We were now ready to join the Manta forces and take on a diving course, Dave’s intention was to do some basic pool skills and then a fun dive in the afternoon. Helen needed to do a refresher so we were together learning and remembering the skills needed to dive later on that day.

Our instructor Thomas was an ex school teacher from Germany living the dream on the Gili’s as a dive instructor. At around lunch time Dave was sucked into doing his Open Water, why not? Thomas had explained that he’d already done most of the skills in the pool…a good salesman but we both knew it would be well worth it. For the next few days Dave was fully on board with the diving and loving it!

Helen would mix in yoga and then diving and was equally enjoying being back to a zen place with the tropical fish below. Dave took to it like a pro and was coming up with around 60-70 bar of air after an hour of diving each time, he pretty much had one to one instruction the entire time which made the videos a little more bearable! Our last dive at Mirko’s Point was in our eyes the best, the coral was so colourful and mesmerising and we saw all kinds of fish, the list would be too long to write on here! Diving with Manta was an excellent experience for us, the prices are fair and with waters as warm as in the Gili’s it’s a really great place to start. Big up to Thomas too and congrats to Dave for now being a certified Open Water diver…WOOO!

For our last few days we enjoyed some more snorkeling, reading, chilling out and yoga along with frequent gatherings with our group of Gili Air friends. For us it was like having a one week holiday, we had loads of fun and could have easily stayed another week. After 7 nights our accommodation bill was around $140 with breakfast which at Chill Out Bar was again excellent. One thing we should mention is that the bungalows we rented were owned by Chill Out, they’re not the expensive air-con one’s but they have a lot of charm in their own right.

So after one week we were finally ready to leave, in fact we had to if we were to make our flight out the next day. We said our goodbyes to our lovely group of friends and were ready for the off. The prices with Ocean Star Express was again good (although they need to sort out their baggage situation), and at Padangbai our transfer to Legian was ready and waiting. We were packed into the front of a taxi van with little room to budge and it took around 90 minutes to reach Legian. We decided to stay in Legian mainly because of its location to the airport, and we didn’t want to stay in the heart of touristy Kuta. Once we’d realised that the Three Brother’s Inn was way above our budget we found the Sri Beach Inn, nothing really to recommend here but it was a cheap room for us to get our heads down for the night and the owner helped us out with a taxi pick up at 4am to get us to the airport.

On our last night in Bali we had a stroll along the busy and popular Legian Beach which was packed with surfers, holiday makers and umbrellas! We also found time for a 2 hour massage on JI Padma Utara pretty much opposite the Warung Yogya, where we enjoyed a recommended a foot reflexology and back massage for 150,000 rupees. It was fanastic, although the little paper undies that we had to wear didn’t too much for us other than to make us laugh!

We really enjoyed our time in Bali and think the main reason for this is that we didn’t follow the tourist trail too far into the wrong places. Obviously Ubud and the Gili’s attract tourists but just not as many as in the peak season and as in Kuta and a few of the other busier areas. Perhaps hitting it before peak season is the best time to go, lower rates, less people and it’s still pretty hot!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, Sony DSC-TX5, processed in Lightroom 3)

We left Padangbai at around 9am once we’d checked in and watched several other ferry and boat companies jet off packed to the rim with tourists and their bags. We were hoping that our boat wouldn’t be so rammed tight! We bought our tickets the night before from a guy operating on behalf of the Ocean Star Express who are one of the companies with International standards, we got a good deal with it being off-peak and paid 950,000 rupees for us both return and with a transfer to Legian at the end. This was an open ticket and so we would just need to reconfirm this when we wanted to leave.

The boat journey was smooth and took around 90 minutes, we sat next to Carryn from South Africa who then became one of our buddies for the week. When we got to Gili Air we grabbed our bags and decided to walk from the jetty to the main street, although on Gili there are no paved roads it’s all sand and people with quite a few donkey carts manoeuvring tourists and their goods around. We went straight to Manta Dive as Carryn had already pre-booked 10 dives and we knew we’d be able to leave our bags there whilst looking for accommodation ourselves. Behind Manta is Nina’s which is a good budget option at around 100 rs a night but we wanted a little more luxury for our Island stay. We checked out a few other options and then happened upon a small collection of newly built “Chillout Bungalows” set back from the beach and busy area. We loved them and chose the first on the left with an open bathroom and big thatched roof, we had our own seating area at the front and it was quite peaceful. For 200,000 a night we were happy with this place.

