Day Fifty Seven - Michael Hind's Cross

Sunday 22nd March 2009

Thomas, the village carpenter, stands in the background after making a cross for Michael Hinds' burial that morning. Michael was fourteen. He died after falling from his bicycle in the dark and banging his head. His father looks on whilst Thomas' wife May etches in the name and dates with an old nail.

After May finished etching, I painted in the lettering, thinking about riding bikes, falling off, and surviving childhood.

At about the same time - though I didn't know it - my mother was taken to hospital, back in England, with a sudden, unexpected illness. We found out on tuesday morning that she died.

Day Fifty Six - Cement Mixer

Day Fifty Five - Drawing Water

Day Fifty Four - Early Morning Sunlight

Day Fifty Three - Village Meeting Panorama

The Village Tushao (Amerindian Leader, top picture left) chairs a meeting to discuss a gardening project for the village. The Community Development Officer, Douglas (bottom picture right) makes some suggestions. Sarah sits in the middle with Sister Leonarda.

Day Fifty Two - Sunset

Another hot day - Another fine sunset!

Day Fifty One - Cycling on the Airstrip

There aren't many flat, smooth roads here. In fact, there are no flat or smooth roads, and the roads with flat smooth bits are fine sand. So the airstrip is a great place to get out on a bike and feel the breeze!

Day Fifty - Timehri Rock Carvings

Once a year, children from the Aishalton School take a trip to some local prehistoric rock carvings. By prehistoric, I mean that the carving predate known history, so they are older than living memory!

The children go over the carvings with stone, cleaning them up and making sure that the designs and pictures are not lost.

Day Forty Nine - Aishalton church at Full Moon

Sorry there've been no comments on the last few pictures - some internet and power supply problems on arrival at Aishalton have been restricting our online access. The internet access should now be improved - power will always remain an issue, but hopefully one we can work round. Those who live life 'off-grid', relying on battery power and fairly low charging capabilities will understand!

This moon shot was originally supposed to be a clear view of the moon - but on an exposure of 20 minutes, some clouds drifted over the moon! At least it spread a little light over the rest of the sky. The church was lit with around 50 flashes from a remote flash - on a test fire setting.

Day Forty Eight - Crossing the Rupununi

Day Forty Seven - Cashew Tree

Day Forty Six - Crested Caracara

Day Forty Five - Sun Halo

A sun halo, burning through ice crystals in high level cloud. It must be a lot cooler up there than it is down here - we're celebrating a cool day today where the temperature got down to 25 degrees C overnight, and hasn't managed to get up above 30 degrees all day.

On relection, I think the photo might have been improved with something at the centre of the sun - maybe a close up of a large flower? Next time....!

Day Forty Four - Land Rover

A much more reliable vehicle!

Meanwhile - I've been making a few changes to the blog. The pictures should now be displaying a bit larger - though not at the full 1024 pixels I've been uploading them at. So, the view on the main blog page should be better, but there is (currently) no option to click and enlarge them to 1024 (which should fill most screens)...

Let me know what you think! Better or worse? Any other improvements I could make?

Day Forty Three - Bush Fire

The landscape here, in Lethem, is mainly dry grassland, with some small clusters of trees. Now we are in the dry season there are fairly frequent small fires. These are often lit by locals to keep down the snake population and to encourage new, fresh grass to grow through for the small amounts of livestock that are kept.

Day Forty Two - Schoolchild

Day Forty One - Breakdown

Welcome to the South Rupununi!

The tracks are either sand - a smooth ride, and good in the dry - or sand with a bit of gravel on top - very bumpy, as the gravel sets into rumble strips which rattle everything to pieces, but better in the wet season. Then there is the direct route, over the savannah, which could be smooth and dry, rutted and dry, or boggy and interesting going!

It's hot, hot, and hard work for a vehicle!

Day Forty - Kurupukari Crossing

Journeying from Georgetown to Lethem we arrived at the Essequibo River crossing just before 6am - in time for the first ferry of the day. Whilst the bus was 'plank-handled' on and off the ferry, we had a bit of time to recover from the road, and watch the sun-rise.

Day Thirty Nine - Failure!

Hmmmm.... I fixed the camera in a tree and used a repeating timer to try and get a picture of the hummingbird which rests on a branch in the garden in Georgetown. All went well apart from my manual focus which is just a bit too short. Hence, a branch which is in lovely focus, and a blurred hummingbird! Didn't take any other pictures all day... One to forget!

Day Thirty Eight - Starbroek Market

A quick snap of some local colour outside the Starbroek Market Hall - built in 1881. I never realised corrugated-iron had such a history!

Day Thirty Seven - Victoria and The High Court

As the sun was getting low I hopped over the fence into the grounds of the High Court. Seems like a safe place to photograph to me!

The statue of Victoria suffered a little when, after independence, someone tried to blow it up with dynamite. It was then stored in the court's backyard before being shipped to the UK for repairs.

Day Thirty Six - Street Cricket

Imagine a capital city where children still play cricket in the street, using a plank of wood for a bat, with no shoes... Wonderful...

Day Thirty Five - Windmill Works, Dudley, England

Really struggled with this one - and have tried a couple of times to get something out of it! From a wooden bridge over one of the city canals there is a fine view of the old cast iron bridges built during colonial times. To frame the shot and get any depth of field needs a long exposure - which means careful balancing of camera and me! I'm tempted to keep trying with this one - I'm sure there's a great picture in there somewhere...