Every day here we have been so lucky to see the big game… and each day been better than the one before. Early on William hit on a great idea; when on game drives one of us drives with his/her cameras on the passenger seat & the other is in the back with their camera gear. That allows us both to move from side to side depending on where the action is. Often animals will cross from one side of the car to the other.
Back on day one I said I'd let you know whether the long plane trip was worth it… hell yes. Today we hit the mother lode! We were at the south gate before it opened and shortly afterwards we saw a group of cars watching what looked like a brown log. It turned out to be a bunch of lions lying about. They were too far away to photograph decently and not moving, so we moved on. I took a side road, just because it was different than the roads we'd been on so far and a couple of minutes later came across a parked up truck. I eased quietly alongside. OMG there were 2 lions on the road. I could not believe our luck - it totally made my day. After that we were headed back to the Namutoni gate 140+ km away. For the rest of the journey there were only the usual animals; zebra, springbok, oryx etc although I did spot a hyena. Oh… and when we stopped for a loo break, a driver (professional) of a game drive vehicle said did you see the elephant? I thought he was having us on but sure enough there was. We didn't bother taking any photos though coz he was camouflaged by trees. Chatting away as the kilometres rolled past, as you do, no sooner than I said hey we've not seen any giraffe today than 15 min later we saw a large group. We realised they were trying to cross the road and were most likely headed for a small water hole that we knew of. So we passed the rest of the parked up traffic and turned off to the little waterhole. We arrived to find we were the only car there, so I was able to park side on & in prime position when the giraffes arrived. We were happily snapping away when I saw a cloud of dust … OMG OMG look look look 2 elephants were running, well a lumbering sprint, for the waterhole. And suddenly a whole herd was coming in behind them… and they kept on coming. We couldn't believe our eyes. They chased the giraffes off. I mean… they actively went around the water hole and menaced the giraffes away from the water. It was unbelievable, they were pushing and shoving each other to get to the water. There were juveniles and babies, squealing and grunting at each other. We didn't stop shooting to count numbers but it would have to have been over 40. One large female approached the car stopping just 5 metres away. I was really starting to panic thinking how I was going to get us out of there. But she wasn’t aggressive, just wanted to get between us and her herd. She began showering herself with dust so we sat quietly and just kept shooting and it was all ok. I guess you have to be either an animal person or a photog to understand the emotion of the moment - these are wild animals & so close they could have killed us. Afterwards I was drenched in sweat, exhilarated and utterly exhausted. Today's gift... a moment I will never ever forget.
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The last time I was in Africa it was 2011 and the year of the big rain. We saw none of the big game and got very excited just to see giraffe and zebra. Already this trip has exceeded our expectations significantly & I feel incredibly lucky to have seen so many animals that we missed last time.
We didn't hurry out this morning and arrived at the park around 9am. In less than 5 minutes we saw today's gift: a Rhino. It was pretty far away and while I took a photo to prove I saw him, it's pretty crappy. But given the slaughter for Rhino horn I never thought I would actually see a live Rhino in the wild, in my life time. (I have now removed the photo. Apparently it's not cool to publish images of Rhino in case poachers use the information.) Half an hour later we spotted a whole bunch of cars parked up and hussled on over there... fast. Sure enough, a pride of lions were lazing around 20 metres away under the bushes. While award winning shots are impossible unless you have a 800+ lens and months to shoot the ideal image, we thought it was wonderful. It's one thing to see clubs nuzzling around Mum/Dad on tv and a whole different thing to see it in the wild. The plan was to drive out to the west side of the park this morning & have the afternoon off. On the way back towards the south gate we came across the elephants we saw yesterday. After a few minutes they began to move off. We reckoned we knew where they were going and raced ahead and got more shots of them coming towards us. When they crossed the road we thought they might be heading for the Okaukuejo waterhole, so we took off again and got there before them. Okaukuejo Camp is situated on the edge of a large waterhole where you can sit and watch the animals from behind the safety of a huge wall. There were other animals at the waterhole & few people sitting around watching them so it was really amusing to see their reactions when the elephants came lumbering around the corner. People began sprinting to the waterhole from all directions. After such a successful morning we headed back and we are now sitting around the pool in scorching heat drinking vodka tonics & writing blogs! (Even if we cannot