Once we’d settled into our Island life on Gili Air we took advantage of the good food and fresh fish on offer and before long we were booked onto a snorkel trip around the 3 islands to give us a taste of the shallow waters. It was 70,000 each for the snorkel trip  with the gear, although don’t expect anything too new! The trip was good in that we swam with turtles and got to have fun with our underwater camera, plus we saw the other Islands. Some snorkelling points we better than others and the lunch on Gili Meno was disappointing; we waited an hour for noodles and rice with veg and we were constantly pestered by hawkers!

Back on Gili Air we were starting to make friends and met up with Carryn who then introduced us to her new dive buddies, some of whom were related to a few of the people on the snorkelling trip so it was all starting to fall into place, our little Gili Air community. We also frequented the local Muslim Warung in the village which for 10-15,000 rs you’ll get a well packed veggie, squid, or chicken and rice delight topped off with roasted peanuts and coco-nut shavings.

Helen was also pretty excited at the prospect of attending some yoga classes once she’d noticed that there was a yoga school on the Island. H20 Yoga is not too far from where our bungalows were located and so it was a simple hop across the field or 3 minute walk from us. There are two yoga teachers at H20 at the moment, Natasha who is acting manager offers and Anusara approach and Gene a Vini-yoga style. Natasha also offers a free meditation class on Mondays and there is a teacher training program coming up sometime later this year. It’s a lovely yoga circle with some accommodation surrounding the deck and a cute kitten who by now will be nearly fully grown called Surya!

One thing we have failed to mention is that all three Islands are occupied by cats, and for some reason the ginger cat comes up top! There are no dogs on the Islands and so it’s a nice an easy life for them! We walked around the Island in about an hour but had plenty of stops along the way to catch the low golden sun, the east side of the Island is way more developed but its worth exploring the perimeter and the village within.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, Sony DSC-TX5 underwater camera, processed in Lightroom 3)

We were up early morning before breakfast for a morning walk and to really take  in our surrounds. We were truly spoilt in our location, right on the fringe of the rice paddies and so we walked and walked and still there were rice paddies. Its an inland tropical paradise with farmers working and people biking through the paddies on their way to work or school. There are so many variations of green, after a while there are no more words to describe the colour!

After our walk we enjoyed a hearty Nirwa breakfast of fruit salad, toast and eggs. This was certainly a good start to the day and we met Andrew and Martha who would be staying for the week. We decided to explore Ubud around the outskirts and trek along Campyuan Ridge, a hike explained in The Lonely Planet. We didn’t quite anticipate the levels of humidity along with the intensity of the sun, we were sweating immensely! The hike goes along a ridge on the other side of the valley from Ubud. The ridge itself goes by tall elephant grass, more rice paddies and lots of small villages. It’s around 8-9 km in total. It was a nice introduction to the area and again people really welcomes us.

We ate lunch at the Bali Buddah, a recommended restaurant specialising in vegetarian food. The food was really good with variations of Nasi Goreng amongst other dishes, plus the atmosphere and vibe of this place is so right. They have a health food shop downstairs along with a water refilling station which is becoming more and more popular in Bali due to all of the plastic bottles that end up on the streets and beaches.

Our afternoon was quiet and we later went to The Yoga Barn with the idea of doing a 4.30pm class but when we arrived after a 30 minute walk we realised that class had started at 4pm. They are a little way out of the centre of Ubud so its better to leave more than enough time to reach it and their yoga studios are pretty nice. They had a 5pm restorative class taking place so we decided to do this instead. It was a lovely class and we both felt ‘restored’ afterwards.

