Driving to the Lakes we decided to take the old road rather than the highway.This road crosses the mountain range and then catches up with one of the larger roads further inland. We were told that after the highway was built there was less traffic on this road, but when we got onto it, it was completely empty of any traffic whatso ever.

The drive across the range was very different. It was very scenic and the road was in great condition. The landscape was very rocky and very dry, almost dessert like with low scrubs and there were many old farms and houses that had been left probably because life was too hard up here. I would have thought it would be the typical place to have goats roaming around, but we didn't see a single goat up on the high plateau. The farms looked like they were several hundred years old. It was the typical farms you see in these areas where the farmers every year pick up the stones they see in their fields and put them to the side to eventually form a type of fence line/walls around the field. Some of these walls were several metres high for even very small fields meaning that they were very old and that it would have taken a lot of really backbreaking work to be able to grow anything up here.

After about seventy kilometres we were across the plateau and one of the first larger town we arrived to was Knin. We decided to stop here to pick up a few supplies and site down and have some lunch. Not far from the supermarket was the trainstation and here was the very nice old steam locomotive. It was built in Budapest (possibly in 1955) and was now just sitting there rusting.







Knin was also the only place on our trip where we saw a significant military presence. I later found out that this was one of the Serbian strongholds during the was and they tried to break free of the newly independent croatia in 1991 as the Republic of Serbian Krajina. As it attempted to break off from Croatia in 1991 they ethnically cleansed the area of non-Serbs and set up their own local government. In 1995, the Croatian army retook the region and the majority of the Serb population fled or was displaced. There are today still some tension in the area and there are not a lot of opportunities. It is also close to the border and strategically located so hence the large military presence.

Just outside Knin we passed this weird structure on one of the farms. It was liks a big silo, but with a large chimney on top. Next to it there was a a wooden structure with some hoisting structure in it. I have no idea what this structure was for. It could be some sort of a furnace for melting something, but to be honest I have no idea...I would love to find out what this structure was for?? Today it looks like the building is used to store cow manure. There are some vineyards in the area so this could possible provide a clue. My guess is that it was for burning limestone (plenty of that around) to produce cement or mortar.






The remainder of the drive was on a much more busy road with large trucks. We managed to get to the lakes early afternoon. Just in time to have a quick visit to the lakes...but more about that in the next post.

The coastal drive from Dubrovnik back up to Trogir just north of Split is absolutely amazing. It follows the coastline closely all the way and it is both a fun drive and incredibly scenic. I found it better than the Great Ocean Road here in Australia.

One minute the road is really close to the water and you can see all these little bays with crystal clear water and sometimes with small beaches and people swimming. Next minute the road is up high and you get an incredible view of all the high mountains and islands off the coast. The whole route is dotted with small towns and beautiful little churches.



The road is really winding and does not have too much traffic on it, so it is a very pleasant and never boring. To complete the drive we also had to cross back into to Bosnia only to cross the border back into Croatia a few kilometers later.


Unfortunately both Kim and Aiden missed out on much of the scenery as they were sleeping most of the way.

Along the way we stopped in Markarska to get a bite to eat. It is an incredible little natural harbour with a steep backdrop to the mountains behind.





We stopped for the night in a small island town called Trogir. It is a charming little town with narrow passageways and very nice little restaurants. It is very popular with the rich in their 150 foot motor boats.







Kim had found a hotel right in the centre of the old town so we had to park outside the city and then walk in. We were only staying for one night, so it was easy for us to just pack one bag and leave the rest of our things in the boot of the car.

Arriving to the hotel we found that the Aircon and TV wasn't working...we complained to the reception desk and they came to have a look at it. It turned out to have been turned off at the fuse box. We turned on the Aircon and it was quite noisy but at least it was somewhat working.

Kim went to have a shower and suddenly I heard a very loud vacumm cleaner type sound and then Kim started screaming. I went out to the bathroom and there was water and soap everywhere...the walls, the doors (even the outside of the door) and the floor. The Jacuzzi in the bathroom had suddenly automatically turned itself on in the middle of her shower and the off switch wasn't working. The only way we could turn it off was on the fuse box...so now we knew why it was off when we arrived.

This turned out to be probably the worst of the hotels (Hotel Fontana) that we stayed in...it was really unbearable hot in the room, we couldn't open the window because we would be attacked my moscitoes, and if we wanted to turn on the noisy aircondition then the jacuzzi would automatically start every 10 minutes and disrupt our sleep. And the included breakfast was also not worth writing home about.

