We were somewhere in China approaching Aba after leaving the Tibetan Plateau, and somehow it was just Gresh, Sergeant Zuo, and me. I can’t remember why we were separated from the rest of our group. Honking along at a brisk pace and blitzing through one area after another, the photo ops were flying by and I wanted to capture at least some of them with my Nikon.
I finally caught up with Zuo and Gresh and flagged them over. I asked if I could go back a mile or two and they said they would wait. We had passed a Buddhist temple with a gold roof. The overcast skies, the green mountains, the asphalt, my orange and muddy RX3…all the colors clicked. I needed to commit that memory to the SD card.
When I turned around, I was surprised at how long it took to return to the spot you see above (I think we were on China’s G317 highway, but it might have been the G213). Then I felt fear: What if Gresh and Zuo didn’t wait for me? I don’t speak the language, I had no cell coverage, and I wouldn’t be able to find my way back to wherever. It was like being in outer space. It was just one of those crazy psycho unreasonable moments that sometimes hits when you realize you’re not in control of the situation. I snapped a few photos, they looked good enough on the camera’s display, and I wound out the RX3 to get back to my compañeros as quickly as possible. They had waited. I was in clover.
About a month later as we approached Beijing some of the street signs were in both Chinese and English, and it was obvious Beijing was directly ahead. Gresh told me he felt better because if we had to we could find our way home. I guess I wasn’t the only one having those “out in the boonies” feelings. It happens.
Earlier Phavorite Photos? You bet! Click on each to get their story.
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Sometimes the light is just right and an image sticks in your mind. It looks as if you caught this one on electrons and could share it with the rest of us. I had one of this moments in Hawaii once and took the shot… click…. and it was nothing like what I saw. Was it only in my eye or was it the camera, or was it the operator? I will never know, but I still have the memory. You now have both! Sometimes stopping seems too hard, schedule for lunch and riding buddies that want move along , time for dinner or lunch and just the “I got to move syndrome”. You stopped, went back and then captured the moment, thanks for sharing.
I wished I had stopped at a few other places where I have images etched in my mind. Glad I did here.