During the National Day holiday, Ah Hao and I went on a short self-driving trip to western Sichuan. This is the first time A Hao and I have left Beijing since the Spring Festival. Everything about the future of the journey is uncertain, so we can only cherish every opportunity to explore the unknown world. If there are any impacts and thoughts that the "epidemic" has brought to me, then this must be one of them.
From Chengdu to Hailuogou, most of the road is flat and high-speed, and the tunnels in the mountains are so long that it seems to last forever. However, the joy at the beginning of the self-driving trip washed away these torturous processes. I sat in the passenger seat and looked around. A cloud hovering on the mountainside can bring great admiration.
Hailuogou is a famous glacier park around Chengdu. I am very unfamiliar with domestic travel, so I am embarrassed to admit that I am a little unfamiliar with this name. We arrived at nearly noon and passed through the Moxi Ancient Town in front of the scenic spot. This is an "ancient town" whose streets have been completely renovated, with new and highly unified street-facing buildings. A straight upward asphalt road leads tourists to the entrance of Hailuogou. Here, they have to transfer to a sightseeing bus up the mountain to reach the real entrance of the scenic spot.
The drive takes about 40 minutes. The driver is skilled in driving and takes us through hairpin turns one after another, taking us into the hinterland of the mountains. Ah Hao and I got off the bus at "Camp No. 3", and the "Photography Hotel" we booked was at this stop. The name of the stop for the sightseeing bus in Hailuogou is confusing, but it is simple to say. After the discovery of Mount Gongga, the campsite for climbers became the source of the local name. There are four camps in total, from far to near, close to the depths of the glacier. "Camp No. 3" is the penultimate site. If you stay here, you can see the scenic view of "Rizhao Jinshan" in the early morning. Of course, the premise is that the weather is good enough.
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After placing our luggage, Ah Hao and I decided to head to Camp 4 and start climbing again. Thin raindrops began to fall from the sky, and the impact of the 2,900-meter altitude on visitors from the plains also began to appear. After walking only a few steps, we felt a headache as if our brain was about to separate from our skull. We turned back to the bus station to wait for the next bus up the mountain. After a few turns, the driver took us to the highest point accessible by the scenic road. .
Tourists who arrived earlier than us crowded in front of the ticket office of the cable car. After asking, we learned that the weather on the top of the mountain was so foggy that it was impossible to see the glacier even if we went up the mountain.
"If you want to see the glacier, I suggest you come back tomorrow. But if you just like to take the cable car, that's a different matter." The staff member sitting at the ticket window said to me through the glass window. I suddenly remembered that we were at Mont Tremblant a few years ago. We were persuaded to leave by the staff at the ticket office for the same reason. Destinies are always surprisingly similar.
"Then..." I hesitated a little and asked Ah Hao the question.
"Is the weather always so bad this season?" Ah Hao asked the staff.
"Who can say the best about the weather in the mountains?" the staff said. "You should come in winter. In winter, the wind is strong on the top of the mountain and any fog can be blown away."
"Can I still go into the mountains in winter?" I came from some common sense and thought that the mountains here would be closed in winter.
"Of course I can."
I looked at Ah Hao, and we confirmed through our eyes that the possibility of winter coming again was about zero, so he firmly said that the weather might not be good tomorrow if we go up the mountain.
The staff was noncommittal about his speculation and handed us two cable car tickets. In front of the cable car station, apart from the Tibetan vendors selling raincoats and the staff wearing yellow vests, we were the only two tourists. The cable car that was supposed to accommodate 8 people was occupied by us all, and we swayed upwards into the deep clouds and mist.
The staff was right, the way to the top of the mountain was already surrounded by clouds. We followed the cable's progress and entered the clouds at a constant speed. Those fantasies of "standing on the top of the clouds" that were imagined by the window of the airplane are now realized in another way. The inside of the cloud was bright but empty, and we had the idea that "when we leave the clouds, we wonder if the time outside is still 2020."
The windows of the cable car were open, letting in the wind with fine mist. It was impossible to tell whether the sound heard came from the flow of water or the roar of the wind. We can only wait quietly for the moment to reach the end. I don’t know how high it is to the ground at this time, how far it is from the top of the mountain, I don’t know, and where the cable cars before and after are, I still don’t know. I remembered that there is a long story in "Doraemon". Nobita's path to another planet in the universe is to pass through a sea of pink clouds. I wonder if it is because Mr. Fujiko has gone through the same journey as us that he can draw such a story that fits his mood at the moment.
When we arrived at the top of the mountain, it was not raining "much heavier than the rain on the mountain" as the staff at the foot of the mountain said. Every observation deck is surrounded by thick clouds and fog. The glaciers and mountains that should have been so close disappeared, and I couldn't even tell where they were on the observation deck. I am looking out from the top of Hailuogou, and these clouds and mist make me think I am anywhere.
Everyone only has one chance to see the glacier here for the first time. I was not disappointed by such a scene.
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The lush plants on both sides of the trail became the only scenery left for Ah Hao and I to enjoy. This is a primitive forest that still retains its style, with streams, branches, moss, fallen leaves, dead branches, and small organisms that have grown again. The forest has its own laws to interpret the flow of life, and tolerates all life in its own way. Look for the laws of breathing. Even though it is cold, rainy, sunny, and windy here, they are still alive and continuing tenaciously.
Compared to the primeval forest and the glaciers not far away, our encounter at this moment was just a moment. However, the universe is made up of countless such moments. The moment when the leaves leave the branches in autumn, the moment when the plants break through the ground and face the sun, the moment when the dead trees fall back to the earth, the moment when the water rushes over the rocks to the cliff, the moment when the glaciers condense, our eyes stay on them. moment.
Last year in the fjords of Norway, I also encountered glaciers. I felt that my existence was unprecedentedly insignificant to these huge milky blue ice bodies that had been condensed for millions of years. It was a glacier called Nigardsbreen. When we arrived, there were only two people in the entire valley, Ah Hao and I. We faced the glacier across the lake, less than 200 meters away. I think about the time when glaciers turned into glaciers, and I have to look back millions of years from now on. That number is so huge that I have lost my concept, and that time is too far away for me to imagine. They have been frozen here for millions of years, and I met them across thousands of mountains and rivers.
This seems to be a very, very remarkable thing.
This moment is just like before. 🐑
The original text of this article was posted on another account where I wrote random things during my travels. Due to the limitations of original content management, there is no way to repost the original text. The wording has been modified, but the story is the same. The thought must have settled into the same feeling today a week later.
The powerful original protection mechanism of the official account system, Ruisibai.
I apologize for any bad reading experience this may have caused.