But besides from that Trogir was very nice. We spent a fair bit of time getting lost in the small alleys. Kim would ask if I had any idea where we were or where we were going...and I'd say "No, we are definitely lost" (Trogir is a very small island so you are never truly lost).

After the Peljesac Peninsular we thought we'd drive to Montenegro for dinner.

The border to Montenegro is about 30 kilometers from Dubrovnik and Herzeg Novi a coastal town is just on the other side of the border.

Crossing the border we saw a 2 kilometer long queue of cars trying to get back to Croatia. Every car was being stopped and checked for how many cigarettes they were bringing across. We though "Oh My...we have to get back through this is a couple of hours time". Fortunately by the time we returned the queue had cleared and we were processed really fast at the border.

It was a pleasant evening in the city and we had dinner along the seashore. People were really very friendly as well.





The food was very nice and especially the Tiramisu and chocolate pancakes were indulgent.







It was very hot so we used the opportunity to do some funny photos of Aiden.

While in Dubrovnik we went for a drive up along the Peljesac Peninsular.

It has some really nice litte beaches and the town of Ston has the most amazing fortres defence line running across the mountain tops. It is almost like the great wall of China. In total the town has 6km of defensive walls around it.




We also came across this beautiful little abandoned church.



We spent the afternoon at one of the beaches just dazing in the sun and letting Aiden play in the water.



Some of the bay have small picturesque islands and there are lots of oyster and mussel farms that have been in operation since roman times.

After Bosnia we headed back to Croatia (and we then quickly had to cross back through Bosnia on the way to get there because of the geography) to Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik was founded in the 7th Century as a refugee camp after the fall of the roman empire. A Slavic invation forced the romans to seek further south and eventually barricaded themselves on a rocky outcrop at Dubrovnik buy using a natual channel and building big walls as a defence.


Dubrovnik as such prospered and became a powerful trading port in the adriatic sea. Now it is probably one of the largest tourist attactions on the the eastern side of the adriatic sea.








As usual Kim had done a great job finding accomidation in an apartment only 100 metres from one of the main gates to the city, so it was a easy stroll to the old town.


My first impression of Dubrovnik was something along the lines of 'Holy @#@$@%...there are so many stairs here" (tough job carrying Aiden up and down stairs with a pram).



Fortunately we found an easier way that did involve very little more walking, but no carrying...so all a happy family.



The main street through the middle of Dubrovnik is very nice and full of nice places to eat and shop. There are a lot of people everywhere and in general everything is really expensive compared to elsewhere is Croatia. Parking for example was equivalent to $48 per day for street parking...and again considering it is a big tourist destination people are not that helpful with advise and guidance.




There are also several churces that are very nice. Our favourite one (by far) was the St. Ignatius Church.








Inclucing some museums such as the national archives which used to be the Sponza palace.




This is the handrailing for the stairs






As well as some great little Franciscan and Dominican monesteries. These both had some great little courtyard garden with palm and orange trees.










As well as some cool water fountains (Aiden was very happy with these) and really likes a cool splash whenever he could get the chance.




In more modern times, Dubrovnik was under heavy shelling by Serbian and Montenegro forces during the Yugoslav war in 1991 although it had absolutely no strategic value whatsoever.

Click here to see a video of the shelling of Dubrovnik

Today It is hard see any scars of this conflict as most of the buildings have been repaired although there are some signs of the shelling.





And again I managed to sneak out for a couple of evening photos. Evening shots were really hard to take as they were usually around the time where we either had to have dinner or get Aiden ready for bed.

After Split we headed across the border into Bosnia to a town called Mostar. Some will remember Mostar from the terrible fighting that took place here during the war in Yugoslavia in 1992 and 1993. The town has this beautiful river running through it with this anciant bridge running across it. During the war this bridge was blown up by the Bosnian Croat forces but has now been re-built thanks to the United Nations and especially Spain. The original bridge was built during the ottoman empire during the 16th Century.





The Bridge looks even more stunning at night and especially with all the mosques in the surrounding area.











Mostar is only a few hours drive from the border up through this beautiful valley. Today a fair number of tourists go to Mostar to see the bridge, but most of them only stay for one night and then move on. We decided to stay for two nights because it was easier with Aiden. Again Kim had done a good job finding accomodation in at Old museum (more like a beautiful old house really)...the was also the only house that was left more or less intact after the war (only a few mortar shells through the top floor).







