At long last, Pandas dancing on roller skates

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Way back in Etosha National Park in Namibia our rugged and brave tour leader promised us Pandas dancing on roller skates. Well in Chengdu we very nearly achieved that goal.

This is just a short journal - we're holed up in Lijiang in Yunnan provence, Southwest China at the moment, in Chinese terms quite near Tibet and the border with Burma. Sadly we've been suffering with stomach problems since Chengdu so haven't been able to do much, so in boredom I thought I would upload some panda photos to keep me, and hopefully you, amused. Please regard it as an intermission.

I think every backpacker who goes to Chengdu visits the Panda sanctuary, and probably most tourists of any kind. It's a great morning out but you have to get there early to make feeding time. We took a taxi rather than a tour so didn't learn much about pandas, we just sat and watched their antics. Sadly the keepers didn't provide them with roller skates or even a skateboard, but there were lots of fun and frolics to be seen - at one point each of the three babies in the pen we were watching was up to something different - one was standing on a swing, swinging, another was bathing in a pool and the third was forward-rolling down a hill. We never knew Panda's could forward roll, and suspected even less that possessing the skill they would show it off in public. The keepers also spent a good deal of time playing with them, being chased around the pen and up and down the climbing frames. The young Pandas were not quite sure of themselves so there were lots of minor accidents, slipping and falling backwards like obese felines raised on fast food, managing to right themselves in mid-air, but only just. Or chasing after the keeper along the ground, but missing every fourth step and ending up sprawled on the grass, limbs splayed, before immediately getting up to try again.

Pandas, even red ones, are great.

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