QILAI SOUTH PEAK and NANHUA SHAN

You can read my description of this walk here (day 1) and here (day 2).

The hike to Qilai South Peak and Nanhua Shan was a special one for me for a number of reasons. It is only the second group hike that Teresa and I had done (the first was Ba Xian Shan where the group seemed to get up Teresa’s nose somewhat), and the first time for me to meet – in the flesh – a handful of people that I’d met on Twitter as a result of us sharing a deep love for Taiwan’s mountains. Our group leader for the trip was Anusha, a local woman who writes an English language website about Taiwan’s trails, and who possesses the superpower of being able to disappear into the background of any group photo. Also with us was Glenn, who is perhaps best described as the mad mountain man of the south. He also writes about his exploits in Taiwan hills over on Out Recording, although his idea of what constitutes a fun hike falls a little outside of what most people would consider fun. The third person that I’d met online was Cris, a Taipei based (ex?) software engineer. Taking the numbers up to eight were Teresa, Cris’s partner Fanyi, and two of Anusha’s friends, Walt and Sky.