Russell Pike Landscape Photography

2011-12-18T16:01:00.000-08:00

Kia ora, Our Cook Islands stay is coming to an end. As I sit here on the deck at Vara’s starting to tap in this post, coconuts fall, fish in the lagoon splash around and the bloody mozzies are out. They have to be here don’t um. That’s one of the things we are looking forward to back on the motherland, no mozzies, well at least not on the scale of the eastern world.
Cook Island’s is a bloody nice place which produced a relaxing stop for us. Plenty of snorkelling and a few photos here and there, unfortunately the surf wasn't up to much. It has to be one of the best places in the world for snorkelling, the amount of sea life we saw was insane. Every time we entered the lagoon we would see new fish. Highlights would be microwave sized Puffer fishes, crazy boxfish that had faces like dogs, Eagle Rays, Giant dustbin sized clams and Morey eels. I’m thinking that where ever else we snorkelling to from now on isn't going to top what we just had.

So we are back in New Zealand now. The first thing I saw when we landed was the papers with landslides and the like on the front pages. Turns out while we have been away, kiwi land has had some serious rain. Although it has stopped, the landslides have blocked some of the roads we were going to take, so a bit of re-planning is needed. We just hope there isn’t any on the South Island’s west coast road; Nelson has been hit badly which could take 2 weeks to clear it all up. So it’s more camper van living and plugging in the dawn/dusk sessions for the moment. We will be meeting up with Rob Smith in a few weeks to go and sniff out some waves, studying ocean currents at Dunedin University he knows the deal with the coastlines here, so should be sweet as (as they say).

Kara topping up her tan (like she needs to anyway hey) Not the best place to lay, She still has her teeth.

These black noddys are the laziest terns, Rather then dive for fish like every other type in the world. This lot after dipping there feet in the sea will land on the hot sand and wait for the big fish to drive the smaller fish into the shallows. Jumping and panicking some small fish jump clean out onto the sand. Mr noddy just fly’s over and picks them up, even the cats where getting involved. If there was no fish around, they would just go and steal it form the local herons, the thieving gits. Look smart in black, although it’s a funny colour for them to be considering it’s bloody hot in the cook islands.

2011-11-27T18:17:00.000-08:00

Right were do I start, what a month we have had travelling around New Zealand, and the best part is we do it all again in 2 weeks time. This is the same as the last post, I really can’t find time to write what we are up too, resulting in short up dates. Still better then none.

So they say a photograph speaks a thousand words. These should fill the vocabulary box nicely.

One of Many, Milford Sound

Gannet Love

Our means of travel to the next stop

I mentioned that we do it all again in two weeks time, where are we for 2 weeks you ask???????

Aitutaki, Cook Islands

Just a nice little patch in the Pacific ocean that’s all.

2011-11-09T13:55:00.000-08:00

To keep it short and sweet, Melbourne is one cool city, NSW south coast still rips for waves, and Sydney is ready for us in a few months time, so where are we now?

A place where everyone is a bro and cheddar is pronounced cheetah…..You got it....Kiwi land.

Christchurch was our welcoming city and home of the next camper van. The last CD player was so crap it would skip along, even on sealed roads. On top of that the speakers were so weak, it was board line pointless. But the new van is a cracker with its music box, defiantly the best bit about it. Music is back.

We left a foggy Christchurch on its bumpy earthquake roads for the small fishing village of Moeraki, home to a clonally of yellow eyed penguins and also famous for some boulders or something like that. One evening was spent watching the penguins come in for the night. We sat in a little hut down near the landing beach and waited a short while. Sure enough they started waddling ashore. The 100-400mm was bolted on, but they were still pretty small in the frame. I carried on anyway. Then Kara, excited, starts japing away, a lone penguin is staring up at me thinking “What the bloody hell you got that big lens strapped on for pal” Sod laws hits again, This big’un has no chance of focusing at a meter away. By the time I changed lens, he had vanished. Still at least we got jap pic of the funny bugger.

NZ is laid out in front of us, where to go next? It’s hard to make a decision with so much on offer I can tell you that much. J

2011-10-19T02:19:00.000-07:00

Pemberton, Walpole, Albany and Esperance are a few places we have been and seen. Pemberton’s known for its Karri woodland and they sure do have a lot of it. The highlight would be scaling the Gloucester tree. A once an upon a time manned fire lookout. 8 hours a day workers would be scanning for smoke 60 meters up from forest floor level, perched on a swaying platform with only the birds for company. It was interesting reading the journal a lady left behind while posted there in the 50’s. She wrote “I find it very relaxing” can’t be a bad way to spend your days surely?

I emptied my pockets and started to climb. The iron pegs are slammed in every 12 inches, twisting its way around the trunk as they go to form a spiral staircase. The Karri has accepted the iron pegs as branches where the bar meets the trunk; this was defiantly making a tight pinch. The pegs are sticking out about 800mm so as it curves around the tree the outside corner has wide gaps, wide enough to fit your body through that’s for sure. On top of that it was near vertical going at some points, I started to see why know one else was giving it ago. Once at the top the view’s where epic with the native bird’s up-close, at ease and plentiful. I could relate to the lady’s quote and I had only been there up the 5 minutes.

Walpole, I mention this quite little town for a foody reason, at the time we was there it was Kara’s birthday, so we had a pricey breakfast at a café called top deck. It turned out to be one of the best full English’s we’ve ever had. To think the Holy Grail would be in Australia??? Funny one that.

