Category Archives: Photography

A visit to the West McDonnell Ranges of Central Australia

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My younger son Felix and I visited relatives in Australia in July last year. In the last week of our trip, I took Felix to the “red centre” of Australia to explore some of the spectacular desert and mountain scenery. I have visited central Australia a number of times when I was younger, with trips to Alice Springs and Uluru (Ayers Rock), Katherine Gorge and the Arnhem Land Escarpment. Felix is an Australian by descent, but had never visited the centre before.

We flew from Brisbane to Alice Springs to spend ten days in the Northern Territory. We hired a four-wheel drive car for a week, and spent our first day exploring Alice Springs. We then spent a day in the West MacDonnell Ranges, driving 140 km west of Alice Springs and visiting some of the many spectacular gaps and gorges as well as areas of Aboriginal significance.

Simpson’s Gap, 24km from Alice Springs. The rock walls are home to the rare and endangered Black-footed Rock Wallaby. Felix managed to spot one when he was scrambling around.
Standley Chasn is a 25 minute walk along a natural creek bed from the road head, through acaciasm cycads and ghost gums, until the dramatic 80m sheer rockfaces of the Chasm are reached.
MacDonnell Ranges in the distance
The Dryland Feather-Head (Ptilotus xerophilus) was only recognized as a separate species restricted to central and western Australian in 2019, distinct from a similar eastern Australian species.
Although they rise only 400-500 metres from the surrounding mulga scrub, the highest peak in the McDonnells, Mount Giles) is Australia’s 3rd highest mountain above sea level, at 1,389m.
The Ochre Pits is an Aboriginal sacred site. The rock walls are covered with layers of red, yellow and white ochre.It provides material traditionally uised for ceremonies and trading.
Ormiston Gorge is 136 km from Alice Springs and contains a quite large semi-permanent waterhole. A great place for a swim on a hot day.
Felix and I at Ormiston Gorge

We drove a little further on from Ormiston Gorge to the Finke River crossing, then turned back to head to Alice Springs, stopping on the way at Serpentine Gorge and Ellery Creek Big Hole. I have to say, despite the spectacular beauty of the places we had already visited, I was blown away by Serpentine Gorge. We climbed a steep path to the top of the eastern wall of the gorge, and the views in all directions were stunning. Felix and I saw another rare Black-Footed Wallaby quite close to us on a rock near the rim of the cliff.

Serpentine Gorge
View south from Serpentine Gorge
Me on the rim of the gorge, and the view towards the west.
Ellery Creek Big Hole
Ellery Creek Big Hole

To be continued…..as we head south west towards Kings Canyon.

Memories of Angkor Wat – 1995

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In March 1995, I spent two weeks in Cambodia and was able to make a visit to Angkor Wat. At that time, the Khmer Rouge were still active. As part of the peace process following the civil war of the 1980s, the UN-sponsored elections in 1993. The Khmer Rouge excluded itself from the peace process and maintained control of areas in northwestern Cambodia, in the provinces of Battambang and Siem Reap (where Angkor Wat was located), and neighbouring Thailand. Its forces numbered around 10,000 fighters and were able to extend Khmer Rouge control to more than half a million Cambodians, four times as many as before the peace accords. During the dry season in late 1994 and early 1995, the Khmer Rouge adopted new tactics, including the murder of civilians, the systematic destruction of civilian homes and rice fields, looting, rape and the kidnapping and murder of Westerners.

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Skiing in the French Alps

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I spent the first week of January at Les Gets in the French Alps during the unseasonal spring weather. No snow and no lifts running. We drove 20 minutes further up the valley to ski on two-week old heavy wet snow at Avoriaz, and a couple of days it was even raining on the snow. A taste of what global warming has in store for us.

Over the last week, it has snowed heavily on the mountains around Geneva, and in Geneva itself. So my younger son and I went up to Les Gets for the day and had a wonderful day skiing on fairly fresh snow in brilliant sunshine. The temperature was about -6 C when we got there about 9.30 am and rose to a little above zero in the middle of the day in the sunshine. Here are some photos.

My son is ready for a day skiing
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Winter surfing on the Sunshine Coast

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I returned to Australia with my son in late June this year. Our first trip back since the pandemic started. We stayed with my sister, who lives in Noosa on the Queensland Sunshine Coast. It was winter there, but Queensland winters are mild by European standards. We surfed at Sunshine Beach a number of times and thoroughly enjoyed it. Ocean temperature was on the cool side at 19-20 degrees C, but it was colder out of the water with air temperatures around 15-17 degrees and usually with a sea breeze.

Sunshine Beach life saver on duty

Most days there were a handful of people in the surf. On the day the photo above was taken, there were only two others in the water. The lifeguard was sitting in the truck. He did use his loudhailer twice to chastise my son, who was outside the flags and too far out.

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Christmas skiing in the Swiss Alps

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A couple of days before Christmas, my younger son invited me to join him for a day skiing in the Swiss Alps.  Champéry lies in a side valley of the Rhone valley under the Dents du Midi (“Teeth of Noon”) mountain range. I’d last skied there years ago (see earlier post). At less than a day’s notice, I rang the hotel he was staying at and booked a room for the night. The hotels and the ski slopes were half empty because of the Covid travel bans, particularly for the many British who had planned ski holidays in Switzerland and nearby France.

Les Dents du Midi (Teeth of the Noon)
My son at around 2000 m with the Dents du Midi behind him.
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Some mushrooms found in the woods of the Netherlands

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I have just returned from a week in the Netherlands. I spent five days at a retreat in the woods of Lage Vuursche, situated south of Amsterdam not too far from Utrecht. Wandering in the woods, I came across some beautiful mushrooms and fungi. I had not brought a camera on this trip, but took these photos using my phone.

Shaggy ink caps (Coprinus comatus)
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Spring in the time of coronavirus

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Its been an odd spring in Geneva with days of sunshine interspersed between days of rain. After a slow start, 63% of the population have now received at least one dose of COVID19 vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna) and restrictions have been somewhat relaxed. People are now emerging from isolation and gathering together again in restaurants, bars and at the beaches around the lake. The bees are also out and about and I took a few photos of them in the backyard yesterday.

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New Year skiing in the Swiss Alps

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Switzerland has kept its ski resorts open while all neighbouring countries closed. Hardly surprising that 4,200 British skiers turned up for the Christmas-New Year period just after the new faster spreading covid-19 virus took British new cases through the roof at exponential speed. The Swiss then imposed a retrospective quarantine on the British visitors after they arrived, and almost all of them snuck out during the night and left. Left a lot of anti-British feeling behind.

I and my boys are of like mind that it would be madness to go to one of the major resorts like Verbier, where many British go. Likely the people there are now incubating new infections. But my neighbours packed their car and head up to Verbier today, confident the virus left with the British. I’ve spent a number of New Years at Verbier, particularly back in the noughties (2000-2009) during part of which I rented a studio apartment in Verbier so I could go up for weekends and longer holidays whenever I wanted. Here are some photos from those days.

Two parapenters fly above the mountains at Verbier

View from the top of Mont Fort (3330 m). The three peaks on the horizon from l.to.r are Dent Blanche (4356 m), Matterhorn (4478 m in niddle) and Dent d’Hérens (4171 m)

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