Thanks!

The music is by Amon Tobin; the track is called "At the End of the Day" from his latest album.

Thank you for the info - I'll have to try and get hold of that.

Thanks! It's a Sony HDR-HC7

Hi, cheers!
this was a (mostly solo) self-supported cycling trip. So I'd usually set the camera up and leave it while having a roadside snack or nap... I seemed to very often want/need both, so it worked out well.

Thanks for your comments and feedback! I agree the music may not be everyone's thing, and is definitely not the kind of music you'd traditionally put along with nature shots... but oh well, I'm not a very traditional person!

Thanks! Actually the route was from Kashgar in the very northwest corner of China, South into Tibet, then East to Lhasa and from Lhasa eastward into Yunnan via the Yarlung Tsangpo river valley. The lake is indeed Manasarovar, shot from the North bank looking south towards the 7700 m Gurla Mandata mountain (which was in the clouds). There is no road there, we just hiked with our bikes along the entire North side of the lake.

You get used to the altitude, but reach your limits very quickly-- a quick sprint up a hill could leave you out of breath for an hour and tired for the rest of the day if you're not careful!

Thanks for the info - the wooded Yarlung valley down into Yunnan looks very similar the route into Tibet from Nepal.

About 20 years ago, in the spring, I entered China from Pakistan by bus, got to Kashgar, explored western and central China by bus, truck, rail and foot, for about 3 months. Then made my way to Lhasa via Golmud (got stuck in Golmud for days trying to get a ride into Tibet.) Then left Tibet, after a further 3 months, by truck down into Nepal - I remember being absolutely caked in dust after that truck ride!

Your video brought back some great memories, thanks for posting it to vimeo.

Hi kkfung,

I used a 25W folding (flexible) solar panel. They're a bit pricey but do the job well. You can charge AA batteries with maybe 8W, but my video camera needed 20W, so I had to get the bigger option!

Would take about 2-3 hours for a full charge of a video camera battery. Which doesn't sound like too much until you realize you have to be stopped during the day to do this! But an hour during the lunch stop each day was usually enough to keep things relatively topped up (also had headlamp and mp3 player batteries to keep charged too!)

What is the brand name and model number?

Also, does it come with the appropriate plug for a Sony HC7 for example?

Do you to leave the charger with the solar panel outside in the baking hot sun?

It is a Brunton Solaris 26. As with most solar panels, it simply outputs 12v. It has a connector on the panel which you can plug a couple different styles of adapters into (included in the solar panel package). One has some standard DC plugs on it. Another is a "cigarette-lighter" style 12v connector like you find in cars-- so I simply got the 12v car adapter kit for the HC7.

Where I was, the sunlight was very intense but usually the temperatures weren't too crazy. I simply set up the solar panel flat on the ground and put the video camera and other stuff underneath it. Alternatively I could have just run the cord into the camera case, but I didn't feel it was necessary.