actually post them at present.) Ps: the accommodation here has a small piece of lawn out the front and every day there is a family of Warthogs come and nibble the grass. I thought oh how cute and asked the staff if I could pat them? Are they tame? No! no no no ….wild do not touch! I apologise for the lack of posts. All the accommodations we have experienced around Etosha have had patchy internet capability. While it's advertised as a service you can never seem to access it. I should probably explain the set up at Etosha. The park itself is huge, thousands of kilometres and within it there are secure accommodation compounds/camps. Secure from the animals that is. The National Park gates close between sunset & sunrise (generally 6pm-6am) & so do the gates of the camps. So yesterday was a complete disaster; we got lost and ended up at the opposite end of Etosha over 100 kilometres from where we should be. Our accommodation is 10 min outside the south gate and at 5.30pm we were at Namutoni Camp at the north east gate. There was no way we could travel through the park (the direct route is approx 140km of gravel road with max speed limit 60kph) in time to reach the south gate and be out by the time it closed at 6pm. The only other option was to travel via the highway outside the park but we would not reach our accommodation until approx 10pm. Driving at night here is dangerous & the staff at Namutoni told us in no uncertain terms that the losing the cost of 1 nights accommodation was not worth putting our lives at risk. So that settled the issue for us and fortunately the staff were able to find us a room at Namutoni Camp so we stayed within the park. This morning we began travelling back through the park to Okaukuejo Camp & the south gate. As bad as our day was yesterday, today was the complete opposite. We saw Kudu within 5 minutes of leaving the camp gate and it just got better as the day went on: Springbok (we actually saw them springing), Zebra, Giraffe, Hartbeest, Wildebeest and within 10 min of Okaukuejo Camp we came across 3 Elephants at the edge of a water hole. We were parked only 20 metres away - it absolutely made our day. Tried Springbok & Oryx at dinner; the Springbok was light and quite like beef but I didn’t like the Oryx and wasn't brave enough to try the Eland stew! We went for a bit of walk to check up on a restaurant for dinner. Closed for the holiday unfortunately. Being Easter Sunday the city was very quiet and we were photographing a building when a couple of guys went past and said put those cameras away before someone steals them. Very disconcerting. It's such a shame that Namibia has begun to emulate SA in terms of tourist crime. Not as bad; no car jackings; but tourists are targeted; handbags & cameras mainly.
Todays gift was finding a really amazing band playing at an outdoor café. So we stopped for a drink to enjoy the music. The group, dad & 2 sons, were superb. I could have stayed much longer and would have liked a wine but we had to collect the rental car at 3pm so didn’t dare have alcohol. Took over an hour & a half to sort out the truck; we had to check absolutely everything worked (even the windscreen squirter) plus the paperwork so now we are the temporary owners of a diesel 4x4 ute. As part of the instructions we were told if anything happens (accident, unauthorised road block etc) to call the Police. So I asked what the number was in Namibia. It turns out there is no national number like 111; every town has its own Police phone number. Okaaay. Travel - the gift that keep on giving - and todays gift is jet lag !
Another 3am start coz my body decided that was the time to wake. After arriving in Johannesburg last night we were back at the airport this morning for a flight to Windhoek. Unfortunately I ended up having to pay $42 in excess baggage weight. Bit of a shame really as I could have split my luggage into 2 pieces and not paid anything. Flying Qantas I had 30kg for checked luggage but it could only be one piece; with Air Namibia I was allowed 2 pieces of checked luggage each weighing no more than 23kg. So I might have to do some creative bag management on the way back. We also had a scary moment getting stuck in an elevator at the airport. Damn thing wouldn’t go up, down or open the doors. We pushed every button we could see, several times, including the alarm bell. After a short time envisaging missed flights & a lack of oxygen, someone came to investigate. And wouldn't you know it just as they turned up the doors decided to open. It's been 8 years almost to the day since I was last here & I had forgotten how cheap Namibia is compared to NZ. Some rough examples: A small tin of Pringles 49c; 500ml bottle of water 50c; taxis, $7 for a 10-15 minute trip; a one course dinner with double nip vodka & tonic $18 all up. The concept of looking after tourists is also notable, we don’t pick up our 4x4 until tomorrow but the rental company picked us up from the airport, delivered us to the hotel and will come back and get us tomorrow to collect the car. I can't see that level of service happening in NZ. Had dinner at a really quirky restaurant called Joe's Beerhouse - totally mad with toilet seats everywhere instead of bar stools and the place was decorated with empty Jägermeister bottles. There is a serious appetite for Jägermeister here. Tough drinking crowd! I so love the initial setting out on a trip.
