Author Archives: Paul Rin

Victoria Falls Hotel

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Ok, now I don’t normally go for the poshest hotel in the area. But there are those times that you want to splurge a little bit. You want to be a part of history.  The Victoria Falls Hotel was built in 1904. It was intended for railway workers in the early 20th century.  I imagine it wasn’t actually built for the *workers*. It was more for the ‘tea and crumpets’ set. This group likely either took the railway or managed the construction crews.  But imagine being in southern Africa in colonial times. This was over a hundred years ago at a hotel as prestigious as this.

The hotel is quaint and a bit dated. You can feel the sense of occasion that the hotel once represented, especially back in the early 1900’s.  We had only two nights there. We had a lunch. We took a walk over the bridge to Zambia. We also walked through Victoria Falls Park. This provided just enough for a taste.

Sony A7R II |Sony FE 16-35 f/4.0 | 35mm | f/22 | 1/60th | ISO500

Aore Island

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A year ago, we took the short 3-hour flight to Vanuatu for a long-ish weekend.  The goal was pretty simple: relax, snorkel and dive. We stayed at the Aore Island Resort, just off of Espiritu Santo. There is little to nothing on the island, a couple of small villages and the resort.  The resort was a bit rustic. It was absolutely lovely, and we were well taken care of. I would highly recommend it.  We did approximately four dives off the shores. These were organized by Aore Adventures. I reckon Vanuatu ranks among my top three dive sites so far.  The coral is great. The dives included both shallow reef dives and deep wreck dives. A pod of dolphins raced our boat. This happened as we were returning to the island after one set of dives. Fantastic island holiday.

Canon S120 | Canon 5.2-26mm | 15.2 mm | f/4.5 | 1/250th | ISO160

Cheetah at the water hole

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Our last stop in Namibia was at a large cat reserve called Okonjima.  This reserve was originally a cattle farm. However, it was transformed into a large cat reserve in the 1970s.  Most of the cheetah at the reserve have radio collars. We tracked two of them in the bush. There, we found them laying about.  We got out of our truck. We snapped a few photos. Then they got up and walked right in between our party. They literally split the group in two.  They could not be bothered at all that we were there.  Our guides asked if we wanted to track these guys on foot. They promised the cheetahs don’t like humans for food. We accepted the offer and tracked them.  We walked about 2 kms. Then they settled at a watering hole. We got a series of great shots.  I was a little disconcerted when they walked back to within about 6-7 feet of me, looking around and sniffing.  It was slightly terrifying. I could see the news reports: “American tourist eaten by cheetah in Namibia.” However, true to form, they didn’t seem all too interested in me at all.  This is one of the best photos of that little walk.

Sony A7R II | Sony FE 70-200 f/4.0 | 200mm | f/4.0 | 1/2000th | ISO 250

Tracking a Leopard

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Botswana is home to a pretty large number of leopards in the wild.  They are among the most elusive cats in the wild. We were lucky enough to track a small group. This group had a ‘teenage’ male, a couple of females, and a couple of cubs.  As we got close to these cats, we could clearly see how powerful and thick these cats were.  They appeared to be just solid muscle, all the way through.  It was so fun to track these guys through the bush.

Nikon D600 | 70-200 mm | f/3.3 | 1/1500th | ISO800

Sunset in Botswana

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Our last evening on our most recent trip was capped off by sundowner drinks around the safari truck.  Most of the sunset drives didn’t have great colors. This was due to dust in the air. Fires around the area also led to smoke in the air.  This evening was nearly perfect though, and was a great send off to a great week in Botswana. The moon was just showing through and the color was bright.

Sony AR7 II | Sony FE 70-200 f/4.0 | 71 mm | f/4.0 | 1/125 | ISO6400

Most Easterly Point on Australia

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Last fall we went up to Byron Bay to take in the annual Blues Fest.  This is a great 4-day music festival. It is coming up on their 27th year. It is hosted on the grounds of a farm just outside of the town of Byron Bay.

As a side trip one day, we had no acts we wanted to see earlier. We took a walk up and around the famous Byron Bay Lighthouse. We also took some time to take in the official “most easterly point of Australia“.  One down, 3 to go.  😉

Canon S95 | Canon 6.0-22.5 mm | 6 mm | f/5.0 | 1/500th | ISO80

Tokoriki

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Yep – I hadn’t heard of this place before last October either.  Tokoriki is a small Fijian island. It is a short 10 minute helicopter ride or a ~1 hour boat ride from the main island Nadi.  The island itself has only two resorts. They are the Tokoriki Island Resort and the newly rebuilt or remodeled Sheraton.

We had a great stay – 5 nights over a long weekend.  We did some lovely scuba diving, and a wonderful dinner on the beach on our last night. Highly recommended.

Canon S120 |Canon 56-22.5 mm | 6 mm | f/2.2 | 1/20th | ISO800

Fitzroy Falls

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Last year, we organized a big house down in Kangaroo Valley for my birthday.  It was us and 3 other couples.  The weekend was basically eating, drinking and a little bit o’ hiking.  On the way back to Sydney, we stopped for a break at Fitzroy Falls.  Delightful weekend.

Canon S120 | Canon 5.6-26.0 mm | 5.2mm | f2.8 | 1/400th | ISO80

Over the Andes

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Light day of wine tasting and relaxing. This is from our lunch spot, looking west over the Andes.

Canon S95 | Canon 5.6-26.0 mm | 7.5 mm | f/8.0 | 1/80 sec | ISO 100