Back on the Island

Its been a whirlwind couple of weeks and I am now back living on "the island" (Rubha Fiola) on the west coast of Scotland.  The transition from Hong Kong to an island with no roads, internet, electricity or even anything to buy has been interesting and I am enjoying not being on my computer so much.  Island life is as mad as it has always been with jet boats, mud pits and wild people and my days off seem about to follow similar patterns to when I worked here last.  After the first course last week we finished work yesterday at 10am, drove to Fort William, Stared at rain, went to a cafe, went climbing (in the wet - kind of scary!), caught up with some friends, went for a curry, went for some beers, then some whiskies, woke up with a hangover, had a fry up, climbed a classic three pitch route in Glen Nevis, drove back to oban and am now drinking coffee and getting ready to meet the next load of kids.  

I also managed to meet Nadia for a night and most of the day last week and tried to show her some of my favourite places around Glen Coe.  

Some photos

 Staff kit piling up in "Goldeneye" to head out to the island for four months.  (a third of that is probably mine!)

 The spine of a minky whale skeleton we found on expedition last week.

 Back to smelling of campfire on a regular basis.  Expedition food at its finest, sausages and baked beans.

 Bog cotton blowing in the wind with another amazing sunset over the black isles and garvellach

Looking North just after dawn (which is rather early right now) toward Easdale, Belnahua and Mull

 Nadia and I on the summit of Buachille Etive Mor on a very cold day

All the best things - a classic scottish hill lunch.

Last shots from the old lens

I have been holding off buying a new lens for a while but my trusty old Tamron (the massive 18-270mm f4.5) is struggling on many levels. There is a vast amount of dust inside the lens, its very shaky, auto focus does not work at various lengths, manual focus is pretty messed up (leaving me with the annoying process of flicking between manual and auto to try and get the focus ring in the right position). After much deliberation I went lens shopping today and relaced it with Canons L series. (Just realised this is probably boring for non photographers so if your interested I will put the deliberations at the bottom of the post!)

The last couple of weeks have not seen me outside too much. I decided not to go to Yangshou at the last minute and have been out climbing and kayaking a bit in Hong Kong as well as working in the office. Below is a collection of shots from the last couple of weeks

Can anyone say light pollution? A long exposure from the hill behind where I live (next to the windmill for any locals) of Pok Fu Lam, Cyberport and the edge of Aberdeen on a clear night as the clouds roll over Hong Kong Island.

Taking a Sampan over to work yesterday morning with a sea kayak that need fixed, beautiful morning heading over to Aberdeen

The stormy season has started, this was taken out of the office window in the middle of the day. It suddenly went dark and then started pouring with rain.
Sunset from Lamma looking toward Lantau island.
The Star Ferry that runs across Victoria Harbour. It amazes me that the star ferries still run, they are seriously old and it only costs two and half Hong Kong dollars (about 20p)
Waves breaking over a rock at Shek O.

Lens deliberations - I decided to buy into the L series lenses as they are fully weather proofed and at first was thinking of getting a 16-35mm f2.8. I then started looking at the 24-70mm f2.8 and switched my mind to this (thinking that I will probably buy the 16-35 at a later date). At the last minute I decided to go for the 24-105mm f4. It seems like a good deal for me as I dont shoot indoors too much and it has an image stabiliser in it which kind of makes up for f4 as well as being smaller and lighter than the 24-70mm. It is also cheaper!

Camera shopping in Hong Kong is pretty funny, haggling is pretty easy and you just have to get well off the main tourist areas (Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui) and choose a few shops. The smaller and more disorganised a shop looks the cheaper it is seems to be the rule. Today there was a HK$2000 (£160) difference between the highest and lowest prices I was quoted!

I also managed to go to a "touch and test" (no really that is what it was called) of the new Hasselblad H4D (the body alone retails for over 20,000 US dollares). It was completely ridiculous with 60megapixels and a 18-90mm f1 lens on it. The average file size would be 60mb! For some amazing old Hasselblad photography check out Clyde Butcher - http://www.clydebutcher.com/ . Alright. Enough geeking out.

Hong Kong Life

Heading off to Yangshou, China tonight for some climbing and a bit of a holiday but thought I would throw some photos up on the blog taken in the last few weeks. Its been a busy couple of weeks and that added to the main lens I use slowly dieing has meant that I have not been taking quite as many photos as usual...

Pak Sha Wan (Hebe Haven) at night with Ma On Shan in the background (Ma On Shan is the peak) taken from Wong Sui Seng. Hong Kong folks might know this better as the peninsular W of Sai Kung with Trio beach on it.
The patter of tiny feet - I took a couple of these as some students ran around on an evening scavenger hunt at Wong Sui Seng
The 21st floor - Probably taken around 7am, the first challenge of every program is getting all the (correct) gear from the store on the 21st floor into the back of the truck on the 5th floor!
Bioluminescence - probably the brightest I have ever seen on the Wan Tsai peninsular. This image is not photoshoped, this was a couple of minutes of exposure at a high ISO speed with about 15 people chucking rocks into the water the whole time. The far small pin pricks of light are probably fish breaking the surface for food.
Hong Kong signs never fail to amuse. Taken with my new fancy pants Ipod after my very old one gave up the ghost.

Hong Kong Days

I am now once again busy with work back in Hong Kong, living on the beautiful lamma island and trying to fit some days of climbing and fun into my work schedule. Work over the last couple of weeks has been a shock to the system working with groups as young as 8 year olds and trying to remember how to get around the Hong Kong public transport system. I have managed a few days climbing which has been great as the pain in my ribs is now almost totally gone.

