Another 4 ancient cities done - no more diving yet but a good beach at Elafonissi
October 12, 2009
October 09, 2009
Hania, crete
Another sunset from another hotel balcony - this time in Hania
October 07, 2009
sunset from kea
From the hotel balcony
Kea footpath number 3
The long one - most of the length of the island over the central mountains to Karthia ancient city. 8 hours walking there and back!
October 06, 2009
The end of path 1
reached the sea!
October 05, 2009
kea footpah no 1
walking across the mountains
on the way to Kea
the ferry from Lavrio to Kea
October 03, 2009
September 27, 2009
Pulau Anambas, Indonesia
A few photos from last week's diving trip
September 13, 2009
diving in Aur
beutiful weather in Aur, some good dives and acting as a divemaster for first time - hard work!!
September 06, 2009
Gent Festival
Managed to arrange it so that I could join Gwyneth on her annual trip to the Gent Festival.
This is a sort of urban festival - with many musical stages in city squares mostly featuring some very bad music although there are some gems.
The weekend is mostly about shopping, eating, shopping, eating and the occasional jazz band.
The highlight has to be if you can crack the coded messages an find the Stroat Ensemble - a crazy experience that cannot be described - only experienced. See picture to right and click below for more.
Stroat ensemble Web Site - yes I know it is written in "forn"
Sangat, Philippines
A really great weekend organized thanks to Lars to Sangat off the island of Busuanga in the Philippines.
Sangat is surrounded by about 13 WWII Japanese wrecks - with a maximum depth of about 42M this makes for some really excellant diving.
The resort itself is really well run and a pleasure to visit - see :
Sangat Resort Web Page
Blue Mountains
A weekend in Sydney for work. I managed one day of skydiving but the weather was not good on Sunday - so I managed to find a long, winding dirt road through the blue mountains. Since I was in a unsuitable hire car and did not have a map - I thought that I would take that route. It was a stunning trip - including wallabies and a kangeroo jumping alongside the car for a bit.
I finished up in Katoomba at a very nice cafe - whose name I cannot remember now which is not much use :) Then a quick rush for the airport it was a good day.
As usual - click on the picture below.
St Anton
In February, I spent a week Skiing in St Anton.
The snow was very very excellant - and about 1 meter fell while I was there ... powder :) So much snow that Gwyneth almost did not get through on the train.
As usual - click below
Similan Diving
I took a trip in January on board the Black Manta to the Similan Islands in Thailand for some diving.
This was about the best diving trip I have ever been on. There is an impressive amount of wildlife - including Leopard sharks and lots of Manta - as well the more lethal types of fish and lots more besides.
As usual - click on the picture below to access lots of pictures.
December 13, 2008
York, Western Australia
I made a weekend trip to York (where there is a dropzone) since I was desperate for some jumps.
It was a wonderful weekend with perfect weather and lots of jumps. I stayed at the DZ for two days and then stayed overnight in York. Since it was Hari Raya Aidilfitri (or Aed) I had Monday off. I took my time getting back to Perth for a late flight - exploring the Hills east of Perth.
York is the oldest inland town in WA and is on the banks of the Avon river. It is a nice, quiet country town and I really enjoyed spending a night there, even if the restaurants did stop serving at 8:00!
Some pictures if you click on the following thumbnail
November 25, 2008
Australian Birds
Especially for Gwyneth, Pictures from Fitzroy gardens Melbourne and the Botanical Gardens Sydney.
Now updated with some birds from York, Western Australia.
November 23, 2008
Still Down Under
In Sydney for the second weekend of the trip. The weather gods are upset with me this weekend - very cold, very wet and very very windy.
So - no fun this weekend either but I did have a relaxing time wandering the streets of Sydney and in the Botanical Gardens and the Domain. Managed to get some Xmas shopping done - anyway :)
Heading back to Singapore today.
November 16, 2008
Weekends Downunder
Spent the weekend in Melbourne on a business trip. I was going to do some skydiving but the gods of the air were not on my side and that did not work out.
