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...
For cyclists in Auckland it's hard to ignore the Coromandel as an easy to access bikepacking destination. I've cycled around the peninsular a number of times now, but despite that it's still an enticing enough winderness escape to lure half a dozen two-wheeled 'Jafas'. Of course that also means some hastily painted sketches had to be created on the spot in a tiny sketchbook. It goes without saying right? This time around I went for a stealth set-up of a gouache travel kit, a tiny kraft paper sketchbook and a waterbrush. The Ritchies bike bags were rammed with camping gear and food for 3 days so the last thing you want is miles of art materials as well. I took a fineliner along just in case but to be honest I really like the look of the blunt waterbrush in a small sketchbook.  |
| A strangely large orange tent at Fletchers Bay (?!) |
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| The view of Port Jackson from the top of the saddle. It's one of the best views ever – partly because your brain is so starved of oxygen from the heinous hill climb |
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| Duncan and Marcus at the top of that saddle find some humour to forget the pain of that climb. |
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| The track up out of Fletchers Bay (a steep track so cyclist is visible to left pushing) |
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| Evening camp set up in Waikauwau Bay. |
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| Antoine riding the ridgeline on the Stony Bay track – before we encountered the slips. |
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| Tom's classic Orange P7 26" |
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| Duncan's Surly Midnight Special |
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| A terrible sketch on top of the Kennedy Bay hill with pou whenua (it was super windy and cold) |
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Josca's 1980's Trail Breaker 26"
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