We finished our evening at Juice Ja Cafe enjoying soup and sandwiches and a wheatgrass shot for measure.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

First of all was a lovely sunny walk around the block with Sarah’s best friend Madison her beautiful golden retriever. This was followed by an hour and a half class with Erich Schiffmann whom Helen and Sarah had both trained with in August. It was good for Helen to be back at Exhale, although the $22 class fees are pretty high, luckily we had a free pass between us too. The class was full, although it wasn’t to Dave’s tastes, Helen was definitely in her comfort zone and enjoyed some un-interrupted yogi time, feeling much more confident with Erich’s free-form approach.

Yoga was followed with an appointed with a chiropractor to help sort out Helen’s neck problems and then lunch at Wholefoods on the edge of Venice. The healing part of the day was over, next we were ready for some less-charming enthused Hollywood action. Sarah very kindly played host and drove us around some of the famous landmarks and areas we have so far purposely missed off our list! We drove around Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard and Moholland Avenue taking in some of the mansions and the Hollywood sign.

Moving onto Hollywood itself where a film premier was taking place for Leonardo DiCaprio’s new “J Edgar” film, although we were around 2 hours early for this so could only take in the hype and crowds of fans starting to form. So it’s nothing really to shout about but now we can say we went to Hollywood. We would have liked to enjoy a drink at the roof bar on top of the W Hotel, but it was closed so we had a sneak peak and then enjoyed a beer in the lobby bar.

We ate at a really good Thai restaurant down on Hollywood Boulevard called Jitlada Thai, recommended as THE best Thai in LA!! What a statement! We love our Thai food, and yes it was pretty good especially the green curry and a fish dish. But THE best?? Hmm! It has a good authenticity about the place, family run, not too fancy but the service was slow at the end.

The next day we didn’t really do much but we did get to spend a few hours working with Sarah for her yoga portfolio. Helen shot some images for Sarah’s profile on the Santa Monica beach and grassy sidewalk, involving a mixture of portrait and sequence poses with some lovely natural one’s thrown in too. Dave had already snapped Madison the day before and so we could leave Sarah with a nice series for images for her to treasure (we hope!).

It was a rainy day after a hint of sunshine and later on it cleared up. The perfect day for a film so we watched Martha Marcy May Marlene. A little of a suspense thriller, something we think takes on a Charles Manson inspired story. Then we ate at Fresh ‘n’ Easy over the road from the cinema which has recently opened and offers good salads, sandwiches, soups and so on.

On our last day in LA and after a quick Skype call home to the Roscoe’s we went to another yoga class. This time we were back at Yoga Glo, a studio that offers free yoga to people with an array of top class teachers in LA. It makes its money from the subscribers who follow the yoga classes online, so each class is filmed. We were back with Jo Tastula and she co-taught with meditation teacher Harshada Wagner. Another lovely class which was perhaps more up Dave’s path; more physical basically with guided meditation.

We then made our way to the Getty Centre, which Helen has visited before and remembers the photos she took there. It was a saturday so it was busy, the bonus is free entry but you have a $15 parking fee. It really is a must-see for visitors going to LA. The building sits on a hill overlooking downtown LA and the coast-line. It was a really clear day too so we had great views. The exhibitions were pretty good, the Bauhaus photography exhibit was not really all that good but the one exhibit that stood out for us was Crosscurrents in LA Painting and Sculpture featuring LA artists from the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s including David Hockney’s Splash. This exhibition is part of Pacific Standard Time, art taking place around central LA.

The buildings, architecture and the gardens are perhaps the best thing about the Getty, plus the views. It’s modern, tasteful and very white. Perfect against a blue sky. Lunch there is over-rated and over-priced, we saw a few people taking in a picnic and this seemed the more enjoyable option.

We didn’t have long left so we packed our bags, and after saying goodbye to Madison we went to the Bergamot Station Arts Centre to stop at an exhibition opening. One of Sarah’s colleagues was involved in the opening fettering layered photo montages and photography, this was at the Tag gallery. There is a great hub of art galleries at this location. We then enjoyed perhaps our best sushi yet, one of Sarah’s all time favourites in La. It was excellent and a steal at only $20 each! Again authentic to Japanese culture and their sashimi was fantastic we could have easily been back in Japan! After a filling of sushi Sarah dropped us off at LAX, this was our final goodbye and a little tearful. 3 months in North America, it was strange to be moving on but it also felt good. Thanks to Sarah for being the perfect host and making fantastic home-made granola! Go into business with that Sarah! ha! Oh and her aunty’s pumpkin loaf was amazing, another best seller surely!

