India - Jan 2008

Story coming soon

Christmas/New Years in Europe 2007/2008

A cold, white Christmas is a bit of a novelty to many Aussies. I have been lucky to do it a few times. But Zermatt in Switzerland was pretty special. The photo below shows the light from the small town against the mountains and Matterhorn.

The Matterhorn close up. It dominated the landscape.

The streets of Zurich were all lit up with different lights at night.

Zurich at night again. 

Sunset over the beach at Nice. 

London (2007)

More pictures and descriptions coming very soon....

Stonehenge

Roman Baths at Bath

Winter sun over the Thames

New Zealand (2007)

August 2007: I took a trip to the South Island of New Zealand with some friends for an Extreme Holiday.

We went skiing, skydiving, jetboating, wine tasting, and sightseeing.

More USA (2001-2005)

Here are some more phots from my travels in the USA (text updates to follow)

Californian Redwood forest north of San Francisco. The San Francisco bay area is often covered in fog. This effect was created when the fog mixed with bright sunshine. Tahoe panorama from Diamond Peak. This is 5 photos joined together. It shows a typical day at Diamond Peak looking down Crystal Ridge towards the lake.
Driving in a blizzard (notice the snow building up on the bonnet - it started to jam the wipers and block our view so we had to stop and remove it regularly). On this day it took me hours to get over the Mt Rose pass - normally would take 45 minutes. It was the start of a storm that delivered almost 6 meters of snow in 2 weeks.

It was always very interesting to drive in the snow. You had to battle extremely slippery roads, non-existent visibility, doors freezing shut, air intakes blocking with ice, and fatigue from the level of concentration required.

Snowing in Inlcine Village, Lake Tahoe. When it snowed, everything got covered creating a surreal effect.

Nepal Expedition (Jan 2006) - Page 3

I haven't uploaded in a while. Here are some new photos from my Nepal collection.

Hindu dervishes pose for the camera.

These are the kids from the school where we spent 3 days repairing the neglected buildings. They were fascinated with us and our cameras. After I took this photo they grabbed the camera to see the image. The famous buddhist stupa in Kathmandu.

A house with a view in the Annapurna region. Everything they used to build the houses had to be carried up narrow paths on the backs of porters.
This photo was taked through the cockpit as we approached Lukla airport. The plane took a steep dive directly into the steep mountain. The landing strip was on the side of the mountain with a rock wall at the end. It was the most interesting landing that I have done.

A lot of rubbish was burnt in the streets. As I walked through Namche Bazaar I noticed the sun shining through the smoke and took this picture.

Ama Dablam dominated the landscape for days as we trekked along the Everest trail. Some of our Nepali porters had climbed the mountain the year before. They climbed alone before the main expedition to set up the climbing equipment. A huge effort.

Sunrise over Kathmandu.

This photo was taken out of my lodge window in Namche Bazaar just after dawn. Smoke from fires on the mountain peaks cause the red haze in the valley.

While in Kathmandu we took a trip to Bhaktapur. We visited a school where we could watch the students paint hugely complex paintings. At times they use a one hair brush and the paintings can take months to finish. Shortly after I took this photo another person in the room accidently kicked the stand the painting was on causing the brush to slip...oops!

Nepal Expedition (Jan 2006)

Welcome to my blog. Scroll down to see some of the best photos from my adventures. First are some pictures from my most recent trip to Nepal.

A photo taken in Namche Bazaar on the Everest Trail. Everything used on the trail has to be carried up the mountain by Porter or Yak. It takes 6-7 days for them to reach this point.
Sunrise over Kathmandu. It is not a beautiful or clean city but it is interesting. The heavy pollution from burning rubbish, industry and India can be seen covering the sun.

The old city of Bhaktapur is cleaner, quieter, and nicer than Kathmandu. It is much more traditional. You can see people working in traditional ways amongst simple but interesting buildings. Some places in the city you feel like you are in a wold 500 years ago.

From the Khubmu Glacier looking north to everest basecamp and Tibet. We climbed up a mountain to the left, overlooking the icefall and Everest on the right. Up at this altitude (5550m - 18,500 ft) everything is an effort. There is less than half the oxygen of sea level, 40% of your energy is taken by breathing. Less energy is left over for everyhting else. We set out for the Summit of Kala Pathar before sunrise. It was about -20 celsius.

The sunsets always created an eirie light.

Nepal Expedition (Jan 2006) - Page 2

Here are some pics from my recent trip to Nepal.

