Øvre Espedal Microadventure

Øvre Espedal Microadventure, a set on Flickr.

We thought we'd try to do a bit of cycle touring with Leo as a practice for our summer holiday. We cycled about 70km (via a ferry) to a lovely camping spot with our friend Steve. Even though it was cold Leo loved it. Life was looking up!

Our old house on Lamma is now a school

In keeping with the pedagogic and altruistic flavour of our old house, it has been turned into a rather lovely school for twelve 3-5 year olds.

More sounds of HK

We went in to town today and recorded some of the many noises of HK.You can listen to all of them through this small mp3 player.

We've been getting a lot of rain this month

The frogs in Yung Shue Long Valley

After the first big rains of the year the frogs start to get all excited and the noise at night is almost deafening. Some of the frogs are tree frogs, the others hide in the reeds.




There are two recordings above. The first is of the high pitched cacophony, the second all the big deep frogs. Click to enjoy.

A view of Lantau from the ferry

Lamma ferry pier and HK harbour by night

My second attempt at HDR. Three blended exposures. It's OK, but not much better than just a normal shot....I think it's the wrong kind of thing to do HDR on. You need detail in different lights for it to really add to the photo.
Anyway it's Lamma ferry pier so that's nice enough!!

Lamma - Tung O Village

Here'a great little house near Tung O beach at the other end of Lamma. I just love the roof. It's incredible that people really live like this, 3km from HK. The path actually goes through their house, and you have to ride your bike past several old men playing Mahjong, with all the tiles clacking on the tables, old ladies shuffling about. And that roof on top of it all!! The village itself is about 4 houses and chaos everywhere, bits of rusting iron, umbrellas, guttering, no air con and lots of grannies.

Landscapes

Alizee

Isabelle is an Auntie - Annie, her twin gave birth to Alizee in February. Bob looks happy.



Full Screen Slideshow Here

Lamma Waterfront Views

This is a HDR - High Dynamic Range photo.
I took 3 photos on a tripod with different exposures and then blended them so that the best exposures of each picture were in the final photo.

This is just before sunset from by the Lancombe restaurant.

Cycling from Auckland to Gisborne

Over Christmas we headed to New Zealand to do a cool cycle ride. From Auckland we headed South and then after visiting all the volcanic stuff around Rotarua, we headed up into the hills and via a dirt road across to Lake Waikaremoana - a really unspoilt area of New Zealand. From there we eventually descended to the coast and then cycled North to Gisborne on the East Coast.



Full Screen Slideshow Here

Village of the Scammed

My mum's village got scammed by the credit card fraudsters and got in the papers all over the world.
Here's one of the reports

Welsh Choir in Sok Kwu Wan

Welsh Voice Choir in Sok Kwu Wan from Simon Taylor on Vimeo.

Mum and Dad Dancing Cajun

Mum and Dad Cajun dancing in 1996 from Simon Taylor on Vimeo.

Masai Village Slideshow

The School in Lake Baringo

Full Screen Slideshow Here

The Orphanage

The orphanage has changed, now instead of a boundary wall it has 3 floors, loads of students living there and even boys rather than just girls. They even have students at the university in Nairobi.......

Full Screen Slideshow Here

Chloe speaking the local language

Chloe having a chat from Simon Taylor on Vimeo.

Kenya 2007 Slideshow

Kenya Slideshow from Simon Taylor on Vimeo.