| Jan 2006 |
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The start of the year (well, actually a few days before.)
We spent a few days down in the Lake district near the family ancestral
home at "Near Sawrey". The family home bordered on Beatrix
Potter's farm, and my grandmother had a bit of a running battle with
the old girl over "boundary lines". |
| Jan 2006 |
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We did a few walks here. Old paths, cute stiles, picturesque villages...
the Lake District really is one of
the most beautiful parts of Britain. |
| Jan 2006 |
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Back in Scotland and a fence landscape scene in the Scottish borders.
This is my favorite winter fence photo from 2006. |
| Jan 2006 |
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On the same walk, Sarah with Jim in the background . |
| Feb 2006 |
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A walk up some munro near Crianlarich early in the year. Can't
remember the name of the mountain but we didn't have a view, there
was lots of ice and it was very windy. That's Linda waving the
stock. |
| Feb 2006 |
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Day walk in Glen Feshie near the Cairngorms, Scottish Highlands. |
| Feb. 2006 |
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Skiing on the Cairngorm plateau, Scottish Highlands. |
Mar 2006 |
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The start of our 5 month round the world trip. First stop NY. We
didn't go up the Empire State
because of the queues and the cost (although we probably spent the
equiv on drinks in the bar in the foyer). We got all our NY souvenirs
from a shop across the road. If you got a keyring from us... it probably
came from here. |
| Mar 2006 |
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Harlem, New York. We
did a long walk up from downtown Manhattan to Harlem and back through
Central Park. It was a lot more rundown and second world than one would
expect. |
| Apr. 2006 |
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Lower Manhattan in the background. On the ferry out
to see the Statue of Liberty. |
| Apr 2006 |
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Security was fairly tight just getting this far. "Freedom, liberty
and justice for all" my foot. |
| Apr. 2006 |
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Over to the US west coast now and skiing at Mt Bachelor in Orgeon.
Our favourite ski resort in the whole world. The snow here was clearly
quite difficult to manage even for experts. |
| Apr 2006 |
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Heaps of snow even in late April. |
| Apr. 2006 |
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Our good friends Bernie and Sue who lived next door to us when we
lived in Portland, Oregon.. They have a problem with Bush too. |
| Apr 2006 |
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Clambering around Smith Rock in central Oregon. This is a serious
rock climbing area. |
| Apr 2006 |
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Andrew starting off on the first pitch of Monkey Head at Smith Rock.
Solo. |
| Apr 2006 |
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Linda cycling around the paths in Sun River resort, our traditional
spot to stay. All huts come with hot tub on the balcony overlooking
pine forests and lakes (and deer) as standard. |
| Apr. 2006 |
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The road up to Mount Bachelor. Typical central Oregon scenery. |
| Apr 2006 |
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Onto the west coast. We found an old hotel tucked away above
this beach. Cheap and tatty on the outside with small cosy
rooms nestled into the slope. It was off-season so it was
just us. |
| May 2006 |
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We're over on the Big Island in Hawaii now. Confusingly the Big Island
is also called Hawaii as distinct from Oahu where you will find
Honolulu and Pearl Harbour. We splashed out for Linda's birthday. |
| May. 2006 |
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Typical sea front. There was an island near here, just off the coast,
that was used in the closing credits of "Gilligan's
Island" . Never found it which was a big disappointment. |
| May. 2006 |
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Absolutely no parking in the line of any lava flows. |
| May. 2006 |
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Don't build Rock Piles! |
| May. 2006 |
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Sampling the water at Waikiki beach, Honolulu which was actually
much nicer than you might expect. |
| May. 2006 |
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Children's bouncy castle sponsored by the American Marines (really).
It was part of a military festival to show support for the boys and
girls out in Iraq ("wherever that is")
fighting to make the world a better place for America investment. I
learnt a lot about armoured vehicles. |
| May. 2006 |
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| May. 2006 |
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The Missouri in Pearl Harbour. This is where the Japanese surrendered
in WWII (just on the left hand side... there is a plaque). It's a
very big battleship really. You can can arrange sleepovers below deck.