During the day we spent a few hours on the river going for a swim. The water was quite cool coming from the mountains and there was a lot of current so Kim and Aiden stayed at the edge, but I jumped in a few times and let the current take me a couple of meters before heading back to shore.





The locals jump off the bridge and into the river...and it is a fairly high jump from the bridge to the water (24 metres apparently). Every year there is a special festival where they do it, but now they mainly do it to entertain the tourists for a bit of money in return.







People were very friendly in Bosnia, of all the places we travelled through we probably found the croats the least approachable and helpful.


During the war the town was surrounded by Bosnian Croat forces and the population consisting mainly of muslims decided to defend themselves. The city was hammered to pieces by Croat artiliry fire and even today it is hard to find a house without scars from bulletholes and grenades.

It is worthwhile to have a look at the following video to see what happened here in 1993: Mostar in 1993







Mostar is surrounded by steaphills and it would have been almost impossible to find cover from snipers and artiliery from above.


Now almost 20 years later there are still many ruins right in the centre of east Mostar where we were staying and there are lots of house that are full of bulletholes and people are still living in these houses.In the houses that have not been repaired it is almost impossible to find a 30 by 30cm patch that does not have a bullet hole or grenade fragments in it. It would have been a hell on earth living or fighting here during these times.






Inside the city limites there are three cemeteries and they are all full of victims killed in 1993...all mixed with Muslim, Christian and Orthodox. It is a very sobering experience to see that every grave is marked with the exact same year and that almost every victim was born at about the same time as Kim and myself.





Today the population seems to be getting along regardless of background and religion.



The surrounding hills in the valley driving in from Croatia also have old castles and ruins on them. It is a very scenic drive and highly recommended.




We have a very nice time in Bosnia and we can highly recommend that people go there to visit.



People should not forget Mostar and especially not forget what happened here in 1992 and 1993.

We spent a day driving to a National Park along the Krka river.This park has the most amazing waterfalls and clear blue water to swim in.





Kim and I both agree that this park is much better and less overcrowded than Plitvice National Park. There are also fewer steps and better tracks whick made it more pram friendly.








The park is full of small waterfalls.



Back in time the water from the river was used to drive a watermill, which is still functioning to this day.



The lower falls you can swim in. We all went for a swim and the water was beautiful...Aiden didn't want to leave.

After Denmark we went to Croatia. Our first stop was Split arriving late at night into Split Airport, picking up the rental car and baby seat and then navigating our way to the apartment we had rented for a few days.

The apartment was very nice (Kim is good at finding accomodation) and they had provided a baby cot for Aiden to sleep in (all the places we stayed provided a cot for us), next to the best beach in town and it was about a kilometers walk from the central part of the city.



Split is famous because of the Diocletians Palace, which is an enormous and fairly well preserved palace in the middle of the city. The Palace was built for the retirement of the Roman emperor Diocletian at around 300AD. There are still a lot of well preserved buildings and cellars within the palace walls, but there is also a lot of more 'modern' houses, shops, restaurants etc.









Walking around and getting lost in the small alleys was really pleasant.


Just outside the Gold gate there is an enormous status, and it is said that if you touch the toe of the statue then it brings you luck and guarantees your return to Split (We did drive past Split a week later....maybe that counts).







In the evenings it was pleasant walking along the shore and take in the views of the city.







And all the locals were out stretching their legs too...



And we really enjoyed the fresh seafood.





Aiden loved the food and the decor of some of the restaurants.

On one of the other days we did a trip to Germany to a town called Rostock (former East Germany). This is a two hour ferry ride from where my dad lives.



Rostock is one of the old Hansestads and the inner city has a lot of old houses and beautiful water fountains.









It started raining so we decided to drive up to one of the other coastal towns called Warnemunde. This is a little very charming place with old houses, fishing boats and along the coast there are very nice groovy cafes.







In the later afternoon we took the ferry back to Denmark. Aff the Danish coastline they have constructed a massive windmill park with hundreds of windmills generating Electricity.

We went to HC Andersens house in Odense in Denmark. This is the house that he was living in and behind the house they have now build a museum and a park with a castle theatre for the kids.

We started out in the park as there was a play about to start in the theatre.



The play was a 15 minute recap of all the most famous stories and it was very well done and very funny (especially the Emperors new Clothing).



Both Aiden and Bedstefar really enjoyed the play together.





Afterwards we went to see the actual house HC andersen was living in.



HC Andersen is one of Kims favourite writers.


And we also visited the museum.