So - I have really spent the weekend wandering around and not doing very much. After shopping and eating - I spent some time relaxing in Fitzroy park - which is a very nice city park with an amazing Conservatory and the actual cottage that Captain Cook's parents built - transported to Melbourne in 1930's (transported - there is a word with a history :).
Nice Place
November 08, 2008
Diving Pictures
Someone dangerously asked if I have any diving pictures and since I was posting them on Facebook - I thought that I would go the whole hog.
These are from a trip in 2006 in Tioman.
As usual - click on the following picture to see more and more and more ...
October 18, 2008
Greek Island Hoping
October 2008 - we went back to Greece. This time we did some island hoping.
Starting from Athens - we took the early morning flight to Mykonos from the ever efficient Aegean Airlines (they differentiate themselves from Olympic by actually running flights!).
Mykonos was bright and brash and full of international shops and expensive restaurants. It was also full of cruise ship passengers - 3 or 4 ships a day even at the end of the season. When the two big italian ships were in port we had to take refuge in a nice cafe there were so many people about. That said - it was actually very nice at the right time of day (about 7:30 in the morning).
The main reason for going to Mykonos was to get to Delos - which we did. The guidebooks say that 2 hours is a good visit time for Delos. I cannot see this myself- there is so much to see. We took two days!! That did include the little visited stadium and a long trip around the museum - also two trips to the Grotto which is Mycenean in my very humble opinion!
From Mykonos - we went to Naxos by catamaran. Naxos is nice, quiet and has an old town and castle that I could explore for days. It is also a very large Island and we spent a whole day driving around temples and sites.
Leaving Naxos was harder than we thought - we were booked on the cat to Iraklio but that was cancelled due to bad weather - so the next day we took the Blue Star ferry to Thera and changed to the cat there. The ferry was a blessing - modern,fast and very stable. The Cat frm Thera should why you should not take cats if you are at all seasick - as we left Thera across the deep water to Crete the swell deepened and the boat took on an impressive wallowing motion at high speed. Result - everybody on the boat was sick (except me - of course - thanks to the famous Harwood Iron stomach). Particularly impressive was the tour group from Singapore - I have never seen any group as miserable as them when they left the boat!!
Final - we spent some days back at Zakros - which has been mentioned in this blog before. Click on the thumbnails for the pictures.
Starting from Athens - we took the early morning flight to Mykonos from the ever efficient Aegean Airlines (they differentiate themselves from Olympic by actually running flights!).
Mykonos was bright and brash and full of international shops and expensive restaurants. It was also full of cruise ship passengers - 3 or 4 ships a day even at the end of the season. When the two big italian ships were in port we had to take refuge in a nice cafe there were so many people about. That said - it was actually very nice at the right time of day (about 7:30 in the morning).
The main reason for going to Mykonos was to get to Delos - which we did. The guidebooks say that 2 hours is a good visit time for Delos. I cannot see this myself- there is so much to see. We took two days!! That did include the little visited stadium and a long trip around the museum - also two trips to the Grotto which is Mycenean in my very humble opinion!
From Mykonos - we went to Naxos by catamaran. Naxos is nice, quiet and has an old town and castle that I could explore for days. It is also a very large Island and we spent a whole day driving around temples and sites.
Leaving Naxos was harder than we thought - we were booked on the cat to Iraklio but that was cancelled due to bad weather - so the next day we took the Blue Star ferry to Thera and changed to the cat there. The ferry was a blessing - modern,fast and very stable. The Cat frm Thera should why you should not take cats if you are at all seasick - as we left Thera across the deep water to Crete the swell deepened and the boat took on an impressive wallowing motion at high speed. Result - everybody on the boat was sick (except me - of course - thanks to the famous Harwood Iron stomach). Particularly impressive was the tour group from Singapore - I have never seen any group as miserable as them when they left the boat!!
Final - we spent some days back at Zakros - which has been mentioned in this blog before. Click on the thumbnails for the pictures.
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September 21, 2008
Leaving Istanbul
July 1 - I left Istanbul and the bird who has been nesting outside my bathroom came to say goodbye.
