Live & Travel

Last weekend, I took my first equestrian training. Before that, I had ridden horse several times in touring, and had a very wonderful memory about riding horse. 18 fellows took the training together. We were called up by a Taiwanese named Sui Feng, the nickname on forum means following wind, on a hiking forum.

The training was taken on a horse farm which is 1 hours drive from Shenzhen. We arrived there at 3 pm on Saturday. Our instructor, also be the farm owner, showed us some kind of saddles and several horses. Then, 10 saddled horses were brought to us. These horses are native, about 140 cm high. We divided into two parts to ride those horses alternately on a lunge. Some fellows had never ridded horse before. The instuctor taught them how to mount, walk forward and stop a horse. Then, we practiced rising trot. Everybody practiced an hour on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday night, we camped on a ground of the farm the altitude of the farm is 300 meters higher than Shenzhen. It was cooler than Shenzhen. We set up a campfire and sat around it. We played game together, and all were excited.

Sunday morning, we separated to two groups to practice on turn just as the last day. The first part of the practice was raising trot, which lasted about a quarter of an hour. Then, we took a trail ride around a reservoir. On afternoon, we took trail ride again but along a longer trail.

Last week, I saw a message called up an action to search birds at Wu Tong Mountain on the forum of SZBS. I enrolled by reply the calling-up message.

Saturday, six members of SZBS include me have enrolled in the action. The time for gather was 6 Am on Sunday and the gather place is far from my home. So I stayed at a fellow’s home near the gathering place on Saturday night.

Sunday morning, five fellows, another one didn’t present, drove to En Shang Village at the foot of Wu Tong Mountain locate on the east of Shenzhen.

A check post was set by the authority on the road leading to En Shang Village. They don’t let strangers’ cars enter the village. I showed my ID card of SZBA to the guard and explained to him that we were working. It’s lucky for us, that the guard let us pass the post.

Walking along uphill track, we found few birds but lots of citizen. It was the Sunday just before *Chong Yang festival, so those citizen climbed following the tradition. We backed to the village and found a restaurant to rest. While we were drinking tea on the coverless restaurant, a fellow found a crested serpent eagle perching on a tree. Three fellows with telephoto cameras closed the tree and tried to take clear photos of the eagle. The eagle was disturbed by them, he flew a short distant to another tree. Three fellows sickly followed the eagle just as paparazzi to stars. The follow stopped when the eagle flew high and far at last.

Lunch time coming, some guys wanted to eat seafood. So we drove to Nan Ao a fishing port where are several popular seafood restaurants. The car owner, who is a rich business man, took us into a restaurant and ordered quickly. Our lunch include a stir-fried Hua Jia (a kind of shellfish), a mixed fish soup, an eggplant terrine, a steamed fish (I don’t know the name of the fish) and a fried octopus. The food was delicious. As our Chinese custom, all table shared all dishes. During the Lunch, we also enjoy some beer except the driver. As the custom of SZBA, we shared in the bill of the Lunch.

After Lunch, we, full up and tired, drove a beautiful beach nearby. Take a seat on the stair face to sea, we saw people enjoying the sand and waves.

*: SZBS stands for Shenzhen Birdwatching Society

*: Chong Yang Festival is a Chinese tradition festival