Qinghai Journey to the Stone Mountain A Greentours Tour Report 25th June – 11th July 2012 Led by Chris Gardner & Başak Gardner Day 1 25th June Departure We departed various European airports, Turkey and New Zealand. Day 2 26th June China - Chengdu Everyone and everything arrived at our hotel in the Tibetan quarter of Chengdu in time for a tasty dinner. Some had arrived in enough time to explore the nearby streets and sample the bustle of Chinese city life. Day 3 27th June Wolong Our last western breakfast for a while and then we set off through the confusing Chengdu streets choc-a-bloc with cars, scooters, bikes and buses. It did look like we’d escaped quite easily until it transpired we were on the wrong road. Fortunately not that wrong and a quick cross country detour via an extensive area of tree nurseries put us back on track and then climbing into the lush, green foothills although the road which passes alongside the thundering river was as rough in parts and still being put back together after the devastating earthquake of a few years ago. Nearer to our destination large bushes of Rosa filipes could be seen in the shrubberies and White-capped Water Redstart on a mid-stream boulder. A delicious lunch was followed by a foray into the incredible greenness first to a small gorge where we found many of the delicate blue Corydalis flexuosa, the peculiar hanging petals of Saxifraga rufescens, deep pink Geranium pylzowianum, a few flowers still on Deutzia longifolia, foamy masses of Rodgersia aesculifolia and then Joan spotted the towering stem of a Cardiocrinum giganteum ssp yunnanense on the slope above still with three or four good white Greentours Natrual History Holidays www.greentours.co.uk 1 flowers enriched with crimson stripes. Two louseworts followed, dwarf pink Pedicularis macrosiphon and tall yellow Pedicularis dunniana, the lovely deep pink Gentiana rubicunda and there were the hanging seedpods of Pterocarya hupehensis. Perhaps the most peculiar thing we saw though was a huge Himalayan Griffon Vulture sitting on the opposite bank, which barely raised its head to look at us let alone fly away. It was an amazing view of this large bird, but I suspect there was something wrong for it to behave in this nonchalant way. We drove on but not that far when we came across a simply superb colony of Cardiocrinum with maybe three dozen magnificent stems holding aloft many sweetly-scented trumpets. And these we could get right up to. Some of us climbed up to a particularly amazing stand but everyone got close enough to breathe in the heady perfume. On the ground were the stems of Pedicularis rex with whorls of pinnate leaves from which emerged pink flowers. Its showier cousin Pedicularis davidii was across the road with bicoloured white and pink flowers each with a twisted beak. Further up the road past bushes of pink Rosa sweginzowii we took a walk into the woods where we found Paris polyphylla, pretty white Maianthemum szechuanicum, a few purple Iris chrysographes, a couple of good spikes of Calanthe tricarinata as well as the delicate Oreorchis patens, the final flowers of Androsace henryi and just as we were about the leave we found a big plant of Semiaquilegia ecalcarata on a boulder as Elliot’s Laughingthrushes whooped and whistled from the dense shrubberies. Day 4 28th June Balang Shan We retraced part of the route form yesterday but then began to climb much higher into the flower-rich slopes of Balang Shan stopping at around 3650 metres for a stunning slope clothed in golden-yellow marsh marigolds, soft pink of Primula involucrata and big flat-faced purple Omphalogramma vinciflora. Among these were so many new plants that not only the altitude had our heads in a spin. To begin with there were many deep-purple Cypripedium tibeticum, the tall spikes of Veratrum macrophyllum just opening, Aster soulei, deep pink Pedicularis davidii var pentadon, the bizarre stemless thistle Dolomiaea soulei, yellow Corydalis pseudocristata, creamy egg-like Lilium lophophorum and lilac Iris goniocarpa. Scattered about elsewhere were purple- spotted white Galearis wardii, a tiny pink Galearis spathulata and the slender stems of Fritillaria sichuanica in various shades from green to dark brown and mingled among all of this were so many tiny Anemone obtusiloba. It was difficult to leave but we had to push on to the pass another 900 metres higher. As we gained height more and more poppyworts appeared with hundreds of Meconopsis integrifolia and punicea, but for now we ignored them. Reaching the top we got out and immediately a stunning velvety-blue Grandala appeared on the turf. In the nearby screes and turf was electric blue Corydalis curviflora, Trollius yunnanensis and tiny pink Greentours Natrual History Holidays www.greentours.co.uk 2 Cardamine