Four days in Loreto, Baja California

What a magical four days in Loreto. It’s the start of the low season, where the whales have departed but the waters are still cold. But Jeff rates it as one of his favorite dive sites ever and I have to agree. Diving with the sea lions was such a delight (we opted to do the same dive site twice), and the visibility once we got down to the thermocline was stunning. Gorgeous formations and huge fishes and so many different species of fat nudibranches! Can’t beat the three different pods of dolphin sightings on our surface interval either. And this am, before we fly back, we snuck in a cheeky three hour sunrise paddle in absolutely glassy conditions. We’re already planning a return trip, maybe in the winter this time, to do a multi-day kayak and camping expedition deep in the middle of whale season!

We visited the island of Coronado off Loreto a couple different days, especially to dive where the colony of sea lions lived. We’d be huddled by the walls, staring at some nudibranch or other, when suddenly a dark shadow would swoop close by to check us out. Super cool!

I remember years ago watching an Imax show about dolphin, whale and mobula ray watching in the Sea of Cortez and had bookmarked the place as a must-go. So, since I went to San Diego for work the week before, we decided to extend the trip and make the short hop (1.5 hour flight from LAX) down to Baja. I wasn’t expecting an IMAX-level of wilderness display, but the enormous pod of frolicking dolphins was such a special treat to see. We enjoyed watching the pelicans dive bomb into the waters in the early morning for fish too.

Underwater, the area has one of the most diverse populations of nudibranches we’ve ever seen, and some huge ones larger than my hand! Also spotted the horn shark, which was fun, and lots of swimming bullseye electric rays.

Above water, the town of Loreto is a small one, and not particularly cheap. Maybe it was the restaurants we chose to eat at (based on reviews from Google, and whether they took card), but we found the prices more akin to prices in the US than what we’d expect of Mexico. We saw lots of American tourists (and a lot of US license plates). But our meals were most tasty.

My primary activity for the trip was to dive, although after I’d booked in the diving, I realised that Loreto is also a paddler’s haven. There were quite a number of outfitters offering multi-day kayaking and camping expeditions. Although, when I tried looking online, most of these places had already closed for the off season. I was able to find a private sunrise paddle offered by Sea Kayak Baja Mexico though, which turned out perfect for a morning outing before our midday flight. We had the option of either sea kayaks or stand up paddle boards, and we chose the latter thinking that it’ll keep us more dry and allow us a better vantage point for any sea creatures in the water. And we did spot a lone sea lion! Jeff also spotted a turtle and what looked like a manta ray passing under his board.

2019 in the Rearview

Writing a look back on the past year hadn’t crossed my mind this time, not to mention my complete overlooking of the fact that another decade had just flashed by. I only realized this after the deluge of posts by friends online, listing their accomplishments, highlights and lowlights.

Photographically speaking (since this is technically a photo blog), 2019 was a year I spent capturing my experiences, vs. actively seeking out sceneries to photograph. There’s an important distinction here. I focused on the latter in 2016 and 2017, where I joined photography Meetup groups to visit beaches along the Sydney coast every weekend at sunrise, and later on with Sydney by Kayak every morning in Lavender Bay. My goal then was to learn to see, capture, and appreciate the same environments in the different seasons, clouds and light.

Here in Singapore, the beach-scape hasn’t inspired me to the same extent, though I admit it would be a good challenge to take up, to try capture the different essence that is Singapore. In any case, my motivation to consciously and actively seek out scenes to photograph has waned, and accordingly my DSLR and various lenses has for the most part, stayed in my cabinets.

So, 2019 was the year of documentation, of recording our numerous journeys and adventures around the world, and of little moments with friends.

We rung in 2019 while still on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, where we learnt that at those altitudes where the air is so thin, it’s safer to stow away our cameras and focus literally on just placing a foot in front at a time.

When Jeff went to Shanghai for work in January, we also made a weekend trip out of it, and spent long hours walking around the town, delighting in the clean streets and charming old school architecture.

In March we joined a friend for a weekend in Yangon. It was like stepping back in time, into a Singapore in the 1950s.