The excitement ...of airports ...of travelling ...of going somewhere new. That is, until the plane doors shut and then the reality sets in. You have just been locked into a flying tin can for a long long time. The seats are uncomfortable and it’s a bit of a lottery who you get for neighbours. And let's not even mention the germs, flu or otherwise. Don't read those scary articles on the cleanliness of planes or you'll never fly again. If you have to subject yourself to all that, then the destination had better be worth it. The plan is 3 weeks in Namibia & then 2 in South Africa exploring Mpumalanga, formerly the Eastern Transvaal. So... I'll let you know! Rereading the blog after a month at home is interesting. We packed a lot into this trip & yet there were many things that we missed as we didn’t have either the time or energy. I guess it's good to leave things for another time.
Something I didn't mention was the old restored section of Tokyo Station. The original station dome was bombed in the war. They have done a lovely job and the Maranouchi (west) and Yaeso (east) domes are pictured below. Tit bits... in no particular order:
We arrived home last night. There is nothing like touching down in good old NZ and hearing Kiwi Noo Zild accents again.
We got a gold star at biosecurity because we had scrubbed our boots (2 pairs each), crampons and tripod feet. When you do photo trips out in the wilds it makes it much much quicker if you pay attention to that sort of thing. We got a good laugh when William said he did his scrubbing with a toothbrush (free one from the hotel). Kim has pointed out that there are some typos in the blog. (Hah so he does actually read it from time to time!) My apologies. To try and give you non-photogs a picture of what it's like: when on a trip I'm usually up very very early, my brain is going hard all day looking for, and computing the technicalities of making, images under all sorts (and often rapidly changing) conditions. After dinner it's back up all the images (some days we shot over 1000 photos), preparation for the next day, ensuring you have sufficient & charged up batteries for example & attending to emails, chores (washing or whatever). I write the blog late & when I'm tired so it's a wonder I make sense at all really. If you see something awful please let me know so I can fix it. I shall do a wind up / postscript in a day or so. So back to the toirets: because they are fascinating.
You need a fistful of operating instructions which are either on an instrument panel beside the loo, or in some cases the buttons and instructions are on the wall in front in front of the loo. The heated seat (as I mentioned before) is the first thing you notice. The heat can be dialled up or down or turned off altogether. Then there is the 'bidet' section; front washing, rear washing, temperature variation, variable water flow & nozzle cleaning?? Oh and the pipes are emptied when you push the button so that by the time the water reaches you it is warm. I almost forgot about the music; waterfall noise or other musical sounds, god forbid you should hear anyone else. They seem to have thought of everything, and all this applies to public loos also. I wear glasses for reading but do not need them elsewhere, so it took me a wee while (sorry no pun intended) of peering at symbols and Japanese writing before I actually worked out what all the buttons were for. There is a trap: some toirets do not flush automatically and the flush button is sometimes cunningly disguised as a piece of wall or plumbing or something innocuous & you can easily spend 5 minutes hunting for it. And you do not dare leave until you find it. I feel sorry for Japanese visitors to New Zealand, they are in for a big shock. We had to have a quick dinner last night before going out with the local photog - so we tried a Japanese fast food joint. You pick what you want from the plates of plastic replica food and then put your money into a vending machine using a corresponding number to the plate you want, which spits out a ticket. You give the ticket to the cook and 5 min later - he shouts out your number. Dinner is served.. And at the opposite end of the spectrum these are a few pics from the food emporium in shopping centre in and under Shibuya station.
... because all I do is photograph things that interest me rather than seeing all the tourist things. We went out about 10am for a brief(ish) shoot & returned 4+ hours later. This is our last night & tonight we are meeting up with another local photog for a night shoot. Apparently the city authorities wanted to pull down the iconic 70s Nakagin Capsule Tower but the residents resisted, strongly, and it's now close to being declared a protected building. ps: I'm only doing quick &dirty photo edits!
