2. October 2012 07:19
by Rene Pallesen
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After our escursion to the park last week the family decided to go there for a picnic on this Labour Day (public holiday).
I was soooo tired after having food poisoning the night before...and wasn't able to eat anything...but the others were having fun.
Here is Kims dad with the four daughters.
What I didn't realise was that this was the park that KC and Chong got married in. The ceremony was in this spot where I took this photo of Kims dad with most of his grand children (the two youngest missing).
I also did some more peacock photos while we were there.
Afterwards there was cake and KC and Chongs place (it was his b'day a couple of days earlier)...but we were too tired to join them.
29. September 2012 05:57
by Rene Pallesen
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For the last couple of years work has has an annual photo competition. This year the theme was 'connected world' and I decided to participate.
Not an easy task coming up with an idea and doing a project like this with a new kid. With bit of brainstorming I came up with a couple of ideas and with Kims permission to doing a night shoot in the city I decided to put one of the ideas to life.
I am not sure if it is a strong enough photo to be a real contender, but it was fun trying to put it together. The photo was taking at the Domain in Sydney with the highrises in the background.
28. September 2012 08:39
by Rene Pallesen
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Yesterday we made the trip to Auburn Botanical gardens which is located about 25km from where we live.
I am paternity leave at the moment at this was a nice opportunity to get out of the house with Aiden and the newborn and also take some photos.
The garden contains a Japanese section full of Cherry blossoms in spring...unfortunately it is no longer cherry blossom season, but I did find some apple trees with flowers on them as well as other flowers.
There was also a bunch of peacocks around the place...one of them kind enough to show us its pride.
24. September 2012 07:45
by Rene Pallesen
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During the last couple of days I have been doing my first series of newboarn photos with the little one (still no name).
So far he is behaving like a typical newborn...wants a feed every couple of hours and sleeps a lot. He is doing his best to keep Kim awake at night...I try to get a good nights sleep and then look after Aiden during the daytime and get him out of the house (swimming, shopping etc.) so that Kim can get some additional sleep without too make additional interruptions.
Anyway...back to the newborn photos. I wanted to take these cute high-key photos with the newborn wearing a hat. It turned out to be a lot harder than I had expected...both due to the little one not behaving as desired, but also because there were a few adjustments that had to be made underway. In the end we ended up doing three sitting where the last sitting was the most successful one.
I knew that I needed to raise the head from the body to get the right pose but I found out that it was a mistake using pillows as they were too soft. After this I tried towels and linen but they were still too soft. In the end I used a hard camera suitcase with a towel on top which turned out to be perfect.
Over the next weeks I will get to take some more photos, so stay tuned...
13. September 2012 04:34
by Rene Pallesen
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During the last 9 months since Kim became pregnant I've been doing this project with a monthly belly photo.
12. September 2012 07:20
by Rene Pallesen
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On the morning of the 12th September 2012 at 6.10am our little boy arrived to this world. He was keen to get out and as expected (pretty much) he arrived two weeks early.
Labour actually started more than 24 hours earlier and was just dragging on with Kim getting contractions every 30 minutes or so...not close enough to quite panic about, but still with the knowledge that it is close to going to the hospital. At the time the little one arrived Kim had been in labour for more that 24 hours so she eventually ended up with another c-section.
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Created: 7 Dec 2001
15. August 2000 10:41
by Rene Pallesen
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Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )Repeater Stations . . .
Here, you see Paul and I transporting some of the repeater stations by air.
From Silam, we flew down to DFVC. We stayed there for three days before going back to Silam.
I am at one of the repeater sites. Here, the top of one of the mountains was cleared, so we could safely land a helicopter there.
Oh... did I forget to mention that I almost chopped one of my fingers in half at the repeater site?
On top of my infected eye, I had another thing for the medical team to look at. The fingernail had been chopped in half and there was not much I could do about it except clean it up and try to avoid infections. The medical team was great there... they were extremely good.
We had a few problems with some of the communications gear.
Paul and Glen were handling it, and at times I tried to assist.
The first few days had been really tough.
The top of Silam is covered in clouds for most of the afternoons, so the solar panels are quite useless. A survey of the conditions made prior to the race was useless.
If you ask any of the locals, they would have told us that the peak is always covered in clouds... but apparently no-one asked them!!!
We had problems keeping the generators running - they were using more power than predicted and there was no sun on the top of Silam to recharge the batteries.
The generator itself was a re-built petrol engine with a car alternator on it.
We basically tried to use a system where we used a jerry can, cut holes into it, and relied on the force of gravity to transport the fuel to the generator.
This design ended up working best for us.
Our helicopter pilot sitting on the side there, just grinning...
On the third day of the race, I hiked up the mountain three times. I was really tired and all I could think of was getting a bit of a rest and some food. I managed to get a bit once I got to Danum. In Danum I managed to get 6 hours sleep before someone woke me up and told me that the repeater had died in Silam... again all the cars had to leave in a convoy... so rush, rush to find my driver and managed (just) to get into the convoy!
The road to Danum closes at 6.30pm and all the cars had to go in the convoy.
The helicopter flew all of us to the top of the mountain, and waited there for us till we were finished. Glen quite often told the pilot, "You don't have to shut down, because we'll only be here for 5 minutes." Well... quite often, we were there for as long as an hour and half! (Don't worry, the pilot was sensible enough to shut down immediately... he got to know Glen very well.)
