Where the wild things are: Guansi Bat Cave

However, far from being the abode of a comic book superhero, this deep cavern hidden in limestone hills close to the county's eastern border makes a fascinating, if challenging, half-day excursion and is certainly one of the most unusual ways to spend a day out in Taiwan.

There are several other 'bat caves' dotted around the island, but most are either fenced off and out of bounds to the public, or are only seasonally occupied by those fascinating flying mammals. The remainder have been abandoned for remoter locales after tourist traffic frightened the inhabitants away long ago.

All of them, that is, except Guansi Bat Cave, which remains home to countless numbers of the little critters, although visiting their dark home isn't exactly a walk in the park.

The bat cave has been something of an attraction for several decades, and the little road to the trailhead is clearly signposted off the Luoma﹝羅馬﹞ Highway (county route 118), which connects Guansi with the North Cross-island Highway, 35 kilometers to the east. Turn off route 118 close to the 32.5 kilometer road marker (a wooden sign points out the way to the cave).

The lane is exceptionally narrow in places, but (keeping left at the fork) it's not too long before it reaches a small parking area beside a public W.C. Leaving the vehicle here, a concrete track continues ahead, steeply uphill, until a clear, stepped path on the right climbs the hillside towards the cave. As I climbed with my three companions, the sky overhead was overcast and threatened rain.

It had poured overnight and the wet path was treacherously slippery. The stone slabs of the path were bordered with low hummocky plants studded with pretty tiny trumpet flowers of palest lilac.

Gingerly placing our feet as we climbed, it was less than ten minutes before the path reached its highest point and started descending. Almost at once, a tall, sheer cliff of weathered limestone reared up on the left, its base pierced by a large black hole. This cave was inaccessible after a few meters, but following the trail steeply downhill a minute or two further, another dark cavity in the rock appeared, with the Chinese characters '出口' ('exit') painted in red paint beside it. This is actually now the main entrance to the system, after the original entrance nearby was closed.

Getting out torches and leaving backpacks at the mouth of the cave, we entered, only to find a vertical chimney about 20 meters in depth immediately inside. A long and awkward rope ladder is permanently fixed to the rock, and after lots of struggling and puffing, we were standing at the bottom, at the start of a long, steeply sloping passage which dives down into the bowels of the Earth.

1|2|Next Page>>

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email