Meow and BaDu's Journey to Explore Xoan Peninsula

Hello everyone in #THEWEEKEND community, hope everything is fine with you this past week. I'm super excited every weekend, it's not only a time to relax with my family but also a chance to read interesting posts from friends from all over the world in this community. I get to travel in different lands through each of the stories you tell, and those photos help me get inspired to experience more places. In our country the epidemic situation is quite stressful, and I very much hope everything will return to normal and I can travel around Vietnam soon to share with you how beautiful Vietnam is.

Back to my weekend, me and my two dogs just had a trip to experience a "forgotten" land located between Da Nang and Hue. The place our family went to explore today is Xoan peninsula, a hidden beach about 25km from our place.

We rode a motorbike to Hai Van pass and parked it at a roadside restaurant, according to the map, the distance from the parking location to Xoan peninsula is 5km. This is probably the longest walking distance of Badu and Meow in the past 2 years.

The route consists of two terrains: forest road and coastline. Due to the epidemic and the rainy season, the number of people going to beaches as far away as Xoan peninsula is very few. The trail is covered with dense greenery. I also got to see dragonflies flying and colorful wildflowers. The feeling of returning to nature is so refreshing.

I quickly picked up a support stick during the climb. Indeed, hiking with a walking cane will reduce fatigue, as well as repel animals very effectively. (I told everyone in the group to use it but no one found it really necessary, haha).

Meow and Du are also very excited, Du has always been the leading member throughout the journey. Sometimes when he ran a bit far from us, he would stop and wait for everyone to come closer and continue to explore a new path.

Meow is always close to my feet, Meow is a very affectionate and caring dog. Maybe for that reason, Meow is afraid of us abandoning her, LOL.

After 30 minutes of walking the steep rocky path in the forest, we reached the beach. We stopped to rest for a while. We ate some sweets and drank water, and Meow and Du discovered a creek nearby, and they seemed very happy there drinking, playing, and soaking in the water. The weather is quite nice today, sunny, although it has been overcast and rainy for most of the past week.

After resting for a while, we continued our conquest along the coast. BaDu sometimes runs after seagulls, but he hasn't caught any because he is quite fat and the seagulls are quite fast. Anyway, he brought us so much joy.

Along the way, we also passed overhanging cliffs. They are quite tall and rugged, but Meow and Du still pass it spectacularly. It was then that I realized that the stick that I was using was really useful. The cane helps me avoid slipping when climbing rocks.

This is the intersection of spring water and sea water. This water is very clean and cool. We plan to camp here on our next trip.

Meow and BaDu are enjoying themselves playing and drinking water. On the way, we also saw a lot of coconut trees. Perhaps, because no one has come to this sea for a long time, these coconut trees are so full of fruit.

After 30' hike in the forest, and 45' along the coast. We went to Xoan peninsula.

Here, we discovered a long abandoned wooden house, and we chose it as a place to stay. After a tiring break and lunch, we started walking around to explore the area. The beach here has a long sandy beach and a rocky beach with many big rocks close to the coast - And the interesting thing is that there are a lot of seaweed, snails and abalone.

We stayed to explore the beach until 4pm, then we had to pack up to return before dark. On the way back, Meow and Du were tired, so they went more slowly. About 2/3 of the way back, Meow stopped and asked for us to carry him. She looks so pitiful. Despite the exhausted trip, I'm sure they are still eager to join us for the next trip. Actually, I think, Meow and Du are both happy to follow us wherever we go.

The trip started at 10am and at 6pm we got home. After bathing Meow and BaDu, I didn't see them. It turned out that they immediately found themselves a warm corner to sleep. Haha.

Our whole family had an interesting trip today. Meow and BaDu are sleeping soundly. How about your weekend? I look forward to reading your weekend stories.