It was Cowes Week on the Isle of Wight off the coast of Southern England, the place was buzzing with yachties from all over the world. The bay was full of the latest and biggest racing yachts of the 1970’s, the Britannia with Prince Charles on board was anchored next to us, we were on the 140 ft Baltic trader we had been living on … Continue reading Three Sheets to the Wind
When Russia sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, both parties seemed to completely ignore the fact that a great deal of the vast region already belonged to aboriginal peoples. The Pacific Northwest Coast had the most densely populated areas of indigenous people ever recorded. The land and waters had always provided rich natural resources through timber – mostly cedar – and salmon, and … Continue reading Ancient Stories and Modern Greed
It’s not everywhere that you see a bicycle heading up the bell tower of a medieval Italian town. But Apricale in Liguria is not only “One of the Seven Most Beautiful Villages in Italy”, it is also an artists retreat and this contemporary installation by Sergio Bianco in 2000 “La forza della non Gravità ” (the force of non gravity) has remained a symbol of the … Continue reading Bicycles and Bonfires in Medieval Apricale
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A cheeky, supposedly friendly arctic fox ran up to me as soon as I stepped out onto the snow after the hour long flight from Churchill, Manitoba. We had finally arrived at the arctic circle on the edge of Hudson Bay and I had to remember this was a wild animal looking for food. Cute but mean and an opportunist when it came to dinner. … Continue reading Fantastic Mister Fox
The Beatles had been in Rishikesh only a few years earlier and although it wasn’t particularly obvious at the time, tourism was starting to find and take over this holy town on the banks of Mother Ganga. It has been a spiritual centre since ancient times and there is a complete ban on non vegetarian food and alcohol as they both run against the strict … Continue reading Rishikesh and a Life Giving Lotus
I love the gentle sound of Sherpa farmers encouraging their enormous yaks through the villages or on the trail towards Everest. The yaks wear a brass bell around their neck attached to a colourfully woven yak wool collar, the bell makes a gentle sound as if communicating with just the farmer. The tricky part when meeting these caravans is avoiding the huge horns as the … Continue reading Yak Butter Tea and Boots
The harsh reality of owning property in Venice didn’t really hit me until we had signed all the documents with the Notary in Padua, he read the entire sale and purchase agreement in Italian and then in English, we initialed and signed in all the relevant places. We then caught the train back over the causeway and a vaporetto slowly down the Grand Canal taking … Continue reading OMG! What Have We Done?
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Three hours after we had left Pond Inlet, a small Inuit community at the top of Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada we arrived at our very luxurious camp on the floe edge. It had been an exciting but extraordinarily uncomfortable trip sitting in a qamutik (traditional Inuit wooden sledge) being towed by a snowmobile for five hours. We were about 60 kilometres out over the sea … Continue reading The Icy Floe Edge
How will we get new sofas, dining table, beds, television, microwave and everything else we will need for a comfortable apartment from the shops along very narrow calli (streets) and up narrow stairs to our front door? On top of all that, how will they find us? Our address is 5961 Cannaregio, Venezia. That’s like saying 5961 London, England. The first day we arrived in … Continue reading Venetian Shoppers Only
It’s quite difficult to imagine how big a male polar bear is, 3 metres (10 foot) doesn’t sort of sound much. After all Steven Adams is 2.13 metres (seven foot). But 750 Kilos (three quarters of a ton) starts to make it all sound a bit more overwhelmingly real.Even play fighting like these young polar bears shows the terrifying power in their huge bodies. They … Continue reading Three Quarters of a Ton and See Through Hair
TRAVELS PAST & PRESENT 