I was woken at 6am as soon as the first person started moving around somewhere but I had a brilliant sleep wrapped in a soft comfy duvet on futons. Futons are the best thing for a dodgy back. Aside from the onsen that is, and I indulged in another soak in scalding mineral water before breakfast. A leisurely stroll about the village confirmed that no, we would not bother with that trek again. It was snowing but very very lightly and was just melting on contact so there was little point. After we quickly checked the trains/times & connections between trains, the hotelier very kindly offered to run us to the station. So I'm now sitting on the 12.24 Hakutaka express back to Tokyo. We are determined today will be a semi relaxed day. There are still many places we want to visit but you just can't fit everything in. These images are from last night. 3.30pm: We have just checked into our 3rd and final hotel in Tokyo - saving the best till last. Much more space than the other 2 and it's only 1 block up from the famous Shibuya crossing.
4.45ish: Out with the cameras again - this part of Tokyo is very high energy... and energizing. Getting the Shinkasen (bullet) train was easy; the connection at Nagano was easy; getting to the hotel in Yamanouchi was easy. The hike to the snow monkey park was hard. (Not the walk per se but the gear carried.) It's a 1.6 km walk from the entrance and when we arrived we were very disappointed there was no snow, just heaps of mud & heaps of people so it was rather depressing. As Judy pointed out, when the monkeys are in the hot spring it's because they want to be there. When it’s a bit warmer and they don't need the hot spring then they are just there because they are being fed.
I took photos... of course. I couldn't put my heavy pack down because of the mud, and the monkeys, and the other tourists. The Japanese are scrupulously honest - others no so much. So for hours I had my pack on my back and 2 big heavy cameras around my neck. And then it was 1.6 km back down the track and then another 50 minute walk down to the village. I really need a long soak in the onsen but will hang out until after dinner. This is a traditional Japanese ryokan (more so than the earlier ones) with futons and rice paper screens, creaky floors and very thin walls. You can just about hear people breathing next door so I'm glad this is only one night. It's meant to snow tomorrow but I cant face that hike again or having to travel back to Tokyo, 3+ hours in wet gear. I guess our run of great luck had to end at sometime, c'est la vie. The village is very cute so we’ll probably just look around here and may go back to Tokyo a bit earlier than expected. As we were checking in, the proprietor brought us tea, thinking it was green tea I added some sugar (yes, I can hear you wincing). It was disgusting and turned out to be seaweed tea - yuk. There is only 1 western restaurant in this village so we wandered down there for some dinner and it turned out to be fantastic. Great hot chocolate. Surprisingly the Japanese don't 'do' hot chocolate so it's usually hard to find. Our hotel is in this narrow little lane that has bags of character with small hotels and shops, restaurants and onsen all along it. There are 9 onsen in this one tiny street, and an onsen crawl is the thing to do after about 8pm. Everyone wears traditional yukata with a warm kimono style jacket and wooden clogs and you see groups of young people roaming between onsen. If you are staying in a hotel you get a key that allows you free entry to all the onsen. Great system. We spent a happy 90 minutes or so photographing the street. So we now feel somewhat better after a disappointing time at the monkeys. I still haven't had a good soak so I'm off to do that now. OMG today was meant to be a quiet day. But it didn't work out that way.
