Materials Man

As some of you know I take my annual holidays in Lochaline, I usually have to explain where that is, the Morven peninsula, it is on the mainland where you get the shortest car ferry to Mull. There is also a passenger ferry from Drimnin that runs twice a week and is skippered by the lifeboat Coxswain, so you are in good hands.  visit  http://www.west-scotland-tourism.com/ardnamurchan-charters/Drimnin-Ferry.html see  picture of three known to me ladies, looking like they are going shopping by boat.  Well they were and we found Tobermory looking less than prosperous, no butcher, the business in the old church, closed, and two Chinese takeaways. Not easy to get lunch either, only a few from the many of last year. We did have a good pub lunch. Couldn’t visit cafe fish due to the dietary requirements of some of the party. But if you are in Tobermory, visit cafe fish at the end of the promenade.

Started feeding the birds on arrival, and soon had a multitude of chaffinches, some greenfinches, usual tits, but newcomers were siskins and collared doves, see pics.

A usual walk is by Keil church, this has a prominent outlook over the sound of Mull and was once the burial place of choice of the good and almighty, there is a small  museum next to the church which holds gravestones from  the 14th and 15th centuries and is well worth a visit if you want to sense your place in history.

If you have ever been on a holiday where the food, the drink and the ambience was so good? then the indoor pictures may give you a glimpse of why everyone falls asleep during the ending of Avatar !!

[View with PicLens]

On the 22 of May at about 7.30 am I was on spot to do my Osprey watch, I am expecting to see chick feeding as i reckon the eggs should have hatched as she was sitting from the 10 of April, and perhaps a few days before. Well she was sitting and he was perched nearby and not a lot was happening except she moved off the cup a few times. On one occasion when off, she picked up a fish from the nest edge, fed herself and once or twice bent into the nest cup, that to me was offering a chick some morsel. Perhaps next week I’ll see some chick heads. After this she took off, flew around for a while and collected a stick and came back, she took a long time to settle and I couldn’t figure out why, till I spotted two burly walkers, going who knows where? Apart from the farmers I seldom cross any one’s path. The walkers were unaware of the Ospreys, they were walking through the countryside completely unobservant of their surroundings, I was 20m away, admittedly behind a bifurcated slim tree and remained undetected, mind you they were walking as if escaping, but my wife did say a local young doctor is encouraging us overweight people to get walking, or die before we should.

I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Spey bay several times from the 24th May, this was ostensibly to watch dolphins which I did on every visit except the one where i took colleagues to see the dolphins, nothing, nix, nonche zero. (bad luck Dougie and Paul) We did see an Osprey fishing but not plunging, but during the day of the 26th in the afternoon I watched my first Osprey catch a fish, and what a sight! first dive, and I mean dive, not skim the surface and drop it’s feet in, this was gannet like and immense to watch. In shallow, wave breaking water it plunged right in full dive speed, It then remained in the water wings akimbo and being washed by the waves, this remained the situation for some 30 seconds, then with a flap it revealed it’s prize, a fish, a gleaming silver solid bar of a fish, easily 2/3 rds of it’s body length. I watched all this from the shore through my telescope, BBC spring watch stuff and appreciated by watchers without binos standing to my right. The successful Osprey duly adjusted it’s mighty catch and headed westward, within minutes another Osprey arrives, was it watching the other one? a hierarchy of  who can fish when? could be, as it fished for 30 minutes and 7 dives into the water and caught nowt, a clear distinction in abilities. The gooseanders were catching more than this amateur Osprey, whom I think was the same one in the picture resting on the storm shore at the river mouth. Spey bay in May, or any time,  plan your visit, and see much more than diaried here, very aggressive swans, terns, sand martins, swallows, herons, otters, ducks, lupins on the shore? and if  i’m not mistaken giant hogweed on the shore too. Oh and dolphins, honest !

[View with PicLens]

As well as the Osprey on the shore, there is a poor picture of a Slavonian grebe, but the exciting thing is you don’t have to tramp the moors to some small lochan, you can hear the traffic from a major road while watching these terrific birds. My car was 50m away.

