Posts/Entries
All posts/entries, for now, from over two decades of global travel. And a few colourful tags, too.
US Road Trip 2018
“Ten days, 7 states & 1,647 miles. It may not have been as epic in scale as what’s gone before it, necessitating the omission of the word ‘epic’ from the road trip title, but this stateside jaunt was epic for other reasons, least of all the company. US Road Trip 2018 was a bite-sized US family affair.”
Svalbard, Norway
“Towards the very top of the Northern Hemisphere and about as human as the High Arctic gets, this is as far north as one can venture without being a scientist and the furthest north man has managed to settle permanent communities inhabited year-round…People can live the Arctic here. They can experience it, understand it. Yes of course it’s out of the way, and no it’s not a location for the dilettante traveller, but it’s (relatively) straightforward to get here… and, with a bit of savvy planning, not as expensive as you might think.”
2017 – 10 From 10
“From South Africa to North Korea, Canada to Greece, I somehow found the time to travel 10 countries in 2017 (yes, Kosovo is a country), a rather convenient number for the purpose of an end-of-year review. So here are 10 from 10, ten pictures from ten countries presented in chronological order from the year in travel & photography that was 2017.”
Bluegrass Island 2017
“The heavy-hitting pioneering & groundbreaking history; the beaches; the lighthouses; and the swashbuckling maritime vibe of North Carolina’s Outer Bank were enthralling & educational. But even they, and if you’ll pardon the oh-so pathetic pun, played a very distant second fiddle to the 4 days of foot tapin’ & VIP mingling that was the Outer Banks Bluegrass Festival at Manteo’s Roanoke Island Festival Park, known for 4 days every year as Bluegrass Island.”
Epic US Road Trip 2017 – New England & Canada
“The culmination of the wider road trip, leaving the best to last… nothing quite compares to the fantastic foliage display one is treated to on a late September to early November foray into rural New England. And it – an autumn foray into rural New England – is quite the attraction. It’s estimated that some 8 million people descend on the region every year with each New England state tourism website doing its utmost to provide some kind of ‘Fall Foliage Tracker’ to highlight the best of the spectacle for visitors, a.k.a. leaf peepers, ‘leaf peeping’ an established and informal term for the activity of travelling to view & photograph the foliage. Don’t mind if we do.”
Epic US Road Trip 2017 – Kentucky & The Great Lakes
“Just passing through. Four days, 4 States & 1,506 miles of passing through… It got chillier day by day and what leaves we saw as we approached a New England fall enticed. Yes there were highlights, a return to rural Kentucky, a quick box-ticking foray into (& out of) Michigan, the shores of Lake Erie, the shrine to America’s beloved National Pastime that is Cooperstown’s National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum & the lake-heavy forested wilds of Upstate New York’s Adirondacks the notable highs from this portion of the wider road trip. But the feeling that we were only passing through never really abated, not until the job was done and were were perched by the shores of Upstate New York state’s Lake George on the very edge of New England itself…”
Epic US Road Trip 2017 – The South
“After 2 weeks of driving south, a right turn in Jacksonville, Florida on Day 14 saw us turning our back on the pioneering history of the Eastern Seaboard. From there on out the 1,575 miles of ground we covered over the course of a week in travelling first in a westerly & then northerly direction through The South was all about the slow and inexorable return back towards the cooler climes of New England, sill the depth of a rather big country away…”
Epic US Road Trip 2017 – Southern Colonies
“Virginia, the Carolinas & Georgia. From Arlington, Virginia in the north to Savannah, Georgia in the South. Over 1,200 miles with the ocean never too far away. There was a lot of history, a lot of water, a lot of bluegrass and a whole lot of photogenic highlights.”
Epic US Road Trip 2017 – Middle Colonies
“The ruefulness of the tragedy that was the infamous Civil War Battle of Gettysburg… stepping back in time among the Amish of Pennsylvania’s Amish Country. Reliving the birth of the nation in historic Philadelphia… stepping out on the iconic boardwalk of New Jersey’s brassy Atlantic City… Quaint little Delaware. The nautical niceties of Maryland’s Annapolis. And the instantly-recognisable monuments, those venerated altars to democracy, in Washington D.C. 450-plus miles, four days and as many states.”
Epic US Road Trip 2017 – Introduction
“… the US probably warrants more than one epic once-in-a-lifetime road trip experience. So, and a year-plus after our 9,500+ mile US Road Trip 2016, we’re hitting the US road once again. Welcome to Epic US Road Trip part II, the 2017 edition… this one is all about history; music; (more of) the Deep South; and rural drives and leaf peeping the vibrant hues of a New England fall/autumn. And yes, it’s gonna be epic all over again.”
North Korea
“Three days. Three days of being monitored. Three days of being chaperoned, guided, led to see only what I was supposed to see, the very best of what the North Korean capital is prepared to divulge to sceptical foreign eyes. Three days of eating where I was told and when I was told. Three days of being surprised, being impressed, being awed… Three days of a surreal buzz the likes of which I’ve never experienced before.”
Dandong, China
“The bridge, what’s left of it a well preserved and a popular tourist attraction, ends abruptly in a mass of twisted metal about half way across the river, a abundance of Chinese flags, piped revolutionary music and a huge screen looping Korea War footage there to accompany you as you peer the rest of the way into the curiosity that is North Korea, the world’s very last Stalinist dictatorship.”
Beijing, China (2017)
“It’s people getting in my way, always in my fuckin’ way, as is their want; it’s their country, after all, and I’m the impostor. It’s barriers and mass crowd control. It’s a very visible police presence and people in officialdom… seemingly standing around doing absolutely nothing while actually policing subjugation and overseeing mass societal conformity…It’s basically the same as it always was, the ever-present push to modernise aside, on this my 7th visit to the capital of the world’s superpower wannabe…”
Seoul, South Korea (2017)
”Conscious that any visit these days could be my last, I’ve made a point on this sweaty saunter down memory lane of revisiting & photographing places & landmarks that I’ve photographed many times over the years. I’ve also gotten acquainted & photographed landmarks that weren’t even around when last I was. Dynamic Seoul – a city slogan – indeed.”