Tag Archives: Travel

The fake environmentalists of Hs2Rebellion let their mask slip…

04 Thursday Feb 2021

Posted by in 'Green' madness, Air Travel, Hs2, HS2Rebellion, Malaysia, Politics, Travel

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I’ve always said that Extinction Rebellion and HS2Rebellion are anything but real environmentalists. Both organisations have jumped on the ‘green’ bandwagon to further a wider (anti-capitalist) agenda and nothing more – hence some of their mad tactics that do nothing to promote tackling climate change. Exactly the opposite in fact. One only has to look at the way XR have frequently disrupted public transport in the UK, even going as far as disrupting electric public transport by gluing themselves to trains on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) or standing on the roofs of Underground trains!

HS2Rebellion are doing the same with High-Speed 2, opposing a green railway that is the only way we’ll have the rail capacity to get modal shift from road air to rail to cut our biggest source of Co2 emissions (transport) and meet our international obligations to tackle Climate Change.

Today, HS2Rebellion let the cat out of the bag by showing they either don’t understand the issues – or just don’t care. Their target was the news that Malaysia has cancelled the proposed High-Speed rail project between Kuala-Lumpur and Singapore and they used this (superficial) report on the BBC from a freelance journo based in Singapore. In the report it mentions that there are 30,000 local flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur per annum – as well as a 24 hour bus service. Here’s what XRebellion have to say on their Facebook page.

Yet again we have supposed ‘environmentalists’ playing along to the right-wing libertarian narrative about costs. This is bizarre. After all, aren’t they the ones who’re always telling us that there is no ‘Planet B’ and that the environment is priceless? Not if you’re intending to build High-Speed rail it seems (roads? No problem – carry on!).

What is it that these ‘environmentalists’ are deliberately ignoring? Simple, just how much carbon those different modes of transport generate. Take a look at this and compare domestic flights, buses and high-speed rail (mentioned as ‘Eurostar’ on this chart).

Here you have the blatant hypocrisy of XR and HS2Rebeliion exposed in black and white in one simple chart.

Over in the UK there’s a similar picture. The biggest market for domestic aviation is between Scotland and London’s airports. HS2 (like HS1 before it with flights to Brussels and Paris) will make severe inroads into that market by speeding up Anglo-Scottish services, as Chris Ogilvie often points out.

I have to declare an interest here. I know Malaysia (and Singapore) well. I’ve been travelling there since 1992 and maintain a keen interest in the areas political, economic and transport issues. In the past, I interviewed the then head of Malaysian Railways for the International Railway Journal and I maintain contacts inside both countries, which is why I know the BBC story isn’t the full story by any means. Even so, for ‘environmentalists’ to gloat over the failure to building a carbon-neutral alternative to 30,000 horribly polluting domestic flights a year (never mind all those 24 hour, 5 hour coach trips) is mad – but then, these people aren’t real environmentalists. What’s depressing is the number of genuine ‘green’ groups and people who’ve been taken in by them. We’ve now gone from saving the planet by any means to saving the planet – just as long as the price is right! This is why I’ve long maintained that the the UKs ‘green’ movement (or what passes for it) simply isn’t fit for purpose as they’ve become just another limb of the libertarian right. You have to ask, how (and why) did ‘greens’ suddenly start celebrating the failure of plans for high-speed rail networks whenever and wherever in the world they happen, and how on Earth can they still call themselves greens?

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3rd February picture of the day…

03 Wednesday Feb 2021

Posted by in India, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Well, that wasn’t the day I was expecting! Much of the morning (from the early hours) was taken up with looking after a poorly Moggie. ‘Jet’ is 19 going on 20. I’d say he’s getting long in the tooth if it wasn’t for the fact he’s only got two left! For the past few days we’ve been aware that there’s been something wrong with the old boy so he’s already had one trip to the vets for what we thought was an ear infection, only it turns out the problem is likely to lie with his mouth, which explains why he’s refused to take his tablets, despite hiding them in food – which normally works a treat. So back to the vet he went and he’s been there all day and remains overnight tonight as they rehydrate him and top up his meds. We thought we might lose him but – despite his age – he’s not ready to go yet and still has life left in him.

