Sunday At Mingtan Reservoir (明潭水庫) & Minghu Reservoir (明湖水庫)

I took the midnight train up to Ershui again on Saturday night and then the 4.45am train into Nantou county. I was slightly concerned that the motorbike might have been towed away given that I had parked it in a different place two weeks ago, but I needn't have worried - it had been moved, but it was still in the same approximate area I'd left it in. I took it down to Shuili to change the oil and get a coffee out of the 7-11 before getting started. This train trip to Nantou is beginning to wear on me; it is difficult to get any sleep either on the train (they keep all the lights turned on), or at Ershui station. I had wanted to sleep, but couldn't - usually, I am the only one at Ershui station at that hour, but this time there were a couple of sketchy looking characters loitering about so I kept myself awake.

After a while it turned out to be a brilliant morning. The first thing I did was take a back road down to the bridge crossing the western stream that fills up Mingtan reservoir; it is more than a regular farmer's road as it gives access to the second stream filling up Mingtan reservoir from the east side. Along the way it offers views back around the mountain and over the reservoir toward the dam...

The road passes through a short tunnel toward the eastern stream and as I drove slowly through it, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye - a largish snake that had been run over. I stopped and walked back up the tunnel to have a look but it was pitch black and I hadn't brought the tripod with me (I had something else with me instead). So I put down my bag to balance the camera on whilst setting it to a 6 second exposure, but with it being so dark it was very difficult to get the focus right...

The tunnel brought me out to a viaduct across the eastern stream (this is signposted earlier on the road as a "water bridge")...

I stopped to explore a now long-since collapsed road on the other side of the stream, but it wasn't possible to follow it too far. However, there was a parallel road above it, more than likely its' replacement, but I didn't follow it as I had other things I needed to do. On the way back I stopped briefly to try and get a picture of one of the many small monkeys climbing all over the hillside, but it was difficult as they were eager to get out of my line of sight...

Before I left the access road to return to Shuili, I took a brief detour to see the only other tourist attraction that was signposted along the road: a disused railway tunnel...

After leaving the access road at the back of Mingtan reservoir, I headed back down to Shueili for a quick break and stopped there to take a downstream shot of the secondary power station down from Mingtan dam...

Then I headed back upstream to Minghu reservoir but the view toward the dam and over the reservoir is east-facing - directly into the sunlight. There is no other obvious point from which the dam or reservoir can be viewed, and I already have pictures from that view so I decided to head further upstream to see the feeder stream check dam and have a look at the other farmer's roads nearby. First, the check dam...

It is about eight meters high by thirty meters across and it is silted up to the crest. There must be a collapsed corridor within the silt through which water is finding its' way down on the eastern side. Here is the silted up, highly eutrophic stream...

Coming back through a tunnel on the 131 south toward Mingtan reservoir and Checheng...

I stopped in Checheng for a toilet break at about 9.30am and decided I couldn't be bothered to do much more and just wanted to sleep. So I decided to call it off early and wait for the 10.20am train back to Ershui with an 11.30am connection south. I strolled around Checheng for a while and walked up to the dam and up to the crest and back down again to take some more shots. Here's a shot looking east from the toe of the Mingtan dam...

And a later shot overlooking Checheng itself from a small pavillion. Note the tiny train platform in the center with the rooftops of various shops jumbled all around...

It is a tiny little place. It was a relief to be taking the 10.20am train as there was only a handful of passengers leaving. The obscene pushing and shoving that goes on when the 2.20pm train arrives had annoyed me last time. I still have things to do here, but it was a nice change to get back to Tainan early and take the dogs out. Still, I would like to think about shifting the motorbike back down south to Douliou station in Yunlin county to go and see the new reservoir there. The logistics of getting up to Checheng and back again every weekend are tiring.