Saturday, 2 July 2016

Northern Australia - Day One

After a wonderful celebration of Elise's graduation we prepared the van for an early departure. Getting away at 4.20am meant that we were out of Melbourne and passing through Keilor in 35mins!
A side from some rain it was un uneventful first few hours, well that is what we thought! Some where after departing the city lights and the first light of day our front window cover had part ways with the van and is lying on the highway, probably in pieces! I had heard that this has happened to other Jayco vans so we made certain the latches were correctly closed! Didn't seem to matter. We covered the window with pizza boxes supplied by our friendly cafe breakfast stop. Unfortunately the rain continued to cause a problem and after a few stops we had to replace the boxes with some stronger cardboard sourced at the rear of an IGA in Red Cliffs. 
The quarantine dudes at the SA border had been watching too many episodes of border force and confiscated all our fruit... Should have know, this had happened before. So a brief stop in Renmark for minimal restock was in order.
From there we cruised on to Burra and our final resting stop at Mount Bryan. 930kms down the track. It was a huge day but we are where we wanted to be for our first day and well on the way to our first destination, Kings Canyon.

Saturday, 18 June 2016

Northern Australia - 2016

Long service leave is the best time to take a trip north and with fourteen weeks available there is plenty of time for exploring. 
Back in 1990, which seems like a millennia ago we travelled up the centre of Australia and down the west coast returning to Melbourne after 6 months. It was an awesome trip but, we missed one particular location and that was the Kimberley and more specifically the Gibb River Road. This time around we are heading directly to Kings Canyon another area missed in 1990 and commencing our exploring from there. The Kimberley is our main goal and hope to spend around a month in the area. From there we will head east stopping at Mt Isa, Lawn Hill before heading to Cooktown and Cape York. We have booked a week with the family in the Gold Coast but that is a tight as our plans get. 
I am not sure whether this will be a daily diary but my aim is to document our trip with images rather than words.
This time in two weeks we will be on our way to Kings Canyon....awesome!

Sunday, 7 December 2014

Nepal - Three Passes Trek Photos



It is about time that I posted some of my shots from our trek! I haven't provided any other commentary aside from the captions under most of the photos.
http://www.nepalhightrek.com
Kathmandu street

Durbar Square


Kathmandu 


Kathmandu Panorama

On the way to Lukla 

Tenzing-Hillary Airport. Lukla

Andrea called this Coles online! Typical porter haulage!

Bridge on our way to Namche


Namche From our accommodation

Kongde from our bedroom window! 250mm
On the way up!
The load that this porter was carrying had to be seen to be believed!



View from Tenzing Stupa

View of Lhotse and Everest from our bedroom in Tengboche, Andrea is at 3860m While Everest is 8848m above!

Tengboche

Sunrise on Everest

Our accommodation in Tengboche

Ama Dablam on the right and Lhotse and Everest in the middle.

Ama Dablam

Morning view in Dingboche - Nangkar(?)  5616

Not on fire, just didn't have a chimney!

Farm yard on the way to Chukhung.

Imja Valley

Descending from Chukhung Ri 5450m - 100m short of the Summit of Chukhung Ri, cloud impacted on our visibility.

On the way down from Chukhung Ri

Team Nepal and Ama Dablam (6856m)

Heading back into Chukhung!

Early morning view of Ama Dablam - Kongma La Pass day.

Ama Dablam (6856) with Amphu Gyabjen in the foreground left (5630m)

Panorama of the area heading to Kongma La Pass

Andrea on the cliff edge traversing around to the pass. Not for the faint hearted or those anxious about heights!

Kongma La Pass (5535m) - From the front: Andrea, Me, Liz, Anjan (guide) Kaji (porter) Richard and Doji (porter).

Descending from Kongma La - Khumbu Glacier (around 1km wide) on the other side Lobuche. This took around 5hrs to walk!

"Phen Kamal" - High Altitude lotus.

Heading to Gorek Shep - Lhotse in the the background

Andrea surveying the Khumbu Glacier - the day started out with blue skies but as is the norm the afternoon cloud set in... closely followed by snow!

Everest Base Camp? My advice to anyone is not to make this the high point of a trip to the area. You will be disappointed! 

Beautiful morning on Kala Patthar - 5550m

Descending to Gorek Shep

Khumbu Glacier and Gorek Shep

View from our bedroom door Dzongla. Arakam 6423m 
Looking down the valley from Dzongla - Cholatse North face 6335m

Heading towards Cho La Pass. One of the rare times that you don't walk up or down a near vertical hill!!!

Looking backdown the valley to Dzongla

The rock scramble prior to the Glacier crossing below Cho La Pass.

About to cross the Glacier


Look back down the Glacier.

Happy having completed our second and my favourite pass Cho La! 5420m

The step descent into Dragnag 720m (in altitude) below.

The sun was shining but it was cold! Dragnag or Thangnak in front of Ngozumba Glacier. 

Gokyo Lake - Behind us our last pass Renjo!

Gokyo lake morning

On the way out of Gokyo



Gokyo Ri - 5360m - The Village of Gokyo on the left of the lake.

Everest viewed on the way to Renjo Pass

Everest and Lohtse - our final glimpse!

The final Pass Renjo! 

Descending from Renjo Pass 

With the three passes behind us we return to vegetation and farms and villages

A stupa outside of Thame

The welcome view of Namche

The last steps!!! Andrea heading up to the gates at Lukla - Richard and Liz over her shoulder.
Full Circle walking through the gates at Lukla.