We also did our first week long kayaking and camping trip in Coron and Palawan in the Philippines. There, we got a first real taste of ocean kayaking, where wild waves and currents freaked us out just a tad. But the food, freshly delivered each evening on long tail boats, was heavenly, as was dips in the crystal clear waters at our lunch and camping spots.

We also spent a long weekend in Bali, where we dove at Manta Point and Crystal Bay, and also visited some padi fields.

Over the Labour Day long weekend, we visited Hoi An in Vietnam. We may have spent one too many days in that little tourist town, but had did enjoy visiting the Champa temples in My Son.

Mid-May, we went to Sydney for work, and made most of the weekends visiting with friends.

Over the Vesak Day long weekend in May, we went to Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Even though the weather was unforgiving, we thoroughly enjoyed wandering around the different temples. Apart from the main Bayon temple, which was crawling with tourists, most of the other temples were quiet and serene.

Natalie visited for two weekends in June, so we went to Langkawi in Malaysia for one of the weekends. We were a little disappointed that none of the beaches had kayak or SUP a rentals because of the (small) surf, but we still had a relaxing weekend splashing about in the sea and pool.

August saw us visiting Copenhagen and Greenland for the first time. The food in Copenhagen was stunningly expensive but delicious, and the kayaking in Greenland was addictive.

In September, we spent another long weekend in Sydney, this time for our friends’ Garry and Linh’s wedding.

When we got back, I found that I had an extra week and a half before I started my new job, so I booked myself on a week long trip to Nusa Penida in Bali.

October saw me travel back to the States, the first time in almost five years, to San Francisco for onboarding. I made most of my weekend there, meeting up with various old friends.

Over the Deepavali long weekend in November, we went to Yogyajarkta with a friend. We weren’t blown away by the Royal Palace or Ratu Boko, but Borobudur itself is grand and worth a visit.

In December, we did the Raja Ampat liveaboard, and so thoroughly enjoyed the diversity and richness of live in these Indonesian waters, we are seriously considering jettisoning our plans to kayak in Greece this September for another liveaboard aboard the Blue Manta to Komodo Islands.

Jeff’s family visited over the Christmas break, and after a few fun and relaxing days touring Singapore’s attractions and lounging in our pools, we spent a couple days in Bangkok.

2019 was definitely a good year travel-wise. It turned out fantastic career-wise too. So I’m stoked for the many more adventures 2020 will bring!

Long weekend in Grampians and Arapiles

We put our paddles away this long weekend, in favor of our climbing harnesses. It’s been a while since we dusted off our gear and headed outdoors, but we did try to hit the gym this past month to get back into climbing shape… or some semblance of it at least.

Rose, Jeff and I hit up Grampians first on Sunday, where we managed several short hikes, including to the beautiful Pinnacles lookout and MacKenzie Falls.

We stopped by the picturesque MacKenzie Falls.

Our main attraction for the weekend though, was Arapiles, Australia’s climbing mecca. We hired a guide, Anthony, who brought us up 6 pitches of Kaiser and Resignation. Super beautiful quartzite climbs.

It was mostly overcast, with periods of intense sunshine that burst through the clouds. We did get rained on for short minutes a few times throughout the course of the day, but the fast moving clouds only lent to the beauty of the landscape. Check out those vivid canola fields in the distance!

 

At least the rain is no longer on us – Arapiles

We enjoyed a light lunch after pitch four of our climb, amongst the bright yellow crinkly Everlast flowers.

And when we finally reached the top of pitch 6, it was to the view of 6 different highlines strung across the valley. This was maybe a 300m highline – man!

Highline goals – Arapiles

Check out the views from the top of Arapiles – and the insane highlines! We’d chanced upon the annual slackline festival in Arapiles, apparently. Here’s a link from the 2016 gathering.

And before we headed back to sunny and warm Sydney, Rose and I managed one sunrise adventure in search of canola fields.

Foggy sunrise

 

Sunrise over the canola fields

Gallery

Seaplane to Palm Beach

seaplane

Sunday, Jeff organized a surprise: we jumped on board a seaplane and flew to Palm Beach (and back)!

The scenery was just spectacular. I was mesmerized by the blue-green waves with whitetips crashing along the craggy and windy Northern Sydney shoreline, and marveling at the views of the homeowners living in front of such dramatic landscape.