The Water Buffalo of Lantau.

Decided this is now my favourite photo so I'll show it to you again LARGE:



With all the dust kicked up, it seems very impressive but it really isn't. It's just a buffalo out for a stroll. And it's one of a series I took because I missed every shot back during Ching Ming when the rampaging buffalo were terrorising the campers in order to steal their salads.

Gosh, I hate those delays they put on cameras these days. Apparently it's something to do with automatically adjusting to the light conditions or whatever, but it just drives me mad because whenever I try to take action shots I forever miss absolutely glorious moments.

But this is meant to be about Lantau's water buffalo, so back to them.

More normally the buffalo are like this:

Placidly chomping away
in their paddocks.

But they were built for work and since they no longer needed to plough the rice paddies - since no one's planting rice anymore - they're simply kept by the villagers out of habit and because, yes, they're still loved. However, because these beasts are very clever they need frequent entertainment and so they get up to mischief, and yesterday yet another one escaped, mainly, it would seem, to tease the dogs.

I came in late, so here's all I have of the escapee sequence, although I missed the shot of the dad there in the background getting the little girl to pat it:



The last one is me trying to stop it so I can get a shot of it next to the "Hazard" sign. You know, for the irony, etc. However, they are strong as an ox - duh! - and so, no matter how hard I pressed his head, I didn't stand a chance. It just kept moving relentlessly forward.

Gosh, I love these beasts, and it would seem the water buffalo of Lantau Island are very addictive and have a great many fans.

There's an Italian woman who has been photographing them for years. They are now out in a book:


It's full of wonderful shots like these ones:


And right on the dry stone wall that surrounds the Pui-O Buffalo Paddock, someone's made this rather fine clay statue: Nice huh? And I really love that wall too, which seems to defy gravity since it's only one layer thick and for render they've used only mud.

Aren't they amazing animals. I totally love 'em. Can understand why the Ham Tin villagers still keep them, even though they haven't planted rice since ... WWII?