It is a wrench to leave Istanbul - I really enjoyed living there.
Efes One Love
The last weekend in Istanbul was taken up with the Efes OneLove festival in central Istanbul. On the line up were Gogol Bordello, the famous Turkish psychobelly amenuensis Baba Zula and Shantel - a real Gypsy Punk feast. I have pictures - click on the thumbnail - and videos.(hint -to see the videos in larger format double click on the name or the video)
Sorry about the sound quality!
Bozcaada
A farewell visit to Bozcaada (Tenedos) before I leave. It actually made an easier weekend trip than I expected - I should have done it more. I mainly spent my time enjoying and buying the wine and eating at the restaurants. There were a lot of cats! Click on the thumbnail below for the pictures.
Hasan Keyf and Diyarbakir
The way home from Mardin was down to the Syrian border in the valley - along the border almost as far as Iraq and then up through the hills to the Tigris valley at Hasankeyf.
Hasankeyf is an ancient fort, religous place and crossing point. It seems that you were not anybody in the ancient world unless you built a crossing at Hasankeyf. After lunch on a chaibench in the river, I went on to Diyarbakr - the Kurdish "capital" for a quick look at the walls and to buy a carpet before catching the plane home.
This area is "open to tourists" despite the ongoing "difficulties" in Iraq. However - there were three army road blocks on the roads and a lot of serious looking people with sub-machne guns!
Mardin
Another trip - this time to the Southeast of Turkey around Mardin and Diyarbakr (the second part is in a seperate post).
Mardin is an ancient silk road city (ninevah is just across the Iraq border - which is only about 20 miles away). It is a stone built gem in the hills overlooking the arid plains of Syria and Iraq. Full of old mosques and madrassas although it does get a high number of turkish tourists. One feature is that the old fort at the top of the hill cannot be visited - it is also a current Turkish army fort full (one assumes) of high tech monitoring gear. This is Kurdish and Arabic country - and my minimal Turkish was of no use (no-one would admit to speaking Turkish :). Lots of piccies if you click on the thumbnail below
Team Building
There was a team building event at Abant Lakes in Anatolia. This is a beautiful part of Turkey - although it is cold at night because of the altitude (and no-one told me :). There was the usual gungho team building - in this case the build a raft version. Luckily for our team - no-one in Turkey has heard of punting and that gave us a real advantage:)
Hattusa
June 2008 - One of a series of weekend trips around Turkey before I left so me driving to Bogazkale in Anatolia - the site of the Hittite Capital Hattusa.
There are some amazing remains- a whole city of temples and palaces spread out across a hill and some nearby stone figures. The village is also a nice place to spend a weekend - quiet, rural and very Anatolian. I also took the Long Way Home and explored some of the countryside around Ankara - thanks in part to a loan of a GPS from Marco. Turkish maps have some peculiarities and the GPS does not know the difference between a motorway and a goat track (yes - it did tell me with increasing urgency that I should turn right on that goat track!).There are whole ranges of hills gleaming red in the sunset that you only ever see if with the help and support of GPS.
As usual - click on the picture below and you will oodles more.
International Skydiving
March 08 was a good skydiving month. Some fortunate timings meant that I had the opportunity to join a jump from a Mil 08 helicopter in Segamat Malaysia. Then I joined the Georgia Skydivers in Skydive the Farm, Atlanta for their 4-way event.
Click the thumbnail for a few pictures - but even better (for me :) there are four videos of me skydiving. We were pretty bad - even for a scratch team. To see me - watch for the yellow arms and blue body. I have linked to three of the vidoes (click on the text) and embedded the best.
First Video - I was not so good
Second Video - we got it together towards the end
Jump 4 was a mess
The best was jump 3
Click the thumbnail for a few pictures - but even better (for me :) there are four videos of me skydiving. We were pretty bad - even for a scratch team. To see me - watch for the yellow arms and blue body. I have linked to three of the vidoes (click on the text) and embedded the best.
