Travels with bloggers.

This week I had the great good fortune to meet Roy Berman of the excellent blog Mutantfrog. He came into Taichung for a couple of hours and we decided to head over to Wuci Tourist fishing port to grab some photos and seafood. Roy turned out to be good company, informed, intelligent, and low key.

On a Saturday the port was packed.

Food of every kind on display.

An moray eel (?) attempts to escape its cage.

The Harbor, which has been empty each time I've been out there, was full of boats.

...and people working.

...and people working. It may be a tourist port, but plenty of work gets done.

Docking the boat.

Setting out bait?

I asked them if they had caught anything, but they had not.

Roy decides on lunch.

People in the port need stimulants....

On Tuesday my hiking buddy Jim of Sponge Bear fame and I headed up the trails near my house. It was a fantastic day, one of the clearest I've ever seen here.

This being Ghost Month, a visit to a local graveyard was mandated. And perfectly safe, as the ghosts were out and about in the world. As we walked Jim pointed to this hunting spider rocketing across a concrete divider. The hunter had become the hunted....

Behind the spider was a wasp. As we watched, fascinated, it nailed the spider in a blur of activity, paralyzing it. Now it would drag the spider off to become food for its children.

From this graveyard near the corner of Sungchu Rd and Jungong Rd the views across northern Taichung, Taiping, and Tanzi were excellent.

On a clear day....you can see Tatu Mountain in the distance looking west across the city...

...while on the south, Nantou city was clearly visible.

It was such a gorgeous day that I did a number of panoramas. Here's one of the entire area. Click on the picture, or any picture, to go to its Flickr page to see it in the original size.

The hillside there is packed with graves and the impedimenta of ceremony...

Including this lovely tomb.

We headed up the ridge past this farm, structures now in disuse.

Shady trails lined with longan trees...

It's longan season again.

Dragonflies make perfect subjects for photos. Not only do they often hold still for you, but if you disturb them, they have the habit of flying around for a moment, and then returning to the same perch.

Has Ghost Month revealed Jim's true nature?

Lovely views all the way up.

Many people out hiking today.

Plenty of bugs.

Q: Why does the snail cross the road. A: Dunno, by the time he arrives, he's forgotten the reason.

Butterflies out in force today.

Looking south along the foothills, with Chungtai University at the left foreground.

The Han flows into Taichung.

The paths in this area are easy and well-developed.

A pleasant walk.

Once you're up on the ridge the views toward the mountains to the east are spectacular.

Range piled upon range.

Jim and I pause at the trailhead for the new trail 10, not quite finished.

A hiker grabs a rest.

Up we went, views getting better and better.

This panorama goes from Sungchu Rd on the left to southern Tanzi on the extreme right. The large, low white building on the hill behind the apartment buildings in the right center is, I believe, the new Corning Glass plant in the Taichung science park.

A busy morning as hikers take a tea break at the temple.

The recent rains have washed out many of the trails.

Jim snapped me. The shorts are what happens when a wife has a sewing machine and surplus cloth. At least the sharks are cute.

[Taiwan]