Holiday Snaps

What happens to my wife in a vinyard (Franschhoek. SA)



Cape Town

I think I may have annoyed Mr. MWS (Thailand)

Seville dancing with Gypsys



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Ayamonte (Spain / Portugal boarder)

The first and last time Stronzi came on holiday.

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The house they originally used to develop special forces training is, for various reasons, going to rack and ruin. I had always been curious about the place as we passed it often on our visits to the Strontian Peninsular. Asked about it in the Glenuig museum, place had a fascinating history and was mentioned in David Niven’s book about his time training up there.

Another part of the overall history,

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Somewhere in Morocco, cracking place for deck chairs if you can find it

Todra Gorge, worth a visit

Mt Toubkal, bit of a hike, views are nice

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somewhere in Scotland

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in wales
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in the Maldives
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Hong Kong
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cape wrath
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Killing Fields - Cambodia
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more in HKG
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Bali
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Portland Bill (???)
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somewhere near Dorchester
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St MArtins Isles of Scilly
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Tanzania
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kenya
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porto
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upper douro
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Algarve
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Syria
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Sri Lanka
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Petra




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Egypt.

Above Valley of the Kings


Nile at Luxor

Karnak

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Tarn Gorge



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Dubai

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off the coast of Oman
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Muscat Oman
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Kuwait City
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Bilbao
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Barcelona
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Dhaka - Bangladesh
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The beer driven fairground that is the Sachsenhausen in Frankfurt…

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A cousin sent this pic from Sandakan…

I now have to go there

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Kin ell, went there on an exchange trip from school to Marvejol when I was about 12. Beautiful area, must get back there.

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8 day 7 night backpacking trip in Algonquin Park . . .

Didn’t take a lot of photos. The trail is fairly “bushy”, without the scenic lookouts of other Algonquin trails. Plus, I was using my phone mostly only for my map (also had a paper map and compass as backup), and making sure my battery bank lasted the whole hike (it did). The hike was quiet “difficult” numerous hills scrambling over rock and tree roots as footholds, so the phone was rarely in my hand in any event.

First view from beneath the forest canopy of day one hike . . .

That ominous sky is a fair reflection of the trip, there was some rain every day but three. Having a dry sleeping bag and set of dry tent clothes is a huge moral boost at the end of the hike day.

First tiny waterfall of the trip . . .

I meant to take a series of waterfall photos, but only took one more . . .

Had my phone out consulting my map and snapped that. Shame, that was the last day and I passed four spectacular large falls in full flow from the rain but didn’t want to stop (I was hiking in wet boots for 3 days at this point :crazy_face:

Campsite marker . . .

Home . . .

Have to spend some serious coin on a much lighter tent, carrying this sucked.
No pics of the fire pit as there was a burn ban in place due to forest fire risk :frowning: Mosquitoes, black flies, and deer flys were atrocious. Besides those three things, trip was great

Found some treasure!

Toilet attached to each campsite (not in the campsite :roll_eyes:, at the end of a shortish marked trail. @atouchofcloth weeps at the beautiful simplicity :face_holding_back_tears:

Yuck, “swampy” water access . . .

A bit before sunset, clouded over so didn’t see the actual event . . :crazy_face:

Visitor to the campsite . . .

While hiking the trail and forest floor around were literally alive with many different size and colour frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts.

Some fungi snaps from rest breaks . . .

The glossy surface is not slimy or wet, just the appearance. Looks like a coating of lacquer sprayed on . . .

Broke my heart passing this by, but I was trying to reduce my packs food weight, not add to it :rofl: Chicken of the Woods, prime, prime eating . . .

Another ominous morning . . .

A bubbling forest stream to gather drinking water. Hydration is definitely not a problem here. The water does have to be filtered and for good measure purifier tabs added. That enticing looking stream may have a putrid moose carcass lying across it 400 meters upstream.

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And there are also parasites like giardia to worry about. Most describe it as the worst diarrhea they ever had, the old timers referred to it as “beaver fever”, understanding it came from drinking tainted (likely beaver pond) water . . .

Moose poop was everywhere . . .

Only saw a couple of bear turds, and they were very old. Which is nice, far away bears is good.

Lilly, growing at campsite water access. . .

Another visitor . . .

Tuesday the sky absolutely opened up during my hike. Not sure exact amount of rainfall, but it was significant. There were zero bugs, which was a plus, but the trail was miserable with rivers of water washing down trail and lots of standing water and mud.
I sang and talked to myself to keep my spirits up and finally came to a “magic” campsite on Clara Lake . . .

The rain stopped as soon as I arrived. I ended up taking a day off at this site to dry some things out in the sun. I appreciated the rest, but 23km hike in wet boots to make up time was brutal :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Saw 3 moose at Clara Lake. A bull feeding in the water across the lake from my campsite, didn’t have my phone as I was just there getting drinking water, so I just watched until he reentered the bush.
Saw a cow and calf the next morning when I was leaving the same lake. I heard a moose moving through the water that hadn’t seen me (probably had sniffed me out though), and had my phone at the ready . . .

A large cow came into perfect profile in the spot indicated by yellow. Before I cold get a pic, she bolted away with a calf (who I wasn’t aware of until then) trailing. They are indicated by the red circles . . .

Also saw an osprey make a spectacular dive, but unfortunately come up fishless for the effort. He/she must have been slightly embarrassed, coming and circling low overhead as if to tell me “Ya still can’t fucking do this, can ya?”. Several ruffed grouse while hiking as well, including one that dropped from a tree like a feathered bowling ball and proceeded to run through the undergrowth feigning injury to try to draw me away from her somewhere nearby young.

Last morning at Clara . . .

Indication of the type of terrain. This was taken from the crest of a particularly gruelling hill section. The spot of light in the centre of the red circle is light hitting the forest floor about one hundred meters below. The angle is steep, often with stones or gnarled tree roots as footholds. Not sure how hikers I saw at the trailhead with no trekking poles or hiking staff handle things like this short of crawling :confused:

Holy fuck I complained a lot in that and made it sound like I didn’t enjoy it, but I actually did. Wouldn’t do it in June again, I knew the bugs would be bad, but this was insanity.
The moose, the osprey and grouse, the nice moments when it wasn’t raining made it well worthwhile :blush:

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Nice German chap who was over on a lark rather than doing his university work was OK too. Interesting conversation on the coach ride back to Toronto .

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Love it :+1:

I’ve had Giardia - I’d describe it as the most effective weight-loss programme this side of death… In 3 weeks I lost nearly 5 stones (~31 kilos).

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Never had the pleasure myself :poop::poop::sweat_drops:

Good, I’d not wish it on a mortal enemy! Genuinely never been the same since (tho’ the flab went back on eventually, sadly), lost all trust in my own arsehole!

Took all the cures, got over it, and somehow it came back again two weeks later during a car trip between London and Durham (ca. 250 miles). I visited a LOT of service areas, fuel stations, lay-bys, bushes…

Anyway… Looks like a fab trip through a very beautiful place that you had there, bloodsuckers notwithstanding!

It is a beautiful place, one would get the impression it’s untouched. It has actually all been heavily logged, there are only two very small stands of true old growth left in the park that are only accessible by canoe. You still pass isolated giant pine that were bypassed for whatever reason back at the height of the logging era. They are very impressive.
The fact that it was of interest to loggers is what saved Algonquin from settlement/development . They didn’t want anyone else coming in and owning “their” forest. So they happily supported establishing it as a park, with limited access to logs allowed to continue. Small scale logging for choice maple and oak to supply fine furniture makers worldwide still continues to this day.

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Nothing to do with Giardia tho.

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