Saturday Ethan (Kims Nephew) had his birthday party. Kims sister asked us if we would like to come and do face painting on the the kids.

For the event I got dressed as a pirate and Kim got dressed as a fairy with wings.




KA, kims sister also helped out with some of the face painting. Here is a photo of KA with Ethan.




And here is Kayla painted as a mouse.




For the event they had also hired a jumping castle (can be seen in the background) and for some weird reason the caucasian kids loved the face painting idea where the asian kids didn't want to have their faces painted.

During Easter Kims Family had borrowed a house at Mackarel Beach, so we went up there the whole family, Kim and her three sisters, her brother in law, her dad and two nephews and one niece.

The only access to the beach is by boat from Palm beach one hours drive north of Sydney. There are no roads or shops on the beach. The ferry only leaves once an hour and only between 9am and 6pm. The beach is on the opposite side of Pittwater from Palm Beach and it has got a community of about 50 houses.




Most of the two days we were up there it rained, so we spend the time indoor eating, playing games and sleeping. The TV and VCR was out of order and the place didn't have a DVD player. At least it did have a CD player so we could listen to music.

We cooked dinner on the BBQ and the Kookaburras came to get fed. They were really tame, so you could touch them which is exceptionally rare.

I was on breakfast duty both days, so the first morning I made Bacon and Eggs for everyone and the second day I made pancakes. Sometimes it was a little stressful with that many people in the kitchen while trying to make breakfast, but it went alright! I am coming from a fairly small family,so I am not used to have that many people around.


Easter Monday Kim and I played golf at Mona Vale golf course which is one of my favourite courses to play on.



It is right next to the coast and the course is normally in a great condition. Even though the course is long it is not that difficult.

I was playing pretty average on the first nine holes but improved my game significantly on the second nine and managed to play a number of the holes at par. On one of the holes a Currawong (big black bird) flew down and stole Kims golf ball. I had to chase after the bird for 200 meters until it eventually landed in a tree and then dropped the ball.

This weekend we rented a house at Lake Macquarie in a place called Overnight Reflections at Fishing Point near Newcastle.


The place is an easy 1.5 hours drive north of Sydney assuming that there is light traffic.

It was a fantastic and very relaxing weekend. The house was right at the water, so we could hear the water and see the full moon (almost) reflect in the water at night.



Saturday afternoon we went playing golf at Toronto Golf and Country club. This was quite an experience. The course itself is nice enough although it needs some maintenance (especially the bumpy greens)...but some of the people playing there should not be allowed onto a golf course.

One of the players stole Kims golf ball and on several occasions started bashing up his own golf bag while shouting Fu...k!!! Fu...k!!! Fu...k!!! Obviously it wasn't a great idea confronting him regarding the ball. We were planning to complain to some of the members of the club...but there was no-one else around and eventually we lost track of the guy (fortunately...because he was quite scary).

In the evening we went to a very expensive restaurant (even by Sydney standards) at Warners Bay...it was ok, but not a place I'd recommend. Kim and I wanted a bit of a special night out to celebrate and this seemed to be the best we could find outside of Newcastle itself. From living in the Newcastle area years ago I know that it is hard to find a decent restaurant up there...most people regard fish'n'chips as a romantic night out!


Anyway...the place we stayed at was very nice although it troubled the owner of the place that we didn't want to have breakfast until after 10.30 in the morning...what IS WRONG with these Sydney people!!! Kim and I enjoyed catching up on some sleep and just relax without having to rush around for set meal times, be a tourist etc.


Especially Sunday troubled her at we didn't want to check out until 2pm because we wanted a snooze. She even sent down her grandchildren to make a bit of noise to wake us up.


Anyway...it was actually quite amusing and Kim and I didn't mind, the woman running the place was actually quite sweet....and $300 for the two nights in a lake front cottage was good value. It is definitely a place I'd go back to.

This Saturday Kim and I went to Hunter Valley with a couple of her Colleagues from Epicor. They had one of her colleagues visiting from the US office.

I was invited along as Joanne was the driver and kim doesn't drink, so I was the only person who could drink with the visitor (I didn't mind :-) ).

Normally I go for all the red wines, but I decided on this trip to dry some of the white wines, especially try and find a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio...which I eventually did at the Bimbadgen Vineyard.

Kim also bought a couple of really nice desert wines that I'm sure I will be allowed to share.

Saturday Kim and I want to see La Traviata in Sydney Operahouse.

