Monday 14 April 2014

Sunday Afternoon Trip To Baihe Reservoir (白河水庫), The Dongshan Coffee Road (東山咖啡公路 - 175) & The Tseng-Wen River To Guantian River Sinkhole For Wushantou Reservoir (西口小瑞士)

I got up late yesterday (Sunday) morning again - about 9am. Spent the morning pottering about and taking the dogs to the park, before heading out just before noon. This time I thought I might try to take a raft through Baihe reservoir's northern channel connecting the eastern and western ends. This channel is the only area of the reservoir I haven't yet seen.

However, when I arrived at the southern harbour I found that all of the rafts were chained up and the fishermen who were sat there fishing had no interest in helping me find one of the owners to ask to borrow one. So I thought sod it. In any case, the water level was the lowest I've ever seen it - so much so that if I wanted to I could just walk north-eastwards across the reservoir bed...


One thing I immediately noticed was that the eastern bank, which precedes the "gate" guarding the eastern half of the reservoir, was now totally covered in lush green reeds that were taller than me, which meant that there would be no way through and I would have to go around. When I had previously walked across it with Niki in November 2012 it had been completely bald - so that growth has all occurred in the past eighteen months.


The mud-flats were still squishy in some places, but were mostly solid enough. My initial guess was that those without plant cover and thus greater exposure to the sun would be the driest, which turned out to be wrong - it was those with plant cover that were driest (possibly because the plants consumed the moisture).


Above: I recall these same marker posts and laid-down bamboo slide last time I had moored the raft with Niki in November 2012. At that time the water level on this side of the escarpment was similar with the posts partially rather than fully exposed. However, the water level on the other side of the escarpment, in the pool preceding the gate, must have been substantially higher because Niki had to wait behind on the escarpment whilst I swam through the gate.


Above: looking back the way I had came toward the southern harbour with the landmark mountain and its communications towers in the background. The northern edge right at the top of that mountain is where I have previously taken shots overlooking Baihe reservoir. Below: the little stream running west-to-east to feed the eastern half of the reservoir...


Both of Baihe reservoir's main feeder rivers enter the southern half of the reservoir's western end. The eastern end of the reservoir, hidden from the western end has no major sources of its own. Below: the narrow annexing stream was in places only a foot or two across...


Notice what looks like a purposely located bit of bamboo dug into either side of the annexing stream's muddy borders; it has held back an accumulation of foam (maybe a concoction of pesticides and various salts, possibly including the one that killed Shao Bai - phosphorous).


Below: looking eastward as the annexing stream winds its' way toward the pool that prefaces the "gate"...


Below: looking back toward the mountain across the now empty pool. The height of that escarpment shoreline is about four to six meters (not including the height of the green reeds that surmount it). That shore was where I previously swam across the pool and through the gate into the eastern end which I then glimpsed for the first time about eighteen months ago. I have since explored the eastern end thoroughly.


One of several large white wading birds (not egrets) nesting in a tree overlooking the southern end of the pool...


Looking across the empty pool from north to south with the "gate" entry to the reservoir's eastern end in the centre of the image...


And here is the "gate" itself, this time in close-up and seen from the bottom of the reservoir looking up. When I swam through this gate in November 2012 I recall pausing by the dead tree as I had been slightly concerned about submerged bamboo struts. Yet judging by what I saw this afternoon there must have been eight to nine feet of clear water beneath me...


One of the numerous small inconveniences of getting the pictures you want...


Seen through the gate on the other side: a leaping fish, snapped at a shutter speed of 1/1000. I'm no expert, as I have revealed myself in previous comments, but from the shape of the tail, and the general size of this fish I would guess it must have been a snakehead...


After I scrambled out of the mud back onto the dry left shoulder of the gate, I took a few snaps looking through to the reservoir's eastern end...


The central peninsula dead ahead, which splits the eastern end into a "fractal fork" with both sides of the fork themselves further split up into little corridors and cul-de-sacs. I should have used a filter for this shot to better accentuate the clouds...


A telephoto shot looking down the southern fork with the distant mountains introduced by hanging electricity cables...