First Video - I was not so good
Second Video - we got it together towards the end
Jump 4 was a mess
The best was jump 3
Jackson Hole
Feb 2008 - A second trip to Jackson Hole. This time there was more and better snow than I have ever seen - meters and meters of white powder :)
This picture is the top of the Corbet's Couloir. I did not have the nerve to do this one - although I did do Alta chute :)
Pictures if you click on the thumbnail below - including the tracks of some of the most impressive wipeouts I have ever done.
January 09, 2008
Penzance for Xmas
Spent Xmas in Penzance with Gwyneth. Stayed at the Egyptian House as before and the highlights included the imprtant (and final) parts of the Montol festival with the appearance of Penglaz (or Obby Oss) and being selected to Mark the Moke. Also being able to finally visit the whole of St Michael's Mount since they decided on a bit of winter opening.
Thanks for all the brilliant pressies :)
January 08, 2008
January 06, 2008
Another trip to Crete
In October, I went back to Crete with Gwyneth. We hired a car this time to get to some less accessible areas (nick named "the pram" since it was a tiny Kia but it managed to get across the mountians and some crazy roads) and we said for the whole week at Kato Zakros on the East Coast.
Kato Zakros is a very quiet village at the end of the road and is a really excellant place to spend an interesting week.
We spent most of the time sitting on beaches and eating with some additional visits to minoan and other sites.
Photos ... for those who wan to see ...
September 24, 2007
A stormy Black Sea beach
Ok - so I did not get to the actual Black Sea last weekend. This time I took advice and was recommended Ağva about 100 Km northwest of Istanbul.
The weather was attrocious - it was overcast in Istanbul but it was the sort of rain that overwhelms the windscreen wipers in Ağva.
I set out on the road to Şila - which is a reasonable mainroad. Just past Şila the road abruptly and without (any) warning turns into a narrow and twisting mountain road - with cows wandering about and more hairpins that barbers hsop. It wsa wet, windy muddy so, of course, I went into rally driver mode :) Luckily - I survived.
I spent a happy half hour in the cutpark watching the torrential rain sweeping across the beach - a happy English holiday habit - before making a run for the end of the pier and the shelter at the end. The Black Sea is surprisingly warm and (if there was less rain) I would have gone paddling.
After lunch at the harbour restaurant, I headed home and saw a sign for the coast road (and yes - I did manage to translate coast road in Turkish :). Stunning vies and curiously Irısh approach to road improvement (one minute two lane blacktop - the next a rutted farm track).
Finally I stopped in Şila which turned out to be a pleasant fishing town.
As usual - click on the picture below to see more :
September 21, 2007
Bridges of Istanbul
Sitting home - watching the view from my window and indulging a recent discovered taste for Philip Glass
September 16, 2007
Wandering the Bosphorous
Never having been up the Bosphorous towards the Black Sea I decide to explore and just drove until I ran out of road - although actually checking the maps I could have gone further I had known the way.
It is amazing just how short the distance is between the shiny skyscrapers of Levent and the (almost) countryside!
A few pictures from Rumelli Kavaği
Atlanta, Georgia
I had a business trip to Atlanta and being me - rather than explore the city over the weekend I had a couple of brilliant days jumping out of planes!
The place was Skydive the farm about 50 Km from Atlanta and the setting and the people were fantastic. The arrangements are a little difficult - since you have to get a bus to the airfield and the dropzone is surrounded by trees which can certainly concentrate the mind on landing on the dz :) However - this has to count as the friendliest DZ I have been to. On my first day I was already in a 10 way :)
August 06, 2007
July 29, 2007
July 15, 2007
Assos and the Troad
Another birthday passes and still only 21 (!).
We took a long weekend and drove West from Istnabul via the new fast ferry to Bursa to Assos.
Assos is a village built and off the remains of classical and Alexandrian town and is very evocative as well as relatively unspoilt. Most of the Temple of Athena has been taken to other places - such as Istanbul, Berlin and London. However - the acropolis with an unrivalled view of Lesbos is still a wonderfull place to be first thing in the morning. We stayed at the Assos Evi - one of the small guesthouses (which prefer the name boutique hotels these days). It was very quite and relaxed and I would recommend it to anyone.
