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December31st

2012 ::HAPPY NEW YEAR::

Posted in: Travel & Landscapes

It’s New Year in Australia! Here in Latvia, 2011 is still lingering and we’re having a quiet beer before we head out to Freedom Square to celebrate with the locals.

2011 has been a great year for Self Indulged Online Magazine. The magazine has been read by over 130,000 people, we’ve accumulated close to 7000 followers on Twitter along with over 3000 Facebook fans and subscribers and we’ve enjoyed the sponsorship support of some of the best in the photographic and travel business.

Special thanks to Lonely Planet, Manfrotto, Kata Bags, 1Cover Travel Insurance and Visit Finland for coming along for the ride now…and into 2012. And a huge personal thanks to everyone who has commented, read, subscribed, liked and followed in 2011.

Travel highlights of 2011 include:

Australia Day on the True North – will miss that in 2012!

Swimming in the Beijing Olympic Water Cube (the image above is the waterpark inside)

Shooting the Northern Lights in Northern Norway

Floating on an inner tube down the Li River in Yangshou, China – being careful to avoid the poop of water buffalo cooling off in the shallows (I know I haven’t written about that yet…I’m guessing this will be eagerly awaited?)

Trying out our trusty tent for the first time in Outer Mongolia.

Shooting pink lightening!

Eating rancid fish in Sweden…well, it wasn’t really a highlight, more of a ‘mission accomplished’.

Reaching the Golden Summit after climbing 68,000 steps in Mt Emei, China.

Driving through 4 countries in 2 days. UK to The Netherlands (UK-France-Belgium-The Netherlands) OK, we caught the ferry for the UK to France bit…but it still counts.

Catching up with family and friends in London after being away for 6 years.

Seeing snow in Lapland…and cross-country skiing – we were rubbish at it!

Sleeping in a glass igloo.

Bobsledding in Latvia…my spine is still recovering from the G-forces!

Surviving the Chinese high speed rail system.

Surviving the Chinese rail system in general!!

Visiting Pandora. (Zhangjiajie National Park in China)

Camping at Tintagel.

The transiberian train ride from Beijing to Ulaan Bataar….stuck in customs for 4 hours. We were locked inside while the train was taken away to have the undercarriage changed. We were however allowed to drink beer while we waited. I challenge you to tell me where else in the world customs officials will allow you to drink openly while being ‘processed’.

Tianmenshan Mountain – everything about it was a ‘highlight’

Experiencing a local Nadaam celebration in Mongolia.

Eating cheap street food in Beijing with a crazy Canadian.

Always enjoying the company of other travellers, particularly in Chengdu where our RTW journey began. Especially the company of Bec & Zac who braved the Sichuan hot pot with us and Gernot who has been involved in his own EPIC adventure.

Swimming in the slimy algal waters of Qingdao…and not getting sick!

Enjoying Amsterdam for everything ‘other than’ it’s infamous coffee shops.

Swimming in the warm waters of the Andaman Sea – Langkawi

24 hours in Feng Huang

Patting a reindeer – it was real, not stuffed.

We’re hoping that 2012 will bring many more travel adventures…and hopefully some great images. We leave for Lithuania in the new year. The Hill of Crosses is first on the agenda…I can see it being on the list of 2012 highlights already. Wishing you all a healthy, happy and prosperous 2012…hoping you stick around for the ride.

Issue 6 will be out on the 14^th of January 2012, subscribe HERE to join us….until then, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
December24th

The BIGGEST Gingerbread Church…in the world!

Posted in: Blog update, Travel & Landscapes

Two nights ago we saw the biggest gingerbread church in the world.

We watched as the church was decorated with yellow and blue icing…and then we watched in delight as huge ‘bites’ were taken out of it.

We were witnessing an unusual light display put together by video mapping artist, Taavi Varm. His canvas was St John’s Church in Tallinn’s Freedom Square. For nearly twenty minutes the church morphed from one spectacular light display to another as images and lights projected onto the church facade delighted us, and the thousands of others who had come to watch the closing display to celebrate Tallinn as European Capital of Culture 2011.

The light show was accompanied by ten churches around the city filling the Old Town with the sound of their bells, ringing in harmony and complimenting the light show.

The ‘grand finale’ was the setting alight of a huge 2011 ‘sculpture’ which you can see in the foreground, creatively called, ‘2011’. Unfortunately there was only one can of lighter fluid and one man with a match! By the time the ‘1’s were alight the 2 and the 0 were nearly extinguished which made us giggle. The highlight though was the fantastic work of Taavi Varm, it was a beautiful display and a real treat for us as we’d only heard about it the day before. By the time we arrived for the show there were thousands of people already in the square. Luckily I found a spot on the hill to position the tripod and get some shots off. The shot above is, of course, the gingerbread church.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
February1st

Seaman’s Sanctuary

Posted in: Travel & Landscapes

It’s been a while between posts and, even though I haven’t put in an appearance here, I have been busy working on a million projects…honest!

After spending a fantastic Australia Day aboard the True North I was keen to try out some of the sharpening techniques that Nick Rains discussed and, with all of the storms that are flying around Australia at the moment, I thought this image was fitting. (Pleased with the result on the hi-res file…it’s hard to see the effects with this squished up jpeg!)

It was taken last year on our hike up Mt Kosciusko, the very top of Australia. There was a storm rolling in, we were kitted out in our warm waterproof jackets and hiking boots and I grabbed this shot on the way up. On the way back down we could barely even see the hut, never mind photograph it so, like many others before us we took refuge inside Seaman’s Hut until the worst of it had passed over. We sat inside munching beef jerky and yearning for a hot cuppa. There’s a visitors book inside full of messages from other hikers who have made the trek from Charlottes Pass, some caught in snow storms, some spending the night so that they can be at the peak for the first dawn of a new year and some just looking to take a 5 minute break from the 18km round-trip.

It was built in 1928 as a sanctuary for travellers after Laurie Seaman and Evan Hayes died on the mountain in 1928. They were skiing on the mountain and were caught in a blizzard and probably didn’t stand a chance. The hut was built by Seaman’s family as a shelter to help prevent further deaths on the mountain. Although we were in no danger that day it was still a very welcome sanctuary for our weary, wet bodies!

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