On the 29th May saw my local female Osprey feeding two chicks, so she has at least two wobbly headed chicks.

Finally I have added a post to Ian’s site.   

[View with PicLens]

I do have some good photos but as for great, I am not so sure.  As a beginner to DSLR photography I am still finding my way and experimenting; after a year there are still many functions on my camera that I have no idea what they do, and many of my photos are down to luck.  As a beginner to photography I have probably chosen the most difficult subjects – wildlife and in particular our avian friends.

Two weekends ago myself, my wife and two of our friends spent the weekend in Dumfries and Galloway with the intention of seeing some geese.  At this time of year the Solway Firth provides a wintering ground for tens of thousands of geese, the majority of which are Barnacle Geese along with Canada, Greylag and Pink Footed.

We arrived at our hotel on the Friday night with severe weather warnings in place and the prospect of a miserable day on the Saturday.  True to the forecast, the weather on the Saturday morning was wild with very high river levels on the River Nith and strong winds.  Full waterproofs were donned when we arrived at the WWT Caerlaverock reserve and five or so hours were spent ducking from hide to hide through the foul weather with plenty of geese to view but few other birds were braving the storm.

I had resigned myself to the whole day being a washout, when at 3pm it was as if a switch had been pressed – the wind dropped and the sun came out.  As the sun came out we saw a female Sparrowhawk hovering on the wind – she was promptly mobbed by a crow and landed on a fencepost not far from the hide – unfortunately the light was still poor but I managed a couple of mediocre photos.

On the way back from this hide after the sun had come out, I was dodelling along hoping for a good photo opportunity as the others left me behind.  My dodelling did prove a good opportunity.  As I was wandering down the track I spotted a hare sitting ‘drookit’ on an embankment only a few metres from the track and by far the closest view of a hare that I have had.  I expected him to dart off as soon as he saw me but instead he wandered slowly across the path allowing me to take a few snaps.  When I caught up with the others they had seen a flock of redwings which I had missed, but I was glad of my encounter with the hare.

We  made our way back to the hide nearest to the visitor centre as the sun was setting for good views of many ducks and waders.  A sord of Mallards floated by, lining up for a good photo and a pair of Roe Deer came out to feed.

After a warming cup of coffee at the visitor centre we made our way back to the hotel past a spectacular sunset for a hearty meal and a few pints.

On the Sunday we had planned to visit the RSPB centre at Mereshead, but were scuppered by flooding on the access road.  We decided to drive to the nearby town and walk along the beach to the reserve which turned out to be a round trip of 15km, meaning that we had limited time at the reserve.  The detour did have a silver lining in that we saw a pair of Brent Geese bobbing on the sea – a new bird for me and taking the goose count to five species.  The other highlight on the Sunday was approximately 200 Pintail on one of the ponds at the RSPB reserve.

A good weekend was had with a count of 52 species  even with the poor weather.

[View with PicLens]

Just had a great week in Cornwall with our friends. Cornwall for those who have not visited the county, is different, different in speech, different in topography, different in many subtle ways. Building for instance, the older roofs are built differently, no sarking, but across the roof joists  are purlions (i’m guessing here) and the slates (from Cornwall) are lime mortared on. It would appear to be a measure of coping with the different slate depths, the mortar evens it out, least they don’t rattle as mine do in a storm.

It was the walls I wanted to bring to your attention and the narrow streets with houses jammed together. There must be an abundance of stone, flat and long, (granite aside) for all the field walls that would be dry stane dykes in Scotland are earth filled double walls, replicated on the a new section of the A 30 where you can see from my pics the end of the wall and the new plants in the earth in the wall. There is a pic of a typical lane off the main road, you can see where the vegetation has been cut back and the wall is now completely obscured by the plant growth. Driving in these lanes, is like being in a forest, you cannot fix the horizon and after a few turns you have no idea which way you are facing, my ebay tom tom one came into it’s own. If you want to explore the Cornwall countryside without a sat nav best of luck! These walls/hedgerows must be linear nature reserves, and there are many, many miles of them, see the pic looking out to sea on the West coast, showing the landscape by fields. Magpies abound.

