Photo of the Week: Landshut in the snow, Germany – February 2013
I rejoined Griff in Munich after a week in the UK, but camp sites are hard to find in the Bavarian capital, especially in winter. He had discovered the town of Landshut just outside Munich, and it had everything we needed – an open campsite, good pubs and good beer! We had fantastic food in front of a cosy fire before walking home through the snow. The peaceful walk back to our tent was just what I needed after a busy day’s travel.
Photo of the Week: Kyrgyz farm life, Kyrgyzstan – June 2013
On our way to Bishkek from Osh, we pulled over on a disused road to set up camp for the night. Just as we were about to start dinner, a man appeared seemingly from nowhere. He invited us to join him and his wife for dinner, so we followed him back to his small farm, tucked away in a dip on the hill. His wife appeared from a small hut, no more than a wooden frame covered in cloth and plastic. She was unfazed by her unexpected dinner guests; she just cleared a space for us in the hut and laid out tender cooked beef, homemade yoghurt, bread and honey. After food and lots of tea, it was time to milk the cows. It was fascinating to watch, having never witnessed it before. The milk was warm, and didn’t taste like the pasteurised stuff we get in the shop, but I was glad to try some. It would be left in the roof overnight to settle, and the cream would be skimmed off in the morning and made into yoghurt, which was just amazing with honey and warm bread! We camped in their yard overnight, soothed by the sounds of thunder and murmuring cattle. Simple pleasures with a lovely family.
Photo of the Week: Komodo Dragon, Indonesia, November 2013
While in Indonesia, we chartered a boat with a small group of friends so we could take a trip to the Komodo National Park, home of the infamous dragon! We wandered around Rinca with a guide, looking carefully in the forest to find any of the world’s largest (more…)
Photo of the Week: Permafrost Institute, Yakutsk, Russia – August 2013
Yakutsk in Russia has the coldest winter climate of any city in the world, and is built on ground that is permanently frozen all year round. It is the biggest city to be built on permafrost which obviously (more…)
Photo of the Week: Camping 4000m up in the Pamirs – June 2013
4000m up in the Pamir Mountains
What was to be the last night camping with Adam Lewis in Tajikistan, in a narrow valley near Rang Kul, approximately 50km from the Chinese border sheltering from the wind behind a rocky outcrop. Crystal clear sky gave way to a star filled night hundreds of kilometres from any source of light pollution. A top place to camp and take photos of the night sky.
If you want to know where in the world this is, click here: 38°26’10.0″N 74°10’52.6″E
Photo of the Week: Bishkek watercolours, June 2013
On our journey last year we spent a good deal of time in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek. While staying at the extremely friendly and comfortable Nomads Home, we met a group of French street artists (more…)
Photo of the Week: Journeyman, Germany, January 2013
Not long after leaving the UK we stopped in a German truck stop to make a hot coffee and to dry out our soaking rooftent (our last night on home turf was an extremely wet one). Not long after setting up, an extremely tall, strangely dressed gentleman named Andreas wandered over to say hello. (more…)
Photo of the week: Russian Altai, July 2013
We left Kazakhstan and crossed into the Russian Altai region on our way to Mongolia. Rather than head north to Barnaul and following the main road, we decided to cut east across the mountains by Sentelek and join the road south of Gorno-Altaysk. (more…)
Photo of the week: Cornwall, UK – July 2010
In the summer of 2010 we took a week off to walk along part of the 630-mile South West Coast Path, which runs along the entire coastline from Minehead in Somerset to Poole Harbour in Dorset. We took the train to St Ives in Cornwall and walked the 40 miles to Penzance and the mystical St Michael’s Mount. (more…)
Photo of the Week: Siberian seasons – September 2013
Autumnal Landscape, Siberia – Russia
On our way from Yakutsk to Magadan, we crossed several degrees of latitude. This meant we left summer and crossed into autumn/winter rapidly within a week. One day we would be among Birch trees in their full green and silver dress, the next we would be in awe of the many shades of red and gold shining out from amongst the endless pines. We would move north east, leaving (more…)
Photo of the Week: Fire Poi Performer, Gili Trawangan, Indonesia – November 2013
Fire Poi – Indo
We decided to stop in Indonesia for a much-needed rest while waiting for the rig to make it’s way to Australia. While in Bali, we were persuaded to visit the Gili Islands, a triplet of idyllic tropical islands and the epitome of paradise. One evening after a relaxing sunset stroll along the beach of Gili Trawangan, we walked past a restaurant with a resident fire poi performer. In between beers he wowed the diners with his moves and fascinated passers-by such as ourselves, all the while maintaining a quiet composure. It was not showy or over the top, just a silent yet dramatic backdrop to gourmet seafood and coconut drinks. We soaked up the serenity, before moving on to a much cheaper place for dinner!