Albany and Esperance were great. The water colour at these places is so blue and a joy to surf in, well for Kara to surf in. It didn’t get over 2ft so we got the wetties on and I propelled her into the peaky waves. She’s got the trimming down on lefts and right and almost snagged a barrel. She claimed a back flip into the flats when I wasn’t watching, I’m not so sure about that one though. There’s just too much to mention really, I wouldn’t be on holiday if I was to write it all here.

But we have crossed the mighty Nullarbor now which was defiantly different. Put it this way I’ve never drove 90 miles in a straight line before. I set my big’un up bottomed out at 400mm and shoot down the straight and I can tell you that it appears all transport when faced with 90miles of flat straight road; take off into the sky. I was a little gutted when it didn’t happen to us.

A few shots of the Koalas at Blanket Bay for you. These lazy tree hugging bears are the funniest animals you could ever come across. We want one!

Who wants a cuddle?

When he lost his patience with me.

Lunch with the Welcome Swallows

While doing the tourist thing at the Spilt lighthouse on The Great Ocean Road (Famous for its role in “Round the Twist”) we noticed three small birds sat on a post. Then every minute or two they would all chirp and make hell of a racket as other birds tried to thief a spot on their beloved stump. It was all happening amazingly fast, blink and you miss it fast. I took a shot on the compact as the three birds sat there looking around completely going for that “three birds sat on a post” nice little snap for the book kind of shot. But you know how slow compact camera are, by the time the shutter tripped I got these results back. All was clear. This was the luckiest shot ever.

The sown seed

So out came the big camera and I sat crossed legged on the edge of the path with my 100-400mm pointed right at the post owner’s house. I just hoped that if they had come out they would give me a chance to explain. By this time they were now perched on little wooden batons. What a funny world birds live in, I sat there for an hour glued to my viewfinder totally oblivious to my surrounding photographing these three so called “young” Welcome Swallows. To say how fast it all happens is pretty easy. My camera shoots 3 frame per second, the sun was high the shutter speed was fast. It was defiantly performing at 3fps. While shooting like this I would get these results.

1st Photo: The parent’s beak in the edge of the frame.
2nd Photo: The parent feeding. (9/10 in an unpleasing fashion e.g. Wings smoothing the young so you can’t see a thing.
3rd Photo: The parent leaving the frame.

(I would have the photos hear to show you but I was shooting on a 95% full card. I was deleting the gross to make way for the winners when they came along, Lesson to be learnt here, always back up your images after the session.

The Harvest

Granted I got some shots in the end. But it’s the same with skateboarding, BMX and surf photography, your chances of nailing that crucial moment always seem to fall somewhere between you camera’s ability. Now I’m not suggesting I have Jedi reflex’s as it took me the best part of an hour to get these images but sometimes its better not to rely on your FPS and put the time in for getting lucky, after all I got the first fluky shot with a compact.

Ah, that’s the spot

Pharrrrrp!

Don’t eat me you Plonker

The other shots are in between feedings, they pulled out some funny poses. Then it all finished with a big black crow swooping over the garden sending the seemingly “young” into the sky like veterans, “If they can fly like that, surely they don’t need help with there food” I thought.

2011-10-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

Soooooo what have we been up too. Well we finished our working stint over a week ago, so without wasting a second we took off on the Indian Ocean Drive in our trusty crap camper to see the iconic pinnacles desert which lies 250km north of Mandurah. A few hours later and we rolled quietly into the desert on the semi sealed track among the limestone spires. This is a one eerie place, especially at dawn and dusk when there’s no one around. Making photos here was very challenging as at first sight it all looks the same, but as you frame the scene you start getting picky about which pinnacles you want in the limelight (ba dump dump chshshshshshshsh) So I spent most of the time walking around for that cluster of pointed tall proper pinnacle looking pinnacles. Three days spent there is a little too much if you ask me, a day is enough, although that all changes if you’re a landscape photographer.

As I write this, we are camping down at Margert River, Ellenbrook car park to be precise which is home to some class waves such as the womb and sucky lefts. I managed to surf bunker bay all to myself which was a little nerving the other day. Unfortunately a lad was killed there by a great white a few weeks back. Rest his soul. This could of happen on any beach in WA, but that fact didn’t put my mind at ease, it was pumping but. Then with a surf at Boojiup the other day, wetsuit half on in the car park and the ranger comes along and slams a beach closed shark’s sign in front of me, a quick chat and it turns out there was one spotted and reported an hour ago. She did make it clear that she wasn’t stopping us from going in so in we when. Safety in numbers was my thinking. It’s funny what the surf makes you do, to think of it away from the coast I would say no to going in with sharks about, but one look at the surf and you push all the David Attenborough footage and quotes aside.

Just had a mammoth dawn session at gas this morning before the winds got the better of it, 6am start with just two other bodyboarders on it, and this was a Saturday morning too? I didn’t understand it either but I'm not complaining that’s for sure. More fun than you can shake a stick at, it’s pure heaven. These photos below where taken just before the wind got on it. You should have seen it at first light, it was silky.

Right I’m off to think about how I can thief Racetracks as well as Gas, Chow for now J

2011-08-25T05:11:00.000-07:00

G’day Mate

From the dirty back lanes of Kuta to the fresh aired parks and tidy streets that belong to one of the most isolated city’s in the world…..The city of light’s.