For you roadbuilders note the drainage detail in the picture of the planted wall, no filter drains to block up and (not) maintain, water is schooshed away in the concrete vee channel to presumably a suds pond.

Now the narrow streets and jumbled together houses, not sure of why, but I suspect lack of planning, thank goodness as it is now quaint, plus a hard life making a living, from the sea and the land. We visited the towns of Wadebridge, St Ives, Truro and Falmouth on this visit and I have to say the people are very welcoming, warm and eager to help, it makes such a difference. For the foodies, I have to say you don’t have to pay Rick Stein twice the price for very good sea food, we had excellent food wherever we lunched, and I had seafood by preference.

Cornwall in speech is as advertised, different, it has gender like French, I heard “liked that he” , and when working with fibreboard that was a tight fit my younger accomplice said “he fits now” as we crammed it in. Wish I could remember more but a cask strength Laphroaig, as a gift, seems to have reduced my memory.

Lochaline at the shortest ferry trip to Mull is virtually at a dead end road, if you’re not going to Mull or the dwelling place of a few houses at Drimnin, then you need to turn back. Morven is the peninsula you are on but it feels like an island, I guess it comes from crossing on the Corran ferry and at Lochaline you have the sea meeting you. We are lucky enough to “be invited” to a converted church where in most years the majority of my wife’s family congregate. In some years it’s me the missus and her cousin, Helen. Helen is a great cook and we are welcome guinea pigs for new recipes, no fish mind you!  Fish did feature this year as Mike and Jan the owners are keen on fish, and were resident, so fresh prawns and scallops were bought in Oban and cooked that night, followed by kippers for breakfast. The reduction in ferry fares is welcome as we travelled by car on the ferry to Fishnish on Mull and by ferry passenger from Craignure to Oban, taking the bus was considered, but it has a terrible reputation for leaving on time even if the ferry is only delayed by ten minutes! Bowmans, you lost five return fares due to your reputation. This is surely not a highland way to operate?

Where we stay, on wet years the rainfall will total 1000mm, in Lochaline it can exceed 3000mm, the flora and fauna are naturally different. Chaffinchs dominate at the bird table, with a few great tits and less blue tits. A herring gull can make an appearance, using binos you can spot sea eagles from the windows, and as I emptied the kitchen peelings at the bottom of the garden the odd 11 point stag, 6 on one horn, 5 on the other!! Common lizards I confess, I have never seen in Scotland, but from clues from my brother, who was resident the week before us I took my chance of a rare sunshine break between showers to snap my first common lizards sunning themselves.

[View with PicLens]

The pics are ; the stag, common lizards, a pipe band in Oban at the start of their highland games, leaving Oban on the ferry, Ardtornish castle from the Fishnish to Lochaline ferry.

One picture I wish I could have got was a greater blacked backed gull nicking one of my  250mm mackerel from the timber pier in Lochaline, I did catch 20 odd and took 7 home, should have been 8!!

Our, not design and build,  A7 project is nearing completion, and I have to do falling weight defectometer (FWD) top of base and top of binder for designer validation. The design is HD 26/01 and uses figure 2.2, so the design is material choice and thickness. Not stiffness, so how does the designer validate his design? and how does he validate his design on a part built pavement that generally is still warm, but below 30 degrees C? It also occurred to my “catch up brain”, that the temp is recorded by drilling into the pavement to 100mm. I do not pretend to understand the analysis procedure, but if the binder course is 55mm thick and at around 30 degrees C and I drill into it and further into the base for 45mm and record a temp, analyse that I dare you. Surely the methodology is for the pavement (all the layers) to be at the same temperature, is it me? I have been beating a drum about FWD and gathering meaningless info at great expense, to tax payers, you and me, regarding this TS requirement.

