As we slowly glided our way out of the “Toorak/Peppermint Grove” end of the houseboats-fringed section of Dal Lake, the musicians were tuning up, plugging in, preparing.
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At 3.13 pm on 13 March 2024 we were on our way back to Goolwa.
At that moment – forty minutes shy of the Goolwa Barrage – I loved the pictured combination of avian “group kerfuffle”, the slightly comic grace of “the lone pelican”, and the “unruffled tranquility” of the birds in the background.
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On the move: one black swan, three cormorants.
Unmoved: one egret.
Wise advice, in some circumstances: see/hear this post’s wonderful musical bonus!
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Many cameras were clicking at the very same moment, but I am quietly confident that all of the others were pointed in a different direction,
I took the photo less than 30 seconds after the one in #3 of this series.
Comments closedOn 19 July the world lost one of its most eloquent instrumentalists..
Malian kora virtuoso Toumani Diabate was 58; he died after a short illness.
He was not the only great kora player, but he was, unquestionably, the kora’s most prominent and most influential exponent; Toumani Diabate turned it into a “concert” instrument.
At age 22 he recorded Kaira – the world’s first absolutely solo kora album.
(oft-misdescribed as an African “harp”, the kora is in fact a harp-lute)
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This post’s image does not at all resemble #30’s shot of a “Silk Road” remnant.
Its vantage point, however, was only a few footsteps distant from #30’s; #31’s photo was taken less than a minute later, from the same side of the Karakoram Highway, whilst en route from Gilgit to the Hunza Valley.
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In the “western” world, polo is associated with toffs and tycoons.
That is certainly not the case in northern Pakistan.
There, we witnessed a much “earthier”, less “regulated” kind of polo.
Its players – both human and equine – were highly skilled.
Their stamina was remarkable.
Arguably, the match’s conduct and spirit were closer to polo’s origins than would be any match played on 21st century “western” turf.
Khaplu’s polo ground has no turf…
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Amritsar’s Golden Temple complex is refreshingly non-commercial; even its suitably-huge toilets are free. (and meticulously maintained)
All nearby streets are another matter, entirely; shops abound.
Rents for commercial premises are reportedly among India’s highest,
However, a lot of commercial activity does not benefit landlords – it is “informal”, “al fresco”, conducted on the actual streets.
read moreTriple K “expedition” (#11 in teaser series: massive inflation in Amritsar + musical bonus)
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Every word in today’s subtitle applies to the Hoarusib River, shortly before it sometimes flows into the Atlantic.
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Each photo in this post has a distinctly different “feel”, I think.
All three were taken within the same “window”, of fewer than four minutes.
The (400 mm) telephoto image, below, looks closely at what occupies just a small portion of the left side of the wide-angle (30 mm) featured image, above.
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