We arrived salty with Uluwatu sand between our toes into Perth’s coldish airport at 2am with a fair bit of time on our hands before we picked the camper up at 9am. First things first, we checked what our colourful money could get us. It didn't take long to find out that WA is one expensive place; I’m mean Airports always are clearly, but even outside it’s another level. For instants, my new Bryson book, down under, is printed on the back for £8.99; the airport shops want £19 for the bugger. I didn't buy it of course, but after a few days trawling the streets for it, it became apparent that even a modest book shop wanted an Elgar for it. I would say I'm £10 worst off, but the listed price is worth every penny. But high pricing applies right down to the small purchases too. A carton of iced coffee comes in at £3.30. I'm not sure if it’s because we have been in cheap cheap Asia for 3 months, but that seems pretty steep for a bloody nice but poxy cartoon of coffee. I think you get the legist anyways.

The taxi we got to the camper depot was another story, although the price was balanced with our driver’s relentless exaggerated stories including a tale of landing a 15 meter shark. I made him repeat the length to make sure he didn’t mean feet…. he confirmed meters. As far as I’m concerned Megalodon is extinct. He had moved down from Darwin and it doesn’t take long to realise that everyone in Australia thinks the northerner's are mad as fish. He was our first, so we can’t judge them all by the likes of him, but my work mates believe I should.

So we made our way to Bunbury (2 hours south) and spent a few nights with Kara auntie and uncle, which was bloody lovely. A smart new build by the sea with more beer inside then liquor land. But the hold idea of getting a job was a little worrying as everyone in the towns on route was saying we have come at the wrong time of year. Well cut along story short, I placed an ad on Gumtree and within 24 hours I had work. Wonders of the trade. So we are now based in Mandurah which sits one hour south of Perth city. Carpenter/labourer is the name of the game, although it’s the latter of them that best describe my role; making a tidy wage for basically tidying. We will be based here now for a while to get the money in the accounts, Kara's managed to grab a position as the latest “young fresh beautiful girl to strut her stuff to make the customers happy” (Words of the female boss at hog’s breath steak house not a skimpy bar). Mandurah isn’t a bad place to be staying, its home to an insane wedge about 10 mins from our patch. Hopefully be scoring that in the coming weeks.

While waiting around for the waves I’ve been out with a work mate, Daneo, on his downhill long boards. Having been a skateboarder I was pretty eager to give it ago back then but it’s taken till now to get a proper chance. These boards are super super smooth, very responsive and immensely quick. We will see what happens with this as its great fun and addictive carving the hills around Perth.

A weekend get away from work, Busselton jetty at sunset. The longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere reaching 2km out to sea.

Well as for this Blog, there’s no point in updating for a while, I’m pretty sure you don’t want to here about my weeks at work. We leave for the big adventure across the Nullabor to the east coast in a few weeks, hopefully there will be plenty to shoot/surf on the way; we really can’t wait to get back on the road!

Below is some snaps kings park, Perth and Daneo sending it on his longboard.

Will post before we leave, Chow for now J

2011-07-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

The barrels and Landscape photos are coming thick and fast, although the photography has taken a back seat since the 0.0 tides kicked in on the Bukit peninsula. Racetracks is the name of the game with evenings being spent under the relentless crystal lips that pound down on the sharp reef lurking a few feet below the surface. If I had to mention one reason I keep coming back to Bali, for all of what it’s amazing for, the moments in these photos would be it. There is nothing better then getting shacked, whether it’s in home or foreign seas. What’s realistically about, on average, 3 to 5 seconds spent zooming through a barrel oddly seems like minutes within. Then after the session with all this tube time clocked up you just switch off to everything else around you and look vacantly into thin air replaying the moments back in your head. Sitting down to dinner with friends and trying to pull away from this uncontrollable daydream is hard work.

The tracks of racing is doing a good job at priming me for what’s to come in Western Australia. A few days ago the swell jumped up that outside corner was breaking near enough top to bottom. Sitting just wide and inside of these bomb sets and catching the white water/fat shoulder then ripping a huge cutback right into the pocket while it wall’s up and barrel’s its tits off, to a F1 champagne style finish that’s getting spat out with the force of re-fitting your t-shirt up around your tummy is what makes racetracks my favourite wave it the world. I know many of you bodyboarders reading this will know exactly what I mean. An appointment with FedEx has been booked in about shipping this patch of reef home with me.

Thanking Diogo Dorey for these shots, I just got lucky that he was in the right spot at the right time; water housing shots in the Indian Ocean are as rare as rocking horse shit. Luckily he was showing some previous Padang photos the next day to some Aussie lads that are staying next door. So I snapped them up quickly before he left for the Mentwais.

So we are counting down the days till we go down under in search of perfect coastline wilderness and countless beach breaks, point breaks, slabs, and wedges. Now its 3pm in Bali and something will no doubt start firing again any moment. So no guess’s where I’m going, hopefully my arm doesn’t kiss the reef again this session leaving some fleshy racetracks of my own.

UPDATE: Well what do you know; I signed off leaving for racetracks on the post above and just my luck a photographer called Trevor managed to snag these shots of the session towards sunset as well as one of the usual Balinese photographers that line the cliffs shooting a frame while I race the curtain.