So there is a change, a new requirement, in some tenders, appendix 1/5   we have to test top of base, top of binder, and now top of surface course. Well it seems my drum beating has backfired! Why is it not logical to look at the information gained, from top of base and top of binder and analyse it! Then take a step forward, perhaps the designers can’t analyse the data? Perhaps they should have thought of that before implementing a half baked notion of design validation? Would it not be sensible to have trial sections built and program to let the base cool, then test it, then spray bond coat, lay binder, let it cool and test that layer, followed by the surface course and again let it cool and test. This could be a modified 929 trial, and could be tested during the contract period to measure any ageing effect. Then when available during laying without interrupting the process, top of base and top of binder when cooled and not bond coated could be tested and subsequently all the surface course. There would be no need to run off with FWD data to analyse every section of work, from the trial and its back analysis the deflection figures of all sections tested would be there for comparison. Of course relying on the surface course data is too late if it is wrong, but on a design and build contract the risk is between the contractor, the designer and the blacktop supplier. Why is the client introducing this interrupting process of FWD during laying?

As i have blogged before the costs to interrupting the laying process to conduct FWD can be  more than the costs of  conducting the FWD, the people with the purse strings have not thought this out, why ? they don’t have to think.

And the purpose of this blog ? was to say yet again I am ensconced in the Marchback hotel, hence sleeping in England, the food is just sublime.

I have seen Guinea fowl running around in West Africa, but never tasted it. The Marchbank Hotel is about good food and game in particular and what does the menu provide? guinea fowl. Plus rabbit, pheasant, roe deer, halibut, lemon sole, esk salmon, venison burgers, leg of lamb cooked in the Aga for ten hours, if three of you like lamb and only eat breakfast you may manage this lamb feast. and guinea fowl ? subtle type of pheasant. Breakfast of kippers in cream is an omega start to the day, scrambled pheasant eggs with crispy bacon (pigs not fed on fish meal) with home grown fried tomatoes. Catch me on a diet! Shadow grows no less!

Just driven about 700 miles, 350 with a falling weight defectometer trailer in tow, it weighs 1.4 tonnes and my L 200 returned 25 MPG at a generally obedient 60 MPH. The return trip was foot down at 70 min apart from congestion on the M5 and M6 and returned 26.6 MPG. It is a long time since I drove so many miles in one day, isn’t red bull wonderful.
Anyway the point of the post is to say how fantastic a Tom Tom One is, I did this journey last year without a GPS device and stayed in various hotels to break the journey, however the small industrial park that is the monopoly of Dynatest is not that easy to find, unless you have a Tom Tom or similar sat nav. Even though I had been there last year the amount of driving around last year to find the place left the mind confused, an age thing. Tom Tom with Joanna Lumley’s voice took me there, once off the motorway through country lanes straight to my destination.
My Tom Tom One was bought from ebay for about £70 nearly unused and I should have had one years ago to find my way around Glasgow and Edinburgh, cities that you think you know, but drive in circles trying to park near where you’re going, which was not where you thought it was.
Sat Nav in cars I just discovered is brilliant, I am years behind others, what else I am missing? twitter?

