Category: Travel

Day 21 San Quintin to Ensenada

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San Quintin to Ensenada.

I had the opportunity finally, for some serious photography from our balcony and on the beach this morning.  Nearly missed the lovely colourful sunrise due to time changes messing with my timing.

Another lovely ride though the hills then a long straight stretch, still up rather high so cool.  Passed through another agriculture area.

There’s a huge military presence in the Baja.  Stopped at about 5 checkpoints on the way south and passed through another couple which were unmanned.  They’re looking for drugs and guns.  Sometimes the first couple of bikes were inspected and other times we were just waved through.

We’ve been passing a number of Off-road racing vehicles heading south to prepare for the Baja 1000.  After seeing some of the areas they’ll be racing through it would be fantastic to watch.

We had the best spicy shredded beef tacos for lunch at El Trailero, a very popular place in Ensenada.  You order your food, get a drink, then pay after you have eaten.  Works well, great turnaround but I do have to wonder if everyone pays?

Got in a little souvenir shopping this arvo at Ensenada and then a little quiet time before our farewell dinner.

Sunrise from our room

Military Escort

Ensenada Food Stall

A popular street food stall

Full ute load Ensenada

Fully loaded ute

Day 22 Ensenada to Los Angeles

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Our Last Day. 

And so it comes to an end, the last day of our tour today with our final ride from Ensenada to Los Angeles.

We headed to the border via the  Valley of Guadalupe and the wine making region. Mexican wines are growing in quality and becoming a trend among wine enthusiasts.  Stopped for a break at a Government run wine museum, Museo de la Vid Y El Vino, which would have been interesting if the information was written in English instead of Spanish.  Onward to the town of Tecate and the border crossing, much quieter here than Tijuana.  Within 15 mins we were all through and it was not long before we were once again heading down a mountain range with all of it’s twisties (our tour guides term for the winding roads and switchbacks).

 

 

Fences here are usually made out of big sticks here it’s wooden pallets.

Colourful garden pots and assorted ornaments

Just one of California’s concrete freeways

 

Day 6 Loreto to La Paz

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Day 6 on the Bikes.  

Lovely drive through the mountains and along the coast, the Sea of Cortez to be precise, for a while today.  Temperature unusual, really cold and then really warm a minute later, didn’t matter if we were in the sun or the shade or right on the water it could be hot or cold.  Next up we had about 50km of thick fog to ride through, we could see it in the distance but didn’t realise at first what it was.  From the fog and beyond it was desert so we did’t miss seeing any sights.

Overnight at La Paz, now the capital of Baja (previously Loreto) is a busy industrial hub. Silver mining, agriculture, fishing and pearls.  We stayed the night in a hotel a few km out of town opposite the marina and had a lovely evening watching the cruisers go by.

Early morning light as we leave Loreto

Another day another mountain pass

Golf course at La Paz

A sky full of Magnificent Frigatebirds

 

 

Day 7 La Paz to Cabo San Lucas

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Day 7 on the Bikes

We took a wrong turn this morning but I was happy as we had passed by an area with lots of cactus and the Turkey Vultures were drying their wings so Andy slowed down for me on the way back so I could capture a shot.  Quite atmospheric with the low cloud around.

Morning tea rest stop was at a little town called El Triunfo.  They had a great character coffee shop down Harley Davidson Drive  and a music museum.

Lunch saw us in the artist community of Todos Santos, which has a number of art galleries and lots of souvenir shopping.  Silver is a big thing here so there is a number of shops selling everything silver.  We ate lunch at the Hotel California.  I believe that the band The Eagles have filed a lawsuit against the hotel for leading people to believe that they inspired the bands biggest hit.  They have a huge souvenir shop which gets a lot of sales.

Spent the night at Bahia Hotel Beach Club a block back from the beach and a room overlooking the pool. The beach front is full of resorts or restaurant which each have an exclusive bit of beach.  Trying to upload a photo of this below but current wi-fi is not letting me.  Lots of people down here for sunset, drinking games etc.  Dinner at La Dolce Italian Restaurant which served up the most beautiful food and we were looked after by the owner (a friend of our van driver).


Turkey Vultures on the cactus

The restrooms at Hotel California Todos Santos were quirky

The Mission at El Triunfo

Lots of little eateries on the side of the road, lots closed down also

 

Day 1 on the Bikes LA to Ensenada

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We picked up our Harley Davidson Electroglide along with our other Baja tour members on Sunday morning.  A straight run down the freeway  and crossed the border into Mexico at about noon.  Starting to heat up about 35 degrees.

We had our first Mexican meal at this great Mexican restaurant El Topanco in Rosario, our late lunch stop.  Decorated for Halloween and oozing atmosphere.  

Back on the bikes for the final stage for today saw us pass by some stunning coastline, with a break at El Mirados to soak it all in.  Then onto our hotel in Ensenada.  It’s customary every evening on arriving at our hotel to have a beer before checking in, suits us down to the ground.