We left the hotel at approx 8.30 for breakfast and returned at 6.30pm with only a stop for breakfast & lunch. We needed to sort out the rail passes for the bullet train tomorrow and I forgot my passport so that meant a walk back to the hotel but in doing so we saw the arrival of some bigwig or other in a carriage of the sort the British Royals ride around in. We spent the whole day walking around photographing anything that took our interest, usually unusual buildings, which Tokyo is full of. Funnily enough I have been photographing all day but don't seem to have much to show for it. Some equipment malfunction I think as I know I photographed the De Beers building with William's wide angle lens but I cannot see any photos using that lens. Not even travel brain can stuff that up! We also took in 2 photographic exhibitions. One in which we found an interesting printing technique that we have not seen used in NZ. The other was Called Follow Me and was about Ezo - the Red Fox. We grew rather fond of foxes in Hokkaido. The author was Hiroki Inoue and I've included some of his images to give you an appreciation of his work. Please forgive the rubbish reproduction. These photographs were at least 1 metre wide & stunning in their detail, expression & beauty. Something else we did today was visit a stationery store called Itoya (pronounced E-toh) & has been in business for 113 years. This was impressive, 12 floors of stationery and next door another 6 floors. One whole floor was devoted to letters; the most beautiful stationery you have ever seen. Another was just full of cards; another of pens/pencils (some of those pens you'd need to take out a mortgage for); another devoted to travel; another to diaries, you get the idea. It's another early start tomorrow as we are taking the bullet train to Nagano to see the snow monkeys. I hope there is actually some snow given the recent warm spell. The forecast there tomorrow is 6 degrees. Ok just a quick update…
Immediately after breakfast it was our final image review and I'm pleased to say that the Kiwi contingent held their own amongst the nature photogs. We had lunch at Kusshiro airport finishing with a green tea ice cream. Well, sometimes you just have to try things. And the verdict: umm different, not really my thing. It was snowing again as we left Hokkaido at lunch time & we arrived in Tokyo to 19 degrees and rain. We are now quite used to taking the monorail from the airport to Hamamatsucho and switching lines to Tokyo station. Our guide Mari had expressed some doubt as to our ability to navigate the immense Tokyo station as there are 120 exits but we managed easily, only to get a bit lost trying to locate the hotel. A very kind local helped us out and eventually three drowned Kiwis arrived dripping puddles on the polished 'robby' floor. No time for photography today so apart from the ice cream these are from yesterday. Onsen bathing is fantastic. I think everyone is aware of the general concept of Japanese bathing.
You have public onsen where everyone bathes together (genders separated) in a communal facility and that is what we have been enjoying so far. This hotel has 2 private onsen. It's like a bathroom but bigger and is more than large enough for a couple. The general layout between the 2 types is the same. There is an entry room where you undress, with cubicles for clothes. Mirrors, hairdryers, moisturizer etc are usually provided. Then, in a large onsen you go into a large steam filled room which usually also has 2 or more large pools of very and very very hot mineral water. There is usually also an outside pool and in our last hotel it was artfully arranged with large boulders. There you sit and look out onto the snow & woods. At this boutique hotel, the onsen looks out onto a garden/woods but the windows don't open. The bath/pool here is approx 2m x 1.20m and faced in black marble or granite. So... on entering the 'bath' room, large or small, you sit on little stools and wash yourself thoroughly before you get into the bath/pool. There are no namby pamby rules about how long you stay in - it's up to you. If you want to wash your hair, you either do it before or after the hot bath but if after, then you do not wet your hair in the pool. I am absolutely sold on the onsen idea. In western baths you recline and it hunches or rounds your shoulders and is not good for your back/neck. The Japanese style, while shallow compared to a swimming pool, is deep enough to sit upright and the water comes to over your shoulders. Fabulous. Mind you they don't have to heat the water. New Zealand hot spring facilities could do an awful lot better. I seriously doubt any Japanese would even consider getting in one, except of course the posh one at Rotorua. Obviously there is no way I could take a camera into a public onsen. Even if you timed it so no one else was there, the steam would wreck it. But here I was able to leave the doors open and photograph before it got cold so the condensation was minimal ...and I used my phone. ps: I may not manage a post tomorrow. We have a final image review in the morning before our flight at 11am & we are not likely to get to our hotel until 5ish. It was 9.30 by the time I had finished my blog post last night & the place was deserted, everyone was in bed (or in their rooms at a least). I enjoyed a 15 minute soak in the onsen (it was very hot) & you can't do that when sharing as there are no separate showers, and then I went to bed and slept like a stone. This morning breakfast was at 6am (a sleep in!) and then we left for one of the crane feeding stations. It was very early as the birds don't get fed until 9am but we wanted to be the first there and to get the pick of the vantage spots. The birds gradually flew in, back lit against a watery rising sun. I must admit, despite a good sleep I'm bone weary now & my back is saying it's had enough. I think being able to have a good soak in the onsen has helped immensely. Anyway, back to the birds, as there were fewer it was possible (if they cooperated) to find clear space around them and we couldn't believe it when they began to dance. 