The Shifting Sands

One of the greatest things about digital photography is that the photos are so accessible. I was hunting for some images recently and ran across some photos from an NZ climbing trip.  Damien,  a school friend and "professional" climber, and I were in NZ to try to get some winter climbing done on the main range in the winter of 2000.  However, the snowfall had been heavy and our trip changed focus to skiing. One of the great thing about NZ, cheap choppers! By chance we ran into a friend, Helen a fellow telemarker who I had skied with in Australia. She was in the Cafe in Twizel which is at the turn off to Mount Cook Village.  Helen and her boyfriend were in NZ for a couple of months ski bumming and living in a tent near the club field of Ohau.  I suggested a ski trip to the West Coast and they were keen. So we drove to Franz Joesph and hired a chopper for a flight to Pioneer Hut and some skiing on the Franz Joseph and Fox Neve Antenna array of Pioneer behind

After we finished at Daulatabad, we continued a short distance to Ellora Caves.  This site is very different from Ajanta, there are 34 "caves" of varying size which were constructed between the 5th and 10th centuries. Although still carved into a cliff line, the caves are against an escarpment as opposed to in a river valley as was the case at Ajanta.  The caves, in a number of cases, are not caves but complete free standing Dravidian style temples, similar to those at Badami and Pattacharkal,  but carved out of the cliff.  The third major difference is that there are three sections encompassing Jain, Brahman and Buddhist temples. Intricately carved columns in the Indra Sabha Our first stop was the Jain section which was a short drive from the car park.  The Jain    caves date from the 9th and 10th  centuries. The temple is not as large as the Brahman or Buddhist temples but the artwork is very detailed .  The Indra Sabha  is a two storey

After our brief European escape, we were prompted by our good friend Nicola to undertake some more Indian exploration. Ellora and Ajanta were high on Nicola's and our expat "bucket list" which are the the things you must do before your next relocation and as she will soon be relocating she is a little more focused  Lucy was not keen to explore archaeological sites in temperatures of 40 C so she organised a sleep over for Friday and Saturday nights.  However we were able to convince (bribe) Ada into willingly joining us. Ellora and Ajanta are caves and temples cut into cliff lines near the towns of the same names.  They are close to Aurangabad which has several significant historical sites due to it being the seat of Murghul power on the Deccan Plateau and is named after the Murghul Emperor Aurangazeb, famous for the imprisoning of his father Shah Jahan, who ordered the construction of the Taj Mahal. Ajanta Caves were first on our schedule and it is approximately

After the ladies had a wonderfull few days in Paris, draining the bank account while I worked, we set off for Barcelona.  My birthday morning started, like all my mornings in Paris, with a run, orange juice and a fresh croissant.   It finished with a degustation menu at Montiel Restaurante a wonderful restaurant in Barcelona. Add in a few tremendous presents (new climbing harness from Vieux Campuer, shaving brush from Planete Rasoir and Marshall headphones from FNAC) and it was a great day. Barcelona is a city that Kate and I had been desperate to visit for some time. The combination of  old and new,  Gaudi,  the great food,      and runs and a bike ride along the Mediterranean all lived up to our high expectations.   But my highlight was exploring the maze of lane ways, each corner revealing a new delight as you wove your way through the Gothic centre of the city.  Gre

I had the good fortune to be summoned to a work conference in Paris during the Easter holiday week for Lucy and Ada.  So off we set for a brief European sojourn consisting of a few days in Paris and a few days in Barcelona with my birthday in the middle. Mumbai had been warming up and we had become accustomed to the heat so the unseasonably cold weather in Paris was shock even though we had read the forecast.  So on our first full day we rugged up and set of to Versailles Palace.  What was unusual about the outing is that we were going to visit a historical site with the full support of Lucy.  Normally, Palace visits encourage her to want to stay in the hotel room but a history unit covering the French Revolution, tales of Marie Antoinette's "village"and a pirate copy of Les Miserables had sparked her curiosity in revolutionary France. In fact it is enough to spark the revolutionary in all of us. A good market makes the day feel warmer to Kate A train ride to V