For Christmas I got a couple of tickets for the opera from Kim. It was an opera I hadn't see before and the stage setup was really good and the performance was excellent. Kim had gotten us really good seats...we had front row seats in the dress circle upstairs.

During the performance they were broadcasting the show to the steps in front of the operahouse as well as to one of the parks in Melbourne. They wanted to show what Opera is like to a wider audience.


Afterwards we had dinner at Circular Quay close to the Opera House.





Sunday we drove down to Catherine Fields to Camden Lakeside Country Club to play a round of golf. Sasha and one of his friends dad visiting from Canada also came along.

It was really hot, so for the first time I was actually glad that we were driving a kart rather than walking the course. The guy from Canada was almost dead by the time we got back to the club house.

I played a really good round (43 points stableford, HCP 13) and Kim played almost at her handicap.

It is obvious that there is a drought on. Most of the lakes were dried out, I was looking for a photo online to post here, but the course is totally unrecognisable because of the missing lakes.

This year Kim met her targets at work. This meant the she got invited to Hawaii (with a partner...me) as part of the Chairmans club.

We got back two weeks ago and had a fantastic trip. The first few days we spent in Honolulu at Waikiki Beach...we got to see all of Oahu, went snorkeling and Kim went shopping. One night we all went to a shooting range in Honolulu.


After this we went to Kauai where we were staying at a big resort. Here we went snorkeling, sailing and played golf.

There was parties every night and we also managed to find a bit of time to ourselves.






See the rest of the photos from our trip here: Hawai Photos/Slideshow

In Mid 2006 I went to a work meeting in Krabi in Thailand.

This happens to be a few kilometers away from one of the best rock climbing destinations in the world. So, after the meeting I took a few days off to go rock climbing.

Kim happened to be travelling in the Northern part of Thailand with some friends who had to leave on the same day my meeting ended. Kim flew down to Krabi where I picked her up at the airport.

Unfortunately it was rainy season, so most of the time in Railay it was raining, but we did manage to get one day of climbing done and the rest of the time we spend in the restaurants and playing cards.


Click here to see more photos from: Thailand/Slideshow

I have now started adding photos from 2005. For this I have created a new blog just for 2005, the plan is that I will add blogs for the remaining years as well.

Click here to see what happened in 2005

I have now added photos from 2004. The highlights from this year was a trip to the United States and Canada as well as a family trip to Egypt. This was also the year that Australia entered the war in Iraq, so there are a couple of photos from the anti war demonstrations.

Click here to read about 2004

In Mid 2006 I was in Portugal for our International Partner Conference with the company.

It was a week of being busy setting up for the conference, socialising but also a lot of fun and partying.


Click here to see more photos from:Portugal/Slideshow

Today was Aidens second birthday...time flies!



We had a Birthday cake for him with the family and sang Happy Birthday and let him blow out the candle.

Today is a very unique day in that the planet Venus passed over the disc of the Sun. The next such passing wont happen for another 105 years.

And it is even more interesting since we recently returned from Tahiti where Captain Cook observed the last passing several hundred years ago.



Here in sydney it was a very cloudy day, but I did manage to snap a couple of photos using a very powerful lens covered with dark filters. It is a planet Venus at the 7 o'clock on the sun in the photo.

Bummer...I had to return the camera yesterday. It was driving me mad with back focusing...not what you would expect from a $3000 camera. Hopefully they will be able to fix the issue, but unfortunately they are saying that there is a 21 day turnaround. The focus was 5cm off which is critical especially then taking portraits.


I did however manage to take a couple of photos that were ok and a bit of video with it on Sunday inside a very dark ten-pin bowling place (it was Kayla's birthday party) with all kinds of weird lighting. I was shooting at insanely high iso (12800) and I must say that I general I was pretty impressed.



Especially impressed with how fast I could shoot with lots of kids running around. They are totally usable for my blog and online posting although I wouldn't enlarge them. There was a lot of noise at these high ISO's, but most of it could be managed to a certain degree in Lightroom.






Later I was shooting with KC's camera at the lunch table...there was more light and I was strugling with taking photos using natural light.

Today I picked up my new camera. It is the new Nikon D800 and is currently one of the most sought after cameras on the market.

I have been wanting to get a full frame camera for some time now and this was the one for me to get...the reviews are excellent.


I pre-ordered it shortly after is was announced and has been waiting for over three months for it to arrive...but it is finally here.




It will be a steep learning curve to get used to all the new features of the camera and it will be a sad goodbye to my almost 10 year old D50 entry level camera.