2011-06-27T07:09:00.000-07:00

After landing on probably the world’s best runway (built in the minds of surfers wanting to check the surf ASAP) that belongs to Bali, the first objective was to cross over to Nusa Lembongan and what now seems our home from home, we just can’t get enough of it. It’s been 8 days now and I’m still trying to find a morning/evening to steal a scene from the seaweed farms of mount Agung. I know the volcanoes show themselves during these hours as I have some shots already. There’s always room for improvement though, especially with the files on my card. The mornings so far have proved difficult as there has been too much cloud cover, likewise in the evenings. This doesn’t mean I haven’t taken any photos at all within being here; I’ve been trying my hand at travel photography which is turning out to be pretty exciting stuff.

Take the scene below which is the road that runs along the shore of where my Mt Agung photo lies. On this morning I arrive to see the same old view, a clump of cloud hanging over the peaks across the Badung strait. In these milky pre-dawn hours it’s starting to resemble Groundhog Day a lot. I’m almost half expecting Bill Murray to smash and throw a flip clock out of the seaweed huts and appear looking a little worst for ware. But then I notice a split in the clouds on the horizon, a different event for this morning, believe me. The sun could possibly rise into the gap sending a blast of warm light over the landscape for a short moment. The search was on for a photo that didn’t need the use of the volcanoes. This is the kind of workflow I myself don’t perform in. I see no plans, no vision, or product of an idea to strive towards. I call it “shooting blind”. Granted thought there is some very lucky moments when everything falls together within a landscape shoot. This was not one of them.

Time was spent wondering up and down the shoreline looking for a simple shot and while my eyes were combing the beach my mind was thinking “I should be composed and running though the checks on the camera to make sure everything is set and ready, not walking around like a blue ass chicken while the light is not far from landing”. As per usual, with the pressure loaded on like that I find nothing on the uninteresting beach. I exit to the road early knowing the photo I want with the right ingredients will come soon enough. While strapping down the tripod on the scooter ready to move on I noticed the road with its avenue of palm trees and quickly realised at this position it will be almost backlit. Travel photography? Why not? So I set up on the 100-400mm and perch it on the tripod with every adjustment lever lose for movement in all directions. I frame up the road and trees, activate Image stabilisation on the big bugger, switch to continuous frames and then do what I do best with my camera. To the untrained eye it would appear I just stand there looking smug (not intended) with my gear but in fact I’m waiting, but not just for the light this time, I’m waiting for the Lembongan local’s to stir and cross into my frame too.

It just shows already right from the start what a useless travel photographer I am as I’ve watched this happen most mornings without the bonus of light, and it’s only occurred to me to shoot it now after 6 days. I could be thinking about landscapes a little too much.

So I’m set ready to strike. Smoke is hanging in the air due to the locals starting there wood burners. A few people stroll across my viewfinder looking rather ghostly in the bluish ambient light, I fire a few frames to test the exposure and just in case that’s all my luck used up. A quick review and they look ok but I stay fixed with my eyes reviewing the outside of the avenue waiting for something better to pass through. An old boy quietly rides down the road towards me, I’m at the other end blasting away unknown to him. He pass’s with a loud and abrupt “hello”. The sun light starts to make an appearance back lighting the avenue. Some kids gather at the far end on bikes, I zoom in to scope out there next move and as quick as a flash a young kid runs out of the trees closer to me filling my frame with arms and legs all over the place. I zoom out to see he’s flying a kite. I take full advantage of the 3.9 frames per second or something my 5D Mrk II is capable of. He then departs never to be seen again on this morning. I knew that was my moment. I take a few more while the light lasts. An old lady walks past me and turns to talk to her friend and then for a few seconds her stare bores into my lens; she has probably seen this many times before.

The light fades and the moment has gone. I pack up me gear and head back with a different buzz. Shooting these kinds of photos to me is a game of luck, sure you can scout out the scenes like with landscape photography and plan for how it could be lit, but that extra interest could come at any time, form and speed. It certainty makes a change from the slow paced, long exposure orientated, landscape shots. The next morning I returned to see if lady luck was about. The old boy rode past again, this must be his daily route to work. Another young kid rode past going the other way, every now and then he would flip round to make sure he was going straight and flip right back with his curious stare. He did this for the whole length of road. Laughing and shooting him was a challenge by itself.

Well its back to Bali now after our 10 days in Nusa Lembongan, 7 of which, we spent with an old friend of mine Anthony Dodds and his girlfriend Chloe. It couldn’t have been any better. Reminiscing, eating out, surfing, bike riding, snorkelling, cock fighting etc. It would cost a fortune to do that all at home ha-ha. Now we are off to the north of Bali to get involved with the volcanoes up close and personal along with rice terraces, lake temples blah blah blah. Should be good.

2011-06-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

Yellow folks. After the gruelling task that was shaking off the comforts of Loog Choob, we are steadily going back to backpacker basics again. Krabi town, Ao Nang, Railey and Ko Lanta are the places we have been. Krabi town at first sight a few weeks ago seemed a ghost town and not worth hanging around for, but we keep coming back. The night markets are great. The Sunday gone was a big one, with every Tom, Dick and Harry getting involved. The photo below is the painted man; he just stands dead still at the entrance to the market and lets people paint whatever they want on him. He certainly pulls the crowd. The kids where loving it more than most painting on there names and doodling. One thing that struck me when watching/framing this was that if he did this in any western country, especially England, you can bet your last green queen that he would be covered in all sorts of rude wording and drawings. Not here though. I managed to get this shot with the people walking around him before I somehow stole his show and everyone started staring into my lens. Its funny what a big camera makes people do, usually they find there compacts and snap away next to me like I’ve struck oil or something. I noticed a few business cards where left in his box by restaurants that are based in Ao Nang, his future looks bright.

