Photo blog of whitewater kayaking and travel

Ilford Park Polish Home was initially an American Military Hospital. In 1948 it was converted to a home for Polish exiles that had fought alongside the allies during WWII. This was a part of the Polish Resettlement Act of 1947. The home was inhabited until 1992 at which point a new modernised home was established next to the original site. Since then the buildings have slowly succumbed to nature deteriorating over time. Only two buildings remain following demolition the site – the images below depict these.

To see the rest of the photos check out the images in Flickr.

Here are a few pictures from the Geography fieldtrip to Dale Fort in Pembrokeshire I’ve just been on.

Just crossing into Wales.

The view from Dale Fort looking towards Milford Haven

Black and white shot of Newgale Beach, Pembrokeshire

People walking on Newgale Beach

I’m back at the family home in Northumberland now where  I have the pleasure of being able to use a super sweet 21.5″ monitor… So, to make the most of it, I’ve been trying to get some more photos from SE Asia sorted while I have the time…there are still hundreds to go through though. Here are a few from the last few days editing…

An in other news my external hard drive containing a ridiculous amount of photos may have died… I’m hoping they can be recovered!

In case anyone looks at my site regularly (do you!?) then I’m sorry for the lack of updates. Anyway, if I get the time I will endeavour to update the site more regularly and edit more photos from my growing backlog…

Good news though, my friend Rosie has just launched the website for the charity she has set up. It’s called foundations and their first project is to set up and run a community centre and children’s home in Southern Uganda. They are using some of my pictures on the site which is great to see!

Check it out and perhaps get involved with what they are doing.

foundationsau.org

I’ve been slowly working through some more of my photos from SE Asia and Laos in particular. After meeting a very good photographer on the train from Bangkok to Chang Mai (check his blog here) I was given a bit more impetus to try and get nice and close when taking portrait shots. Asking to take pictures of people and then getting right in their face when you do it is a little intimidating at first and takes a bit of getting used to. However, I found that more often than not people are willing to have their picture taken and when this is the case you can have a laugh and a joke with them. It’s actually quite good fun. Everyone always loves to see the photo on the screen afterwards too!

Once the shots were back on my laptop I had tons of sorting and rating of photos and finally I’ve managed to edit my favourites. There’s more to come, but for now this will have to do. Hope you like them.

Young Laos girl. She's just dropped her apple...then looked up to see if I saw! Unlucky for her but lucky for me because I love this photo!

A kid messing around in the Mekong in Vientiane.

Crazy kids...

Must have been pretty close for this one... Fantastic gaze straight into the camera. Nice.

A lady from a hill tribe in Muang Sing. These old ladies swarm around you upon arrival in the small town. They try to sell, beads, jewellery and opium!

Saw this kid whilst we were on a bike ride through some hill tribe villages near Muang Sing.

Young monk at Kuong Si waterfall, Luang Prabang, Laos.

Monks enjoying Kuong Si waterfalls.

I’ve decided I quite enjoy people photography (and a lot better at it than landscape!). I think I’ll try improve what skills I have here, and learn how to use my flash properly! In the meantime if anyone wants to model for free for me in SW England let me know

I’m finally back in England after almost two months spent in Norway. We had a pretty good time sampling many of the countries fine rivers. Starting off in Sjoa we paddled the Ulla, Playrun, Amot Gorge, Ostri, Pollfoss section of the Otta, Lower Bovre and many more. Leaving here we headed north ticking off the Lower and Upper Juri, Upper Rauma, Ulvaa and Upper Valldola. Wild camping as we went and eating the terrible assortment of food we’d purchased in the UK and Germany to save money we succeeded in keeping the trip as cheap as possible.

After the Upper Valldola we headed south to the Embla, Bygdelva and Langdalselva where the van broke down. Then back to Lom for a few days before we said goodbye to Jono who had to return to the UK for graduation. After Jono’s departure it began to rain. All the rivers became very high so we went across to Hedmark to paddle some slightly easier stuff paddling the Atna (middle section I think) and Unseeta which was actually quite nice. Heading north now to the Ena and Bua which were great and our first attempt at the Forra which ended early due to a split in Eddie’s boat. A night in Trondheim to see some other people was by now needed and following our recovery we went north, not quite as far as the Arctic circle but it certainly pretty close.

We had a fantastic week in the north near a place called Trofors. Relatively excellent weather, a beautiful wild campsite (complete with bench, toilet, lake and perfect skimming stones) and some stunning rivers. Whilst up here we paddled the Unkerelva, Little Fiplingdalselva, Susna (half of this!), Krutaga, Skarmodalselva (actually in Sweden) and Stavasselva. Highly recommended if you have the time and inclination to suss out some new runs.

