2014

Sundarbans biosphere. West Bengal, India. With this rare little fellow I would like to wish all my friends a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous 2015.

Old Havana. Cuba

San Francisco. The hangout of the Beat Poets .....Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti etc in the 50's.....and until today it goes on...

Oregon State Fair.

Kimberley. North West Australia. I am away to Madagascar tomorrow....may not be much on Ipernity while I am away. Best wishes to all

The Commander Islands, Komandorski Islands, or Komandorskie Islands (Russian: Командо́рские острова́, Komandorskiye ostrova) are a series of islands in the Russian Far East, a part of the Aleutian Islands, located about 175 km (109 mi) east of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea. Treeless and sparsely populated, the islands consist of Bering Island (95 km (59 mi) by 15 km (9.3 mi)), Medny Island (55 km (34 mi) by 5 km (3.1 mi)) and fifteen islets and rocks. The largest of the latter are Tufted Puffin Rock (Kamen Toporkov or Ostrov Toporkov), 15 ha (37 acres), and Kamen Ariy, which are between 3 km (1.9 mi) and 13 km (8.1 mi) west of the only settlement, Nikolskoye. Administratively, the Commanders compose the Aleutsky District of the Kamchatka Krai (Wikipedia) We visited this, the only small village on any of these islands, the others being unpopulated nature reserves. This building is one of a large number of nineteenth century buildings then used as fur trapping and trading enterprises, when much of the marine life was exterminated by the Russians and Americans to supply a hungry fur trade. Now just relics. Not on any tourist agendas. We were on a 47 passenger no frills expedition cruise to tramp in wellington boots around Kamchatka and remote places searching for bears and wild things! We did see huge Kamchatka bears, rusty- coloured, trotting on deserted shores, swimming, scooping up salmon at river mouths. And walrus, sea lions, millions of different birds, eagles…whales of many kinds. And no people apart from us. A great museum of dead things…boats, ships, fishing gear, oil drums etc..

The Commander Islands, Komandorski Islands, or Komandorskie Islands (Russian: Командо́рские острова́, Komandorskiye ostrova) are a series of islands in the Russian Far East, a part of the Aleutian Islands, located about 175 km (109 mi) east of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea. Treeless and sparsely populated, the islands consist of Bering Island (95 km (59 mi) by 15 km (9.3 mi)) and Medny Island. Nikolskoye, a small village, is the only settlement on these islands, the others being unpopulated nature reserves. Not on any tourist agendas. We were on a 47 passenger no frills expedition cruise to tramp in wellington boots around Kamchatka and remote places searching for bears and wild things! We did see huge Kamchatka bears, rusty- coloured, trotting on deserted shores, swimming, scooping up salmon at river mouths. And walrus, sea lions, millions of different birds, eagles…whales of many kinds. And no people apart from us. A great museum of dead things…boats, ships, fishing gear, oil drums etc.. what comes in never goes out again! Have a fab Friday and an interestingly happy weekend….