The sunsets were great. This one is of Nuptse with the sun lighting up the clouds created by snow and ice being blown off everest (which is behind Nuptse).
This is of Lotse (8400 m, the 4th highest mountain in the world). I went outside and saw huge clouds spiralling at high speed up the face of the mountain then dissapearing as they came off the top. It was a mountain that looked angry. Earlier we hung some washing outside in bright sunlight but it froze solid in 10 minutes.
This photo was taken from Tangboche monastary (the highest in the world). You can see Ama Dablam (right) and the Nuptse, Everest, Lhotse trio in the middle. You can see the ice and snow being blown off Everest in the middle. Shortly before I took this photo I wandered into the monastary (off the left of the photo) and witnessed a tibetan buddhist ceremony where the monks, dressed in thick robes, used horns, drums, symbols and anchient chants to create a surreal atmosphere.
One of the many Buddhist monuments along the trail. You have to walk around these in a clockwise direction as the locals believe this released the prayer. The flags release the prayers into the wind. Understandable in this evironment their beliefs are often tied to the elements.
At the base of the Khumbu Glacier, Sherpas and climbers have places hundreds of rock pillars. Each one for someone who died on the moutain. While we were climbing the rockfall to this spot we noticed that one of our party was unwell. She had mountain sickness which caused her to become totally blind. Everyone was concerned as we were unsure whether she would recover. She had to be led down the mountain, step-by-step. After a few days her sight returned. Mountain sickness, which is quite dangerous and can easily lead to death, was a constant concern for all of us.
The local kids are without fear. This girl is the daughter of a local doctor. Part of our journey involved giving direct assistance to remote schools and health posts. As I took this photo we were being presented with a high Buddhist honour by her father and the community.
This photo was taken in the Annapurna region. You can see the heavily terraced hills, hand made stone paths that climbed 1000's of meters up steep mountains, and the ever present smoke.

The peak above always seemed to look different. It was one of the first big ones we saw.

Skiing

Me getting some 'air time'. As I landed this I twisted a ski and cartwheeled down the slope. Fun times.
Doing a 360 Heli over a home made jump in the yard of the house I lived in (in the background).
An unsuccessful landing. I had to get a lot of air to get over a lip half way down the slope. Obviously didn't make it. My friend holding the video camera just laughed and continued taping as I recovered.
This time I made it. The infamous lip is just out of shot on the bottom right. I cleared it easily and landed a long way down the slope.

And another one where I just clipped the lip causing me to do a front flip and slide down the hill. Funny for all watching.

Other USA (2001-2005)

A picture from Buena Vista park in San Francisco looking south across Postcard Row to Downtown. Some might remember it from the start of Full House.
Taken from a friend's house in Scottsdale, Arizona (just outside Phoenix).

Another sunset worthy of a photo.

New Zealand (July 2003)

A friend and I hired a car and decided to drive to Milford sound. Unfortunately a huge avalanche covered the only access road and we never reached it. It had been snowing and raining for days before. We were still very lucky though because the views along the road were incredible.
On the road to Milford Sound.
All day we were confronted with views like this. It seemed that we were always pulling the car at the side of the road to check out the view. The photo above is a great example of the glacial valleys, lakes, lush forests and snow covered mountains that are abundant on the South Island.


This photo was taken from the top of Cadrona Ski fields near Wanaka. The view over the clouds was amazing and every now and then a hole would appear in the clouds giving a window to the amazing scenes to the lake and valley below. Unlike anything else in the world.

Lake Tahoe (2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005 Seasons)

I spent 4 seasons working at Diamond Peak Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe. An amazing experience.

This picture was taken from the top of Squaw Valley Ski Resort looking over the valley and lake towards the east shore (Nevada side). The 1960 Olympics were held here. It was one of the biggest resorts I have ever been to and had some very challenging terrain.
The sunsets were always incredible and different every night. This was taken as I headed home after a big day of skiing. You can see the silhoette of a ski lift in the foreground.
The mornings were just as amazing. This was taken as I ate breakfast at my dining table.
Late in the season we had a massive storm that lasted for days. One night it stopped and revealed this the next morning. Needless to say I took a few hours off work to enjoy the fresh powder. This photo was taken in an area that resort customers did not go - fresh tracks all day.

The lake was often blue. But on a day like this, after a storm it took on almost unreal colors.

A cold night in Tahoe. This was taken from the edge of the Mt Rose highway from Reno as you decend into Incline Village (you can see the lights below on the lake shore).

Italy (Jan 2005)

This photo was taken from a hill overlooking Florence. Behind me was a replica statue of David and close by was a cart selling the best Gelato I have ever found.
As I walked into the Bassilica San Pietro in Rome I saw rays of sunlight streaming into the building. I have a few photos like this with sun hitting various interesting and significant objects. I thought the effect suits the location - within one of the worlds biggest churches.

Looking over the Forum towards the Colloseum. When standing in the middle of the Forum it is not hard to imagine what ancient Rome would ave been like. You can see buildings from different eras layered on top of each other.

South America - (Nov - Dec 2004)

I stayed in this bed for a number of days. I could look out over the forest canopy and watch huge thunder storms roll in each night. The noise of the storms, insects and animals was deafening. Just behind the hut was a creek and waterfall where I did my washing. The humidity was incredible.
This photo is of Iguazu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina. I saw it during a huge flood. There was literally kilometers of waterfalls emerging from the jungle and plunging in varous patterns. Everywhere you walked there was a waterfall ranging from groups of thousands of small streams to huge falls that dwarfed Niagra. The river feeding it was 2 kilometers wide.
Everywhere you look in the Amazon you see trees. Endless. Rather than taking dramatic landscape pictures you had to focus on smaller things. If you take it in as a whole it seems too much with nothing standing out from the wall of vegetation. Look closer and you find life surviving at all levels.

Until recently, this was the highest place I had been - about 15,500 feet. This hut sits directly over the equator. Behind me is a glacier.