A lot of Japanese visit Pearl Harbour. The displays and commentaries
were commendably balanced. |
| May. 2006 |
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Tthe Hawaiians really do paddle canoes like in Hawaii-5-0. It's
really popular and really quite impressive. |
| May. 2006 |
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Fast forward to Australia. This is our "farm". We graze sheep and
kangaroos. Linda always manages to spot koalas in the surrounding trees. |
| May. 2006 |
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Inside "the shed". Okay, it really was a shed but Mum and
Dad have turned it into really nice accomodation for as many people
as you can pack in. We often BBQ outside. |
| Oct. 2005 |
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BBQ outside |
| May 2006 |
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The family farm (or "the block"). It's real name is Mingara
which is Aboriginal for "meeting place of the waters". Most
aboriginal house/farm/place names used by us Europeans are invariably
loosly translated as "meeting
place of the waters." |
| May. 2006 |
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The Seven Creeks pub. I've always liked this pub. It's in Euroa which
is the nearest town to Mingara (apart from Strathbogie of course.) |
| May. 2006 |
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An inland highway. Easy driving although you have to watch out for
roos at dusk. |
| Mayt. 2006 |
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The Warrumbungles in northern NSW. That's the part of the Bread Knife
you can see. |
| May. 2006 |
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Linda summiting on the Bluff, Warrumbungles in northern NSW. |
| June. 2006 |
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Northern NSW enroute to my sister Karen's. |
| June. 2006 |
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At Karen's!. The Queensland family contingent. |
| Jun 2006 |
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Out on a tour with Malc and his boat near Brisbane. This is the sort
of unspoiled beach you make holiday commercials on. Malc and Jane
are Brits living the dream in Australia. Malc has just pointed out
that this is Peel Island, a former leper colony. |
| Jun. 2006 |
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No Australian trip would be complete without a visit to the "the
big prawn". On previous trips we have made pilgrimages to "the
big pineapple", "the big merino", "the big koala" and
my personal favorite
"the big galah" (in WA.) We also passed earlier "the
big potato" (near the Blue Mountains) which
was uninspiring and simply looked big. |
| Jun. 2006 |
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A walk with Dad to Powell Town near Melbourne. Dad is a bit an authority
on timber tram lines. This is an old steam engine from the 1930's
used for hauling logs. It all ended in tears in the great 1939 fires. |
| Jun 2006 |
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The Victorian family contingent. Leaving dinner. |
| Jun. 2006 |
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In Singapore for a week on the way home to Edinburgh. A beach scene
near Changi (as in prison). We'd been to Singapore before but it
was better then I remembered it. Cheap, friendly, safe. All the sights,
sounds and tastes of Asia but with clean toilets. |
| Jun. 2006 |
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"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag......" Jurong bird park |
| Jun. 2006 |
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We hired bikes on one of the islands for $2/day. Linda is drinking
from a freshly prepared coconut. I'm always suprised at just how much
coconut milk you get from one coconut. |
| Jul. 2006 |
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Back in Scotland. Cuillin ridge on Skye. Perfect weather
with just enough wind to keep the midges away. It's a narrow band.
Move either way of Skye optimum weather conditions and it becomes
hell. |
| Jul 2006 |
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The trail up to the Cuillins. |
| Jul. 2006 |
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Descending from the "Inaccessible Pinnacle", the only munro
in Scotland you need rock climbing equipment for as it is a bit exposed
in places. The normal ascent is up around the blocky corner to the
left of the climber". |
| Jul. 2006 |
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Ruth seconding up the Arrow route on to the famous Cioch's Nose.
After this we did the "Harmony" route (easy VS). I scared
myself silly. |
| Sep. 2006 |
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Heading off for a week at Glen Canisp near Lochinver. West coast.
That's our house in the background (52) and our new car. |
| Sep. 2006 |
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We stayed with a group of friends in
a cheap and old, rather run-down 20 roomed Victorian hunting lodge.
This is the view from the our window. That's Suilven
in the distance. We climbed it the next day. |
| Sep. 2006 |
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Sea kayaking on the loch. We practised eskimo rolling that evening
with mixed success. Later in the week we did a sea
trip out around the Old Man of Stor sea stack. High swells,
tidal streams and rising wind all conspired to turn a gentle day trip
into real adventure. |
| Oct. 2006 |
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The famous "Mark Saunders" BBQ and bonfire on a beach on
the Firth of Forth, about 20 minutes from Edinburgh town centre. |
| Oct. 2006 |
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A cycle ride near Kilmartin, home of Britain's greatest collections
of ancient standing stones and related monuments. The first half dozen
are really interesting. |
| Oct. 2006 |
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Crinan canal on the Scottish west coast. You cycle along the
towpaths. |
| Oct. 2006 |
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An old abandoned Victorian mansion. This was a seriously large building.
Abandoned in the 50's. Very atmospheric. |
| Oct. 2006 |
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Climbing with Sam and Pete at Bowden Doors crag. |
| Nov. 2006 |
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Long weekend in Delft, Holland. It's a smaller and even more picturesque
version of Amsterdam. Delft's most famous son is Johannes Vermeer of
Girl with the Pearl Earing fame. (The painting, not the film.) |
| Nov. 2006 |
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Delft bikes. Millions of them. Hardly any are locked. Note the dynamo
in the foreground! |
| Dec. 2006 |
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Andrew's castle weekend in Fordyce castle (a real castle). Linda
and Sarah obviously found the excitement too much. |
| Dec. 2006 |
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Nick and Sarah on Andrew's castle weekend. Nick is being photographed
for his website (long story.) |
| Dec. 2006 |
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Trig point on a day walk near the mouth of the Tweed. |
| Dec. 2006 |
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Skiing in Mayrhofen in Austria over Xmas. We got a cheap last minute
deal and flew out on 23rd December for a week. Plenty of snow despite
grim forecasts. |
| Dec. 2006 |
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The Zillertal valley, Austria. The Austrians really do a good picturesque
village. Austria is excellent value if you come from the UK. For that
matter everywhere in Europe is excellent value if you come from the
UK. |
| Dec. 2006 |
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Daywalk around the back of Mayrhofen. We had 7 days of perfect blue
sky weather with the temperature hovering around -5 degrees. |
| Dec. 2006 |
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Looking back into Mayrhofen from one of the valley trails. |
| Dec. 2006 |
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And the really good thing about hiking in Austria is there are even
more wee attractive drinking establishments than in England! Linda
is wearing her new Mountain Hardwear jacket! |
| Dec 2006 |
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Our Edinburgh friends Mark and Frances about
to go off for a big bash for New Year. We weren't invited. Hogamanay
was really wet, wild and windy. Most offical celebrations were cancelled
for safety reasons. We had a night at home and watched the fireworks
from our bedroom window. |
