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Tam Dao national park closed? (1 Viewer)

J

James Lowther

Well-known member
Hello all,
I've read and heard from more than one source that the best trails in Tam Dao national park, e.g. the watertank/contour trail and the road beyond the park gate, are currently closed to birders.

does anyone know anything about this? is it temporary?

the only alternative birding trail seems to be the TV tower steps, which pretty much every trip report says something like, "spent a couple of hours on the tv tower steps, saw one bird in total"

so not really worth the effort to get there...

thanks,
James
 
Tam Dao isn't a NP, it's just a small hill Town with a couple of trails or at least when I was there in 02 it was.

The water tank trail was basically destroyed I believe when they put a road through, the steps weren't that bad but the WT trail was where all the birds were so we didn't really need to do the steps. We saw both Cochoas on the WT trail plus loads of other good stuff but don't think it's what it was?

It's VERY leachy so take leach socks and it can also be extremely misty with poor visibility.


A
 
AFAIK James, I've never heard of anyone visiting the NP area or even if it's accessible, it may just be a huge, inaccessible, montane forest?


A
 
Sorry Andy I obviously haven’t made it clear. The old water tank trail (now partially a road) starts at the National park gate I.e. you have visited what is (now) the NP. This trail is still the key area in tam dao for birders but right now it is closed. I was hoping someone might know why and for how long as the only alternative is the tv tower steps which by all accounts aren’t too great
James
 
Hello Alan,
Are you traveling in the same group as Ian Lewis by any chance?
An update would be extremely helpful thanks. I guess if you are in a group with experienced local ground agents you may have a better chance getting past the park guards than a random clueless westerner. But any info would be great. Just post here.
I first came across this problem here
https://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/blog-963400.html

I think this is the blog of BFmember chlidonias. I emailed Richard Craik from Vietnam birding and he confirmed access is currently difficult. I also read a random but recent comment by a non birder on trip advisor saying they were turned away at the park gate.

It’s a bit of a worry. So frustrating to see swathes on montane forest on the edge of the town on google earth and to think it could be essentially inaccessible

Cheers

James
 
James Lowther said:
Sorry Andy I obviously haven’t made it clear. The old water tank trail (now partially a road) starts at the National park gate I.e. you have visited what is (now) the NP. This trail is still the key area in tam dao for birders but right now it is closed. I was hoping someone might know why and for how long as the only alternative is the tv tower steps which by all accounts aren’t too great
James
Click to expand...


Hmmm, it didn't go that far when I was there, became impassable after a point, they must have opened it right up? There was certainly no gate back then.

What are your targets there Alan?


A
 
Andy,
2002 is a long time ago. The gate (essentially where the forest starts) is new but believe me, the trail you took took you into what is now the National Park (and to be honest probably was then as the NP was gazetted in the 90s)
Gate is here apparently
21.458855,105.641414
Photo showing mouthwatering forest just beyond here
http://m.english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/...eauty-of-tam-dao-national-park.html#ui=mobile

Cheers
James
 
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Those pics bring back some nice memories.

A note of caution, 1. don't expect to get any washing dry here and 2. A 'Karaoke' bar is actually a brothel for those that don't know :t:

I can send my report if you're interested? If so, pm me an email address.


A
 
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James Lowther said:
Hello Alan,
Are you traveling in the same group as Ian Lewis by any chance?
An update would be extremely helpful thanks.
Click to expand...

Hi, Ian is with Birdquest, we are a private group visiting early March - I'll try and remember to post an update here - if nothing, send me a PM

cheers, alan
 
Grey Laugher is / was very common in small flocks but were absolute B****** to see in anything other than a flight view as they crossed the trail, really frustrating. They would cross the trail, flocks of anywhere between 10-20 birds and just instantly, totally disappear in to the forest

Parrotbill, assume you mean Short-tailed, we had just one in a mixed flock with Lesser Fulvous-headed.

Blue-naped Pitta was heard down to a couple of metres but would not budge from the dense area it was in and we didn't see it.

Slaty-bellied and Grey-bellied Tesias were vocal and fairly easy to see and we had both Cochoas.

We had the occasional Bunting right at the start of the trail, Tristram's and Chestnut-eared I think from memory?

All the above on the Water Tank Trail.



A
 
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James Lowther said:
Andy,
2002 is a long time ago. The gate (essentially where the forest starts) is new but believe me, the trail you took took you into what is now the National Park (and to be honest probably was then as the NP was gazetted in the 90s)
Gate is here apparently
21.458855,105.641414
Photo showing mouthwatering forest just beyond here
http://m.english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/...eauty-of-tam-dao-national-park.html#ui=mobile

Cheers
James
Click to expand...
I was there March last year, the gate as shown in the photo was there and closed, I just walked past it, no-one challenged me other than a few stray dogs, in fact I dont think I even saw anyone early in the morning.

Both Parrotbill and Laughingthrush quite easy, no sniff of the Pitta of course.
 
Will have to hope it’s the same for us. But the reports of being turned away are more recent. I think there might be construction along the road beyond the gate. We’ll see
Cheers
James
 
James Lowther said:
Will have to hope it’s the same for us. But the reports of being turned away are more recent. I think there might be construction along the road beyond the gate. We’ll see
Cheers
James
Click to expand...

There is no 'road' beyond the gate surely, if there is, the trail is gone and if there is construction, it will be gone, the trail is that long?

Zoom in on this, on the left where all the forest is,shaded, the highlighted area where obvious sandy tracks can be seen below Cong Troi, is, was, where the trails started.

We stayed at Khach San Ngoi (Tam Dao Star), visible on the map and would easily walk to the trails from there.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@21.4562055,105.6433566,492m/data=!3m1!1e3



A
 
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Andy,
I’m not sure what point you’re making here?
What used to be the ‘water tank trail’ is now a paved road at the start, changing into a gravel road, and eventually carrying on as a forest trail. This is not the track below Cong Troi on the map, it’s the one *past* Cong troi. In total there’s *at least* 4km worth of road/ gravel track/trail past the gate (in fact you can in theory go all the way to the top of Tam Dao north mountain if you take a side trail). All through what was at least until early 2017 good habitat.
This is where all the birds are, it’s where ficedula went last year, it’s where me and Alan want to go. I would bet it’s where you went in 2002!
But, in the last year or so, people have been turned away at the gate that *now* sits at the start of the road/trail.
This is not me being dense, misunderstanding the layout etc. This is a genuine potential problem. The only alternative route into decent habitat is the tv tower steps which has very much less potential for birding.
Hopefully Alan will report positive news in March.
Cheers
James
P.s. having researched it’s apparent the whole Tam Dao range including the town has been a np since 1996. So if you keep a list of nps you’ve visited you can celebrate an armchair tick
 
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