I am now moving from 5 auto focus points to 51...from 6 Megapixels to 36 megapixels...max 1600 ISO to 25600 ISO...no bells and whistles to having features such as Video, Timelapse, HDR, face detection, live view, aparture preview...and the list goes on...



The D50 has served me well, but it is definitely time to move on as the technology has advanced so much. Not sure what I do with the old camera...but I will most likely end up selling it.

It is Autumn here in Sydney and today the forecast was for 19 degrees and sunny...the first cool'ish day here. In the morning we went with Kims family to the cemetry to visit Kims mum. After this we were planning to head up to the Blue Mountains to Mt Wilson to visit some of the private gardens to take photos of the Autumn colours and get some new family photos of Kim, Aiden and I.


When we arrived it was really windy and only 7 degrees (later it dropped to 5 degrees). We had dressed for the cold, but Dylan who had joined us on the spur of the moment was a bit underdressed and cold so he borrowed a spare jumper I had with me. We immediately found a pile of leaves and they started having fun throwing them up in the air.








We decided to visit the Yengo Sculpture garden and the owner came to greet us, tell us about the garden and charge for the entry.











The garden was very nice and the colours were awesome.















There were lots of sculptures hidden around the garden.



Dylan got a bit upset because we had to scold him for running around (this was a private garden so deserved a bit of respect), throwing pebbles, thrashing my camera gear and keeping to run into the frame of the photo I was trying to take. I had also been trying to get a bit interested in what he is seeing around him to learn more things and asking him if he was interested in some of the lookouts to experience one of the most beautiful places in Australia, as well as look at the things in antique shops etc., but he was totally dis-interested..."you can drag the horse to the water, but you can force it to drink".



After the garden Aiden was really tired and cold and we were getting hungry, so we decided to head back and stop along the way for lunch. It was good timing as it started to rain a little. I decided to drive on the great western highway as there were more options for food and I though it would be quicker getting back...turned out everyone else had the same idea so it was at a crawl.

Today Kim and I went to the Lyrics Theatre to see the 'An Officer and Gentleman' musical.

It was a remake of the 1982 movie, but on the stage.



It was ok but nothing special. The acting and singing was great, but the screenplay itself as well as the music/lyrics could have been more original and the stage setup was pretty basic.

Kim is pregnant again and we are now halfway there and on Monday we went for the halfway scans (due late September).



Everything is on track and looking good so far (5 fingers and toes etc.). For the first time we were able to tell the gender of the baby and it turns out that we are expecting a little brother to Aiden.

This means that Aiden very soon will have someone to play with here at home.

Today was Anzac day. We decided to use the day to explore some of the local area in the National Park on the other side of Botany bay near Kurnell.



It was very windy (Aiden wasn't happy with the wind). The walk along the coast is easy an quite scenic. There is even a small lighthouse about a kilometer down the track and the rocks have cook textures.

Today we went to the Symbio Wildlife park together with some of our friends.

They don't have a lot of animals in the park, but the ones they have a pretty cool and it is a good spot to get some nice animal photos (It was especially nice to see that they had polished the glass surrounding some animals).

It was also really cool to have Aiden and Sammi feed some of the more friendly animals.

Today Luke and Alexsandra was married. She is from Serbia so the wedding itself was a beautiful traditional Serbian Orthodox wedding in a small church in Alexandria.










The church was very darkly lit and I was shooting using natural light trying to be as discreet as possible using my old Nikon D50 camera (still waiting for the new D800) but by some miracle I was able to capture the above photos (by setting it to my max 1600 ISO and underexpose 2 stops and then push and noise reduce in post...would have loved to have one more stop).


Luke has some Scotish ancestry so ourside the church there was a guy playing the bag pipe.





Afterwards the reception was in Drumoyne with about 250 guests invited. Lots of very loud Serbian music and traditional Serbian line dancing (Not sure what the correct name is).

• The swords are of a Burmese style called Dha (Means sword in Burmese).
• They are of museum worthy pieces
• I should NOT EVER attempt to restore them. This would degrade their value significantly.
• The flower script design on the swords are reserved for the rulers and officers of those days.
• အဲဒီဓားတွေကငါတို့ရဲ့ဗမာဓားတွေပဲလာအိုဆိုတာအရင်ကဇင်းမယ်လို့ခေါ်တယ်အင်းဝခေတ်မှာမြန်မာတွေတက်သိမ်းခဲ့တဲ့နိုင်ငံပဲဓားကိုငှက်ကြီးတောင်ဓားလို့ခေါ်တယ်ဓားကဓားကောင်းပဲ အခုငါပြတဲ့ဓားဟာလည်းသမိုင်းဝင်ဓားပဲငှက်ကြီးတောင်ဓားပေါ့ (Translation: These swords are our Burmese swords. Laos was formerly called Zin Mae, a country that was conquered by the Burmese during the Inwa period. The sword is called the Sword of the Bird. The sword is a good sword.).
• It's a Ngat kyee daung Dah the sword that was once used by Burmese warriors and Thai during the dark age of Konbaung (1765–1767).
  
