Archive | November, 2012

Photo Friday – Total Solar Eclipse in Port Douglas, Australia

30 Nov

Before we even bought our first flight for this trip, we had promised my mom we’d meet her in Port Douglas, Australia for the total solar eclipse on November 14, 2012.  Honestly, I would never even have known it was happening, but the timing worked out well since we wanted to be in Australia and New Zealand for this summer.

I remember seeing one partial eclipse as a kid, but this was before the days of disposable eclipse viewing glasses so all I really remember is constructing those little cardboard viewing boxes and seeing the shadow they created.

This time around we were armed with multiple pairs of glasses, including the extra sets we used to cover our camera lenses with.  Interestingly, the only time that you don’t need the glasses is during the ‘totality’ when you can look at the ring of light directly.

It had been cloudy and raining the two days prior to the event, and we were very worried that we wouldn’t get to see it all happen.  Fortunately the morning was only partly cloudy and even though our view was obstructed sometimes, we did get to see many phases of the eclipse, and we even got a shot of the totality before the clouds took over.  The most amazing thing was the eerie silver appearance everything took on just before the drop into darkness that comes with the totality.

It was easily one of the more spectacular things we’ve seen and we’re excited that there will be one crossing over North America on August 21, 2017.  Total eclipses occur nearly every year, but are only visible within a narrow corridor, and not on every continent.  For more information check out NASA’s eclipse webpage.

The professionals get much better shots with their giant lenses and official eclipse lens covers (as opposed to say…taping a pair of cardboard eclipse glasses over the lens of your camera…not like I know anyone who did that…) but you get the idea with these.

The very beginning

Totality. This looks like it was taken in black and white, but it wasn’t.

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Photo Friday – Australian Ants

23 Nov

Ants are crazy.  Maybe it sounds strange, but we’ve noticed that ants here in Australia are much more fascinating than the ones we see at home generally.  I won’t wax poetic about these tiny creatures, but I will say that the amazing thing about what’s happening here is that the two leaves the ants are bridging are from separate trees.  Justin spotted them when they had a huge swarming bridge formed, but just as I got there to check it out a gust of wind came and ripped them apart.  We stood watching these guys climb on top of each other by the dozen until they just barely connected again.  I grabbed this shot just as a small breeze came along and stretched this little guy to his limit.

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Thankful.

21 Nov

Thanksgiving arrives a little earlier here in Australia, so we’re busy stuffing our faces even though it’s really still just Wednesday for most of our friends and family.  This is my favorite of the American holidays, so much so that I requested that my mother make the full turkey feast for us on Halloween in 2011 since we were leaving just a few weeks before Thanksgiving.  We sat around the table with construction paper caps – Pilgrim buckled hats for the men, feathered headdresses for the women – and took turns answering the door for the trick-or-treaters.

Just a few weeks later we were preparing our favorites again with friends in Santiago, thrilled that we got to have a second traditional turkey dinner with expats who craved the stuffing and cranberries just as much as we did.

This year we’re in Melbourne, Australia and we’ll probably have enough food left over to have seconds for breakfast on Friday morning, which might coincide nicely with the actual meal time state side.

All month we’ve been reading the ‘Today I’m thankful for…’ posts of our friends and family on Facebook.  One of the side effects of all our travel has been that we realize how thankful we are, not just on Thanksgiving or in the weeks leading up to it, but every day and for all the things we tend to take for granted.  We all struggle in our lives to varying degrees, but this world is filled with adversity on a scale that’s so enormous many of us can’t even fathom it.  This year we’ve seen poverty in such magnitude that we thought our hearts might break on the spot.  We’ve seen sickness that can’t be treated and pollution that may never be eradicated.

On the flip side, we’ve seen incredible love and generosity between people, even in the face of insurmountable hardship.  We’ve also seen some of the amazing things that people can produce – towering monuments and architectural wonders, as well as art that only begins to scratch the surface of mankind’s creativity.

This year we are thankful for everything.  That’s right everything.  We’re thankful for the times we’ve laughed and fought and cried and sang and danced and mourned and questioned and doubted and hoped.  We’re thankful for our families and our friends and even for the people who don’t like us so much. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we’re so grateful to have our messy little lives in the midst of this one crazy and beautiful world.

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Photo Friday – Uluru Sunrise, Australia

16 Nov

We spent last week trying not to dehydrate in the Outback of Australia.  Much of our time was taken up with hanging around Kata Tjuta and Uluru (commonly known as Ayers Rock).  The most famous photos of Uluru are taken at sunrise or sunset when the light makes the sandstone into a beautiful glowing spectacle.  After 6 months with no real rain to speak of, we arrived in the area just in time for some serious thunderstorms.  Fortunately the rain poured overnight and left a lovely scattered cloud palate for one of our sunrise views.

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Photo Friday – Longboat in Khao Sok, Thailand

9 Nov

Khao Sok National Park, despite not having a coastal scene, has some of Thailand’s  most spectacular scenery.  We took a longtail boat through the lake, which is surrounded by incredible limestone hills that reminded us of Halong Bay in Vietnam and Yangshuo in China.  It was stormy the day we arrived, but that only added to the mysterious appeal of the landscape.

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A Year of Wander

6 Nov

With all the hurricane chatter from the East Coast, and American election chatter from everywhere else, we somehow skipped over the fact that this weekend marked one year of travel abroad for us!  We’ve made it to Australia, which is another big marker for me personally.  Upon stepping off the plane, I have officially visited all seven continents.  Hooray!

We considered doing a year-long roundup of sorts to commemorate the moment, but figured we’ll save it for the very end, which unfortunately is creeping up on us.  We found a great deal on a flight home in February and have bought the tickets, so we’ve had to come to terms with the fact that even though it’s still a few months away, there is now an official end to our journey.

The rest of our trip will be spent in Australia and New Zealand.  More than a year ago we promised my mother we’d meet her ‘down-under’ for her birthday, which is next week, so here we are.

We’re going all in and are hitting up spots from the vineyards of Western Australia to the deserts of the Outback all the way to the beaches of Sydney and the wilderness of Tasmania.

After a year of travel through places where the amenities of home aren’t always available, we are ecstatic to be drinking tap water, flushing toilet paper and showering with HOT water again!

We still have a lot of adventuring left to do, so stay tuned, and thanks for keeping up with us this year!

Photo Friday – Cambodian Wat

2 Nov

One of our favorite parts about traveling in Southeast Asia is wandering around in dusty little towns and then stumbling upon hidden gems, like this wat, which we discovered one day while we were riding bikes around the outskirts of Siem Reap.  The temple complexes are often much bigger than they appear at first glance, and we love the bright colors that contrast some of the very old bits of stonework.

 

 

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