To add to the fun the weather’s been crap all day. The snow’s turned to slush as persistent rain’s arrived to make conditions underfoot unpleasant and treacherous, so my usual walks have been curtailed to the bare minimum, which has chafed a bit.

On the bright side, today’s day 31 of my ‘dry’ January as I didn’t start until January 3rd. I thought with the arrival of the Brexitshambles trying to cut out alcohol on January 1st might have been a bridge too far! Despite these testing times I’ve made it through the whole 31 days without once reaching for the bottle, which I consider a bit of an achievement! I’ve not wanted to mention it before as I’m not a great one for ‘virtue signalling’ so I’ve just got on with it without fanfare, although I have to acknowledge the support of Dawn – and also Adnams alcohol-free ‘Ghost Ship’ and Erdinger’s Wiessbier, without whom the journey would have been a lot less fun! Oh, I’ve also lost 8 pounds in weight! Not that I needed to as my BMI is fine, but I feel more comfortable at the lower end of my band than the higher. This wasn’t just due to sobriety, I’ve upped my exercise by 50% and also adjusted my diet to ingest less carbohydrates. Now the challenge is to keep up the adjustments to my lifestyle, although I am looking forward to savoring a ‘proper’ beer tomorrow!

Right, on to the picture of the day. The slide scanning marathon’s taken a bit of a backseat recently as I’ve had other work to do. However, I have started a new selection of travel shots taken in India in 2000. So, here’s a real contrast to all those snow scenes I’ve been publishing recently…

I took this shot of the little beach and freshwater lake in Arambol, North Goa on the 31st January 2000.

I first got to know this place in December 1985 during my first trip to India. As a penniless backpacker in those days I ended up living on this beach for six weeks. I made some local friends in the village who looked after my passport and valuables whilst day to day stuff I kept buried in a huge old biscuit tin under some rocks at the back of the beach. My bed was a pit in the sand which I’d dig each night before lining it with a mat and covering myself with a sarong. In those days the beach was largely a nudist beach, so in the morning you’d just rise out of your pit (literally) and walk straight into the sea for a play in the waves before washing the salt off in the freshwater lagoon at the back of the beach. Happy days! Sadly, those days are long gone and the beach has changed dramatically because of the growth of tourism, new roads making travel easier and also the expansion of business as both Goans and Indians from other states cash in on opportunities.

I’ve not been back since 2004. Part of me really wants to as I had many friends their in both the local and expat communities, but part of me wants to remember it as it was – like this – and doesn’t want those memories tarnished. One thing’s for certain, until this pandemic is resolved, I can’t see me being in a position to have to angst about making the decision…

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There’s snow place like home…

02 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by in Calder Valley, Photography, Railways, Travel

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After enjoying some glorious sunshine yesterday I was rather surprised when Dawn said to me yesterday evening ‘oh, there’s heavy snow forecast for tonight’. I poo-poohed the idea and thought we’d probably get a smattering that would disappear within a few hours. Ha – that’ll teach me! This was the sight that greeted me when I opened the bedroom blinds this morning!

I love fresh snow like like this – especially when there’s no wind so it clings to trees and telephone wires. We’ had a good 5-6 inches overnight so I changed my plans and decided to make the best of the weather whilst I could. Here’s a few images to illustrate conditions here in the Calder Valley.

The trees look beautiful, but beware! Walking down our road was very much like running the gauntlet as you never knew when a branch would release a snow-bomb and score a direct hit on you!
Looking across the Calder Valley. Norland is up there somewhere, lost in the low cloud that added to the freezing conditions. It was also excellent at muffling sound, so the world really felt rather eerie.
The wonderful snowy shapes to be found in Long Wood, a short walk from home.

What the snow wasn’t so good for was travelling. Many side roads and steep hills were impassable and the railways were suffering too. From early morning until early afternoon there were no train services through the Calder valley towards either Manchester or Burnley. I hiked through Halifax to Dryclough Junction in the hope of getting a few shots of trains in the snow and I was fortunate enough to get this unusual shot.

