Tag: photography

January Kayak Sheep…

It is seldom that sea kayaks and sheep appear all wrapped up in the same story but that’s what happens I suppose when one ventures north of the border into Devon, which, if you’re from West Cornwall, really is like visiting a foreign country.. they talk funny and do cream teas all wrong.. It’s not a difficult story to tell however as I have pictures. Before I start however I should introduce our protagonists, my friends …

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A splash of sunshine

It turns out there is enough room and reason, just, to squeeze in one more post before the end of the year. Just pictures… the sun shone and the surf was pumping a couple of days ago so I caught up with a couple of my surf kayaking friends at the beach. To a degree I’ve been actively avoiding the sea the last few months hence the lack of sea/surf kayak flavoured posts, for which …

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Bicycle book-ending

Every year around this time, well.. always on the 24th, around lunchtime, to be precise, I load my bike and pedal east to the ‘ancestral home’ for a couple of days. I find the bike ride there and back makes a terrific, and deeply satisfying ‘book-end’ to a lovely family Christmas… it’s also a super opportunity to enjoy the nostalgia associated with childhood and Christmas and so on by riding around all the lanes and backroads …

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A Porto Portfolio

Very recently I had the opportunity, well, more of an excuse really, to spend a couple of days in Porto catching up with friends. It was super. As you might expect I also took a few snaps along the way. I imagine I wouldn’t be writing had I not done so… so without further ado.. Porto:  

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More Beach

There are days when I just need to be by the sea.. usually when, for whatever reason, I can’t be in it or on it… or on my bike. I don’t go to the beach to take pictures but I do take pictures at the beach. A beautiful autumn day yesterday with light winds and hazy, warm sunshine… so that was my morning. With kilometres of empty sand to enjoy, a couple of hours of idle …

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A quick spin north

When I last wrote the long range forecast suggested a weather window might form for a sea kayak journey to explore the uninhabited islands and islets that form the most southerly limits of the Outer Hebrides. With a few days in hand in the meantime I decided to hop on my bike and head north from Barra for a few days to explore some favourite places from the landward side, previously only seen from the seat …

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Patagonia

I’ve been  thinking about Patagonia an awful lot recently, and not just because it’s a damp, grey January… There is a little place inside my heart that has Patagonia in it.. I can feel a tug there every time I think about the place. In 2016 I feel as if I must deal with some unfinished riding business in Central Asia .. so I think that’s what I’ll do this year by way of a …

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In the West

Found myself just a little bit west of here yesterday afternoon. A favourite place to be when conditions are rough… and it is always better in the winter. So…. pictures. These, I think, make quite a nice complement to the summer time series from the same area posted here: https://www.seasurfdirt.com/2015/08/21/penwith-colour

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Prayer wheel at Nako on the Hindustan-Tibet HIghway

The Hindustan-Tibet Highway

Winding it’s way northeast through the Himalayas of Himachel Pradesh, the rough, landslide-prone Hindustan-Tibet Highway is an engineering marvel and makes for a great ride as part of a longer bikepacking journey.

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Transitions…

I’m really happy, got my Inner Line Permit. It had been on my mind a little because I kept hearing and reading all sorts of conflicting information regarding the application. As a solo traveller I would not have been able to get the permit from the government offices in Shimla or Kullu, and even had I been able to get a group of 4 or more together (the rules… apparently) it still depends on the …

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Penwith Colour

Earlier this week I had a friend visiting for a couple of days so of course a day out on the cliffs for a hike was somewhat obligatory, after all the granite cliffs of Penwith are one of Cornwall’s greatest assets. It’s not something I often do in the summer season – usually at sea level in a kayak or on two wheels… I do tend to prefer the cliffs in winter when the weather …

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Five Photos, #5

Here we are, last one… no reason in particular for choosing this one.. I could have picked any number of street, travel or otherwise flavoured pics… but this evening I’m of a mind for mountains and I like this pic and have happy memories of that trip… Mountains are ace :-) Oh while I’m at it, while browsing for pics I stumbled across this one I’d completely forgotten about.. also a mountain ;-) Different part …

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Five Photos, #3

OK, back to the five photos thing with number 3. I changed my mind about the ‘photos with stories behind them’ thing, I don’t wish to be a bore.. so instead just picking stuff at random… So.. this one, Lac Chat in Parc Tremblant, a couple of hours drive north of Montréal in the Laurentian Mountains. Really pretty spot and as we’re getting on to that late summer time of year (already.. depressingly..) perhaps appropriate. Camping …

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