In 1997 my son and I took our Mercedes 408 camper van on a trip through Nth Ireland and Eire. That was the first year the ferry ran from Campbelltown to Ballycastle, we parked on the Campbelltown pier, nice and flat, and near the chippy and cinema. Handy to pee on a slipway down into the harbour, but not in the morning after the tide had been in and it was a bit slippery, for Neil cos he ended up in the harbour! I heard a shout and plop rushed over to see Neil swimming to a ladder and me shouting at him where’s your glasses, he wasn’t giving two Fs for his glasses as they were in the van. So in comes the ferry and Neil is soaking wet with harbour water which is not the freshest. As I boarded the lassie said you have booked for a passenger where is the passenger? I replied he’s in the shower, he fell into the Harbour ten minutes ago. Bit sceptical looks but ushered on. I had to leave the vehicle and explain my son was drying himself off and will need to leave the vehicle deck, no problem to these guys they could not have been nicer.
After that debacle we headed west and south, we visited the usual tourist spots, we also climbed a holy mountain whose name escapes me but the cross on top is impressive. Did Eire’s highest mountain with the great name of Macgillycuddys Reeks, we camped in the Wicklow gap but did not climb the wee hills there, the midges were absolutely ferocious. We stopped where we wanted set up camp and not a soul bothered us. I once camped in a field near a loch where we fished, but the field was knee high in grass. We later met the farmer who was cutting grass for silage in a back field and I apologised for imposing myself on his property, he apologised for the grass being so long! That is typical of the Irish both Nth and Sth, absolutely friendly to a fault. I do have a note of the places we visited but it is long and why bore you with details, as a postscript to my credit crunch holidays post Nth Ireland and Eire is a brilliant place to visit, especially if you’re into fishing. Not that we caught anything, well I did catch the propeller on one expedition! one floating line knackered, well my son learned i could swear in sentences!
Sailing back from Belfast in that very fast ferry my son attached himself to a guy on a bandit who was bouncing back from a funeral and was locked onto the bandit. Neil being Neil analysed the win profile and as well as guiding this fella he went the bar to get him change. I saw nothing of him in the whole trip except to make sure he wasn’t annoying the bandit player, as he was a big fella and fit to boot. By this time Neil had made himself financial advisor and in due course the jackpot dropped, £200, Neil got £20! So he fell into the harbour and fell into money. Brilliant holiday. Visit Ireland, you will, you will ,you will.

My wife and I visited Seattle in September 2007 as part of a mini tour of the USA’s Pacific North West. We found it a very interesting city and from a photographic point of view it is something very special.

We stayed 5 nights at the Best Western Plaza by the Green Hotel in Kent, to the south of the city. Although still very much within the sprawl of Seattle the hotel was around 30 minutes drive from the centre. Travelling around was fairly easy with the Interstate 5 running north/south through the city linking all the main attractions.

Eating in Seattle is a delight with a plethora of restaurants to suit all tastes. Whilst we were there we ate Thai, Italian, American and Chinese and we could have visited many other countries on top of that. There are coffee places galore too with all the main brands competing for your business.

Shopping, if you are “into” that, is excellent with all the main stores featuring in the city centre. The layout of the shops makes wandering around quite a delight.

Outside the city there are numerous places of interest. Mount Rainier National Park, Mount Baker, Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Puget Sound, to name but a few.

During our stay in Seattle we had a day in Mount Rainier NP. This was our kinda day. Beautiful mountain scenery and so close to the city. We also had a day whale watching. We drove north to Anacortes and caught the ferry to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. Our whale watching trip sailed from here and what a real thrill it was. We spent most of the time in the Haro Strait between San Juan Island and Vancouver Island and here saw loads of Orcas. Unfortunately the whales weren’t in a boisterous mood so there were no sightings and no photographs of any of them breaching but we were treated to several close ups as some of them swam gracefully past and sometimes under the boat. Part of another day was spent at the Space Needle, the iconic structure completed in 1961 for the Seattle World’s Fair. The views from the top were superb and if it had been a clearer day we’re sure you could have seen the Golden Gate Bridge!!

Photographic locations are plentiful and we went round many of them (several times!). The main ones we visited were Kerry Park, Alki Beach, Dr Jose Rizal Bridge, Pikes Place Market and Mount Rainier.

A good tip to overcome parking difficulties in the city is to drive round to Alki Beach, park for free and take the ferry across to the city.

Our only nitpick about Seattle is the weather. You can expect it to be wet a lot of the time! In our 5 days there we had one afternoon and evening that was clear, (we captured stunning views of the city with Mount Rainier in the background just to prove it!), the rest of the time it was overcast. Maybe it was just our luck or bad luck but it didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for this beautiful city.

Time for the photos. If you want to see more images from our trip visit our galleries at: http://www.pbase.com/davidleask/america2007.

