Hiya!

Well, we had quite a long train journey and bus journey up to Dehang. It is a tiny little village nestled between lots of karsts and a little river. When we first got there, it was raining, and a lady came running over to us and offered us a cheap room. It was a new building which is always good and it was right in the middle of the little square. Our first day was spent chilling out, and we had a little explore of the area. We ate some local pork dishes in a guesthouse, in a restaurant which could easily have been mistaken for someones living room. The food was all cooked in front of us, so it was quite interesting to watch. The village was so sweet and beautiful. Exactly what you imagine from rural China. There were some little curved bridges over the river where all the men would sit, hand weaving baskets for the women. There was a pungent smell of farm all around lol. It was so small but you could easily get lost in the tiny little streets, literally. You could only just walk through some of the paths, it was all packed so tightly together. All the houses were very traditional stone houses with slate or leaf rooves.

On the second day, we got up at a decent hour (some point before midday) and headed on a walk along the river. It was stunningly beautiful, walking along a cobbled path with ducks swimming about and butterflies everywhere. It was literally walled in by huge karsts and mountains. We passed lots of veggie plots and little wooden huts, with traditionally dressed men and women working in the fields. It was incredibly quiet and peaceful, and we ambled along taking in the views. About halfway along the trail, there was a huge waterfall hidden in the trees which you could climb for a small fee, basically a guy from the village had built a path up the side and charged you to use it. The waterfall was huge, not one big drop, but lots of levels with small pools at intervals up the side of the mountain. As you climbed higher and higher, it felt more and more like you were the only people for miles around. The path was all quite overgrown, and at parts it was a bit of a clamber, but this added to the charm more than anything. On several occasions we had to cross the water, on precariously balanced wooden bridges (more like branches)... Nina got a bit scared, but got across a tip-toe at a time. It was amazing experience, get so close to the water, standing a few feet aove it, and looking down at the path it took down the mountain-side from the top. After sitting for a while, we headed back down and continued on our way.

We carried on walking along the path, and after a short while, we arrived at Liusha Waterfall, China's highest waterfall at 216m... not quite qualifying for one of the worlds tallest but amazing to see. Really bizzare, as the water just literally dropped off from the top, and fell free. There was a path that led behind the waterfall, so you could get up really close to it all, so close that you could feel the spray of the water... luckily none fell directly on us, as it looked like it could be a bit painful. It was amazing! We sat there watching it for a while and eventually started strolling back.

We got about halfway back and wanted to take some more pictures. When we went to get the camera out the bag though, it was gone!!!! Ben ran back along the path to the waterfall and I walked searching around in hope that we had lost it, rather than it being stolen. We spent all of the next day searching and asking people if they had seen it. We bumped into a japanese guy who was really nice and he wrote up a little note for us offering a reward if it was found. Unfortunately we had no such luck, and even worse we had spent the rest of out time there searching so didnt get to do any more walks. We were gutted about it but you have to move on. Such a shame, more about the memory card as it had some brilliant pix on it from the last 3 weeks!

We tried not to let it ruin our memories of Dehang though. We had the most amazing day there and it was an unbelievably beautiful place! But as always, we had to go to our next destination! Anyways, im hungry and it is dinner time!

Speak soon, much love to all! xxxxxxxxxxxx