Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
Our summers are pretty fickle weather wise and this year is no exception. We've just returned, or rather been blown and rained out from a week camping at Stony Bay at the top of the peninsular.
Our camp cooker setup - ideal for those evenings when it's too windy to light a fire to cook on...
The week started out really well with a sketch in the main street of Thames whilst waiting for Fish & Chips at the excellent Green Lipped Cafe on Pollen Street. Thames is a really interesting place with it's gold mining and Kauri logging history from the 1800's. It always amazes me that it was once one of our largest cities, fortunately most of the old buildings remain and they make excellent sketch subjects...
Once at Stony Bay we promptly pitched our tents with the best view overlooking the bay, we couldn't believe our luck that it was vacant. Not until later did we realise that the previous campers on this spot almost got blown away when the Northerly came through! Below is a far more sensible spot, with tents pitched along the stream, safe from the wind and with some protection from the sun, sketched in the rain however...
Our camp cooker setup - ideal for those evenings when it's too windy to light a fire to cook on...
The kids had a ball, on the rope swing, fishing, building sandcastles and feeding the eels at night...
The parents enjoyed a few drinks around the campfire at night (wind allowing of course)...
Our neighbours at one stage (they seemed to have a shop awning attached to their Landcruiser?)...
A trip to Sandy Bay (yes, some bays come with very imaginative names) for a swim one day...
And a 5 hour blast over the old stock route to Fletchers Bay and back. We rode this about 18 years ago, but it seems a lot harder now! Unfortunately the grey day didn't help the view...
So the saturated tent and camp gear is drying at home and I'm back to work!
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