So farewell America, for the time being. We’ll do a highlights feature soon and we already have plans of what and where we’d like to visit when we return. New Zealand awaits and we are excited about more new beginnings. We just need to embrace the 13.5 hour flight first.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Vegas Vegas Vegas! Where to start? Well firstly if you’re on a budget, which we so definitely are this was a pretty difficult place for us to be! We’re no gamblers, smokers or heavy drinkers! We did though find much to explore and enjoy! We stayed at Circus Circus, mainly because the boys had booked to stay there and they do pretty good rooms at very low prices! For 3 nights our total was just over $100 and we didn’t spend anything other than $2 in their slot machines!

To sum up our time in Vegas we didn’t spend too much time at Circus Circus other than to sleep and we did make use of the gym one morning. We ate pizza there on the first night, but it wasn’t very good! On day two Helen made it to a yoga class taken by Cheryl Slader who was on the same Erich Schiffmann course back in August. She has a donation only yoga studio called Blue Sky Yoga at the Arts Factory closer to down town. The class was a lunchtime one and lasted 45 minutes, so Dave explored the area and got some great shots of interesting buildings and spaces. We then walked to Fremont and got some lunch there whilst taking in some of the lesser known sights of Las Vegas. Fremont is old Vegas and the main street is now under a permanent canopy. We’ve heard this place is better to explore by night. That night we explored the bigger casinos using a 24 hour bus pass that cost $7 each, it goes all the way down the strip and back and covers more routes throughout Vegas. We delved into The Venetian, The Bellagio, MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood.

On day 3 we used the gym, frequented Cheryl’s yoga class again and went to the airport via the bus to pick up our car. We had one booked for a week to take us away from Vegas and eventually land in Phoenix. We had book marked The Bellagio lunch time buffet which had been recommended as the best buffet on the strip. Parking at most casinos is free in the self park, so we parked up and got our $19.99 lunch buffet. The thing is we got in at 3.30pm and at 4pm there is a change to the evening buffet menu, so we started with the lunch time one and ended up on the dinner one! This is a good tip! They do bring out more specialist food and the puddings are fantastic! So here’s what we had – this was between the two of us!

Part 1:
Sushi, potatoe salad, salad Leaves, cous-cous and rice noodles.

Part 2:
Bok-Choi, Shrimp Pizza, fresh shrimp, mini hamburger.

Mains:
Mussels in tomato and basil sauce, potatoes, wild rice, sweet potatoe puree.
Medium rare rump steak, horseradish puree, polenta and herb mash, wild rice, asparagus.

Extras cos they looked fancy:
Crabs legs.

Desserts:
2x panacotta and strawberry top (excellent).
3x creme brûlée (excellent).
1x rocky road (not so good).
1x white chocolate parfait.
1x strawberry tart.
1x custard tart.

So the puddings were all pretty small, like shot-glass size portions! Where we managed to pack it all into we don’t know but it was very good value for money, and with soft drinks included!

After we had a rest from the food we later on met up with the boys at The Saxe Theater located at the back of Planet Hollywood where we had obtained tickets for Vegas, The Show. A friend of Cheryl’s very kindly helped us out with some very low cost tickets to the show courtesy of one of the main performers Joelle Righetti-Jenson. The show was really good fun, quite a tongue and cheek approach to Las Vegas from when it all began. This was the first musical any of the lads had been too!!

Our last night in Vegas so we ventured through a few more of the casinos, enjoyed The Bellagio water fountain show, had a couple of drinks and eventually said our goodbyes to the lads. They were leaving for LA the next day, whilst we were venturing further into National Park territory.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

After another night in the cozy shed we showered and had breakfast in the usual fashion. We advised Janine regarding some website tips and ways of saving money by doing a website yourself rather than an expensive template etc. Helen offered to take some photos for the new website / promo materials so we headed out into the woods with a homemade reflector and did a spot of photography which was great fun.

