A small but regularly increasing number of people have asked questions about what camera I am using for the photos on travelblog. To save myself time in trying to answer everyone individually I decided to add this blog. Hopefully people who are considering travelling might find it of some use. Due to what looks like a size limit on travelblog I've added this as two separate blogs. The first concentrates on gear, the second on aspects of taking a camera travelling with you, plus our experiences with shooting underwater with a digicam. I've also added some links to good photographers near [View Full Entry]

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We couldn't really say we had visited Australia without indulging in the ancient Anglo-Australian art of imposing on distant relatives. Gill and Bob fullfilled their role admirably. After much thought and discussion we decided that Gill was Kim's second cousin. But only after a bottle of wine or two. The meeting had been suggested by Charles, Kim's Grandfather, who at the age of 95 has recently picked up email and the internet and is following our progress via this blog. Thanks to the introduction of Richard Branson into the Australian market internal flights are now very affordable - last [View Full Entry]

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YAD. Yet another Digression. Were there a World Championships in Bandwagon Jumping I'm sure the good people of England would stroll it this year, as they would have back on 22 November 2003, when for once our little '53rd state' actually won something. Hooray. My greatest sadness watching the current Ashes series is that we're watching it with my cousin James and his wife Heather. Through many years of Australia stuffing England's cricketers into a small box and sending them packing they showed admirable restraint and gloated very little, at least in our hearing. Now it seems unfair and probab [View Full Entry]

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Apologies if the nonsense to photo ratio goes to DEFCON III in this article - I just couldn't be bothered lugging my camera around Singapore. Lots of lovely photos of Bali and Lombok coming in the next report, plus the odd briny tale of adventure and derring do. To my recollection, which is not always the best, the only time I have been served a pint of foaming ale by a completely stark naked barman was in the Tumbledown Dick, Farnborough, Hampshire. I had just left college and was sharing a flat with two other young men of (fairly) like mind, [View Full Entry]

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It's a tough life being a small but idyllic tropical island. The weight of expectation is upon you and you can rarely deliver because most times that expectation needs fulfilling internally, not externally. To expectation is added the weight of need and the weight of greed - everyone wants a piece of you. Like the old nag from Raskolnikov's childhood, people watch whilst you are flogged to death by your master, and it is the people riding in the back of the cart that shout the most encouragement. I dunno. It's usually harder to beat Mother Nature than we think. Maybe [View Full Entry]

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It was a brave man who once said "Aaaaz fray Wukintun". Thankfully, after more than eight years, he remembered me, and was equally brave to invite us to stay with him in Hong Kong. At first, "Whamsey", or in his new cosmopolitan Hong Kong playboy incarnation, "Holmsey", apologised for his flat, saying we would have to sleep on the futon in the small living room, space being at a premium in HK. To make matters worse, he is an IT night owl whilst his flatmate is an early rising fitness guru. What ensued was a high octane ninety-six hours which left [View Full Entry]

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After several weeks skirting the summer furnace that is the East of China we finally had to face the fact that when you descend from the mountains July in China is extremely hot and more importantly humid. From here to Hong Kong, where good air-conditioning abounds, we have felt and I have looked like the traditional Chinese dish of steamed dumplings - slimy and very difficult to pick up with chopsticks. The city of Guilin (pronounced gwaylin) in the North East of Guanxi provence, about a days drive North West from Hong Kong, was one of the first tourist destinations for [View Full Entry]

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Unrest in the Southwest - foaming torrents and gurgling stomachs in Yunnan Provence. As ever we left Chengdu by overnight train, arriving early in the morning in Panzhihua, close to the Sichuan/Yunnan border. Overnight we had passed through some high mountains, with Kim's popping ears keeping her awake much of the night. We were swiftly bundled onto a dishevelled old bus ready for the tortuous eight hour trip up through the mountains to Lijiang. But first, of course, there were the usual formalities - a ten kilometre journey, which due to roadworks in this narrow and steep-sided section [View Full Entry]

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Way back in Etosha National Park in Namibia our rugged and brave tour leader promised us Pandas dancing on roller skates. Well in Chengdu we very nearly achieved that goal. This is just a short journal - we're holed up in Lijiang in Yunnan provence, Southwest China at the moment, in Chinese terms quite near Tibet and the border with Burma. Sadly we've been suffering with stomach problems since Chengdu so haven't been able to do much, so in boredom I thought I would upload some panda photos to keep me, and hopefully you, amused. Please regard it as an intermission. [View Full Entry]

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Jung Chang, in her 2003 introduction to "Wild Swans" makes the following observations about her visits to modern day China - "Exhaltation and excitement are exhausting. So are exasperation and outrage, which dog my every step here." Well, on a slightly less dramatic level, we know how she feels. In the interests of anyone reading this, I'll save my winge to the end. Our overnight loogie express from Beijing deposited us surprisingly refreshed in Xian, although without a Pacsafe cuddling my camera gear for the night I wouldn't have slept a wink. I've always scof [View Full Entry]

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