Sunday Night Market, Krabi Town, Thailand

Ao Nang its self is nothing to write home about really (although I am). It’s a beach front town with its Burger King, Starbucks and many more big gun corporations along the beach. It clearly gets very busy here in the high season, we are so glad it’s the low. The town is now home to where I brought my first smart costume, a tailor made cashmere sweet….suet…..suit, yeah that’s the one. I figured it’s about time I stop barrowing them from the old man. Now all I need is a reason to wear it, I believe there is one coming up back home. From Ao Nang we went to Railey which is part of the mainland, but it acts like an island as there are huge limestone cliffs cutting it off. The only way to get there is by long tail boat. Having no roads or transport on this mimic island; it’s all about your feet. Having three quiet separate beaches all within a 5 minute walk of each other it’s bloody marvellous and right up our street. There are plenty of shots to be had too, but we where there for the low tides in the morning and evenings, the tide goes a hell of a way out which makes the place look a little dull. But we are going back there for the highs so I can attend to some unfinished business.

I’m writing this now sat in our room in Ko Lanta, which to be honest is a very boring place. It’s pretty much a big long beach that runs down the whole island with resort after resort along its shores, much the same as Phuket come to think of it. Luckily we are only staying two nights, then its back to Railey. Now then, Japanese people and there compact cameras. It’s a known fact they will take photos of everything, but bugger me after what Kara and I have seen in Thailand, they really do take photos of everything. For instants, on the ferry crossing to Ko Lanta a Japanese man took photo after photo of how close the cars where parked together. Now who wants to see that? Surely you can see that at home as well. Another time we couldn’t walk for more than 30 sec without being held up by a group of them blasting away at mundane objects like an ordinary bench for example, worst still they all take turns shooting each other with the celebrity item. Different strokes for different folks of course, but I really do feel sorry for their poor computers as they whirl away uploading a mass of photos and further more the poor souls that have to sit through their holiday sideshow.

Due to this, Kara has coined the phrase “Japping”

jap·ping

verb.

1. Slang

a. To take pointless compact camera pictures:
b. “One sec, I’m just doing some japping” / “Wow, great japping kara!”

2011-05-29T02:47:00.000-07:00

Bloody hell, we have been on the road a fair bit in Thailand and I’ve just managed to find some time to write an update while on the 14 hour bus trip back to Krabi from Bangkok. 14 hours is a long time, but these coaches are nothing like our English ones. They are really comfortable and the seats recline back a long way to get a good eye lid inspection. So we landed in Phuket which was not our cup of tea really. We booked in from Bali at some cheap beach huts in the north of the island, and it turned out they were in the middle of no where, which is nice if we knew about this in advanced. Lucky they had a restaurant on site which served the best red Thai curry yet, I'm keeping tabs on this. So two nights was had there eating, chilling and getting bitten to death by stupidly big mosquitos. There are some very deep craters in both our feet. Strong deet was brought soon after. It didn’t help that we was right next to a pond and the only blood source around.

We took to the sea and crossed to the well visited island of Koh Phi Phi Don, I’m sure you know of it. We were told not to go as it gets very busy and touristy, but to be honest we are tourists and Phuket had nothing for us apart from the red curries. It was busy no doubt about that on Phi Phi, but it had its quite pockets too. I snapped a few photos from the famous viewpoint with the Limestone cliffs in the background. These photos where shot in the morning of course. No word of a lie it was row upon row of people along the rocks edge some evenings. We stayed here for 4 nights and enjoyed it. I think I will be working the photo below again for a better morning. (or evening if I can see off the other tourists)

Koh Phi Phi Don, Thailand

Then we pushed on to Krabi town, where we stayed for 2 nights while working out our next plan of action. Krabi town is a nice place; the night markets are so lively it’s pretty much a street party every night. I got me hair cut here too. Bangkok was calling and the coach trip was booked in for the following afternoon. Now it seems like some Thai people couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery. Don’t get me wrong we got to Bangkok in the end, but it’s the way they go about getting you to the main coach, 4 hour was spent finding/waiting for the big bugger that would take us to Bangkok, 4 hours of mincing basically. Once on the coach it was plain sailing all the way into the city centre, arriving at 5:00am. We booked in at loog Choob city homestay, this place was unbelievable, £18 a night and right in the city, www.loogchoob.com, check out the website, we had all this to ourselves. The Loog Choob family were so so nice, they cooked for us and helped us out loads. This is easily the sleekest place I’ve ever stayed, five star living for a silly low price, its crazy hey. The interior design was so flush and there beds were so comfortable, I missed three mornings of alarms here.

Bangkok is a busy city and bloody big. It’s kind of split into two with the old town Bangkok and the new cosmopolitan Bangkok. It was good fun getting hot, sweaty and lost on foot exploring to then return by tuk-tuk to our A/C penthouse style pad. If your thinking of going Bangkok, you have to stay at Loog Choob city homestay, it’s amazing. It’s been a treat, not your standard backpacking accommodation that for sure, but hey…when in Bangkok. That photo of us is with the sidling doors open, outside was thunder and lighting and inside was us warm and dry watching Alice in wonder land, good film I thought "off with his headdd!" Those stairs in the background went up onto the roof terrace where you could see the Bangkok skyline 360 degrees. We loved this place as you can probably tell.

A happy tuk-tuk man.

Loog choob, The city homestay.

