Erlang Shan - Next stop on our China/Tibet Holiday

Firethroat - Love his fluffy pants

Finally released from a traffic jam to then get a puncture.

Whoops, time runs away with you and I find other posts had been posted before finishing our China and Tibet holiday blog.

Many of our destinations required some travelling, so if not early starts for the birds i.e. getting up way before the sunrise we also had to get miles under our belt. This day proved to be soooooooo long......Again my frustration was that photography was not the prime aim of those
people on our trip so photos were snatched when

Rice threshing

I was able. Occasionally we would stop for lunch or whatever!! or on the occasion below, when we got a puncture..... to the embarrassment of our Chinese guide. There seems to be nothing like the RAC so taxi rides to the local town and a repair ensued. Stopping for a proper repair in the town we were choked by the industrialisation, smog, smog, smog, the acid of which went into the back of your throat. However amongst the dull acidic light people would snatch a patch of ground and cultivate it. While others on our trip looked for a chance of birds in this environment I watched generations of one family harvest their rice crop traditionally.

Off we went  again on what can only be described as a mizzly  day, the air was moist and clothes just became damp however what fantastic birds that even a non bird watcher can appreciate. A FIRETHROAT, a stunning bird and a weird COLLARED OWLET. 

Firethroat

A favourite

The two faced, Collared Owlet

The Owlet threw me!My OH found it in the scope and I looked but...........was it two owls one facing one way and the other facing 180 degrees in the opposite direction? but I could not see another body, I tentatively put it to my OH "does this owl have two faces????????... " waiting for a derisory comment, which I got!!!!! However the birding guide heard and indeed said the owl had an exact owl copy of its face on the back of its head......something that 'you know who' had missed : )))

Eager, bright endearing kids

Our  accommodation at our next stop seemed to cyclist heaven!!! however it was in a village which had the greenest of gardens, the cutest dogs and the most endearing of children but these were only seen the next day as we arrived at 11pm due to horrendous horrendous traffic and our puncture.

Mizzle,mizzle, mizzle and OH looking like he's in heaven

 Pekinese type!!, love the boot linings drying

                                                                                           

Lush green gardens

           

Feeling smug: Photos from China and the Tibetan Plateau, Part 1

Well this has taken some time but I have finally managed it.....that is I have finally managed to go through numerous RAW images saved from our gorgeous holiday and process them. The process was taking soooooooo long....only to find out this week that our hard drive on our three year old iMac had been failing thus processing each image was taking a very, very long time. The computer must have been failing for some time and we had not noticed just getting used to things taking longer.

Although the computer then failed I still felt smug as I had religiously got my 1TB external back up disk saving regularly, putting down only ever new changes at 3am every day, HOWEVER as the computer had been failing it wasn't backing up properly, ugghhhhh. Luckily we got installed a new hard drive and all the information extracted and reinstalled without any loss.

Gentleman going to ride over that!! bridge

Over the river near Ya'an

A scary ride using motorised transport

We left Heathrow and arrived in Hong Kong to then be forwarded to Chengdu in China, our starting point. As soon as we arrived the group had already been summoned to go and look at the local park for any birds to begin our holiday.....this basically indicated the tone of the holiday, no spare time for anything except bird watching. The benefits of having the OH keen on birds is that you get taken to the most amazing places the downside is that you have to fight your corner for anything not related to birds...therefore if you want to take photos they are taken very quickly, without stopping the bus, without interfering with anyones birdwatching. Thus I was adept at having my ISO on high to capture any action and most photos were taken through the bus window. Even so I did slowly wear down the guide a little who capitulated occasionally to stop for a photo!! I was occasionally frustrated throughout the holiday as I rarely was able to photograph individuals from the front having to capture a photo from the inside of the bus or by using my long lens. Now living in an incredibly touristic town I am aware of the benefits and downsides to tourists, having been gathered for a photograph by numerous Chinese, Japanese, Italian, American and French tourists. There were so many photos I could not get, the inside of a meat market, traditionally dressed locals, interesting vehicles - all evaded me as I accepted they did not want photos taken.

Our first full day took us to Longcanggou. Our first stop however was at Ya'an