing. I hadn’t realized I smelled that bad. As soon as we showered I did a load of laundry. It took an hour and now it is hanging in their laundry room. I hope it is all dry by the morning.
Tomorrow and the remainder of the trip we will be on the east coast heading towards Taipei.
