Monday 13 July 2015

At Agongdian Reservoir & Wushanding Volcano

Nothing much to report this weekend; on Sunday I took a brief trip down to Yanchao to see whether, after the intermittent rain this week, the water level at Agongdian reservoir had risen or fallen. It seems to have fallen further. The view from Xiaogangshan this afternoon (though I made a pig's ear of this shot)...


I think what's happening is that, currently, there is no control over the water flow from the Wanlai and Zhuoshui streams such that the entire drainage function is undertaken by the dam's irrigation and spillway outlets. The sculpted pathway through the mud is probably intended to facilitate that - by ensuring water flows directly to the dam's outlets and not into the surrounding areas of the reservoir. However, it is still not complete...


I think eventually, there will have to be some sort of control gate established on the two feeder streams to divert their flow elsewhere away from the reservoir. Draining the thing out every summer to de-silt the bed is a monstrous waste of water.

After the brief stop on Xiaogangshan I headed directly into Yanchao for a quick drink and then on to Jinshan road and up to Wushanding - the "muddy volcanos", beneath which lies an aquifer from which the Wanlai stream emerges...




I left Wushanding and followed the Wanlai stream around the back of Kaohsiung "Normal" University* in an attempt to get a clear vantage point from which to photograph it, but that effort was frustrated. I left the area and drove around a few odd farmer's roads in Yanchao hoping I might find one that would lead back to the Wanlai stream, but that effort was also frustrated. I did however, catch sight of a crested serpent eagle sitting in a dead tree over some farmland...




Those last two images are slightly cropped, and were the best I could manage as I closed the distance on foot before the eagle took exception to my presence. There are a lot of things I'd rather be doing in Taichung and Miaoli this month, but unfortunately it might be some time before I get back up there again.

*Not to be confused with Kaohsiung Strange University, obviously.

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