When I finally walked back in through the door last sunday, I was not, in fact, too tired to write up about what I had been doing in Hsinchu. But I did have too many other things to do that ate up all of my time, and this was also true of Monday and Tuesday. I write this, a quick substitute note, well after midnight on Tuesday night.
Briefly:
1) I followed up possibilities I had noted last time, including one particular abandoned path that had become long overgrown with bamboo and cobwebs. It turned out to be a dead end, but I am happy to have at least satisfied my curiosity, even if I had to pay for that with several face-fulls of spider silk. On my way back up, some kind of hawk flew right past me, but I wasn't prepared and had to switch lenses - once I had the 300mm attached, she took off before I could even get her in sight. There was also a noteworthy section of the path that had collapsed due to a small mudslide, and which required some minor acrobatics to cross...
2) I met an old fisherman who could speak some broken English and was keen to answer questions, and I was fortunate enough to get to talk to an engineer who works for the reservoir management centre, even though it was Sunday, and he answered a few questions for me and gave me information booklets and let me photograph some maps, which was fantastic.
3) Having had my original conjecture confirmed from the maps that the water diversion entry point into Baoshan second reservoir should enter somewhere in the north-east corner, I was then able to locate it for myself by turning off my engine and listening for the sound of falling water. However I was not able to see it or photograph it for physical reasons having to do with the contours of the reservoir and the placement of roads. I am trying to solve that problem.
4) I was able to confirm one of my earlier guesses that B2 is fed by the "left" channel at the weir intake I had seen previously.
5) I was able to find one of two aquaducts that form part of the diversion channel (the other is not easy to get to).
6) I found several related pieces of water infrastructure, including a small hydroelectric power station just upstream from where the B2 diversion begins.
So I am now almost finished with the reservoirs in Hsinchu; I have most of what I need for the first Baoshan reservoir and about half of what I need for the second Baoshan reservoir. I need to complete that other half soon, which shouldn't be too difficult now if I can get hold of one or two things here in Tainan, and then I've got some exploration to do at Emei Lake, which should be relatively easy given how small it is.
After that, I have a choice between going back to Shihmen reservoir in Taoyuan, or going back to Yongheshan reservoir in northern Miaoli County; I still have some work to do at both reservoirs, but much more at the former than the latter. So once this is finished I will probably head further east to the back of Shihmen reservoir.
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