Class 195115 working ‘bang road’ (wrong line) as 1G71, the 10.10 from Sowerby Bridge to Leeds. The set should have been working through to Manchester but it was turned around at Sowerby Bridge due to the line being blocked by the snow. Most services from Leeds were being turned back at Halifax, although the hourly service to Huddersfield (which uses the lines to the right) was running most of the time. A later 195 did run as empty stock as far as Todmorden before returning, presumably to see if it was possible to get through to Manchester, Services didn’t restart until early afternoon, although many trains were still cancelled.

This evening the rain had set in and the pristine snow soon turned to slush so I was glad I got out when I did to grab some shots whilst the snow was at its best. Tomorrow the forecast is for the rain to continue so its looking like a good day for staying at home in the warm. I’ve had two very different days out with the camera, so I can’t really complain! You can find the full selection of today’s scenic snow shots in this gallery, and the railway related ones in this gallery.

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1st February picture of the day…

01 Monday Feb 2021

Posted by in Halifax, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel, West Yorkshire

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The first day of the month and the first day of the week arriving together along with some glorious sunshine gave me the impetus to break away from my usual routine today. Abandoning the computer I swapped it for the camera and enjoyed a long walk, just to blow the cobwebs away and do something different for a change.

For the first time this year I walked into Halifax itself, which was existing in that sort of strange half-life many towns and cities are enduring right now. The only things that were open were food outlets, banks and the odd shop selling the bare necessities of life. Still, it gave me time to look upwards to admire some of the fine buildings without worrying about walking into people as there were bugger-all people to walk into!

Despite the fact the low winter sun had already moved around and wasn’t in the best position for some pictures I began the trek from the town centre up the steep climb to the top of Beacon hill, which gives superb views across the town and out into the surrounding hills and valleys, so here’s the picture of the day, taken today from the top of the hill looking down into the town itself.

The square building at the bottom right of the picture behind the church spire is the superb Piece Hall. Above it in the centre of the picture you can see the Octagonal dome of Halifax Borough market which opened in 1896. Above the market to the right is a white fronted building with a dome. That’s the rather ostentatious Natwest bank, showing off in a town dominated by a building Society! I’m looking North-West here, so beyond the town you can see Mount Tabor and the moors around Ogden in the background.

I’ve added many other views of Halifax and surrounds taken today to this gallery. Enjoy!

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31st January picture of the day…

31 Sunday Jan 2021

Posted by in Picture of the day, Yorkshire

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What – is it the end of January already? What an odd month, where time has seemed elastic, sometimes stretching out in a series of ‘Groundhog day’ moments due the the Covid restrictions, yet on other days the month has flown by. The problem was, you never really knew which was going to be which!

That busyness has kept me from blogging as much as I’d planned, although the farcical anti HS2 demonstration has given some light relief as the remaining demonstrators who’re holed up in their tunnel try to pass the buck to HS2 for the situation they’re in due to their cluelessness when it comes to digging. The fact they chose to dig in sandy soil during the wettest time of the year won’t qualify them for any awards! The only question now is how long this farce drags on. Will they come out, or will they be dragged out. Either way, it won’t stop any work on building HS2 as they’re hundreds of metres away from any active worksites!

The rest of the weekend’s been quiet due to the mixed weather and lockdown. It’s not like there’s many places we can go, so life’s quite mundane. Apart from chores, walking, cooking and scanning old slides life’s been much of a muchness. But, I do have a new picture of the day from the latest batch of slide scans. I took this on the 12th September 1999 at Robin Hood’s Bay. Lynn and I were spending a long weekend at the wonderfully named Boggle Hole Youth Hostel, which made a great base for coastal walks.

Robin Hood’s Bay is a picturesque little place with some marvelous coastline and beaches that are great for just ambling along, beachcombing at low tide when some impressive rock formations are exposed. If the weather changes for the worst there’s also a couple of decent pubs in which to seek refuge.

In February I’ll be starting scanning another album of pictures from India, so expect a real variety of shots from Goa and the Gujarat.

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27th November picture of the day…

27 Wednesday Jan 2021

Posted by in Air Travel, Aircraft, Musings, Picture of the day

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There’s not much of a blog from me tonight. I’m tired and hurting from my fall yesterday, although I didn’t let it stop me getting my exercise today, it just meant some of it was through gritted teeth.