After all the excitement in the woods we Skyped home to the Roscoe household and then headed out into the town for a look around during the day. It’s a great little town and worthy of a visit for a day or so. It felt as if it had lost some of it’s hippy charm, but enough has remained to be enchanting enough with coffee shops and yoga rooms aplenty.

There is a nice Yoga place which we visited called the Om Shala Yoga centre which has a sauna, showers and a nice room to take a class. We took advantage of all three. Another recommendation is the Three Foods Cafe which did have a 20 minute wait for a table as it was very busy. The food is a little pricey for the budget conscious traveller but the food is interesting and pretty tasty. The “hurts so good.” (Korean style grass fed sirloin and veggies served over a bed of coconut milk rice, topped with frizzled leaks and a side of fresh kimchi) at $14 was very tasty, only downside was the rice lacked coconut flavor.

There was some confusion over the menu as we were not sure what Linguiça was. (“Satchmo.” Spicy linguica, sweet prawns and green beans over cheesy grits, drizzled with a cajun butter sauce $14) We should have inquired when someone is pescatarian but failed to do so and ended up with a spicy sausage (think Chorizo). Oops. They were kind enough to swap it over for extra veggies instead of the sausage, but Helen didn’t enjoy hers as much as everyone else the whole meal was just too sweet.

American cuisine is moving with the times and embracing other worldly foods, from our experience here though they just haven’t cracked it yet… for our taste-buds anyway!

The following day Janine invited both of us to join a small yoga class with her and two others at her house before breakfast at 7.30am. It was a really nice start to the day and after breakfast we packed up and headed south, back in the car for the first time in two days!

Todays destination was the Lost Coast and to find a lovely campsite somewhere. We’ve been using AAA guide camp books thanks to Helen’s Aunt Jill so we’ve never really struggled to find a decent site. We do often pass by privately owned RV sites too which can sometimes be an alternative. So back to the Lost Coast! We started the drive from Ferndale which is a town that looks pretty much as it did in the late 1800′s, it was a pretty sleepy place when we passed through and we weren’t too impressed by our grocery bill! From Ferndale there is a road that takes you upwards and through some more forest areas eventually coming out in ranch territory at Petrolia. It’s an 80 mile stretch of rugged shoreline, sometimes in the fog, sometimes with clear views. There are epic hiking trails along this part of the coastline too, and the towns are more like Hamlets, often with a mild stench of Marijuana lingering in the air. We took the route through Honeydew and then into the Humboldt Redwood Park, getting further along the Lost Coast at this point requires a four wheel drive.

The drive took a couple of hours as we stopped a few times to photograph but we didn’t really encounter that many cars until we came into the Redwood Forest. The Humboldt  Forest is supposed to be the most impressive of the Redwood areas in Northern California. We came into The Big Tree area located after Albee Campground and walked through some of the tallest and widest trees in the world. It was a little like being in a giant children’s playground. Further into the park is The Avenue of the Giants, which is a good drive and again you can stop off along the way to stare in awe at these massive trees, some of which stand at around 370ft and 26ft in diameter. This is definitely the route to take rather than the 101.

We decided to continue driving further and eventually set up camp in The Richardson Grove State Park, having seen that some of the earlier parks were closed (this is currently a problem in California). The park wasn’t great to be honest but other campers were setting up and there were toilets and wash facilities. We noticed that camping in California was considerably more than the Washington and Oregon equivalents. We camped among more redwoods for the night.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

After Zoe (good friend and yoga teacher from the UK) mentioned Erich Schiffmann’s name to me when we were originally organising the USA part of our trip, it always stuck with me…’Make sure if we go to LA to do a yoga session with Erich Schiffmann‘. And so I looked into Erich and his goings on in the world and became very impressed. Upon the second time round for us to leave again on our travels I noticed that Erich had a 10 day yoga teacher training course starting on the 12 August and it was very convenient for us that flight prices from the UK drop on the 11th. So I checked to see if Dave would be up for coming out with me and staying in Venice whilst I would do the course and as soon as he said yes I paid my deposit.

