The last six weeks have been pretty hectic, today we leave Palma bound for the Canary Islands. I am really looking forward to it to be honest, I love Palma, but the itch to get back on the water really needs a scratch and I think our 5 day trip there will be a nice warm up before we do the crossing to the Caribbean.
The rain in Spain certainly fell on the plain last week, especially on Sunday when Cam, Hannah and myself took a little drive up to Soller. We took the scenic route which took us along one of the most windiest, windiest and wettest roads I have been on for a long time. We ticked off Andratx, Estellencs, Valdemossa and Deia, before hitting our Soller. Whilst there we walked in the rain, showed our appreciation to a boat called "Storm Bringer" and then bought some maritime equipment (a telescope, mariners box, and a pocket sundial!). Really looking forward to using this through the Gibraltar Strait!
I'm throwing up some photos from this said drive, as well as some random shots from my little point and shoot camera (the one for going out, which always seems to have droplets on it from beer dunkings - idiot!).
If you are interested, go to the Marine Traffic website to follow our progress around the globe by clicking HERE, and searching for Zefira. The next you will probably here from me will be in the Canary's.
Later!
Ears: Wave Machines - I go I go I go.
So many different sounds in this song!
West Coast Mallorca
Hannah digging the car in the rain.
Waterfall stop
F.U. Storm Bringer!
Yep, this happened!
Looking for Scuuuurrrrrrvy
One of my highlights of Palma, having a fellow Shorny Boy with me - Myself and Claude.
Photo taken of a freshly painted wall in torrential rain, made me laugh.
Charlotte.
More lads.
Jim, Laura and some drunk at Octoberfest.
More of the same.
The fun run i had to join to get to the pub to watch the Wallabies lose to the All Blacks in the World Cup, I had to run with them for a bit to cross the road - not ideal at 7am.
Hour 6 of our 14hour World Cup bender - Claude macking on a pie from the English fish and chip shop.
Candice
Karina and Claude
Candice and Me - I think I'm explaining how frogs puff their glands or something????
So it is Movember time again, where "men" throw down their razors and become hip with a glorious moustache. Others (like me) know that their facial hair DNA is simply not that good and don't bother, or try anyway and end up looking like some perverted video store owner who still gets off on playing World of Warcraft or doing weekend trips to Star Trek conventions or medieval festivals.
One person who can grow a mean tuft of facial hair is my good friend Bryan, actually he is so dedicated to the cause that he runs with it 24-7. Not only that but he has based his whole business on the hair on his upper lip!
In fact do yourself a favour and dedicate some time to delve into his mind, his work and everything else awesome that he does by clicking HERE, also check a few videos and some of his other work HERE.
I went through Europe with Bryan at the start of the year and learnt a lot from him about photography. We also dug pretty much the same of everything, from music, to leather jackets, to something as simple as a nice high-back suede chair. At the end of the day however, I appreciated the way he sees life, I learnt a lot more from him than anyone would know, and what he has been through and what he has achieved is an inspiration to me.
This post probably shows a bit too much man love, but it's a good excuse to throw some photo's up, let everyone know about an epic blog, as well as show a little piece of a good friends work.
The following video is shot by the man himself at Coachella this year. I had a few phone texts from him last month saying how jealous he was of my travels, I think I may finally be getting my revenge after his Access All Areas Coachella experience.
Continuing with the road trip, we cruised to Mont St. Michel which as expected is one of those places that looks better the further you are away from it. Knowing we were soon to be going to Chateau country for the next few days, we decided that the 200km drive (in the other direction mind you) to see the Morbihan Monoliths would be worth it. Lonely Planet described these Monoliths in a way that they would be similar to the 12 Apostles (well the section I read anyway), however another section in the book said it was 1000's of years older than Stonehenge, which would have sent alarm bells off, but I didn't read until after the fact. The following is the exchange of words we had when we arrived at the Monoliths 3 hours later;
Lucy: Oh there's the Monoliths!
Jono: Are you serious?
Lucy: Yep.
Jono: This place is shit.
(turn the car around, and drive the 500km to Blois, our destination that night)
If you can picture a really old cemetery with headstones made of rocks, then that is basically what this place was, sorry I don't have a photo of it, we didn't stop for one!
The next few days were spent hitting up some Chateau's in the area - Chenonceau, Chambord, Cheverny (the one from Tintin), Blois, and d'Usse (the one from Sleeping Beauty). Like most tourist things, Chateau after Chateau became a little mundane and we soon found ourselves imitating other tourists failing at life (you know the ones; asking stupid questions, taking terrible photos, pulling the fish pout and dancer smiles in photos). As a result I now have 200 photos of some absolutely shocking poses, some which hopefully will never be seen by the general public (nah they will end up on facebook no doubt, sorry Lucy).
The rest of the time was spent driving backroads and trying to get as lost as possible (we did 2197km in total), looking for horse riding places and chilling out.
Unfortunately though, the trip was all too brief, and like passing ships in the night we soon found ourselves going our separate ways. But not before some airport excitement that involved a bomb scare, and resulted in missed planes and lost luggage.
Signing off on this trip, I want to thank Lucy for coming along for the ride, she is one of the funniest and funnest people I have ever hung out with. I wish her all the best with her move to the States and hopefully we will bump into each other over in the Caribbean.
Until next time, stay classy.
J
Ears: The Jezabels
First repeat band, but its such a good song, and got played a lot in the car!
Mont St. Michel sunset.
Loves his job.
Line up.
Shadowplay
MSM
Some gremlin child.
MSM
One of these things.
Lucy behind the wheel after the Monoliths.
My favourite photo of the trip.
Chateau Country
Chenonceau
Close up
Imitating Rapunzel.
Weird animal thing I found in the forest.
This is actually in a hedge maze.
Our car hiding from us - and failing at it.
Either a horse or Centaur - not sure, saw too many of either.
Fog time
d'Usse - Sleeping Beauty's Chateau.
Hand
Cheverny - AKA Marlinspike.
Gardens of Cheverny
World's worst bag, so much heartbreak here.
Catching up with Tins and Hadsy.
If you could bottle the smell of the hounds at Cheverny, you too would pull this face.
