Lake Powell, Arizona/Utah, has the Seal of Approval

Lake Powell, in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, has got the "Seal of Approval"! However, you do have to use your imagination a bit.

At Wahweap, I managed to take two boat trips on Lake Powell, exploring the canyons, visiting Rainbow Bridge and cruising around this vast and magnificent lake. Perhaps the attraction isn't so much Lake Powell itself but the rock formations around the edge.

This particular rock formation is really only visible from water level whereas many of the others are more obvious from the air when gaining a bird's eye view.




You will have to zoom in on the photo to enlarge the "seal" on the right hand side of the picture just above the water's edge.

Cruising on Lake Powell and manoeuvring through the canyons is one activity you have to put on your list of "must do" tours. The boat captains are very skilled and well versed in the history, culture and geology of their patch. They also have a great imagination, a wicked sense of humour and an eye for the unique beauty of the area.

Looking up at these great hunks of rock really brings home the fact that we're just tiny specks compared to the vastness of nature. Quite a humbling experience.

Here's more information on Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Giant Worms Found on King Island, Bass Strait, Australia

I thought I'd found giant worms on King Island, Bass Strait, Australia.

A couple of years ago I visited King Island, located between northwest Tasmania, to the south, and the Victorian coast on mainland Australia, to the north. Although there are some spectacular spots around King Island, the island doesn't feature any high mountains. It's mostly beef and dairy cattle (grazing on gently rolling hills), kelp and fishing.

Three days were spent on the island, with a flight around the coast and the rest of the time touring by car. On one of the days, I headed towards the southern end of the island, and saw these long green things in the distance.



With my weird sense of humour, I immediately thought of the Giant Worm Museum at Bass in Victoria. It's a structure which depicts a giant earth worm. Gippsland is apparently the only place in the world where these creatures can grow to about 3 metres in length (good food for nightmares I think).

Or, they could be giant wichetty grubs. In reality, they are only big round bales of hay covered in plastic (silage or haylage bales which begin to ferment with the moisture). Still, it makes for an interesting picture and a very tall tale.

The track that I was driving on was very windy and narrow and fortunately I didn't encounter a kelp truck which would have been around earlier in the day. I'll post about the kelp later on.

Check out the penguins on King Island too.


View Larger Map

Positive Police Presence With Those Gorgeous Greys Again

Due to popular demand here's a follow up to "Positive Police Presence on Magnificent Mounts".

Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, is fortunate to have a mounted police unit which happens to be extremely photogenic even when not in parade attire. Here are two more photos for you to enjoy.

The police officers obviously love their job and I'm sure the "gorgeous greys" do too. However, with my wacky sense of humour, I just have to put a different slant on things. The following comments are coming straight from the horse's mouth (so to speak).

"Hey, lady, I know you think I'm adorable but don't touch my mane. I've just had it washed and brushed this morning and you're messing it up!"

"Could you just scratch my neck a little higher please? That's oh so good. I don't suppose you could scratch that itch on my nose as well could you?"

Why Did You Turn Off the Plane's Engine?

As a pilot I like to see the humorous side of flying a light aircraft.

Here's a joke about a student pilot who was sent on the first solo flight without the instructor.

Instructor to student pilot (who just crashed the aircraft): "What happened, you were doing so well on your first solo?"

Student pilot to instructor: "Well, I was doing fine at a thousand feet so I thought I'd climb a little higher. Then I climbed to two thousand feet and that felt OK too. But then as I was climbing higher and higher to three thousand feet, it was getting colder and colder, so I turned off the big fan at the front!"

Here's the big fan at the front - the propeller!

When is a Hat not a Hat? When it's a Bucket

When travelling, it's good to be very sun smart and wear a hat to protect the face and neck. My choice is an Akubra hat, being an Aussie. Our beautiful sunshine does have a sting to it though, so it pays to be protected, particularly in the Outback. Here's my first Akubra on Tasmania's Overland Track (it's in the DVD too).

As a photographer, there's an added bonus. I take the hat off and hold it over the camera to get rid of sun glare when taking photos - very versatile.

It's versatile in other ways too. In the Outback, sometimes stockmen fill the hat with water and let their horses drink from it.


As long as the water's not kept too long in the hat and it's given a chance to dry out, the hat will be OK. I'm so glad I remembered that fact.

Last year I took my trusty hat with me on the Torres del Paine trek in Chile, South America. It shielded me from the sun and the rain and everything was going smoothly until we had almost reached the refugio (refuge/hostel) at Grey Lake. A few of us started feeling a bit queazy and then ended up being sick in the bushes (oh, that felt better, for a while only though). We'd probably caught an airborne tummy bug.

By the time we arrived at the refugio and sorted out our upstairs rooms and bunks we started feeling sick again. The guide gave us each a big black plastic garbage bag but I never managed to use mine.