I worked in the Egyptian desert, it’s western desert, as an inspector of civil works. The whole trip was an experience particularly Cairo. I know cities can sprawl, but Cairo when flying over it in a small plane is huge!! Anyway to the desert, the company I worked for, was, from memory Solus engineering and the guys i worked with were all brits, so we stuck together. Americans were there of course and that multi-national company Schlumberger. Anyway to the point of the blog, El Alamein, amongst our group were two pot smokers,  plus me and a scouscer boiler maker who was employed as a welding inspector. Anyway we had long drunk our duty free and somehow the longest served guy there a cockney welding inspector acquired a 4 x 4 vehicle, a Lada Niva, and suggested we go to El Alamein for a few beers and a meal on our day off. Camp life is boring so this seemed unmissable.
We reached El Alamein without event, as I recall, and as you near the place, I was going to type town there but it is not that, there is evidence of battle, with tanks and other combative vehicles lying around half buried in the sand.
There was as I recall three mausoleums, a German one, a British one and one I can’t remember. I do remember walking through the British graveyard all with the same head stones, but it was the ages of the dead that got to me, 19 to 21 predominated.
We found the hotel had plenty of beer and a meal, the scoucser spewed into the bottom of a palm tree outside the hotel and we went back to camp. I was very interested in my safety on the way back as the driver not only had loads of beer but he and the other smoker smoked spliffs all the way back. I have to admit he was very alert and aware, and trust me I wasn’t half asleep pissed, if he showed the slightest unsafe manoeuvre, I was going to demand to drive. As I recall getting back to camp the gate security person was informed we were mickey mouse and Donald duck and friends. Could not help going to bed chuckling !!

Sent by Wimpey Asphalt to set up a post as technical manager, I arrived in Hong Kong, the MD immediately set about me with beer and the need to stay. I was resolute having been an expat I had to measure up the place. It did not measure up, plus for the first time in my life I had jet lag!! When you lie awake in the middle of the night having had a belly full of beer you know you are in trouble. So what of Hong Kong? Great for shopping, terrible for driving, most cars are automatic, because you are always in a jam. You can tell it’s crowded from day one, and also rich, if you judge wealth by the cars around you, and the number that need dough to buy them, the place has wealthy people.
Strange things happen, I suppose to everybody by association with others, but when you change your others to a well heeled lawyer whose sister is your cleaner and cook, (don’t ask, it’s about pride) then another world can open up. Wealth, cars, boats, property.
I did see from my automatic Toyota, people’s debris from sleeping under flyovers, so not all wealthy. But it never is, Hong Hong was then buzzing, those people are not Chinese communist types, (whatever that means) they work hard and want to prosper.
Why did I not stay? the natural environment was knackered, anything that moved was game, there were no open areas where natural life was confined and accessible. Humanity prevailed !! terrible to behold.
Want to shop? Hong Kong cannot be beaten.
Want to be surrounded by more people than you can imagine, who are polite and do not pester you or beg, Hong Kong is the place.

Pete and I were so fed up with St Lucia, that from information gleaned from the Italian owner of our local restaurant / bar the Il pirata (the pirate) we decided at Christmas we were off. Landed Christmas eve got to hotel, booked in and took to our feet. We were lucky to get fed and watered by 9.0pm as everywhere was closing down. So ended up in bed early to be woken at 12.00 when the whole place went mad with fireworks and a street full of people. We stayed in bed. Next day we started to explore on foot, public transport was closed. Caracas is cosmopolitan, typical type street cafes where you sit and have waiter service, great, sit drink beer and watch Caracas go by. Next day the city got back to normal and we used the brilliant underground / overground rail system. As I recall we bought an anywhere travel ticket and we got off and on as we pleased, it was and is my most pleasant experience of public travel. The rail system is not just limited to Caracas but goes way outside the city limits. Memorably on one of these outside city limits trips we were in a bar at lunchtime, well you have to support the local economy! who sidles up to us but an ex Bishop from Wales, who worked in Venezuela, who wanted the crack in English. Pete had worked in Wales near the guys birthplace so that was a flowing conversation, but I did not like this bloke, and old soak living on a pension paid by UK tax payers, he boasted he could afford a chauffeur, just as well the amount he drank, interesting though. Caracas came to mind because of the recent referendum on Hugo Chavez being able to stand forever as president. Pride cometh before a fall!
Angel falls we did not get to, very expensive, but we did explore Caracas and it’s hinterland and it was as very pleasant break. I would not go there from Europe as a holiday, it is not a usual tourist destination, but if you are nearby, Caracas is well worth a visit.