'Amazing' just doesn't cut it; they dip, spin & jump and generally show off their dancing skills because it's coming up to mating season. In fact we did see a bit of bird sex, but unless the others had told me I wouldn't have recognised the behaviour. It was just a mass of feathers; he jumped on her back and in a spit second (yes really) jumped off again. Then someone with a very big lens and a motor drive said it was just a practice - no contact made. Okaaay. The afternoon session is going to be in the same place and they are staying from 1-6pm and it will be all standing in the cold. Enough, I bailed on that. This is our last full day on tour, we fly back to Tokyo tomorrow. If you treat this early start as a bit of an adventure it's not so bad. Thankfully there is only one like that. So there I was at 4am sitting in a nice warm bus - the tripods had been carefully set up on the bridge, as close as possible to each other; legs intersecting without touching and not touching the bridge so that the movement of many feet will not vibrate through them. I had a hot chocolate and listened to good music on my ipod. The bus was dark & 1 or 2 were dozing. Unfortunately 2 things compromised the images; 1. my lens at 400mm just wasn't long enough to provide anything other than a landscape with birds in it 2. it was not cold enough so the steam (from the warm spots in the river) did not create the hoar frost that we were looking for. Nevertheless there was no wind & the temperature was zero so pretty tropical really. It wasn't as busy as it has been in past years when the photographers were 3 deep but still busy enough.
The minute we got the snow storm the temperature rose and has stayed at zero or in the low + range ever since. Back to the hotel for breakfast & then out again. This was to another crane 'feeding station' but it was better than yesterday afternoon as there were less cranes so it was possible to isolate them occasionally. And then it was out again in the afternoon until sunset. The last session wasn't great for me but I'm happy with some of the images from the middle shoot today. I should also mention that these cranes are an endangered species there is only approx. 2,000 and most are in Hokkaido. Half a metre of fresh snow overnight and the road was closed until about 8am. Our driver Abe (pronounced Ah Bay) manoeuvres the bus like a Fiat Uno and we drove back to the little outdoor onsen (our usual afternoon photo stop) and did the swan thing again. A little old man from one of the houses thought all these photographers wading through knee deep snow were utterly nuts. Fortunately for William & I on the way back we also stopped at the main swan place on the lake. Everyone else went for the swans, we went for the trees covered in snow and got some strenuous exercise in the process. Mainly the snow was knee high but went up to hip high in a couple of places. We were keen to re photograph yesterdays tree without all the footprints in the foreground. Even weeds look fabulous with a coating of snow.
Mid morning we drove to Tsurui for the famous Tancho - Red Crowned Cranes. Apparently they are a symbol of good fortune so you can imagine what reaction that causes in Asian people. After lunch we went to a feeding station and I could not believe the crowd - all bristling with massive lenses. 2 people deep in places, reputedly it gets a lot worse than that. There was a bit of a ruckus when we arrived at this hotel, the size of some of the rooms is very small (although I have to say slightly larger than our rooms in our Tokyo hotel). I lucked in for once, because William very kindly offered to carry my bag upstairs I went ahead and chose the room at the end of the corridor thinking it would be quieter. By the time one of the women came up the only room left was a small one and she pitched a giant fit over it. So I have a larger room with a sleeping loft and will sleep on a futon tonight. The sofas were made up as beds for us westerners but my back wouldn't put up with that so I've moved the bedding up to the loft, which is the usual sleeping place. This is a very small boutique hotel with only 12 rooms and we have taken the whole lot. It's very homely and has a lovely feel to it with a fireplace and personal touches all over the place. The food is fantastic and a Japanese / French fusion. We do not have ensuite rooms here (only a wash basin) but there are 2 bathrooms (loos are separate) each containing a private onsen, although you cannot afford to soak as others want to use them too. Tomorrow we hit the jackpot - the bus leaves at 3.30am. Yes, you did read that right. There is a particular place that the cranes sleep overnight in the river that is warmed by a hot spring and the vantage spot is on a bridge. A small amount of space with a large amount of people wanting it. Result… a 3.30am start for a 6am shoot. I know… it's mad. But as I've paid the money I may as well make the most of it. It’s been a total rush since we got here & I thought we might have a quieter day with such an early start but no, it's another full day tomorrow. It's the last 3 days of the tour so it's all ramping up a bit. Ok gotta go - need to be in bed by 9ish. This morning was very overcast with flat light - perfect for photographing white(ish) swans against white snow. The cloudy conditions meant that the swan morning wake up was pointless so we got to lie in and didn’t depart until 7.30am.