[editing images and writing this post on our rest day by the pool, so visibility not great, hope the images are ok]

 

Day 1 Sydney

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A stopover in Sydney, Arncliffe to be precise.   A very convenient location with a few local shops/restaurants and 5 min walk to the train station.  We caught the train into the city and headed straight to The Rocks.  We just love this spot, the markets, The Fortune of War, Sydney’s oldest pub and the old buildings.  

A Wedding in the Rocks

Old Building

Circular Quay and Sydney Harbour Bridge

 

 

 

 

Click West 2017

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The Big Night

An annual event that I attend in Perth is the WAPF’s Canon Click West.  A great competition for members of West Australian camera clubs with fantastic prizes.  This year, for the 2nd year in a row I was fortunate enough to have an image selected as a finalist in the Natural Portraiture category.  My “Fire Starter” image was taken on my trip to Namibia last year and is a favourite of mine.

Here’s a link to the finalists in all categories Canon Click West.  Much to my surprise this year, I also made it into the top 10 for the portfolio prize.  Although I only had one entry make the top 10, my other three images obviously rated high enough in their categories to get me through.  This was the one to win, a Kimberley cruise with Kimberley Expeditions, congratulations to Marie Kingsley for taking out this award.

Natural Portraiture

Natural Light Portraiture

Landscape

Australasian Landscape

Fungi

Macro/close Up

Maritime

Maritime

 

Weekend Events

Included for the first time this year was a weekend of events including photo walks and workshops.  They covered topics like printing, Eizo monitors, making photo books, speed lights and the list goes on.

I stayed in Perth overnight and just attended the Melville Camera Club hosted walk around the Heathcote Cultural Precinct for sunrise on the Saturday morning.  We didn’t have the spectacular colour that we’d had earlier in the week but it was still nice to be out.

Sunrise on the river

 

 

Desert Elephants Damaraland

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Desert Elephants

The Desert Elephants Damaraland were amazing to see.  They are African Bush Elephants that have adapted to survive in the desert, in this case in Namibia.  They are often seen with short damaged tusks as a result of mineral deficient soil and the need to dig up sand and rocks in search for food and water.  I hope you like elephants as this post it I will be sharing my elephant images with you.  The elephants in these photos are feeding on the Camelthorn Acacia (Acacia erioloba) which is a very common tree in these parts and also extremely thorny.  Thorns are between 3-5cm long.

Elephants are very destructive to the environment and will often push over large trees just to get to the new shoots.  As we discovered this also helps the smaller animals that don’t have the same reach so it’s not all bad I guess.

Many elephants in Africa live within reserves but the elephants in the Namib are free to roam and often travel distances up to 60km per day between their favourite feeding grounds and water holes during the dry season.  They can survive without eating as much as other elephants in food-abundant parts of Africa.  They can go without drinking water for up to three days if they need to.  

 

Desert Elephants Damaraland

Camel Thorn Tree

Desert Elephants Damaraland

Protective custody

Desert Elephants Damaraland

Mother and calf

Desert Elephants Damaraland

breakfast

Desert Elephants Damaraland

The destruction

Back to the Coast

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Back to the Coast

After visiting the sand dunes of Sossusvlei we headed back to the coast and the town of Swakopmund.  This is where the dunes meet the sea at Sandwich Harbour.  The flight in was spectacular as we took the scenic route up the coast and flew over two shipwrecks in the sand dunes and the incredible shapes and patterns of the dunes and ocean (more pics to follow another day).  I went for a walk around town when we first arrived in Swakopmund, bought some bangles from some tribal women that had a little stall set up, walked around the ornate and colourful buildings of German influence.  Our DMC (our Namibian Travel Agent) took our tour group out to dinner to a really popular seafood restaurant called The Tug.  Fabulous food, decor, architecture (just like a tugboat) and service.

4 Wheel Driving

The next morning a few of us went on a 4WD tour to Sandwich Harbour.  We stopped at the salt lakes then drove through the dunes for a while before heading along the beach to our destination.  On the way we stopped by a helicopter that had parked up on the beach.  They were setting up sets for the filming of Transformers 5. We also saw lots of baby seals who had been abandoned by their mothers as they were weak.  Evidently this is a very common occurrence, but as we noticed when we flew in the day before, the number of seals along this part of the coast is massive, so I guess the percentage that are abandoned is relatively small.  We saw lots of birdlife including two types of Flamingos and some migratory waders we see during the summer at home.

 

Black-backed Jackel Walvis Bay

Black-backed Jackal

baby seal Walvis Bay

Baby Seal

Pelican Egret Walvis Bay

Great White Pelican and Little Egret

day-12-swakopmund-to-damaraland-8427

Greater Flamingo

Back to the Coast Salt Lake Walvis Bay

Salt Lake

Back to the Coast Salt Lake Walvis Bay

Salt Lake