Goodbye Colombia, hello Argentina
After two months, our time in Colombia came to an end. In order to make it to the Southern Hemisphere and Patagonia we had to book flights to Argentina instead of going to Ecuador and continuing going down by looong bus rides.
First stop in Argentina/Brazil: Iguazu Falls. And thus my camera has hundreds of photos of roaring water.
One thing all the blogs tell you is that Argentinian side is better. We visited Brazil side first and thought that it can’t get better than that. It can. Argentina’s side rules.
You had to queue for the photo spots. What a pressure, didn't see any true bloggers trying to take hundred photos while others wait.
If that looks impressive (and I am not talking about a shirtless Richie), the Argentinian side takes it up a notch.
Train to take the tourists to the falls
Random Mexican place in Argentina
I feel like that is enough waterfall photos for a while.
In our first hostel we also got to witness our second bed bug occasion. After last one (where I spotted the bugs before they got anywhere luckily) I have become an inspection-expert. Going through our bed frames I found eggs and old shells and once I lifted the top mattress, I could see the full-grown bastards crawling from the seams. Obviously the whole mattress was infested!
I have learned to listen in awe at the hostels' explanations once you confront them.
"They are the bugs that come out when it rains!" And live in the mattress?
"Oh I thought we had cleaned." Yeah sure you get rid of them by regular cleaning. Not.
"They can't travel from bed to bed." How did they get here?
"Those are mosquito bites." One hostel told a girl whose arms and back were full of nasty marks after one night at the hostel bed.
We got a private room (full of old shells as well but nothing alive) but of course they sold our beds to other people the next day. Luckily the people in the dorm told the girls and they complained as well. And only then they took the mattresses out!
I did inspections for couple other people in the dorm, should really start charging for this...
With warm regards,
Bed bug free Heini & Richie
Australia roadtrip in a nutshell
We spent 6 weeks driving from Darwin to Perth and internet connection was spotty at best. Thus this blog didn't see any action in a loong time.
Rainy days in Finland meant I could finally go through all of our video material, including too many minutes of us walking around and swimming in different waterfalls. To save you all from the rest of the footage I have put together 8 minutes that pretty much shows how it was.
And it was bloody awesome.
Photos of waterfalls because there's not enough of those in the world
Looking for Tasmanian waterfalls, failing and succeeding on photographing the magnificent streams of water.
What would be better timing than crisp autumn to embark on a waterfall hunt around Tasmania?
Summer, of course.
We didn’t have the option to choose between summer and autumn so this round of waterfall chasing was only meant to be a feast for the eyes and mind, not splashing around and enjoying the purifying feeling of a nature’s greatest shower options.
Also, since I got the new and shiny camera I have to learn how to use, waterfalls were an exciting opportunity to practice everything I have read about photography. And since that consists of approximately 5 blog posts and 2 YouTube videos, there wasn’t that much to practice really.
Luckily for us, many of the Tassie waterfalls are easily reached, only 20-30min walks away from a car park. That also means very early wake-ups though as it is very easy for thousands of tourists to reach the same pristine waterfall.
First waterfall on our route was Russell Falls. As we spent the night just a 15-minutes drive away, we were the first ones at the waterfall around 8am.
One can continue the walk from Russell Falls to Horseshoe Falls and see surrounding views from higher up.
View from the top of the Russell Falls, Tasmania
At Horseshoe Falls I discovered that I had my camera on automatic settings and all those shutter-speed tests changing the angle with my awesome Joby tripod did not actually do anything. I had 20 photos with the exact same settings. I wouldn’t quit my day job for photography yet, only that I’ve already done it so this better work around if my writing sucks and no-one buys my book.
Horseshoe Falls before discovering everything was on automatic settings..
Now that I was actually able to change the shutter speed and get the water to turn into a soft flow I was ecstatic – I can take photos! With custom settings! See the results yourself:
Of course, I had to re-photograhp Russell Falls on our way back with this new magic. At this point, Richie’s patience started to crumble and I started to fear for my camera’s life so it was better to pack up and leave.
Russell Falls with the soft water everyone likes
Next waterfall we run into almost by accident. I had put it on our list of things to do and very conveniently it happened to be located on the curly roads to Queenstown and we needed a break. Again, shortest of short walks through a paved road and you got the Nelson waterfall to yourself.
At this point I was already almost a professional on waterfall photos and took a whole two photos when the battery ran out. Didn’t remember to bring my spares that were happily sitting in the camera bag back in the car park.
Only presentable photo of Nelson Falls
As this trip seems to be about learning lessons, I have listed the ones for photography I discovered with waterfalls:
- Go as early as possible
- Bring your spare batteries
- Check for the big red A sign that says your settings are on automatic, very hard to miss
- Give Richie a sandwich and go alone
Looking forward for my next waterfall photo opportunities in New Zealand!