Making my way back the way I had came I plodged my way across the annexing stream to inspect the two rafts I had spied earlier. They were tied up to a mooring post but there were no paddles present...


By the time I had followed the annexing stream back out around the reeds to face the southern harbour, there were now more clouds than when I had first arrived. I took a few shots with one of the filters attached. Some people don't use filters, but I love them for shots like these...




When I left Baihe reservoir behind, I decided to take the 175 coffee road up through the mountains, rather than the 165 which runs through the plains and which I had taken to get to Baihe reservoir earlier in the afternoon. Before heading off to the 175, I stopped briefly at the top of the mountain pictured above at one of the many tourist traps to buy a bottle of my favourite outdoor drink... (favourite partly because ordering it always gets you baffled / disapproving looks from the local women)... Paolyta. It's a slightly adventurous concoction, as it contains more taurine than Red Bull, more caffeine than coffee and more alcohol than some wines, as well as a bunch of other "poisons" and even B vitamins. It is generally drank by construction workers in dilution with either a soft drink such as Sasparilla or Coke, but I just swig it straight...


Some scenic shots of the mountains to be seen along the 175 Dongshan Coffee Road. Again, these were taken using one of the filters to substantial effect in accentuating the cloud formations without darkening the topographic skin of the land below...



Looking out westward just before sunset. Over in the bright distance, visible to the camera only under a high F-stop or shutter speed, lies Taiwan's west coast and the Taiwan Strait - on the other side of which is Hong Kong. In the foreground, there is a little round hill with what looks like a small retirement village or holiday resort nestled among the trees at the hill's summit. It has some kind of round pavillion sticking out at the top, which I had initially mistaken for a water tower...



Looking back the way I had came... a solitary dead tree illuminated by the soon-to-be-setting sun. No eagles, however...


Another peek outward from the roadside foliage over the valleys toward the west-coast...


After leaving the 175 for the 174 which heads toward the back end of Wushantou reservoir, I stopped off at the sink hole connecting the Tseng-wen river diversion to the Guantian river that feeds Wushantou reservoir. The locals confusingly refer to this sink hole as "Little Swiss" (西口小瑞士), or literally "West Mouth Little Swiss". I still don't really know why they call it this. I once asked my ex-girlfriend about it a couple of years ago and I recall she said something about there being a similar such sinkhole in Switzerland. Yet this kind of structure is not so rare as for there to be only one other in the world - there are one or two in Britain and quite a few elsewhere in Europe and the United States (and possibly in other territories in other parts of the world too). So why it should be named after Switzerland is a minor mystery to me...


Some kind of dam structure off in a corner of the river...


As I stopped off to look around, one of the locals hopped onto a pipe-raft and paddled off to... (as I later discovered) ... check something involving a diesel generator; presumably a water pump somewhere...



On the other side of the river looking across toward the sinkhole from the little harbour where the chap above had set off. The large structure in the background is the intake tower for the hydro-electric power plant on the other side of the dam (off to the left of this image below)...


I remember this friendly black Formosan dog last time I had been here, again I think two years ago. I don't know whether he remembered me or his friendliness was just a dispositional trait. When the local chap returned with the engine, I spoke to him about locating the point at which the river exits the three kilometer mountain tunnel. I had searched for this previously without finding anything. He informed me that it could only be reached by boat which is what I had supposed last time, so I asked whether I could come early one morning and borrow his - he agreed. When I do go, I'll have to remember to take some treats for the dog...


On my way out I stopped for a swig of Paolyta and decided to snap myself in one of those twisty, switchback mirrors found on mountain roads. It's not easy to photograph yourself by holding the camera up to one side and aiming the lens unsighted - it's easy to end up with off-centre angles.


I had a "better" shot of myself than this one, but this is the one I prefer because despite me blowing my nose like a savage, I've caught the setting sun off to the left which I think makes it a good choice with which to end this post. On the way back through Xinshih district I did spot a falcon of some sort hovering by the highway, but though I whipped the camera back out again with the 250mm I had the settings too dark to really identify it. It may have been either a Kestrel or a Merlin.

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