• This Burmese Empire was destroyed during the English colonized to the East and totally wiped out by the English cannons kind of like a scene from the last samurai movie in the end! They were like charging to the enemy where they were being shot at.
• These are also antique pieces in a good state of preservation! Swords, even if they are in such good condition, belong in the museum. You have to take a look at the Malaysia Sword Museum! They are great specimen
• One would have to analyze the material metal wood winding fibers would certainly be very interesting! You don't see such a bundle every day
• The handle on the smaller sword is made from wound rattan fibres.
• The larger sword is made from silver and wound silver threading (I believe it is the typical not so pure silver/tin that was used).
  

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Arrival	Silam / Jungle Ops	Repeater Stations	The Competitors	Helicopter	Jungle Around Us	The Village

The Wildlife in Borneo . . .

The jungles in Borneo are really dense, dark and humid.

You will find that some of the photos look as though they have been over-exposed, but in reality, it is just the humidity in the air.






I have a photo of this at home - Glen enlarged it for me, and framed it!

Don't ask me why - I think I look rather wasted there.

Glen and I tried to race through the jungle.

The climb to the top of the mountain is rated as a 1.5 hour climb... Glen and I have done it in 26 minutes... actually I was confident that I could do it in less than 20 and so I did!

I held the record of taking 17 minutes to race to the top of Mt Silam, covering a distance of approx 4 kilometres through the jungle, up a mountain.

I was getting really fit (My girlfriend was proud of me).



This photo shows how dense and dark the jungle can be. It was so humid there... no, not because I hadn't cleaned my lenses.



You can see how muddy it is in the jungle - I became quite dirty after many trips into the jungle.



I think these trees are just as big as the Californian Redwoods. They might not be as old, but definitely just as big.



This was taken with a 300mm lens, from 1.5 metres.

The most amazing thing about them, is when they are scared, the curl up into little "marbles".

It looks like a small bug, but it is actually at least 7cm long, which is actually quite big.




I noticed in Borneo, most of the insects there were huge.

The wingspan of the brown moth was about 15cm wide - huge!

They are mostly active at night, which is quite common for creatures in the jungle.

A couple of the girls stationed in the jungles, was stationed here. Not a wise decision, considering these girls were paranoid about the insects.

(Note: in the photo below, I still had conjunctivitis) I had the red eyes for most of the trip.


Big and beautiful, don't you think? You can see how big the black moth is compared to the size of the telephone.





These plants were kind of special because each branch split into two, so by the end of it, they formed a hexagonal pattern.

Below, are plants known as the "pitcher" plant.

The pitcher plants are meat-eating plants - you have watch out not to fall into them because they will swallow you whole.



If you just believed that, you are very gullible! *laugh*

The pitcher plant, like other carnivorous plants, feed on insects.

They have sweet-smelling nectar that attract the unsuspecting insect to it.

When the insect lands, it finds the surface slippery and fall straight into the “pitcher”, where the plants juices drowns it and is digested by the plant.

You may have heard of other type of carnivorous plants such as the Venus Fly Trap, and the Sundew plants.



Yes, you see me holding the snake with a leaf.

It was a poisonous snake, and I was worried about it's venom getting on my skin.

For example a puff adder, contact with the venom numbs the skin.

I was not familiar with the snakes in Borneo, and was not about to risk it.


The tarantella was sitting inside the catering tent hunting.

Everyone was looking at it and admiring it, which was pretty amazing, considering I know many people who would willingly kill a spider in sight.

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Created: 7 Dec 2001

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Arrival	Silam / Jungle Ops	Repeater Stations	The Competitors	Helicopter	Jungle Around Us	The Village

Helicopters . . .
The radio communications team had to arrive a few days before that because we had to hand out over 2,000 pieces of radio equipment. We had problems getting the necessary approvals for helicopters so they were grounded! I ended having to hand out most of the equipment as Glen and Paul had to sort out our use of the helicopters.

