While walking back from a late afternoon drink at El Charcoal, a nearly full moon was peering out at us over the towering cliffs of Teguerguenche. Without having to move much, I was able to capture the moon aligned with the little dip in the rock face.
The 20:20 vision below shows how little the moon actually is to the scale of the towering cliffs, noting that less than half the cliffs hight is visible in this image.
On the first weekend for months without any rain or sleet, we just had to pretend to be real Glaswegians and head ‘doon the water’. We drove down to Ayr and wandered along the shore from Doonfoot to Greenan Castle and the Heads of Ayr on a magnificent day.
These are my favourite shots of the day (without one or both of my two girls in it), with Greenan Castle reflecting in the waters left behind by the tide. I just cannot make up my mind which one works better, the square or the portrait format. What do you think?
What else to do than go ‘Doon the Water’ on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
We drove down to Doonfoot and wandered along the beach to Greenan Castle and the Heads of Ayr. I found the perfect spot for a shot of the castle with the reflections in the still water left behind with low tide. Nearly the perfect landscape shot, but Lola had other ideas and decided to pose for the camera.
Eventually, I got the shot I wanted, without Lola and any walkers, as you can see in my next post. This post is all about Lola who enjoyed the afternoon’s wander immensely, and nothing was more fun than run back and forwards between Lynn and I, splashing through the water.
This is the view from Ermita de Igualero across the Barranco de Erque to the magnificent rock fortress La Fortaleza after the devastating forest fires ravages the heart of the island. In October 2007, the same view would yield a spectacular green valley as you can see below, flanked by thriving laurel forests on the right.
There are no words that can begin to describe the loss of the laurel forest reduced to a marsian landscape by forest fires.
Unfortunately, the difference between these two images is even worse considering that the above was taken after an unusual wet two months rainy season and that the below was taken at the end of a very dry summer.
The devastation to the island is immense.
The majority of the country ground to a halt due to extreme snow falls, but we are out of luck. Absolutely no snow to be seen here. Although I suspect there must be snow on the high grounds, the low cloud base completely obscured any mountains capped with snow.
So my plans to spend part of today photographing snowy landscapes has unexpectedly fallen by the way side. Thankfully, the light was wonderful with the sun fighting to shine through the cloud base.
The fires on La Gomera this summer have been absolutely devastating to the unique laurel forest as well as the local communities with loss of live, homes and livelihood. Just an afternoon’s drive across the roof of the island through the Parque National de Garajonay (a Unesco Heritage Site) and through the cloud villages of Las Hayas, Chipude and El Cercado. Sadly, the extend of the devastation is even worse than we anticipated with very large areas of forest completely burnt and vineyards completely blackened.
Here are the first a pair of before and after images. This is one of the most famous landmarks on La Gomera, the impressive Roque Agando. The one after the fire (above) was taken this Christmas (2012) and the one before the fire (below) was taken in 2006.
Due to the heavy autumn rains, ground growth is adding a little fresh green to a completely blackened forest and barren ground, but the trees will likely take a decade or even more to regenerate.
The elephant stampede through the little village of Pinnawala can be witnessed several times in a single day when the elephant orphans are moved from their grazing grounds to the river and back.
We arrived when the elephants were feeding on the higher ground. We admired the baby orphans being fed with a bottle and the larger elephants feeding on the greens laid out for them on the plains.
Then we headed to down to the river, sitting on the terrace overlooking the river with a fresh mango juice. It wasn’t long before the stampede through the village started and the herd of elephants trampled into the river for a cool down.
Watching the elephants visibly enjoying the paddle in the river and spraying themselves with water was just wonderful. And the couple of mischievous little ones trampling about was just fantastic. And it was nice to see that apart from just two of elephants, absolutely none of the big herd of orphans were chained.
When we go back to Sri Lanka, we will, without a doubt, return to the orphanage for a lunch overlooking the river, as it was the highlight of our holiday. Absolutely magical.
While on safari in Yala Nature Reserve in Sri Lanka, our tracker told the driver to stop and then pointed out some small crocodiles sunbathing in the mud on the other side of a fair sized bit of water. He did very well to spot them without binoculars, but he would have been extremely disappointed if he had known that I was not in the slightest bit interested in taking shots of these little crocodiles, and instead was busy shooting away, capturing this wonderful Painted Stork (Mycteria Leucocephala) that was prancing around on the near side of the water.
This photo of a baby elephant paddling in the river is a taster of our visit to the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage which was probably the highlight of our two weeks holiday in Sri Lanka. Watching the stampede of a herd of baby elephants running through the village to the Pinnawela River, and seeing the sheer joy of these orphans paddling mischievously in the river was just amazing to watch.
During our safari at Yala Nature Reserve in Sri Lanka, we encountered plety of water buffalos. May not the most exited spieces we encountered, but they made for some spectecular sights. This one enjoying a mud bath is my favourite without a doubt.
The majority of water buffalos we saw were, you guessed it, in the water somehow. Whether lying in a muddy pool, half submerged, or eating greens while wading through shallow waters, the water and the mud seems to form part of their enjoyment in life.
The second highlight of our river safari up the Balapitiya River in South West Sri Lanka was seeing the water monitor. We spotted it swimming towards the middle of the river, but as soon as our boat with the noisy outboard got anywhere near it, it headed back to the mangroves.
I felt sorry for the monitor, as our guide was literally chasing it back into the mangroves with the outboard at full throttle. A chased animal combined with the noise and diesel fumes of the outboard spoiled the otherwise magic encounter.
I will leave you in suspense with what the third highlights of this boat trip was.