Friday, June 28, 2013
Saturday, June 08, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
Cangshan mountain summit ridge, above Dali, Yunnan
Some old pulley equipment for bringing up supplies from the trackhead
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Still on my 'to do' list
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Tibetan pilgrim on Kawa Karpo kora, Oct 2012
The pilgrims travel in family groups and use bamboo rods as walking sticks.
Tibetan pilgrim female on Kawa Karpo Kora, Oct 2012
Got my Epson V500 scanner working on my Ektachrome 120 photos so will post a few highlights from our Kawa Karpo/Doker La trek from last October soon. Here's one to start you off ...
Friday, April 12, 2013
Intermission - Digging through the archives
Monday, April 08, 2013
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Kawa Karpo pilgrim with an iPhone
Taken on Day 3 - on the way up to the Abing Pass. A pilgrim, like many, who spent a lot of the trek mucking about with his phone.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
George Patterson 1920-2012.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Close up of the Doker La pass.
Western (Tibetan) side of the border pass between Yunnan and Tibet. Taken with a Bessa R2 90mm Tele-Elmar and Ektachrome. Oct 2012.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Thursday, January 03, 2013
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
Cangshan, Dali, in 2012 - and 22 years earlier
Here is a picture of the Cang Shan summit ridge - and specifically a place called 'Horse Drinking Pool'. This was taken in October 2012 with my Rolleiflex 3.5F and Ektachrome. Below is a picture taken by me from the same spot 22 years earlier. It was taken during my first ever trip to China in October 1990. I had just met my wife-to-be Linda in Guilin and was on the backpacker circuit doing Kunming-Dali etc before returning to Hong Kong. Me and a few other backpackers did a day hike up to the Cangshan peaks courtesy of Jim (of Jim's Peace Cafe), who hired a tractor to take us half way to the top on a rough service road. This first picture was taken with an old Praktika and used colour print film that was developed in HK. As you can see, in 1990 the summit area was fairly wild and untouched. now there is a cable car installed to bring tourists up to an alpine hut and walkway. I should say that this is quite tastefully done and fits in with the environment - quite unlike the concrete ugliness inflicted on the Yading nature reserve.
Cangshan mountain summit ridge, above Dali, Yunnan
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Tibetan pilgrim woman on Kawa Karpo circuit, Oct 2012
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Dali Cangshan summit ridge
Interlude:this is a pic I shot on the summit ridge of the Cangshan range above Dali. It use to be a right old slog to get up here - we hiked up in 1991 and it was awesome. In Oct 2012 I went back and this time was able to take the new cable car all the way to the top (or at least to that Alpine Resort you can see in the background). Still a brilliant place - around 4000m.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Looking down into Tibet from the Doker La
Just over the steepest bit! Taken with a Bessa R2, Summicron 35mm lens and Ektachrome E100G.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
The trek that my kids did ...
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| Didn't they do well? |
Monday, December 24, 2012
The Doker La
Monday, December 17, 2012
Kawa Karpo kora - want to see some amazing photos?
While I'm waiting to visit CC Imaging in Leeds, have a look at these great pictures by Peter Jost - who did the full kora at the same time as me, but with a group of fellow Aussies.
There's another album of amazing photos from the same kora taken by our other trek mate Darren Farley (from Calgary). Some great portraits there of the many pilgrims we met along the way:
Sunday, December 09, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
New website! www.josephrock.net
Sunday, November 04, 2012
Yes! I 'did' the Doker La!
Crossing the Doker la was fantastic - not quite as hardcore as I expected to get up there - but super scary steep going down the western side! I nearly bottled it when I first saw how steep it was but my guide shamed me into continuing and literally held my hand over some of the worst and most exposed sections of the track. And ironically, after spending years wondering what it would like to be up there, I spent only a few moments on the actual pass as it is a knife edge and smothered with prayer flags - not a place you can linger and soak in the atmosphere.
Overall, I found the trek to be quite tough in some ways - lots of up and down, and yet I trekked with a Canadian guy Derren who managed to do it in sneakers with just a sleeping bag, a sheet of polythene and an umbrella! I needn't have brought the tent (or even the stove) as there are pilgrim way stations at regular intervals along the kora which all have primitive shelters, shops and hot water.
More updates soon when I get the photos developed.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
My book "In the Footsteps of Joseph Rock" is now online
Please see the index on the right - you can click to see the whole book (10 chapters, one for each of Joseph Rock's expeditions), or you can click on individual chapters. Hosted by Scribd. Let me know what you think.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Random image from Labrang (Xiahe) monastery 拉卜楞寺
In a Lanzhou beef noodle restaurant on the main street of Xiahe.
Random image from Labrang (Xiahe) monastery 拉卜楞寺
Taken during a climb up the hill opposite (south) of the lamasery.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Labrang (Xiahe) monastery 拉卜楞寺
Pics taken with Ektachrome and Rolleiflex 3.5F during a visit in May 2012
