Labahe Nature Reserve is most celebrated as a place where it is (relatively) easy for humans to see red pandas.
Too many of its visiting humans have eyes for nothing else!
Red pandas will star in a future post, as will another mammal species. This one inclines more to the forest floor.
As the bamboo in the picture above would suggest, Giant pandas can be seen in Labahe Nature Reserve….if one is luckier and/or more relentlessly persistent than we were!
Sichuan’s panda-friendly forests are not far away from the much higher but drier Tibetan Plateau.
These montane forests reach much higher than does anything in Australia-proper.
However, their peaks are “modest” when compared to those that fringe and punctuate the Tibetan Plateau.
These “modest” mountains are, however, high enough – and positioned well enough – to harvest the lion’s share of the monsoons’ moisture….often, as seemingly-constant “Scottish mist”.
They did this so effectively when we were there – walking within a few hundred metres either side of 2000 metres above sea level – that our eyes never saw the reportedly magnificent mountain which soared thousands of metres above us, just a few kilometres away.
Nonetheless, we enjoyed a visual feast, albeit more closely-focused.
Brilliant photos and explanation, Doug. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
These images are simple exquisite. Can we have the last one as a large print?! So beautiful. Thank you Doug!