In all honesty it was the best decision I have ever made. The group were just lovely and very welcoming and Erich Schiffmann is a truely captivating Yogi with SOOOO much love to give it is unreal. (I think I may have picked up a few Americanisms here!!) I have learned so much from Erich and others taking the course, it’s not only given me further motivation to one day teach Yoga but also to be creative in my approach and personal practice. Erich’s wife Leslie also took us for a few afternoons bringing in her experience in Vini-yoga and how to approach level one classes.

We covered so much in a short space of time my mind is still taking it all in, but I do feel very thankful to the whole experience and to have made such good friends along the way. Erich gives the best hugs going and I will definiltey be returning to this side of the Ocean again and again to work with him and join in with his Freedom Style Yoga.

Below are a few images taken while completing the course at Exhale in Venice, Los Angeles as well as a lovely social gathering towards the end of the course.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM & Olympus PEN EP-1, 17mm f/2.8 & 100mm f/2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

As we have a great house to stay in whilst here in Venice Beach and we are travelling for up to nine months, we want to try and save money where we can. Today was shopping day and we ended up at Whole Foods (“Whole Paycheck” as its known by the locals) so we had to be very conscious of each product we bought. We really need to find a cheaper place to shop without a car this might be difficult.

Helen spent the afternoon at Exhale for the 1st full day of Yoga whilst Dave took the Leica and a selection of lenses for a walk around the local area which included a fair few random garage sales on the street. The fishermans pier at Venice Beach is a nice little stroll into the ocean and offers some good photo opportunities.

Venicebeach.com has listings of up and coming events and we just so happened to be here for the Venice Beach Music Festival which was a nice little event. Spending time watching the graffiti artists and skateboarders in the skate park, you can easily loose track of the time.

We decided to cook for ourselves and we were both suffering from the effect of jet-lag as by 8pm we were ready for bed.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM & Olympus PEN EP-1, 17mm f/2.8 & 100mm f/2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

Up at 6am today as we were both feeling jet-lagged, making ourselves stay in bed as long as we could having woken up on the hour since about 3am. The early wake up was good though as it meant we could get to the Venice beach Farmers Market for opening at 7.30am. It’s a small market, much smaller than its neighbouring Santa Monica one but it’s got enough to offer in terms of fresh produce, which for us is ideal as we’re self catering.

So we tentatively spent our first dollars and bought a very delicious assortment of cherry tomatoes, some leafy greens and homemade dill bagels with a lovely whipped cream cheese! That’s lunch sorted for the next few days!

When we got in we enjoyed our first breakfast here which was helped by Matt’s generous offering of endless supplies of mangoes, strawberries and blueberries! This fueled us enough for a walk to the Santa Monica Pier along the beach front. It’s about 2 miles to the pier from Venice beach and there are paths for cyclists and pedestrians all the way along the stretch of the beach and beyond. It’s really set up for the fitness fanatics. Getting closer to the pier we watched surfers, and people setting up their spots on the beach for the day. We explored the pier and then made our way back to Venice.

Later on we explored the Venice Canals, a place we think we will frequent with our cameras, it’s really beautiful and very close to where we’re staying. It’s just good to stroll around and take in the contrast of houses from quaint, old beach style homes to modern grand designs. We ended our afternoon on the beach – we had arrived!

Helen started her course in the evening with Erich Schiffman so no doubt will be very yoga focused in the next 10 days, but Venice does have this boho vibe going on so we don’t think she’ll be too out of place!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM & Olympus PEN EP-1, 17mm f/2.8 & 100mm f/2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

When we left Khoa-Sok our aim was to be on Koh Pha-Ngan for a week with a 5 day yoga retreat at the Yoga Retreat Koh Pha-Ngan. Unfortunately as soon as we arrived and after the mammoth and annoyingly long process of getting there with a combined bus and boat ticket, we had to make plans to come back. We had some sad news of a family emergency.

Where to begin in writing about this!? Our Notworkrelated adventure would have to be put on hold, but we will resume our travels and be in touch soon about when this will be. In the meantime enjoy a wonderful spring and summer, the weather has been pretty good to come back to all things considered and it’s great to see our family and friends again.

We wanted to leave a Spring-like photograph on here in the meantime to remember those we love and have lost.

Thank you for following our Notworkrelated adventure and we’ll be in touch soon with plans for the future journey.

David and Helen.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, processed in Lightroom 3)