It took some time to escape the city, it seeming larger than our day and a half had led us to believe (though we also suspect a wrong turn along the way led up in a circle).

The drive to the stone forest was rather scenic, along a mostly empty expressway. The road was through hills, with many bridges and tunnels. Low intensity agriculture was in view for most of the trip. Mostly tea and vegetables growing in terraces cut into the hills.

For the first time I really felt as though I was on a mountain plateau, though more as a feeling than because of any visual cues.

The area shows more signs of the minority nationalities famous here. Colourful clothing worn by the few locals we see. Also evidence of the state of agriculture, income levels and realities of the landscape. In particular, we see a small buffalo herd and a number of horse drawn carts.

We managed to get the driver to understand that we wanted to visit the less popular section of the stone forest first (with a waterfall). This was harder than expected because the mass we have are not very helpful, with little overlap in English, Pinyin and Chinese Characters, making it impossible to decode street signs.

Having arrived in the area, we, unfortunately, and with the help of some telephone translation, discover the the section with the waterfall is closed. So, its now for the short drive back to the main park and, hopefully, for some lunch.