Photo of the Week: Mirny Bison, Siberia – August 2013
Mirny Bison
On our way from Lensk to Yakutsk, we stopped in Mirny after an unfortunate event with our car window. What was meant to be an overnight stop turned into a five day sightseeing spree when we were invited to stay with a local policeman, Andrey (more about that in our next blog post). He took us to see the local ‘zoo’, which (more…)
Photo of the Week: Star Ferry, Hong Kong – October 2013
Star Ferry Passing – Hong Kong
The Star Ferry at Victoria Harbour is an institution in Hong Kong, and has been connecting Hong Kong Island with Kowloon since the Morning Star took it’s first passengers in the 1880’s. There are 9 Star ferries in the fleet now, plus a harbour tour. Although there is a road tunnel and a metro rail (more…)
Photo of the Week: Hammer & Sickle, Siberia – 2013
Yukutia Village, Siberia – Russia
You see a lot of ‘Hammer and Sickle’ symbolism around Russia, especially in Siberia where whole communities, towns and even cities formed under communist leadership. This one was probably the biggest one we saw outside of cities. Usually they are tied in with town or city names as you enter the outskirts but this one was in a small town with very few people present. I like it because it is simple and stands bold. For me, in a town like this in deepest Siberia it no longer represents communism but the unification of industry and agriculture and people working together to better their future.
Photo of the Week: West African Forest Elephants
My recent move to Lightroom 5 has opened up opportunities to improve on previous photos shot with outdated technology. This trio of shots was taken in Burkina Faso whilst mapping National Parks for the MAPA Project. We stumbled upon this group of elephants at a watering hole and I had to work quick to get these shots. It was my first encounter with elephants and the second photo clearly shows that this elephant wasn’t happy about my close proximity. I moved back into the bush as the group slowly left the watering hole and disappeared into the forest.
Griff’s Photo Shop – 2014 Relaunch
It has been 10 months since the initial launch of the photo shop on our website. At the time there were only a select few photos on display and as we were on the road we didn’t have much control over what we could offer. The best we could do was to email a high resolution copy for you to sort out yourselves. For the tech savvy this wasn’t a problem, maybe only a minor inconvenience. Now that we are in Australia and I have finally sorted out 95% of the photos we have taken over 2013 (from over 7000 images) we can finally get some control back…
Photo of the Week: Highland Cattle – Lake District, England 2012
Highland Cattle – Lake District, England
We had just driven a tight technical climb with washed out gullies deep in the Lake District when we came across this sedate beast just over the crest. It must have been as funny for him as it was us. Six Land Rovers stopping and taking photos for five minutes then driving off again. ‘The Lakes’ offers superb views and vistas for photographers, usually with foreboding skies which can help with subjects like this.
A great place to visit for a long weekend greenlaning, just don’t go in the summer holidays, the place gets packed out.
Photo of the Week: Monaco Dreamin’ 2009
Lisa out and about in Monaco
During our 2009 trip to the French/Italian Alps we thought it would be rude not to hang around Monaco for a few days. We spent some time following the F1 track, drinking coffee in the harbour and generally a lot of ‘window shopping’.
As I went to set this shot up of Lisa crossing the street this Ferrari popped out. Framed nicely with the La Poste sign this is one of my favourites from the trip.
2014 Expedition Portal Calender Winners
Good news folks, we got two of two submitted images into the 2014 Expedition Portal Calender Competition. I didn’t post anything here on our website but I did put a link on our Facebook page during voting. Thank you to everyone that voted, appreciated. (more…)
Photo of The Week: Corbiere, Jersey UK 2012
Last year, for my birthday Lisa took me away for a long weekend on Jersey. It was a surprise, I didn’t know where we were going until we got to Gatwick Airport. Before we left I was advised to take all my photography gear with me. What would I need? I didn’t know.
After arriving at our hotel we made a plan of things to do. This included a visit to Corbiere Lighthouse on the west of the island for sunset. I spent hours taking different compositions in fading light before returning to the hotel.
It was another great weekend away that produced another favorite photo of mine.
Western Kazakhstan Transit | Star Trail Photography
Wild-camping on the Desert Steppe
Three nights across the western Kazakh Steppe wild-camping in glorious weather allowed me the time to try out a few ND Grad filters and test out the long exposures required for star trail photography. Our transit to Uzbekistan was quicker than anticipated as we passed by hundreds of kilometres of nothing. We stopped briefly in Atyrau to get some cash and food taking the opportunity to register while there.
Pentax ME Super test roll returned…
So I picked up the test roll today from Protographique in town, very pleased with the results. I initially loaded a roll or Kodak Ultra 400 but I left the motorwinder on in my backpack and, well, it ripped through almost 20 frames so I decided to not get it processed.
Lisa
Griff
Sirocco Overland | Сирокко Оверленд 