I went up there often make sure that it was still running. It is much better getting a helicopter to fly me up there so that I can bring some fuel with me !
Glen has mostly been on top of the mountain getting the generator back online.
We have to keep the generator running 24 hours per day until the end of the race.
On the third night after the race started, one of the repeaters went dead.
I had to hike up the mountain on the previous day as the generator had died.
I did not leave the mountain until it was dark, so I had to climb down through the jungle in the dark!
Fortunately I had my torch with me!
Paul later gave me strict instructions to make sure that I leave the mountain so that I could be back at HQ while there was still light!
I found out that I did not have any problems navigating at night... I even offered Paul to go back up when the repeater died!
Anyhow, we ended up having to send the airborne repeater up!
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Created: 7 Dec 2001
15. August 2000 10:41
by Rene Pallesen
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Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )The Competitors . . .The competitors did not rest... three of the teams were half way through the 600 kilometre course after only three days... pretty amazing!
Two of the teams were Australian. 18 teams were out of the race. At least 10 of these were due to medical problems.
Hardly any people around here get enough sleep... the place is active 24 hours per day because there are always competitors coming in!
I was keen to find out how the Danish team would turn out. At the beginning of the race, they were not very sociable. But by the end of the race, I think the tension of the race had gone, and I managed to have a chat with them. By the third day, the Danes are doing pretty well... they had a 22nd place!
This was the mountain-bike leg of the race.
The guy you see being transported to hospital in the helicopter (photos below), was doing this part of the race. He was rounding a corner on his bike and rode straight into a large branch.
We had a lot of medical urgencies... we almost lost a guy with a punctured lung !
I got some great photos and helped getting the guy into the mobile hospital. There was a lot publicity on the website and through the media about it.
Fortunately, he was only 15 minutes away from HQ, so it was possible for us to get him to the helicopter very quickly, and to the nearest hospital.
Another leg of the race involved rowing in these “sampans”, a Malay term for “boat”. At some point, the teams in the race had to also split up - some of them swimming, some of them rowing, to complete the water leg of the race.
Below, the competitors had to use a flying fox to cross the canyons. I managed to have a go at it - compared to rock-climbing... well, I found it pretty boring *smile*. I imagine most people would find it quite fun though.
There are no places to climb here.
I had hoped to take one of the helicopters to Madai Caves to check out the 200 metre abseil. The road to the Madai Caves lead directly through the tiny village of Gua Madai - a small cluster of homes, their wood bleached grey.
The town’s main sources of income are tourism and birds’ nests. The nests are found high up the walls of the cave, tucked away in cracks and crevasses, and can command thousands of dollars. They are harvested about three times a year.
My girlfriend mentioned trying "bird's nest soup" whilst I was there. She said normally the bird's nest they use belong to the swallow. It is a delicacy to many Asians, and similar to shark's fin soup - that is if you have tried it. Normally the nests are made out of the birds' saliva.
There was so much rain at Silam that HQ was often flooded.
Many of the competitors took the opportunity to get some sleep and the slept on whatever they could find.
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Created: 7 Dec 2001
15. August 2000 10:40
by Rene Pallesen
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Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )Silam and Jungle Ops . . .It is so bloody hot in Silam! It must have been at least 40 degrees and 100% humidity!
Silam was the overall headquarters, and Danum Valley Field Centre (DVFC) was referred to as Jungle Ops. Jungle Ops controlled all radio communications and conducted the race through the the jungle.
From Kota Kinabalu, we flew to Lahad Datu and drove the rest of the way to Silam. Silam was the site of one of the repeater stations. We had to set up a HQ a few kilometres from this station... heaps of opportunities for a few walks in the jungle.
The operation at Silam was huge!... I had never seen such a busy place before. The place was crawling with energy. It was bigger than any military operation I had ever seen! You would be amazed to see the logistics involved in this project ! At the time I did not have the time to take a lot of photos.
We had many army trucks transporting the competitors' equipment - very good cooperation from the military. They helped out with the preparation and set-up of HQ, and with the transportation of fuel.
This is the headquarters on the left.
The whole Ecochallenge race is governed from this office.
The map in the background contains the position of all the checkpoints at which the competitors have to go through.
Both of the above photos are aerial shots of HQ and were taken from a helicopter.
I managed to get a nice aerial shot of Silam HQ. The big white patch in the middle is where the competitors stored all their equipment. Just to the left are the containers from where the race is controlled. The 4 'finger-like' white pads on the right are the heli-pads. The long rectangle to the left is the eating area, and just above it is the hospital.
Approaching DVFC in helicopter.
This is actually a research centre in the middle of the jungle - commonly known as DVFC (Danum Valley Field Centre).
DVFC is not normally accessible the tourists and the general public, only to researchers.
DVFC is concerned about contamination into the jungle.
Outside Jungle Ops HQ.
The green boxes contain bottled drinking water.
By the time the race was over, most of this had been consumed - quite amazing really, considering there were really only 10 people at Jungle Ops.
During the competitors were not allowed any help from us, and that included the provision of drinking water.
Paul with some of the radio equipment at Silam.
He is standing next to the HQ matrix, which contained all the communications equipment for headquarters.
Paul is also standing next to the only 2 beds in the HQ building. These were used by the radio operators to nap in between shifts.
Below, you see me sitting in the catering tent at Silam.
I think it must have been a good day, to have