A group of skin-heads that you

don't mind bumping into on the

streets.

So the next stop is back to Krabi for a night then off to another island or something, what ever takes our fancy really.

Peace out.

2011-05-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh Nusa Lembongan, an island east of Bali. Always a welcome break from the non-stop hassling street’s of Kuta. Roughly an hour by public boat from Sanur and your blessed with a quite 100% Hindu island with awesome waves and an amazing unqiue view of Bali. We arrived with the idea of staying at kutu losmen bungalows, as this has been a cheap home stay for the last few times we have visited. But after seeing what’s there now it looked and upon asking, definitely was out of our price range. 600,000rp a night compare to the usual 150,000rp it always was. Lembongan Made Inn on the other hand, was in our budget and what a bargain too. Four brand new, Java built, coconut wood apartments/huts within spitting distance of the lagoon, all for 150,000rp a night. (£10.50)

It’s a pretty small Island and you can circumnavigate it on a scooter in about thirty minutes. Clearly for landscape photography a scooter is a must if you want to be on-time at the best spots. I tell you there’s nothing better than a scooter for this game; you can go pretty much anywhere you want and park it where ever you like. Only problem was the back brake ceased to exist. The front brake was good enough but not ideal for dewy morning on grass tracks, a few slide outs to jump and running where had.

The view on the northern tip of Nusa Lembongan at dawn is to die for, a calm Lagoon with the vast Badung strait beyond and Bali as the backdrop sprawled out in front of you with its big volcanoes; Mt Agung and Mt Batur dominating the north-east and the landscape gently sloping away down to the low laying south, behind the low south it rise’s up again with the western peaks. To see all of Bali and get a feeling for it without looking from above is amazing. To capture this scene is on the top of my list. I’ve made a few photos already with the photo on my last update being one of them. But I’m hankering for our next visit in June when we arrive on the very low tides. Perfect reflection of the volcanoes in the very shallow lagoon with nothing but a few traditional boats to break them in the foreground, I might be lucky with another seaweed farmer too. While standing there composing and exposing in the misty, calm, still air, the sea weed farmers seep out from the little wooden shacks to start there long day of work. I couldn’t imagine a better view to wake up too. They are the luckiest people (in the world possibly) in that department. In winter at home I barely see daylight and spend all day inside a workshop with a couple of ugly mugs to look at.

Nusa Lembongan was just what the doctor ordered. On top of that we met a down to earth American couple called Jonathan and Jen which sadly, were leaving the next morning. It’s another case of the law of the sod. Charming people always seem to depart too soon. Hope you guys had a good flight home (I forgot to say, you cleared up and old English idiom that goes “does a bear crap in the woods”). We were left with some French lads who weren’t you typical relaxed, slow paced garçons. They could yap all-night for France and marched everywhere (including in the wooden apartment rooms) like 24 hour SS soldiers, and they stayed as long as us too. Tis’nt fair some times.

I’ve just wrote this on our flight to Thailand. So by the time it’s uploaded we will be in Thailand somewhere. Pretty exciting stuff, will keep you posted on what happens to us in these new foreign lands.

2011-05-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

Ear infection, this was a whole new game to me, my suspicion of the hotel swimming pool being the main corporate for this quite frankly nasty swollen ear ache business was flushed down the drain when I took a copy of surfing lines and read an inside article on Kuta beach and its untreated sewage problems. I believe that most surfers that make the pilgrimage here know of this including myself. Yet still I seemed to think I would be alright and one of the few lines said to Kara was “I’ve never had a problem with it before, so I’ll be all right, right?”

An hour before sunset I paddled out to the stonking shore break thumping down simultaneity along the long beach like a guillotine with huge explosions of water and air firing out the back of the wave like canons. Big closeouts are good fun in the fading light, all sorts of colours shine through the back of the wave creating big moody rooms. Too have a water-housing for my camera would have made some great shots that evening. A USB port in the side of my head would be far more convenient, yeah….dream on.

Walking back through poppies lane from the beachfront in board shorts (surfing in just board shorts is heaven, a far cry from being covered in 3-5mm neoprene) with properly every orifice in my body full of sand and water, it was nice to be able to look at the stalls to see what’s on offer and not get hassled in the process. They know I won’t have any cash on me. Usually as soon as they spot you looking out the corner of you eye, they are right to it “My friend cheap billabong, sunglass, what you want? My personal favourite is simply “Yes!” Even if you cunningly try using your peripherals, they ruddy know some how. To be fair after three shops worth I’d seen enough to realise that it’s all the same crap like before. Then it started, two mornings later, there’s a SDS drill in my ear and a raw burning feeling. A few days out of the water seems to be the online known curing aid as well as some reasonably priced ear drops, which make’s a change from when usually buying medicine here. Luckily for me the swell dropped off, so I wasn’t missing much with the surf.

For the next few days Kara and me joined the locals and took advantage of the super low tides to walk on the reefs to seeing what we could find. We have been trying our hand at being estate agents for Hermit crabs, A simple workflow of finding a cracking/better looks wises shell about the same size as the existing property and lying it next to them with a tiny “To let” sign. The hard bit, which is out of our hands of course, is whether they accept the offer and so far non such luck. But there are inquisitive. Maybe one day. Hermit crabs and small fish in the shallow pools that bow aquatics sell for a hefty price are the normal afternoon findings, but every now and then you come across a fella that’s a bit more special.

