two bite sized portions of the grand trail left, the weather set to worsen again into a combination of rain and cold, back up to the same place this time to take the detour along the datunshan peaks... of course it's never quite as simple as it is in your head... back at the trailhead, walking up the slope, a bit muddy, nothing too bad, further the first sighting of guide ropes, a little further guide ropes up a steeper slope and then ropes to pull yourself up with, light up ahead, the end of the woodlands, a flicker of relief quickly blown out by the sight of a narrow path of mud steepening up towards the first, west, summit... and then from atop a collection of boulders a view which stretched out for yards, mist and cloud obscuring the surrounding world... have a drink, eat an orange consider the descent, find that it's a steep funnel of protruding rocks and mud, a chance to remember how much you hate abseiling as you grip the rope and step backwards... between ropes the realisation that i've hurt my knee, a climber telling us it's no better below, that there's maybe another 300 or 400m before it flattens out a little, onwards in concentration and, grip... the ropes end at the start of a muddy descent, shards of pain as the adrenalin rush dissipates...down...and then the slope flattens into a grassland, a little further a sign offering directions back to yesterday's blip, another 4km to walk upon broken glass, the mist resuming, the west peak rising behind us, so small and innocuous a summit, the south peak taunting, daring an ascent but even i lack that level of stupidity and so the flatter walk back towards the pond, another couple of km to the bus, getting a seat, winding through the hills, another bus another seat, jiantan and snowflake ice, smoked plum today, guilt at the muddiness of my arse sat upon their seats the knee offering the certainty of a few days to come doing very little, no hills that's for sure but the rain's arrived, the forecast for the week one of goulash with the possibility of lentil soup...