I do have one small cause for celebration. I try for a little victory each day – something that I’ve accomplished so that I can feel that I’m moving forward. Today’s was scanning the last few slides from our round the world trip. We left the UK and arrived in India on the 6th November 1997. Over the next 18 months we visited many states in India, then overland into Nepal to go trekking before flying to Thailand where we travelled overland to Malaysia, then by ferry to tour Sumatra, back to Malaysia and overland to Singapore before flying to Bali, then travelling by bus and ferry as far as the Island of Flores in the East. From there we flew back to Bali, toured the island with friends before doing a ‘visa run’ to Singapore and back. After which we went by bus and ferry to tour Java thence returning to Bali for the final time before flying to Australia for Xmas with friends we’d made on our travels. We toured Victoria with Alison and her family, then caught a train to Sydney to meet up with yet more friends before flying to Auckland, New Zealand. From there we travelled by train through the North Island, then a mixture of train and bus around the South Island (with Alison once again, sans kids) before flying back to Auckland to connect with our Air New Zealand flight to Los Angeles via a week in Fiji and another in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Barely pausing for breath in LA, we caught our final flight on the 20th March with Virgin Atlantic, who flew us back across the pond and home to London, where we arrived on the 21st March 1999. This rather breathless precis is just to give a flavour of what was an incredible experience. You’ll be able to find all the photographs in this gallery by the end of the week. One day (when time permits) I hope to blog in detail about aspects of the trip and show just how much the world has changed since those heady days of the 1990s. For now, here’s the picture of the day, which is the final picture I took on the trip…

We caught a Virgin Atlantic flight from LA (VS8) at 17.30, it’s an overnight flight as the journey takes 10 + hours to cover the 5416 miles. Waking up on the morning of the 21st just in time to feel the plane banking over the Atlantic at sunrise I grabbed this picture out of the aircraft window…

Memories…

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24th January picture of the day…

24 Sunday Jan 2021

Posted by in Musings, New Zealand, Photography, Picture of the day

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Another early in the day picture from me. Well, if you count nearly 9 o’clock in the evening ‘early’! This weekend the pair of us have been playing catch-up on chores and also trying to get some more exercise as we’ve actually had two dry days in a row which is a minor miracle for this neck of the woods at the moment. I’m not sure what the rain statistics are for January but they must be substantial, and there’s more on the way next week, so the pair of us getting out for a long (dry) walk through our local woods and along the canal together today was lovely – although with it being a Sunday and sod-all for people to do, the towpath resembled Piccadilly Circus! Most people were good and respected social-distancing but there’s always a few muppets who try and walk three-abreast and think others should just squeeze past them. What IS it with some people?

Normally, Dawn and I spend January abroad but this is the second in a row where we’ve been stuck in the ‘septic isle’ and it really makes the year drag as we’re not used to the short days and freezing weather. OK, it’s been a novelty and I’m keen to keep it that way. I’m praying life returns to normal this year so that we’ll be able to book time away in 2022 with confidence.

As a tribute to the winter weather I’d much rather be experiencing, here’s the picture of the day which is one of a batch of slides I scanned earlier this afternoon. It was taken on the 25th February 1999 and shows Lake Wakatipu (near Queenstown) on the South Island of New Zealand.

Now that’s my sort of winter weather! You can find the rest of the pictures from the trip in this gallery. Next week I’ll have the last New Zealand pictures scanned and I’ll be moving on the Fiji, so expect some spectacular sunsets…

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22nd January picture of the day…

22 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by in Environment, New Zealand, Picture of the day, Travel

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Thank God it’s Friday! The week’s been a frustrating one. Nothing seems to have gone right and many of the things I’d hoped to have achieved never came to fruition or are still works in progress. I’m hoping for a much better weekend and a more fruitful week next week. On the bright side, I’m still making progress with scanning old slides although that process has slowed down as a consequence of everything else. This brings me neatly on to the picture of the day, which I took on the 20th February 1999…

This is the magnificent Franz Josef glacier on the West Coast of the South island. The picture was taken from the helicopter that was taking Lynn and myself and a group of other people for a trip onto the middle slopes of the glacier as part of a heli-hiking experience – which was an amazing experience. Seeing a glacier’s magical enough, but having the chance to explore the surface of one is doubly so.