Whilst there we also visited classical Pergammon and Troy before spending a day on Bozcaada (classical Tenedos). It was amazing just how evocative of Homer Troy really is and there is more than enough there for a good days visit if you wanted and could stand the tour parties. Not pictures from Troy since it has all been done before.
Bozcaada made a good wind down and is a nice small town and beach. The Venetian / Otoman castle is huge but largely empty. The harbour is a delight and the old greek town fun. However - it is very much a tourist place if mostly Turkish tourists weekending out of Istanbul and Izmir.
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July 03, 2007
Ephesus
Since there too much wind at the dropzone this weekend I managed to visit the traditional sites of Ephesus - the Roman city and the Temple of Cybele / Artemis / Diana.
Some Pictures are attached as usual.
June 20, 2007
Iznik and Bursa
A few pictures from a weekend trip to Iznik and Bursa just looking around really.
Iznik was historic Nicea (as in the Council of Nicea and the Nicean creed). It is a really pleasant and very sleepy little town next to a lake in the mountains - still with its town walls and many ruins. Nothing amazing but so pleasant I spent more time there than I intended.
Bursa is a much bigger place but still with some interesting stuff in the centre. However - the main attraction is Uludağ - the mountain behind Bursa. There is a complex of two consecutive cable cars and an ancient chair lift to get up the moutain from the city - which was fun - and in winter there is a ski resort at the top (although having seen this is summer I am sure that the ski resort in Dubai is bigger and that is in a shopping centre!).
Click the following
Rafting the Coruh
The Çoruh is one of the top 10 rafting rivers in the world and one of the fastest. It rips along at a healthy 10 kph and in the Yusifeli gorge you can see the gradient on the river!
There are a number of grade 5 rapids and an even bigger number of grade 4s :)
This was a trip organised by alterntif with one boat with 7 people (including Vedat) and two safety kayaks run by Hakim and Diaa. The other people were Ben and Paal (Australia and Norway respectfully) and Zafer, Eren and Nedim from Istanbul.
We had four unbelievable days of rafting and three nights of camping in the most appalingly bad weather - o well you can not have everything.
Click the following for my picture.
Best Piccıes My Piccies Ben's Piccies Paal's Piccies
Skiing in Jackson Hole
One week a the end of March and there was still powder falling for some of the week - even if the off pıste was mostly off snow as well.
Wonderful way to spend easter!
Also spent a day on a wıldlife (mostly buffalo and Elk) safari to keep Gwyneth quiet. They do have a lot of very large animals in Wyoming - and I am not just talking about Harison Ford.
Definately a place to go back to.
Click the following for the slideshow
November 19, 2006
On Holiday in Crete
We went on holiday to east Crete - primarily Gwyneth's choice since she likes Crete and loves wandering around Minoan ruins.
The route was pretty much Iraklion -> Ierapetra -> Kato Zakros - > Sitia - > Iraklion. We travelled by bus and very good the buses were; fast, clean and cheap.
The highlights were - every thing to do with Kato Zakros which is a beutifull, quite (at least in October) and friendly little village at the East end of Crete with a glorious Beach and a small gorge if you are feeling more exciting. Also, Ierapetra was surprising nice for a mainly agricultural center and Iraklion is obviously heading towards being one of the nicer capitals in Europe.
There were a lot of photos from this trip - so I have one set (click on the thunbnail below - for the holidayish stuff and another further down for the hardcore Minoan stuff
This was my first time visiting Minoan ruins and I was surprised at just how much of the sites there actually is. Some of the sites are huge and there are genuine buildings and streets and even a small swimming pool.
Knossos is impressive but Gournia is much more fun - since it a complete town and much more plebeian. Of the sites - Founou Korifi near Ierapetra is the most atmospheric (I really did get the feeling you could see people living there) and Zakros is best situatıon and very well preseverved.