We had to fly all the equipment to Silam before the start of the race, and our team managed to fly to Silam the day before the race started.

Do you believe that Paul managed to take a photo of me whilst I was flying the chopper? He was standing to the side of me, and took the photo at night time, with the door open ...



Just kidding.

A couple of days before the race started, I was at the airport most of the day. We had some problems with the radios in the helicopters... I must have been in and out of those helicopters at least 200 times.

I did manage to get someone to take some photos of me in a helicopter, looking very much like the pilot!

I had hoped that I had the time to explore Kota Kinabalue, but we were so busy, it had to wait.



Here is the 212 or "Huey" - a twin-turbine Vietnam helicopter taking off. It is a hell a lot more powerful than some of the other helicopters we were using, which were 206s.


Here are the medical guys practising abseiling out of the helicopters (Aussie style)!

At the start of the race, I was sitting there listening to the first rescue on the radio.

3 hours after the start, four boats had capsized... helicopters and boats were very busy!

The competitors were due to arrive at Silam (another checkpoint) the next day (21st Aug).

For the first few days after the race started, I had to help organise to get the fuel to the top of the mountain.

After that the helicopter came in useful. It brought up 100 litres of fuel on the 4th day so I did not have to ferry fuel anymore!



At the end of the race, we had to sling-load the repeaters, to get them off the mountain. That means we had to strap them onto the helicopters, and pull them off the mountains that way - quite effective really.






Repeater station finally airborne!


You can see a pole in the right photo.
My girlfriend asked me what it was for - it helps balance the load so that it does not keep swinging whilst airborne.


Below, you will see some pretty good photos from the chopper.



Towards the end of the race, we had to scan the rivers for the last competitors coming in - to make sure they had completed this section of the race course. It was low-altitude flying of the river-bed.

The photo on the left shows the chopper approaching Silam Village. This village was located just outside of Silam HQ.



Glen liked wanted to have a photo of the back of my head - and I ruined the photo by turning my head as he took it...

Here's a sunset shot of the helicopters flying around.

I had to put in this fantastic photo - the lighting gives a really nice feel to the photo.



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Created: 7 Dec 2001

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Arrival	Silam / Jungle Ops	Repeater Stations	The Competitors	Helicopter	Jungle Around Us	The Village

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

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Arrival	Silam / Jungle Ops	Repeater Stations	The Competitors	Helicopter	Jungle Around Us	The Village

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

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Arrival	Silam / Jungle Ops	Repeater Stations	The Competitors	Helicopter	Jungle Around Us	The Village

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 been sitting there, smiling... I am just guessing here, because obviously I did not take the photo, and I cannot remerber the place.





Bad hair day?

I did not have a shower for a very long time, and to hold my hair in place, I adopted various techniques, such as the sunglasses-hairband...

This place is a breathing ground for tropical diseases!

As you can see, my right eye is really red. I somehow managed to get conjunctivitis and did not know it was contagious. I did not want to trouble the medics as they were pretty tied up with the competitors. When my vision on the left eye was getting blurry and I had problems seeing what was in front of me, I was ordered to get it checked. Just as well I did!

In Kota Kinabalu, I had the same problem on the other eye... at one point both my eyes were infected. It started on my left eye on the way to Kota Kinabalu in the plane ! It then spread to my right eye. The nurse at Silam told me that I should be careful because it could re-infect to my left eye. It started to look and feel a lot better after using the eyedrops that they gave me.

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Created: 7 Dec 2001

Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )

Arrival	Silam / Jungle Ops	Repeater Stations	The Competitors	Helicopter	Jungle Around Us	The Village

Ecochallenge in 2000 was held on the east coast of Borneo, in the jungles of Sabah. It was an extreme race where the competitors taking part have to endure 10 days of running through the jungles; kayaking and swimming many kilometres offshore; and mountain-biking for 150km on dirt roads. All in all, the fastest competitors travelled 600km in a space of just over 5 days!

I had the privilege of being there, being the developer of software that was used by the radio communications team. I also helped out with the setting up of all equipment and made many trips to the repeater stations.

Being in the jungles of Sabah, let alone part of the Ecochallenge preparations, has proved to be a challenge and an experience worth remembering, and hope to be part of any future Ecochallenge events.

As shown in the map, the red trails are where most of the competitors either ran or walked. The purple trail was the kayaking/canoeing leg. The orange trail was the mountain-bike leg and the blue trail was where the competitors had to swim with all their equipment.

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Created: 7 Dec 2001