On one day to our amazement, we stumble upon an octopus the size of a rich tea biscuit, but by no means as boring looking as a rich tea though. He was striking, adhering to the complimentary colours of orange and blue and what a clever bugger too. With a large water bottle I first checked to see that he was alive and kicking and by dipping the nose of the bottle into the water about 100mm above him, without moving from his chosen spot he puffed out as big as he could be, smart move I thought as the defensive act stopped me in my tracks. I continued to see what else he had in store, without moving a muscle (mind the pun) he disappears, by making the same effect as the sand on his skin. We huffed that we had no cameras, thanked him for the show and hopped on to see what else we could find.

Reaching Padang Padang beach we saw a lot of men older then Bali itself making a fuss around the sea stacks. Keen to see what this was all about I made way over to what is now called by Kara, “Death bay”. Upon entering the stacks through the killing fields you are faced with heads of lele still flinching and in contrast, the Balinese’s old boys smiling from ear to ear. These guys know the art of free food. They sweep under the stack’s ledge’s to get the lele moving and once out, harpoon there sorry ass’s. What got me first though was there no mincing approach to removing there heads as soon as the lele hit open air. I quiz an old boy about this in my finest English talk and role-play, and I think he got what I meant. Although he just spoke back in Balinese like I could understand every word he was saying, but I liked that. Why should he learn English? I’m being the lazy one here. Quite a few Balinese’s do speak English, but these guys clearly don’t work in the tourist industry so there’s no need to learn it. I made the most of his actions and by luck a Bali lad called Chris who does speak very very good English confirmed me of what he was saying. Lele is a catfish pretty much, but like everything else in Bali it’s got to be able to kill you in within minutes. So the lele decided to grow three venomous spikes about 15mm long from the top of its head and one either side. Hence the no mincing approach to head removals. We haven’t tried lele yet but soon me thinks. Oh yeah, Kara made a good point, “If there that dangerous, why do they just leave them lying around for other people to stand on?”

Another day at the beach we was luckily enough to see three sea snakes amongst the rock pools. They were only tiny blighter’s maybe the size of a toothbrush, but still pretty neat. Then this one snake called a colubrine sea krait, I later discovered, was just chilling around a grassy sandbank and not in the slightest bit interested in us. Standing out like a sore thumb to the greens of the grass, this stripy black and white lethal bugger looked the business.

A few notes from wilkpedia that I found interesting on these sea snakes.

The colubrine sea krait is found in tropical Indo-Pacific oceanic waters.

Total length: males 875 mm, females 1420 mm; tail length: males 130 mm, females 145 mm.

They are venomous but are not aggressive.

These snakes need to drink freshwater and regularly come onto land. And are the only species of sea snake that come onto land.

The males come ashore early in the evening and waits at the high tide line for the females. (Clearly the tracks of this snake we have been spotting)

The venom of the sea krait affects both muscles and nerves. It is 10 times more toxic than that of a rattlesnake. Each snake can produce up to 10-15 mg (0.0004-0.0005 oz) of venom. 1.5mg is a lethal dose.

The follow day we managed to get up close and personal with one female colubrine sea krait. Sadly she was dead and being washed around on our secret beach. I’m not sure if they lose there colour when they die or old age, but she wasn’t as bright as the younger one the day before. She was bigun and I fished her out and laid her out on the beach so 1. I could have a closer look 2. When I was finished it would hopefully give someone a fright and 3. There is no 3. I reckon they are stunning looking snakes and after I read about them have lose the small fear I did have. I would have loved to have caught a glimpse of her in her hay days. The man from yeye warung up on the top road (which might add, is officially home of the driest banana pancake in the world, it’s like eating a dusty flip-flop. How can they go so wrong with a banana pancake?) came down to the beach with his too little boys for a swim. Another funny conversation was had when I showed him and his kids the snake. I asked/acted “how could it have died”, with him replying “yes, that a snake”.

Sorry to past my ear infection on to you from listening to me rabbit on, Bit of a long update this one hey. We are on Nusa Lembongan as you read this.

Dawn at Nusa Lembongan seaweed farms with the perfectly conical Mt Agung just visible through the sea mists. Bali’s highest active volcano.

2011-05-02T04:06:00.000-07:00

Thunder, Snakes and Back Aches.

Imagine lying on a flat cut bed of slate (our mattress, that’s not a moan, that’s just an insightful fact) and to one side of you, bricks spaced apart running parallel but getting closer together as it reaches your head and the other side fitted with strobe lights. Now that bloody neighbour has decided to put his wheelie bins out at 2:00am (you know the ones) and in that typical “inconsiderate” fashion drags them over the bricks right next to your head. That’s pretty much the nights sleep we had just after I updated this the other week. This thunder was by no means inconsiderate, as I personally relish a good thunder storm (Sad but true) Kara wasn’t too keen for it this time and put sleep in front of the epic show. That was to date the loudest thunder I've ever heard, sod your Whitestone hill and south of France, Asia means business when it comes to thunder. The windows glass and doors were ratting all over the show. And the best thing was we were all completely helpless, there’s nothing you can do but watch\listen in complete awe or change you underwear. Immense!!!!

