Wolong reports...

...and all the Pandas are okay.

This sounds like a very strange thing to worry about - but there are only 16 Panda reserves in China - 11 of which are in the Sichuan Province which was ravaged by a terrible earthquake this Monday. For animal reserves that are trying everything they can to restore endagered species' populations - this type of natural disaster could have been devastating for these animals.

Unfortunately, the human death toll continues to climb as rescue workers push through trying to find more survivors. It took aid workers 36-48hrs to reach the epi-centre and begin their search.

Brent and I will be in the Sichuan province in the summer of 2009. I have a feeling that the clean up of the damage will not be complete by that time, so we might see reminence of the quake. When planning the Wolong part of our trip, I was reading about the drive from Chengdu to Wolong. It used to take 6 hours because of all the road construction. They had finally finished all the work and the drive was a more realistic 2.5 hours. At this point in time, I do not know if that roadway is passible or not. The damage of the quake showcased on the news has shown main roadways turned into impassible mountains of concrete and rock.

We're 74 days away.

This earthquake has got me thinking. Every single destination of our trip lies on active fault lines. New Zealand has earthquakes almost every day - check out their earthquake tracking site. One section lists the country's 30 most recent quakes. Most of which are between 3.0 - 5.0. In December 2007, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake shook the grounds of the North island and changed the face of one city. A lot of structural damage was reported, but thankfully only 11 people were injured. Unfortunately, one person did pass away - but it was due to a heart attack.

New Zealand is no stranger to stronger earthquakes, but thankfully they are not as frequent as their 'smaller trembles'.

Just something that crosses your mind when you are surrounded by the media's coverage of natural disasters around the world. I think we might spend some time in the smaller towns around Wolong to see how the towns are recovering.

I start work once again on Tuesday - thank you God!! This trip has a few upcoming financial obligations that will require a bit more funds.

Next post - the long awaited update of gear and where we're at with our planning.