pulchella as well as the fine purple-blue of Primula melanops. Before we all reconvened Alpine Accentors and Brandt’s Mountain Finch were seen. Heads were swimming a bit by now so we descended a bit and stopped (alas in the rain) for a superb slope with many Meconopsis punicea and integrifolia. It was time to descend a lot further and we carried on down until we reached a colony of deep pink Paeonia veitchii which was also a convenient spot for lunch. A Hodgson’s Redstart was feeding from a perch and there were a few Rufous-vented Tits around. Only a few hundred metres further down and another flowery slope produced some fine Veratrum macrophyllum and the first nigrum in flower as well as stands of pale yellow Primula sikkimensis and tucked away in the shade were some lovely Primula polyneura quite the largest I’ve ever seen. Olive-backed Pipits were calling at length from some bushes and a male Common Rosefinch showed for a brief while. There was time for one last stop to look at the many bushes of pink flowered Rosa moyesii (?) that lined the road in places. Day 5 29th June To Huanglong It was a lengthy drive today to get us into northern Sichuan and close to many new areas. We rumbled down from Wolong stopping to photograph Rosa filipes which was tumbling over the shrubs and banks. There followed three delays because the power station had released a lot of water and the river level had come up, but the first one for ten minutes allowed us to see a lovely Silver-washed Fritillary and a Helen, the second we chose to ignore when all the other drivers went through and then at the third we waited a while until some trucks drove through and it was obvious we could too. We were starting to see many white Lilium regale in fact many thousands of them with some impressive populations spread across the slopes and cliffs. We reached Miaoxian for lunch and not far beyond this we saw a Blue Rock Thrush on the overhead wires close to where we stopped for a decent colony of the lily. There were quite a few scattered about and one prize clump of half a dozen stems sprouting from a big boulder. Vinous-throated Parrotbills were feeding in the shrubbery of Artemisia, Caryopteris tanguticum and Ceratostigma minor as well as a pair of nesting Plain Prinias. There was a second stop for the lilies and some Incarvillea arguta alongside bushes of Campylotropis polyantha. From here we began to climb and said farewell to the lilies and traded these for big displays of Pedicularis cranulolopha and torta that coloured the fields and roadsides along with many bushes of a small flowered pink rose. The louseworts were also common around the hotel, which itself was a step up from Wolong but not without its quirks! Greentours Natrual History Holidays www.greentours.co.uk 3 Day 6 30th June Huanglong There were some fine misty-mountain views as we crossed the pass and descended to Huanglong. A cable car whisked us up the mountain through dense stands of virgin Abies fargesii and then we set out along the boardwalk walking through the beautiful lichen draped forest. The understorey was smothered in Primula palmata and Caltha palustris as well as many other new flowers and during the course of our slow walk to the blue pools we found the delicate saprophytic orchid Neottia acuminata, yellow Corydalis cytisiflora, handsome reddish- purple Corydalis quantmeyeriana, the large purplish-backed Anemone cathayensis and many lovely mauve Meconopsis quintuplinervia. An Orange-flanked Bush-Robin was perched on the boardwalk rail as we progressed. There were also a few Meconopsis punicea and further up we found the plum coloured hybrid between these two species Meconopsis x cookei. Rhodiola dumulosa and Cardamine macrophylla were very common as we neared the topmost pale blue pools which were in fact better appreciated from the next higher vantage. An Elliot’s Laughingthrush showed well on the boardwalk and there was a male Slaty-backed Flycatcher in the riverside shrubs. It was downhill all the way from here and as we descended we passed another series of blue pools held behind curling walls of beige travertine with the forest behind and then tracts of travertine slope and waterfalls. A cute little Pika was contentedly nibbling on vegetation oblivious to peering people and not much further on a stripey squirrel was equally nonchalant. Florally things really picked up once we dropped down to around 3300 metres where the first pink Cypripedium tibeticum appeared. Its tiny cousin Cypripedium bardolfianum was next although difficult to photograph as the flowers were so low down. Further still and Cypripedium flavum appeared invariably alongside pale yellow Phaius delavayi, although in one spot there were all three slipper orchids, Ponerorchis chusua and the tiny golden Oreorchis nana.