The vomiting came on so suddenly that the first thing I grabbed was my Akubra, turned it upside down and used it as a bucket. When I felt a bit better I gingerly crept down the stairs to the bathroom and tipped the contents of the hat in the toilet, thoroughly rinsed it out and dried it as best I could.

I dragged myself up the stairs and lay down on the bunk again. The guide kindly brought us some rice tea to settle the stomach but that didn't last long. Once more I made a grab for my still damp hat and used it as my felt bucket. (I don't know about you but writing about this is making me feel a bit queazy)

I did the same as before and emptied my hat in the bathroom down stairs and fortunately the vomiting stopped. The anti-gastro pills worked wonders - never leave home without them. (There's more to the tale but believe me you don't want to read about it)

So, the moral of this story is
(a) no matter how hygienic you are the bugs are still going to get you and
(b) on your bucket list make sure you have an Akubra hat which can double as a bucket!

P.S. I did wear it the rest of the trip but because the hat was wet for too long (and smelt a bit) I've had to buy another Akubra.

Penguins' Poor Navigation Skills

In Australia, there are two main islands off the southern coast commonly referred to as KI - King Island and Kangaroo Island.

King Island, in Bass Strait, off the northwest coast of Tasmania, lies in the Roaring Forties and can be fairly windy at times. Many sailing ships and lives have been lost around the rocky coast due to the winds and inclement weather. However, the island still provides a welcome haven for a colony of Little Penguins near the small settlement of Grassy.

The other KI is Kangaroo Island, a bigger and more hilly island, off the southeast coast of South Australia, not that far from Adelaide, the capital. The main town on Kangaroo Island is Kingscote and Little Penguins also have a colony near there too.

Now, while I was on King Island, Angela, from the local fish & chip shop, took me to see the penguin rookery after dark. Penguins were everywhere and they didn't seem to have any fear of two mere humans, so we were able to sticky beak into their lives.

It was a great photo opportunity (being careful not to upset the little birds) and I'm positive that these two Little Penguins didn't quite know what was going on and seemed to be saying...

Pilot Soars in Disney World, Florida

For me as a pilot, Disney World offers so many flying attractions that I just had to try as many as I could. The Florida day was overcast to begin with but turned out to be this brilliant blue sky, a good day for flying.

I do love elephants and I particularly love elephants who fly, so Dumbo the flying elephant was a very good choice to start with.

The problem with Disney World is that there are so many little kids around that it makes it very hard for the big kids to get on the rides, especially when they don't bring a child with them. However, this was just one of the flying rides to be enjoyed by young and old.

My advice is to arrive early and head for the attractions that matter most to you. One day is just not enough though.

Disney World Vacation And Savings Travel Guide. Click Here!

Cows Down Pat - No Bull! Video Clip

You can find out more about a country by going to a show (agricultural and horticultural, that is) or a state fair.

There you will see domestic animals and birds, flowers and plants, crafts, machinery, fashion shows, show jumping, wood chopping and so on.

My DVD, "A day at the Show", highlights most of these. In particular, I liked the cattle, so here is a random selection taken from the DVD (not the actual music though).

This is just for a bit of fun.



Travel tips Australia Click Here!

Your guide to travelling Australia Click Here!

"Sheep in Boots", not "Puss in Boots", another Sign of the Australian Outback

Because the Australian Outback is a harsh environment to work in, a sense of humour can be a good thing to have.

After leaving Leigh Creek and Copley, during "Off the Beaten Track", we headed on the dirt road to Arkaroola, in the Gammon Ranges.

Not far along the track, we came across this sign for Leigh Creek Station. They obviously must run sheep on this property!

I thought the sign looked a bit odd, so I zoomed in on it and found "Sheep in Boots", not "Puss in Boots"!

In future posts I'll show you a few more of the humorous signs of the Australian Outback.

Flyabout Adventure in Alaska

It pays to have a sense of humour when you travel (or any time really).

While in Anchorage, Alaska, I spent one whole day walking right around Lake Hood, the largest seaplane base in the world.

I photographed as I went (26,000 steps on the pedometer) and saw hundreds of land and sea planes on and off the water and in different states of repair sometimes.

The fresh air had obviously gone to my head when I saw this poor plane without its starboard wing.

It seemed to be saying, "I just went to the hospital for a check up and look what they did. They amputated instead and now I only have one wing left!"

If you want to see more of the planes photographed at Lake Hood and Trail Lake, check out my DVD, "Awesome Aviation", at http://www.franwest.com/dvds.php
You can contact me here.

Flyabout Adventure around Mt Everest with Fran West

After we returned from the mountain flight to Everest, on my big occasion birthday, I looked back at the plane and took this photo.

However, because I have a very weird sense of humour, the pilot seemed to be saying "Look at those windows, man. I told you to clean them before we left. All I had was complaints from passengers who couldn't see a .... thing!"



Having a sense of humour when you travel can be a real asset because it can help you see the funny side of things which aren't really funny.



Travel throws all sorts of different experiences at you and how you handle them can determine whether you have a good or bad holiday.