Sailing

Am often keen on doing things I have never done before. Sailing was one of them, which I jumped onto when an amazing colleague offered a spot on a sailboat he was borrowing for a day. We set sail from Monnickendam on a chilly weekend morning.

The feeling of cutting through water, wind and the elements in an non-motor-powered craft; through the waves up and down; rocking in the ripples emanating in the wake of other boats; the feeling of danger yet with calming knowledge of fact that the boat cannot topple; sounds of silence interspersed with hubbub of water splashing against wind and itself; was oddly relaxing, meditative while being thoroughly exhausting.

I was feeling adventurous, so I carried my drone, which in hindsight, could have benefitted from preparation of a flight plan. The take-off was easy, but the landing was fraught with difficulty, leaving us with some bruises as we barely recovered the machine. It brought back vivid memories of how I lost my previous drone

As we sailed, we took turns amongst us three, handling various duties onboard such as: enjoying the sun, steering and enjoying the sun; punctured by an occasionally call for all-hands for a huddle to perform tacking or jibing manoeuvres with the sailboat.

The notion of using headwind to sail upwind often did not compute in my head. I spent significant amount of time staring at the geometries of the various connected components in contemplation. I was in awe of physics and the classical perspective, triumphing over my romantic worldview.

After a frustrating bout of boredom as we had no winds for a long time, we started up our underpowered motor to make a pit stop at Haven van Marken for lunch.

Wind as a form of fuel on a sailboat combined with calories expended in human effort resulted in momentum for the boat and contentedness for the soul, leading me to speculate an imbalanced situation for the laws of thermodynamics. I thought to myself “Take that, physics”, as we entered the haven towards the end of the day.

Liège, Belgium

A sleepy little town that I always happened to pass through without ever stopping was Liege. It was just a point on my thoroughfare to reach some of the waterfalls and hiking trails slightly south of this region in Belgium. In the afternoon, on my way back, the sun was low and golden hour was almost upon which made for a compelling case to stop and walk around.

There was something peculiar about this place. Buildings were unusually tall and neatly stacked up. They were flaunting their geometry in parallels and rectangles. Colours tones were deep yet faded. All of which made the city evoke an air of a small cosy town.

No sooner the evening light was upon the city; the rooftops lit up in dazzling hues of the golden hour. Deep faded colours combined with orange shades of sunlight, draped the place in an afterglow.

The last of the cars passed through, and an eerie stillness took refuge in the quiet roads and narrow alleys. Time momentarily stopped, the light started losing its glow, and then we decided to get going.

Route 66

While journeying towards Grand Canyon Village, along with a friend who joined me from Las Vegas, we were forced to make as stop over as couple of trucks on i40 collided & caught fire causing causalities and road closures. The helicopter tour we were planning on was cancelled as one of them crashed in the canyon. On that sombre mood, with our plans changed, we took the route 66, to explore a bit of the Arizona country-side and fly our drones.

The first time I heard of this highway was from the movie ‘Cars’ , although the actual place was quite far from where we were.

Faded colors caused by shining desert sun was unbelievable. I was thrilled to realize movie & tv-shows (breaking bad anyone?) scenes set in deserts were not far from reality.

Hanging out on the closed Interstate, walking and chatting with annoyed truckers was amusing to say the least.

While the town by route 66 was in shambles, it was in interesting sight as to what interstate highways have done to small towns. Concept of towns being bankrupt was as surreal as it is still alien to me.

It was trucking country through and through. Ariel views of the pit-stops, truck stops, black highways cutting through a barren landscape were all the more surreal in the middle of a desert!

The landscape, once the sun began to set turned a complete 180 degrees to reward us with a spectacular gradient of colors that left us wondering if it was a painting. That a desert could look so different was something I never imagined.

Death Valley, California

Desert plains and scorching sun; Endless hills and reddish glum; Dried up shrubs and flowing sand; Hundreds of miles and no waters in sight. Death Valley almost lives up to its name, and it ultimately misses on expressing the incredible beauty that’s hidden behind the veils of prejudice set by itself.