I returned with Dawn in 2019 and I was shocked by what I found (here’s a link to my blog written at the time) Due to global warming the Glacier had shrunk significantly, retreating further up the valley and down off some of the steep mountain sides. It’s a very visible testament to the damage human activity is doing to the planet. I sincerely hope we get our acts together in time to prevent the glacier disappearing completely.

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Thank you!

20th January picture of the day…

20 Wednesday Jan 2021

Posted by in Musings, New Zealand, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways, Travel

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Sorry there was no picture or blog yesterday. I’ve been struggling to keep on top of a long list of things I’ve set myself to do. Despite lockdown, there never seems to be enough hours in the day. I can’t think how I used to manage before when so much of my time was taken up with travel. Ah, travel – I remember it well (I think)…

To add to the fun and games the weather over the past couple of days has been utter crap. We’ve had so much rain in the past couple of months that the ground is completely saturated, leading to worries about flooding. Fortunately, despite the storm warning, the rain hasn’t come down hard, it’s just never stopped! Even so, I’ve still ventured out for my daily splash in the mud, slipping and sliding down paths akin to small waterfalls or plodding along paths that resemble WW1 battlefields – anything that gets me some exercise and away from staring at a computer screen for a while.

I’d planned to catch up on some blogging today, instead I became bogged down in editing a backlog of slide scans whilst watching the Brexitshambles lurch from one revelation to another as UK businesses come to grips with the reality of the shit-show we’ve got ourselves in. I’m reserving the rest of my feelings about this for a spleen-venting blog tomorrow, as well as another blog catching up with news about High-Speed 2 (and there’s plenty).

The one bright spot in the day was watching that orange tw*t leave the White House for the last time and seeing the new President sworn in. Biden’s speech was everything you never got from Trump. It was statesmanlike, conciliatory, coherent and meaningful, truly a breath of fresh air after listening to the rambles of the previous incumbent.

Anyway, enough of politics for now until tomorrow. The pictures I’ve been editing have taken me back half-way around the world to Australia and New Zealand (and back 22 years in time). Today’s picture is a classic tourist view, taken on the 5th February 1999 in Wellington, the city on the Southern tip of New Zealand’s North Island. Wellington posses a funicular railway which takes you from the town centre up the hill to Kelburn where you get a stunning view across the city.

Opened in 1902 and rebuilt several times since, the cable worked funicular railway is a popular tourist attraction.

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18th January picture of the day…

18 Monday Jan 2021

Posted by in Australia, Monorails, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Another week begins and it’s indistinguishable from every other lockdown week as the routine doesn’t really vary – unless you count doing the same things in a different order, just to try and add some variety and a frisson of excitement as this is about as good as it gets right now!

Therefore I won’t bore you with the mundanities of life, I’ll cut straight to the chase and take you to the picture of the day. This one comes from the latest batch of old slide scans which will be added to my website tomorrow. I took it near Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia in the last week of January 1998.

With the Sydney Tower in the background, the monorail passes over the heads of tourists walking to the harbour. Monorails have never really taken off as a means of mass transit, mainly due to their low-speed, limited capacity and inflexibility.

Sydney’s monorail was an eight station, 2.2 mile loop that opened in July 1988. It connected Darling Harbour, Chinatown and the central business and shopping districts in an anti-clockwise loop. Six trains of seven cars worked services on the loop, working from a depot in Pyrmont. The never met its passenger projects and the last franchise that operated it was bought out by the New South Wales Government in 2012. On June 30th 2013 the monorail was closed to make way for the new Sydney Convention and Exhibition centre. The monorail tracks were dismantled shortly afterwards.

2 cars from one of the trains and a short section of track are preserved at the Powerhouse museum in Sydney.

Whilst monorails haven’t had much success, one operates in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia (opened in 2003) and another in Melaka. Another (larger) system in Bangkok, Thailand is due to open later this year. There are other systems dotted around the world, mostly in China and Japan, but most as short systems serving amusement parks or airports, like this suspended system in Dusseldorf, Germany. Of course, Germany also has the father of them all, in Wuppertal!

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Thank you!