The end of the road

Suu is 19 years old and recently married. Her family and new husband all come from Magwe, a village on the banks of the River Irrawaddy in central Burma, which we visited on 22nd December. Her father is a labourer and came to the Defile a few years’ ago to work on a new road linking a bridge over the Irrawaddy to the Chinese border about 40 miles away. The workmen couldn’t help but notice that the surrounding pristine jungles were full of teak and rosewood, and the hills were full of gold. So when the road was finished, they stayed on and set up shanty towns on the banks of the Defile. On the day we visited, Suu’s father and brother were away, transporting illegally logged rosewood on scrambler bikes across the hills into China. Suu was illegally panning for gold in the spoil brought down to the river bank after the nuggets had been mined. She was happy to demonstrate for us how it was done. Once she had isolated some gold-bearing grains, she poured in a few drops of mercury and combined the mercury with the gold by swishing everything around with her hand. Later she would evaporate off the mercury in a crucible. Yet another example of the Burmese total disregard for health and safety!

More photos on my blog.

The bridge over the Irrawaddy was our final destination; we couldn’t get permits to travel any further. So, it was the end of the road in Burma. This is also my 365th blip, and so the end of the road for my 2013 New Year’s resolution. It’s been a fantastic, roller-coaster year, enriched by all your photos, stories and comments. I think blip works so well because kindred spirits discover one another, and you are just the nicest group of people I could ever hope to meet!

I have a great backlog of unfinished photography projects, so I’m going to take a break from blip until I catch up. I’ll still be popping in to see what you are all up to, but I’m not going to be posting for a little while. Hasta la vista!