Returning south felt like coming back to a metropolis. There were more cars, more people, shops and other normal things that we hadn’t seen for the last week. Finally we managed to get to and paddle the Forra at good levels without any incident (except Eddie’s swim). Further south we journeyed to what seemed like our second home at the Lagan Free Campsite. Here I left Eddie and Chase for the week to go to Copenhagen for my mid-holiday holiday. Guy also flew out to join us during this time. Whilst I was away the guys paddled some rivers in Sogn og Fjordane after which they picked me up in Otta. Then over to Voss for the final few weeks.

Levels in Voss were initially low. This enabled us to paddle the Lower Raundalselva which is where Eddie snapped his new Fisher Price paddles. We also did the waterfall at the top of the Raundalselva for a good bit of boofing practice. During the rest of our time in Voss we paddled Moneydrop, the Brandseth, the Jordalselva, the Trainstation section and the Playrun on the Raundalselva, Kittelbreaker and the tunnel on the Rjuande, and Nosebreaker on the Raundalselva.

It was a good time but eventually it came to an end and we had to begin our long journey home. Thankfully this was broken down into a few chunks stopping to visit friends in Malmo, then Copenhagen before finally blasting the rest of it back to the UK.

Now back in the UK by my homerun that is the North fork of the Tyne. Enjoyed a solo run on this the other night with decent levels… The wave at the bottom of the gorge when the levels are between 4 and 5ft on the Fishtyne website is really rather good – big and green. At 7ft it turns into a big hole (only paddled past it so not sure on play potential) so perhaps at 6ft it’s a big, slightly broken wave with eddy access! Now that would be sweet. If levels get like that in the next week I’ll take a look.

I’m home for another week or so before heading to Wiltshire via Copenhagen, and finally Exeter where I begin my PGCE and gain an intimate knowledge of the river Dart no doubt.

I still have a ridiculous amount of photos to edit from SE Asia which I will try and get through soon… Keep your eyes peeled for updates. For now though, here’s a few more shots from Norway and if you’re interested in our trip there you should check out the blog we kept….http://trollhunting2.wordpress.com

Chase on the upper Juri

Amot Gorge on the Sjoa

Amazing sunsets!

Eddie on the Bua Canyon

Chase boofing on the Little Fiplingdalselva

Camping on Unkervatn lake in Nordland, Norway.

Great double drop on the Stavasselva

Moneydrop on the Strondelva - different perspectives

There are a lot more photos from this trip on my Flickr site… Follow this link to have look!

I’m in Norway at the moment kayaking for a couple of months. We’re keeping a separate blog, mainly to keep ourselves entertained during evenings spent at random wild camping spots around this amazing country. Here’s the link:

http://trollhunting2.wordpress.com

And a few pictures from the trip so far…

Jono and Chase on the Ostri

Deck grab on the Ulla.

Eddie on the Upper Juri

FInnish guy on the Upper Juri

Jumping ahead in time a little now. I was going to add all these posts chronologically. But then I wanted to edit these photos first… So to fill the gap in time, after leaving Bangkok I flew to Phnom Penh (capital of Cambodia). I spent some time here then went to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat (photos to follow sometime soon). From there to Kratie and the home of the photos you’ll see below.

At this point I’d met an equally lanky Dutch guy named Ralf and were traveling together for a little while. On arriving in Kratie we checked in to a slightly cockroach infested guesthouse (the staff were collecting them in the foyer – perhaps for dinner?!). Kratie is a reasonably quiet little town on the banks of the Mekong. There’s not that much to actually ‘see’ or ‘do’ if that’s your thing but there’s seems to be plenty of good bike rides along the river and through little villages. The main activity here is to go and see the Irrawaddy river dolphins. These are at a place on the river about 15km north of town. It cost $10 US (I think!) to get a boat out and see them. We were quite lucky to see quite a few reasonably well considering how shy they are meant to be. I have some photos of them but they’re pretty boring so I’ll edit them when I get really really bored myself. Enough blabbering – Glastonbury is on the box and I have to start sorting stuff for Norway. Here are the pics.

Kids playing in the Mekong in Kratie.

The ferry boat at Kratie with arty border.

This one looks better on black and larger – clicky.

Searching for the Irawaddy river dolphins

Shadows at Wat Sombok in the late afternoon.

The market in Kratie taken from the guesthouse balcony.

I came across this shot of the Mekong before. Initially it wasn’t in my ‘to edit’ pile but on second glance I thought it had potential.

After doing all the editing malarkey it was looking pretty nice. I decided to add a border as well and make it a little more arty. The photo and border are both pretty simple but I quite like how it works out.

The Mekong from Kratie, Cambodia.

The photo looks better if viewed larger and on black….here’s the link to do that – clicky.

Here are a few more shots from The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok, and the floating market about an hour away or so.

Wat Phra Kaew and it's golden stupa

The Grand Palace, Bangkok.

Hats hats hats - tourists and locals - same same but different!

Just had enough? An old lady at the floating market.

A food seller paddling through the floating market

Next stop on the photo editing tour is Cambodia… Stay tuned.