We have found our own secret beach on the Bukit peninsula. For those of you that have been to Bali will find that hard to believe I bet. Apart from the odd Balinese fisherman there is no one about, no warungs, no poeple trying to sell you goods and no thieving monkeys. Just us and the snakes. This could be why no one is here. Seems to be the international landing bay for snakes wanting a dip. There are enough patterns in the sand, now I’m no Steve Irwin protégé but as far as I'm concerned they do not want to meet us at all. I bumped into a fella on the stairs when walking back up to the top and I got a second to register it, and he was gone like a bullet, bloody quick. The Fishermen couldn’t give a rat’s ass too, so we are going with it. To have an evening away from the busy beaches is worth its weight in our scaly friends. And it just so happens to be perfect for landscape photography and also comes with an unusual view of Padang Padang. Maybe you know it already?

The taffic is a lot worst then before.

With the photography, I have the shots worked out and the compositions sorted at the secret beach but the volcanoes are proving to be a pain is the ass; they only show themselves in the morning and are completely covered in cloud from midday onwards. This makes for some dramatic skies in the evening but I’m after the volcanoes on show to complete an image in my minds eye. I need the warm sun in the evenings to light the photo you see, in the morning the bay has no light till around 9.00am, by which time its way too harsh and almost right above. The one evening the volcanoes showed themselves I was sat in the Padang Padang line up, so I know they do appear, but it’s been once in the last 2 weeks….Other monochromatic images have been made with the cool dusk skies, I’m just pining for these planned photos.

Surf surf surf. Had a few small days at Padang Padang in the evenings with the end bowl severing up some small but perfectly round barrels. Although I wouldn’t want to sit there now as what was 1-2ft one morning while I was taking landscape photos and come the afternoon there was double overhead grinders making there way down the reef. A stand-up didn’t make the end bowl and had to duck dive the next one to come up with his board in two. He got off lucky if you ask me as if he didn’t mange to push himself through the wave he would have been minced. It was pulling hard of the reef. The big swell didn’t last long though and with the 0.2 tides swinging round again its all about racetracks, had a good 0.4 tide there today with outside corner sets breaking top to bottom, a bit sketchy at first but it breaks a fair way out in front of racetracks so by the time it reaches you its just powerless white water, take off as it reforms and boom, your racing the lip down the shallow reef, nothing better.

Smaller day at Racetracks.

Off for a Mc’Flurry, I'm not a fan of McDonald’s but when its 36p a go, I’m keen for ice cream that cheap.

2011-04-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

Well we have finally made it to Bali after the small hold up in London Heathrow. Can you believe the bloke at the Singapore check-in counter wanted to see printed proof of leaving Bali the 2nd time we are there (3 month away) even though we had connecting flights the other side, proof that we were leaving the 1st time and on top of that the confirmation e-mail for the 2nd time on my net book, all of this

wasn’t enough. Luckily the Singapore main counter lady sorted all this out and in the process made him look like a pratt that didn’t know what he was doing. Whether he saw it that way I will never know. Moan moan moan, its not the bench mark for this Blog don’t worry. I just don’t understand some people sometimes. Singapore airlines apart from the above are truly a great airline to fly with. More free food & drink then you can shake a stick at and the cheapest fare of them all.

The last few days in Bali have been a blur and we were both feeling a bit jetlagged, that said we did find out that the air-con in our rented jeep (Albert as Kara calls him) has some magical power of sending you to sleep; I guess this is included in the low price of 65,000rp a day? No air-con for us, time to acclimatize. Driving is still as crazy as it’s always been, but news to all that Bali in general bar the jeep hire and fuel has doubled in price. And 100,000rp being £7 it's not as good as it has been over the years, but it’s still cheap cheap.

Photography wise I haven’t even took my camera out of my bag, altought I am eyeing up some shots. This morning while surfing racetracks there’s a great photo to be had with some sea stacks (mushroom rock Dogger) and the volcanoes beyond that make up Bali. We need to find a good location on the cliff to shoot from though, could prove difficult. Sods law it was perfect for a photo this morning but I had my board not my camera, Doh!! Hopefully get that one on the card soon.

On the surf front, surfed Padang Padang 4ft and prefect till the tide hit 0.2 low and I so happen to be on the right wave at the right time to have a meeting with Mr Reef on the end section. Got a nice souvenir on my elbow, not bad for my first surf ha. That lime they smother your reef cuts with stings like buggery, but it’s necessary. Reef cuts can get infected easily over here. Surfed Racetracks today with it being too small to do its thing; the next few days are looking good for it.

Kara's new pet, The pair of beach bums :)

lihat nanti

2011-04-15T05:21:00.001-07:00

Hello, Hope all is well.

A lot of you that have regularly seen me or Kara in person have more than likely been aware that over the past 4 years, we have been planning to bugger off on a trip for what will hopefully be a yearlong adventure. If we hadn’t been talking the hind legs off a donkey to you about it, then you’ve defiantly seen effects
in the “living life to the max” department on homelands. But that’s all part and parcel as a lot of you know from 1st hand experience.

17th April has swung round pretty dam fast, and it still hasn’t sunk in completely to be honest. So what’s in store? Well Bali we be our first stop, having been here a few times in the naughties with one episode narrowly missing the 2002 bombings, it’s always been about the Surf Surf Surf. Having world class waves endlessly peeling all day is going to be hell of a test to see if I can pull the camera out of the bag rather than the board. I failed miserably the last time I was there and returned with many surf memories and the odd surf photo (not that I'm complaining really ;). But I feel I’m on it now with the landscape photography lark. Hopefully the Hindu gods will be on my side.

If you’re interested in seeing how that goes and where we go next, I’ve set up this blog so (if you want that is) you can have a peek now and that and find out what’s new.

See you in a bit :)