İf you want to see which is which in the following slide set - just click on the slide and see the details. There is a link in most of descriptions to site (ı.e. web) that has a lot of information about the sıte (i.e. minoan).
September 18, 2006
Sisters of Mercy
It makes a change to be living some where that has real festivals!
Istanbul recently has the Rock'n'Coke festival (music and drink respectively I think not a massive coccaine plug!). This was just ouside Istanbul (hezarfen) which meant that I was able to stay at home and day trip in - thus avoiding the need to camp with 10,000 young turkish women in the sweaty heat ... I really must be getting old :)
The line up was mostly British - which seems to fit with modern Turkeys obsession with the country (EPL, cars i.e. landies, shops etc) - with a few locals and at least one New York / Ukrainian band (Gogol Bordello - one of the main reasons that I went).
Gogol Borello where just amazing - even better live than recorded and so much energy. Unfortunately - I did not think to take my camera when I was atching them .....
Also on Saturday were Kasabian - who were fun in a sort of cliched english rock and bad clothes sort of way but definately bouncable - and Muse who were extrememly cliched in a British art school sort of way and I am afraid I walked out on them. Grumpy old git ..
The main reason for going on Sunday for me was Sisters of Mercy - well Andy Eldritch, the drum machine, distinctly ropey guitarist and some guy who may have used to be in ZZ Top according to someone my grrlfriend spoke to once.
The vocals were variable - could be something to do with the fact that he cannot last a song without a fag - but he still has it occasionally. Also - some idiot put them on before dark - sisters don't do afternoon! - and they got a lot better when the sun went down. Immense fun alround.
There were also some prancers called Placebo - but they sounded dodgy and I was too busy on the other stage with an outfit called Hyper (DJ + Live) who does the most amazing version of Adam Ant - ant music even better than the original. I haven't moved the old bod in that way since I was considerable younger (I am not sure that young istanbuli have ever seen the beez before).
The pictures are from the Sisters set
I also experiemented with my camera recording video - this is the best one
and a few more ..
Dont know why I have tried this before
Canyoning in Hells Canyon
One day of the trip I went for canyoning expedition down Hells Canyon that feeds into the Dalaman river.
The trip was guided by Vedat from AlternatifOutdoor - this canyon is not reachable without support. Vedat does this himself about once a year but the last time he took this trip with a group was about 5 years ago and he does not think that anyone else comes this way.
The group was me, Vedat, Jack from New York, Jenni and Fred (?) and Aise from Istanbul. We set of by Landy to the top of the mountain and then hiked in down the old path that was used before the road (track!) was put into the villages. This path is not used any more - as we discovered when we got to the bottom where we needed to cross the only bridge to get into the canyon. The bridge was still there - just - but looked like a scene from Indiana Jones and since no one of us where heroes we abseiled in instead (more fun :). Most of the way down was rough scree - which was interesting as well.
From there - it was a scramble done the canyon floor around and over boulders and other rocks. More abseiling in places and some very adventurous leaps and jumps. As we got deeper - the canyon got more sheer - at points it must have been about 10 feet wide and 1000 feet deep with sheer walls. There must be some amazing climbing and abseiling on those walls.
We also started to encounter water - deep, cold, clear pools as we traversed the water hewn native rock. At some places the pools were 20 feet deep and 100 feet long and we had to swim for it - baking hot to ice cold to baking hot :).
Overall the canyon took about 8 hours of non stop scrambling and swimming with only brief stops for wonderfull packed rations provided by vedat (bread cheese tomatoes cucumber peaches and deep frozen peach juice). We emerged beaten and bruised for about 1 hour of hard rafting to get back to the base (and a lot of swimming).
Amazing!
A few pictures posted below - but my camera ran ouot of power at the begining so I am hoping to get some pictures from the others.
On The Silk Road
- The trip has been divided up into the following albums (click on the text - not the pictures). Back to Travelling Runes
Malaca with Mark
- A weekend with Mark and Al on their way back from the wilds of the Australian outback to the UK. Eating and drinking were the main activities - but there was time for some shopping and a beach. Back to Travelling Runes