For almost half a decade, I have been yearning to visit Death Valley, ever since somebody that I used to know planted that idea. It now feels like life has come a full circle. The visit through the valley was part of a much larger road trip beginning in San Francisco, through Sequoia National Park, Death Valley, Las Vegas and ultimately culminating at the Grand Canyon.

Following a visit to Sequoia National Park, I made a stopover at in a little town called Inyokern in California. The motel owner suggested two routes towards Death Valley, one through the well maintained Hw-395 and another more dangerous route via Hw-178. Of course, I ended up taking the later. It was desolated, deserted and deathly and I loved it.

At the first sign of gas station, I made a pitstop for refuelling. There was not going to be any more of such stops for the next several hundreds of miles.

Some ice cream to beat the heat.

I stared at the road, and the road stared back at me. How the distance passed and the time flew was lost on me. I think my mind was numb and lost in the beauty that was racing against me.

Apocalyptically appearing dead trees marked the approach towards the great Mesquite Sand Dunes.

No sonner than I reached, I took off hiking into the sand dunes, with camera gear under the blazing sun. After a never ending trek through the valleys of the dunes and over the sand tops, I waited to take some pictures

A few unsettling moments of Deja Vu later, I concluded that perhaps this is what Arrakis looks like.

On the road again

Gazing at the sprawling lands with sparsely spaced shrubs and lit under blue-yellow sky, from hill-top view points was amazing.

Artist’s Palette, a natural and colourful hill formation, resulting due to the occurrence of various mineral deposits in the valley. I was quite amused to hear fellow tourists tout amongst themselves that it was due to elements such as mercury.

Watching two travellers camp up with portable chairs was envied by many including me.

As the sun began setting, I began making my way out

Not before stopping near Badwater Basin to make long exposures and some classic desert shots

Scotland

The notion of Scotland, only ever consisted of spectacular moss-covered mountains filled with stimulating smells of raw nature, scintillating sights of sunrises & sunsets, the sounds of silence and the sights from Lord of the rings in my mind. Here are some pictures from a 4 day, 800 mile road trip, through the highlands and mountains which reaffirmed that notion.

I landed in Edinburgh and went straight out to the car rental place and drove off into the highlands. The final destination I had in mind was Neist Point on the west of Isle of Skye.

From Edinburgh, I drove until I found the castle Eilean Donan.

An american colleague mentioned about a small town of Applecross, which was only reachable via a high mountain pass. He described his ascent up the steep roads as ‘shitting my pants all the way while driving on the wrong side of the road’.

Sold, I was now on my way to see it for myself. But the weather turned sour, and the way up was devoid of any views to match up with expletives I had heard.

I had the good fortune of running into a Scottish gentleman, who happenstance was on vacation away from the Netherlands, preparing to light up a joint – who reassured me that I could indeed camp for free if owners were nowhere to be found to accept my payment. I obliged.

The next day at dawn, I began circling the peninsula to take the longer route around the mountain towards Skye.

Fair wind compelled me to get the drone out to attempt some aerial shots.

Somewhere along the way, I felt that I wanted to try taking that mountain pass again; No sooner that thought entered my brain, I found myself turning around for round two.

And after a frustrating drive uphill I experienced a replay of the expletives my colleague shared a few weeks earlier. I was not disappointed.

The view warranted the long-drive ritual of making some noodles to slurp on while sighing to the sights.

At the end of the thrilling descent was the road towards Skye, teeming with some wildlife a.k.a sheep.

A detour plan that formed in my head while I casually gazed at the grazing sheep, brought me to to the fishing village of Elgol.

That evening I met some local fishermen who agreed to take me on their day-long trip to the sea on their boats to catch some sea delicacies. Unfortunately the next day, the weather turned sour to the extent that the entire village called off fishing for next few days. I settled for a tourist boat ride to the nearby loch.