It was snowing lightly with no wind as we got off the bus and it was lovely shooting in that. Not particularly cold only -3. The snow just continued to get heavier as the morning wore on. Finally we’d run out of options, the swans were not moving around much and the weather was getting worse. I was happy as I'd got the chance to do some more minimalist landscapes even though the footprints hadn't been filled in yet - hopefully I'll get the chance to remedy that tomorrow. We had lunch & followed it with an ice cream cone. That's a first, walking about eating an ice cream while its snowing. Our guide Mari is absolutely lovely, she has been to NZ and was talking about the All Blacks at lunchtime. Lugby - yep that took me a second or two. She also can't say crab it's clab but she is a darling so we don’t laugh. There is a standing joke about meeting in the 'robby'. It's blowing & snowing heavily now, turning into a storm, so I'm glad we are not still out there. Not sure how much of a storm it will be, they think gale force is about 45kph here - hah! So it's an afternoon off. The others are all probably downloading and checking their images. I headed straight for the onsen. I'd not been in it in daylight before, so sitting outside in scalding hot water watching the snow swirling through the trees. Beautiful. I guess if you were intrepid you could conceivably trek through the woods and snow to watch the women (or men) in the outdoor onsen. But as Japanese society is very proper and totally used to segregated bathing I doubt the concept even crosses anyone's mind. Today was almost a repeat of yesterday but earlier - on the bus by 5.30am. I did wonder about spending so many days shooting the same thing, but now I understand why: we repeat, to improve on what we have done. There is the personal factor (some people have been ill & unable to go out), the weather factor, the learning factor (the image review details tips, things to try, and things for improvement), and there's the way of arranging action possibilities that cannot be done if there are other photographic tour buses around. (Don't divulge your strategic advantage.) Of course bird photography is very random & you can only control certain factors, the camera & settings, your placement/perspective. What the birds decide to do will often be completely contrary to what you want. The town 'centre' has a digital temperature sign that read -15 as we passed it this morning and it was bitterly cold standing in pre dawn at the first site as you don't have a lot of room to move about. Then its off to the second site which thankfully is in the sun and later those who wanted to (kiwi contingent) were able to go for a bit of a walk in search of landscape shots which got the blood moving to frozen numb fingers and toes. On these mornings we take breakfast with us and eat on the go but we could get hot drinks at the second place. Back to the hotel at 10.00am for quick down load of images & then it was into a group image review. Immediately after that it was off to a restaurant for lunch and out for the rest of the day shooting until just after sunset at 5.00pm. Drive back to the hotel and we have approx 60 min before dinner. After dinner maybe enjoying the onsen then more image review/editing/blogging. I tell you these trips are not for wimps! And we will do it all again tomorrow. Ah this morning was all about soothing the soul.
