We were awoken at about 9:40pm last night by a tremor - a fast 'side to side' vibration through the ground rising like a wave and then receding. It lasted for just a couple of seconds. A first for us and a bit freaky. No one at the B&B mentioned it. Maybe they are too common here to be noteworthy.

This morning we made a last minute decision to take a shuttle bus north to Taroko Gorge. 'Last minute' because the brochure we had showed lots of tantalising photos but the text was in Chinese, meaning we didn't know which stops to get off at in order to see the best sights.

Down the road we went in the usual semi-panic - we didn't have tickets and only knew that they were available somewhere near the Railway Station. In the end we were last to board the bus and it took off within seconds of us sitting down.

I was sitting next to an older Gentleman from Tianan and we chatted on & off during the journey. He soon realised I was a numpty and offered to allow Des and I to join him and his family on the "tour". We were happy to do so because we would have found it difficult to even find the bus pick-up spots for the return journey. Plus they were nice people.

The photos will show the parts of the Gorge we saw - all marble walled and beautiful.

Whilst waiting for the return bus at Tianxiang we chatted with three retired Gents from Singapore who, remarkably, had all gone to school together 50 years ago and were still close friends. We also met a very nice young Englishwoman (Hi Laura!) and chatted with her for most of the journey back to Hualien.

A great day and the weather was wonderful - we haven't seen that much blue sky since we arrived. It made up for the not so good weather at Sun Moon Lake.

Ciao.