James staring at the crux on the fourth pitch of "Gweilo" (6a or 5.10b) a classic multi pitch on Lion Rock.

A work photo - Col and Juillian teaching absieling at Shek O. The weather has been a mixed bag with some amazingly hot days (around 30degrees C) and others like this that feel a little more like Scotland.
The view from the base of Lion Rock back towards the Kowloon peninsular
James coming up the 3rd pitch of Gweilo.
Me looking pleased with myself on the top of Lion Rock, taken by James after finishing Gwielo.
Unknown climber on something hard at Lion Rock, looking east towards the New Territories and Sai Kung
The morning ferry ride into Central from Lamma island. This journey never really gets boring.

Hanging with the King and Shanghai Sideways

After the first school program in Lijiang, Asia Pacific Adventure decided it was cheaper to keep myself and another staff member, Lisa in China rather than have us fly back and forth. This meant 12 days of expenses paid tourism while not having to look after any teenagers! We spent the first few days in the beautiful town of Dali and then headed to "Shangri-LA" to see another staff member Kevin and help him out on a trip to his lodge in the small tibetan village of Nidzhu. Kevin is known locally as "The King of Shangri-La" after various television companies made documentaries about him and his wife Lynne raising thier family in a remote chinese town. Being around Kevin is never boring (he cant read this as Blogspot is blocked in China, so I can write what I want) and he had arranged to take a group from "Shanghai Sideways" up to his lodge. The lodge is normally 4 hours of rough driving away and Lisa and I agreed to go along to help with the food for the 14 motorcycle and sidecar riders. Shanghai Sideways was shooting a promotional movie as well as some photos for their website so it was great to hang out in the support jeep with Kevin and even take a turn in the sidecar (hopefully even appearing in their promo movie!).

The sidecars lined up on the road to Nidzhu. These are 1950s BMW sidecars (or chinese equivalents).
Shopping for groceries with Kevin before meeting the folks from "Sideways". I thought the shopping for vegetables was crazy until we went to the meat counter. Its no wonder that all the staff at APA got Guardia the week before when we saw how food is bought!
Huge bags of Chili on sale. My system slowly got used to the heat in the food.
Street in the old town of Shangri-La near Kevin and Lynnes house.
Another huge meal. Basically all I have done for the last month is eat. This was a meal with 4 different types of Yak (all of which were cooked with Chili) with Kevin and Lynne (far right) and some of their friends. (Photo taken by Lisa)
My favourite - Jiaozi ((jow-zha) or chinese dumplings in the uk/pot stickers in the usa.) all racked up ready for another massive breakfast.Lisa chilling in the back of Kevins Jeep as we wait again for the sidecars.
Hanging out of Kevins Jeep following the sidecars (note the tibetan mastif barking at the bike going past it!) as we pass a buddhist Stupa.

Interestingly there is a Stupa outside of Shangri-La in the middle of a roundabout. After building the roundabout they realised they had a problem as traffic is meant to travel anti clockwise around the roundabout but you are meant to travel clockwise around a Stupa. They solved this by making the inside lane of the three lane roundabout clockwise and keeping the two outside lanes anti-clockwise. Problem solved - sort of!
View downt the valley from Kevins lodge in Nidzhu. The 4 hour drive ended up taking more like 10 after a few minor breakdowns on the bikes, the second support Jeep giving up and one of the sidecars drving of the road.
Prayer flags outside the lodge.
Multi Coloured waterfall a couple of hours hike up the valley from Nidzhu. Nidzhu is in Chinas first national park which has huge hiking potential. In summer this would be an amazing place to swim and hang out for an afternoon.

Video shot from the Sidecar. Shortly after this I decided to get back in the Jeep with Kevin as we hit dirt roads. The next thing we knew, Simon the driver had driven off the edge and the bike was in pieces. Luckily Simon managed to jump free as the bike went over and was fine except for some scratches. The bike did not survive!

Am now back in Hong Kong for the next few weeks where it is currently cloudy and grey. Hoping for some climbing and kayaking if the weather clears up.

Check out Shanghai Sideways website - http://shanghaisideways.com/

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Just back from Yunnan, China and have a couple of different blog posts coming. I was based in Lijiang with Asia Pacific Adventure for the last month starting with ten days of work and ending with a week of work and twelve days off in-between. Work has been fun though interesting at times with stolen gear and staff getting Guardia (including myself) but always with amazing views and great food. A major part of the program in Lijiang is the hike through Tiger Leaping Gorge on the Yangtze river. This is probably one of the most beautiful commercialised hikes in the world so I thought I would start with these shots and then the next post will be about time off.

The view from Tea Horse Guest house toward Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. We stopped here for lunch on both programs.
Looking up the valley toward Quiatou.
Some students playing a game on "Inspiration Terrace" at Halfway House with JDSM in the background. This was one of the original guesthouses in the gorge and I actually stayed here when I first hiked the gorge in 2000. It had two bedrooms when I stayed there originally and now has space for 80people.
Morning light over the peaks of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (5596m). The actual summit is much further back, the Chinese say this has not been climb but the internet disagrees with some americans claiming the first ascent in 1987 (though without a permit as it is a holy mountain)
Traditional building by the side of the trail.
Bright green right terraces in the valley below the trail.
Woman wearing traditional Naxi (Na-Shee) dress.