Well...after a manic start anyway. Travel brain caused me to set the alarm for Monday when its not Monday. Result: I heard a door slam somewhere and looked at the time 5.50and the bus was leaving at 6am... without you if you're not there. Fortunately the camera bag was all ready to go and shooting clothes in a pile so it was a matter of hurriedly visiting the bathroom throwing on clothes and departing the room like a hurricane. Minor matters like putting on sunscreen, brushing hair was all attended to on the bus to the amusement of all. But once we reached the secret location on Lake Kussharo we could see Whooper Swans just waking up. They spend the night in a ice free patch of water that is warmed by a hot spring. The mist drifts across the water and the silence is soothing. Ninety minutes there and we moved to the main beach where the swans are fed at 9am. There are usually a lot of people there but it was strangely quiet as there were only a couple of swans about. This location provides the opportunity to capture the swans flying in and making either elegant or ungainly landings. Pretty soon more & more swans arrived and so did the people but we spent a happy couple of hours there. It was also great for the only 2 landscape photogs (William & I), we went for a walk and discovered trees. We are told it's going to snow, and very heavily… on Thursday so that will provide different possibilities again. Not least of which might be sitting in the onsen watching the snow fall. I went to the onsen quite late last night thinking it would help me sleep. It didn't. Anyway this onsen is much prettier than the last. I was sitting in scalding hot water and looking out onto the snow and the woods. Beautiful. Today I went to Russia - very briefly and illegally. The Stellar Sea Eagles and the White Tailed Eagle both hunt for fish in the pack ice - the need to get to the pack ice took us into Russian waters. The 4am start was gruelling for an non morning person but once out there I was fine. I'd be given a super dooper travel pill from Marion and it worked brilliantly. I worked the 100-400mm lens and found I was getting better results this time. The light was beautiful but there wasn't any of the mid-air eagle fights that I've seen in photos from the past 2 days. Mind you I probably couldn't have done it justice even if I had seen one. Once back at the hotel it was breakfast, pack up and ship out, so we spent the day driving to Kawayu, stopping on the way to visit Lake Mashu which is in the crater of a volcano and very pretty. On the way back down the hill we had another fox encounter - he was clearly working the road looking for food and it was quite obvious that people have been feeding him. The difference between me & the nature photogs is that I was happy to get 'a' shot they wanted 'the' shot - so that was almost an hour chasing the fox around like paparazzi. Mind you he was free to leave at any time. Quiet night tonight as we all need to recharge batteries, download & review images and sleep. Funny… a western breakfast was arranged for 6 of us this morning. Even our tour bosses can't do raw fish for breakfast.
I was all mentally prepared for the boat trip this afternoon but weirdly despite there being no wind the Captain said the waves were too big so that's off the menu. Instead we went to photograph Blakiston's Owl, the largest living fish owl and on the endangered list with only about 120 left on Hokkaido. Well, at 4.15pm we arrived at a ramshackle hut that doubles as a 'restaurant' (for locals), with plastic roll up windows, to secure our spot only to find several other loads of photogs had beaten us to it. Eventually we all found adequate, if somewhat snug, possies and began arranging tripods and setting the cameras to the right tech specs. We would be shooting under floodlights about 150-200m away so needed the highest ISO as possible, lens wide open and the speed only 1/80th of a second - apparently that was because the floodlights pulsed at that speed. The owner of the ramshackle hut put fish into a little pond in the river around 5ish before it got dark. And so we waited… and we waited… and we waited. The little bugger obviously decided to dine elsewhere and we eventually gave up at 8pm. It was extremely cold. Although we were in a hut all the sides were open to allow unobstructed viewing access. When we arrived back at the hotel I could not face a 6-9 dish meal so I warmed up in the onsen and am having a snack in my room as I type. And we got the "real" story about the cancelled trip this afternoon. Apparently the boats went into Russian territory this morning so the Captains en masse decided not to risk doing it again in the afternoon as it's very likely they'll do it again tomorrow. Our hotel is fabulous and in the Japanese style with low rock hard beds 4" off the floor, low tables & dressers & complete with it's own Onsen (hot mineral pools). I think I've mentioned the tiny bathrooms before? To give you a good picture: if you are taller than me (not hard as I'm 1.56m) your knees would almost touch the wall when sitting on the loo. I can stand in the middle and touch all four walls with my arms outstretched (including the bath). This pic is taken on a 17mm lens so the wise angle is making it look bigger than it is - note the "bathroom slippers" others are provided for the room as well. I met the others for our first "Japanese" breakfast - they've been out on the boat since 4.30am. But I took one look at the raw fish, cold scrambled eggs & miso and bolted. Fortunately for westerners the convenience stores are the backbone of Japanese life and many stock a very good bakery section. (Although it can be a bit of a mission working out what you are buying.) We had stocked up on snacks yesterday for a pre breakfast on the boat & I didn’t go out - so I'm having a raisin Danish, a kiwifruit & a banana. Perfect! Oh what a shame - the wind is strong and has blown the sea ice out too far so this afternoons boat trip is canned. Excellent.
The snow here is stunning light powder... on the street! |