Once I’d seen images of grizzly bears catching salmon I was sold.  I had to go see for myself and try to capture similar images.

After a bit of research on the web and through photographic forums my wife and I came up with only a few options where we could view grizzlies in the wild, have guaranteed sightings (well almost!), and be safe all at the same time.  We chose Brooks Falls in Alaska, within the Katmai National Park, for our adventure of a lifetime.  Further research lead us to our tour operator Katmailand at www.katmailand.com.  [As a wee aside - the salmon start their "run" upstream in June/July and that's when you see the grizzlies stand at the top of Brooks Falls and catch the salmon as they leap up the falls.  Traditionally our main holiday is in September and we wanted to stick with this.  The grizzlies hang around Brooks River until late September when the salmon have spawned and "float" downstream again into the bellies of the bears.  We had no fears therefore of going in September and not seeing bears].  We booked 2 nights at Brooks Lodge in Katmai NP in September 2007.  Incedentally, we had to book about 10 months in advance to secure places.  If going in July you need to be off your marks 18 months earlier.  Katmailand’s tour starts in Anchorage, Alaska so we chose to combine our visit to the see the bears with a tour of the Seattle/Portland area (the Pacific North West) – more of this in later blogs.

Our travel itinerary from Scotland comprised the following.  We flew Zoom Airlines from Glasgow to Vancouver, picked up a car and drove south to Seattle.  After 1 night in Seattle we flew Continental Airlines to Anchorage where we hit the sack for another night.  Next day we flew Pen Air to King Salmon then by float plane into Katmai NP and Brooks Lodge itself.  As soon as you step off the float plane onto the beach you see the bears and all the travel weariness disappears and turns into adrenaline.

After a safety induction (on bear sense, etc) we and all the other visitors (around 20 “ish”) were shown our room for the next two nights.  It was basic but perfectly comfortable.  After all, we were on an adventure!

We were able to move relatively freely around the Lodge area and beach.  The most basic rule is to stay at least 50m from any bear.  We were sheperded past any bottlenecks, where bears were on paths or in the river near paths, by the NP Rangers.  The bears always had ”right of way” and the Rangers policed this rigidly.  You feel very safe and provided you have a long lens on the camera you still get great photos.  For the photograph buffs anything shorter than a 300mm lens is pretty useless and a tripod/monopod is more-or-less essential.  Brooks Falls is about a mile upstream from the Lodge along a forest land rover track.  You had to be vigilant when you were on the track and whilst we never saw any bears en route between Lodge and Falls you could never be sure you wouldn’t.  The only saving grace is that there are so many salmon in the river that the bears don’t need to eat humans!!  Also, in September, the bears have had a summer of plentiful food making them rather plump and lethargic.

Food is not included in the package from Katmailand but Brooks Lodge has a cafe/restaurant.  Although the visitors have literally no option other than to eat at the lodge the food there is good, wholesome stuff and reasonably priced.  This was a great place to share the days experiences with other visitors.   My guess is that 80% of the visitors were photographers so there was plenty of good chat around the open fire.

It was a huge adventure for us and we were thrilled to be there, feeling priveledged to view these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat.  We will go back – next time in the July, to see the salmon leaping into the waiting  jaws of the grizzlies.

Now for the photos:

An aeriel shot of Brooks River where it enters Naknek Lake.  In September most of the bears are in this area just plucking salmon our of the water as and when they fancy.

The several visits we made to the Falls revealed only one big fella there.  He seemed to be a bit of a loner, preferring to stay away from the action downstream.  Here he is seen tearing the skin of a salmon he has just “dived” for.  The poor thing was still wriggling!

