In The Absence Of Another Trip To Miaoli...

I had planned to go back to Miaoli today to see Shih-lin weir (士林攔河堰引水) and the trans-basin diversion entry and exit gates that feed water into Liyutan reservoir (鯉魚潭水庫) from the Da'an river (大安溪). I also wanted to see the hydroelectric power station (卓蘭水力發電站) that lies just behind the diversion channel's exit point.

However, I stopped myself from going for two reasons, one of which I now regret. The first was the electrical storm over Tainan last night and the online weather forecast that electrical storms would occur throughout Taiwan today. That hasn't happened, at least not here in Tainan where the weather has been glorious once again and so I regret putting the trip off for that reason. But the second reason I stopped myself was because I hadn't slept at all during the whole of Friday night and all day long Saturday and so I was concerned about driving under mental fatigue. I had a good night's sleep last night (awoke late around 9am), and feel all the better for it now.

The result is mixed feelings about not going; I'm glad I didn't risk the stress of driving unfamiliar roads for hours on end in the scorching heat on the back of insufficient sleep. On the other hand, it is an opportunity missed that needn't have been.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, since I couldn't sleep and needed to be at work in Kaohsiung before 9am, I headed off to the mountain separating the Cishan river valley from Tianliao and Yanchao districts to the north. My intention was to try photographing a view from the south overlooking Agongdian reservoir, but although the weather was fantastic, there was too much haze in that direction. Instead, I sat around drinking "barley drink" (no coffee - only tea, supau and alcohol) and taking photos of the views northwards with the sun to the south-east...

Note the radio towers on top of the hill (I've previously called these hills "Rooster mountain" but I've since discovered that that's wrong, it is in fact called something else but I can't remember what so I'm just going to keep on calling them "Rooster mountain" for now). Below you can see freeway number 3 carve its way through part of the "moonscape" mud-hills district of Tianliao. The trans-basin diversion channel for Agongdian reservoir also runs beneath those same hills though it is underground and so not visible to the public. Note Daganshan hill in the background - the Erjhen river separating Kaohsiung from Tainan lies a few miles north on the other side of that hill...

A close up of the first bend in the freeway taken with the 300mm lens...

An early, unripe berry using the 300mm lens in macro mode...

Looking back toward the radio masts from the sloping eastern side of the hills...

Thereafter I went to work in Kaohsiung and was busy working all day, leaving me exhausted by the time I got back home last night.