Day 8 - 4 June, 2016

Day 8 – from Luding to Balangshan area

L to R - Vince, Glenis, Steve, Barbara, John, Bob, Karyll, Summer, Me, Ray

Today a long drive was in the offing. However the day was not quite as long as it apprently once was because of the tunnels. Today was the day of the tunnels. And a new route for Summer our guide. All in all there was over 25 tunnels that allowed us to shoot through rather than over or around some huge peaks. Some of these tunnels were over three or four kilometres long so no small pieces fo engineering. Despite the time in tunnels shielding our views between times there were a continually passing vista of valleys and their towering peaks.

Again serious road building and bridge building on an indescribable scale. And more tunnels being drilled. 

Today we experienced our first major delays.

The first was a road blocked before a tunnel – Some guys were unloading cement bags from a large truck that had had an accident. The smaller trucks that were recieving the load were parked such that no traffic from either direction could pass so everyone had to just wait. No one, save us, complained. Everyone just strolled out of their vehicles to quietly wait until the heat drove them back to the shade of their vehicles. The guys loading got tired and rested however no one tried to mive the vehicles to allow folks ot pass. Mildly crazy but what can you do?

We tried birding with some success. Golden Eagles did a fly by as did Choughs as did Himilayan Griffon Vultures. SAnd and crag Martins were seen as were Rock Thrush.

We also topped for a photo opp at a historic village – famous for architecture and watch towers.  Tibetan women were selling stuff and the driver had a little barney with one of the women over a parking fee [which I paid] but the argument continued for a little longer than necessary. We were telling the driver to go. A younger woman was telling the older one to 'leave it' but she kept breaking free and adding her 2 yuan's worth. All in all a good argument.

Further delays late in the same trip when extensive road work stopped us. We had to walk quite a distance rather than just wait in the bus. This is where we started to suspect that Summer's ability to estimate distance if severely flawed. Her estimate of a kilometres walk is probably closer to three.

We stayed in a hostel in a small and cute touristic village. The accommodation was a little more basic than we have had but at least there is hot water – drop toilets only though….

White capped Water Redstart

Daurian Redstart - Bird of the Day! despite the shit photo