Sometimes they hunted in packs.

One of my favourite shots from the trip was this wee one peeking round the corner.  The warm golden light suited his/her fluffy brown coat perfectly.

More images can be seen here:  http://www.pbase.com/davidleask/brookslodge

Prauge is a very beautiful city, especially in December when the Christmas markets are on the go.  Here are my thoughts and musings after a long weekend trip there last December.

We flew from Edinburgh to Prague using Jet2.com – very easy and quite cheap.  You may hear “horror” stories about being ripped off by taxi drivers and to make sure you book a transfer from the airport.  These transfers will cost around £40 return.  We chose to find our own way into the city from the airport.  Get on the 119 bus to Dejvicka metro station (it’s the bus terminus so you won’t get lost) and from there take the underground into the city.  It cost us £0.80 each, eachway – a total of £3.20!  The metro, trams and buses are all linked in that the same ticket does all.  You pay about £0.80 for 75 minutes and you can jump on and off as many times in the 75 minutes you want.

We stayed at the Hotel Cloisters, a very comfortable hotel in the old town close to all the attractions.  We were 5/10 mins walk from the river, the Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square.  Highly recommended!

We found that in most places communication with the locals was very easy, with most understanding basic English (very humbling really).

Food stops / eating places were plentiful and you could eat in “any country” you wanted.  Price-wise things were not cheap, probably because of the poor exchange rate, and food/drink were costing about the same as the UK.

Whilst the transport system is excellent (and cheap) we walked a lot.  The city itself is very compact and is best savoured as a pedestrian.

Our favourite places were the Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, Prague Castle and anywhere along the river.  Whilst you are there take in an ice hockey game, you’ll love it!

Prague Castle as seen from the river side downstream of Charles Bridge.

The Old Town Square and the Christmas Markets as seen from the Clock Tower.

A quaint street in the Old Town, taken at 5am before the throngs started to arrive.

I like Oman, and it’s people, even though when I had to leave within a month when my work permit was not granted, I had 5mins left on my visit visa, at the airport, Mr jobs worth said, your lucky, another five mins and we would have to jail you. Back to Dubai I went.
I was subsequently jailed, but that’s another story.
Anyway I loved Oman, real people, real links to the history of their land, settled they were. I could sense the difference between Dubai, Saudi, Bahrain, and Oman, settled, the folks there had been there a while and their attitude was who are you and well met. lovely people no airs and graces, people of the land and the sea.
So I was there to build this road from Al Seeb to Al Khawd working for Desert Line Projects, their first “road” project. Everything from scratch, people, non earthmoving plant, the lot. Now this is where being an expat stretches you much more than working at home. I decided with others where the camp would be, where we would get the water, what pump we needed to get the water to the camp, all that start up stuff usually done by others. Then later, what crusher to buy, I also bought from Costain in Muscat, a road spray tanker and had to figure out how it worked, and then train a driver and sprayman how to work it. This wasn’t the modern type where cabin controls did the valves, a poor bloke had to stand on the foot plate at the rear and operate the levers. Did he get black and sticky? yes he did, so I gave him dirty money. We had 23 culverts to build and we bought three reverse drum mixers with weigh gear and moved them from culvert to culvert to do relatively small pours. Yeh it was hick town, but it worked. Oh I also, with help from our camp boss, who was an Indian called Daz, a completely competent guy, the type you wish you had a dozen of, made a redundant small  swimming pool viable again, chlorine the lot. What had that to do with a road job? It was the project managers, a great fellow called Rodger Inker who I worked with in Dubai and recommended him to Desert line. The point I make is if you are an expat with a contractor and survive, you are in my opinion more employable than your colleagues that you left at home. Because you have learned to solve problems not just raise them.

If you want to visit a real natural part of the middle east, go to Oman. Dubai is just a huge disney world, they do have vision and balls I have to say cos they know when the oil runs out? what then? Oman is for me the place to go back to, it was, as still is warm and welcoming. And unlike me you wont be forced to leave, as tourists are now welcome.