Sometimes buildings can be beautiful....

.... And you don't quite know why. This is the back of a set of units hidden behind the commercial buildings of Lonsdale Street near Canberra's Civic.

Best of 2015 photos

Paris walking remembered.

Looking into ultralight hiking

Always good to have an obsession: mine, at the moment, is lightweight backpacking.

This sprung from my 900km walk of the Camino in the north of Spain earlier this year(2015). I found that, despite my careful limiting of weight in my pack, I finished with very painful legs...no blisters or contusions just the dull ache of pounding along hard roads and rocky tracks for a month.
And I know that I did better than most because I read, and took to heart a skimpy volume called, sssss, which preached

As a general guideline, aim for your backpack’s total weight to be 10 percent of your body weight. ---Ashmore, Jean-Christie (2011-09-16). Camino de Santiago: To Walk Far, Carry Less (p. 3). Walk Far Media. Kindle Edition.

Camino pilgrim with a moderately heavy pack...not as bad as some.

For me that meant a base load pack, excluding water and food, of no more than 8.6 kg(19.2lbs). Which I did and was grateful for the advice as I watched my less weight conscious fellow travellers wilt under their heavier kit.

But I still had pain.  How to stop this pain has become a little bit of an obsession because I love "through walking", the steady coverage of big distances over weeks rather than weekend walks.  The Camino Français from the French side of the Pyrenees to the Galician Costa del Morte on the Atlantic Coast is only one of the many trails that converge on the dream pilgrimage destination of Santiago de Compostela. And then there are all the other mega walks that I may have time to do.

Reading into it, I found that I had adopted the right philosophy; I just had to do it better. Relentlessly getting the weight down, going "ultralight" appears to be the trick. As the Wikipedia article puts  it:

By carrying lighter and more multi-purpose equipment, ultralight backpackers aim to cover longer distances per day with less wear and tear on the body.

 Not just 8.6kg but a ultralight base load of three kg(6lb), a target of less than half of what I carried in Spain and nearly what I carry on a daily walk around town. Wish me luck, I've a long way to go.

Terrific Terrigal

Terrigal Haven is an extraordinary place in this world: several seafood restaurants sprinkled along a quiet golden Beach, a suburban football ground with weight for age teams fighting out their rostered games. Scores of spectator vehicles competing not only with the beachgoers and restaurant customers but hundreds of tourists. The tourists are there to walk the Skillian a dramatic green ski slope of a headland poking into the blue-green Tasman Sea. 
Sheltered from the winds, it was warm in the early South Hemisphere Spring, exotic vehicles featured. Two stood out for me: a simple retro Vespa and a magnificent and immaculate green chopperised Harley. 

Another failure to capture the Effiel Tower

Accidental reporting

In the Luxumerg area for a movie. Came out to find a major drama on the street. One of the Japanese restaurants on rue Monsieur le Prince had burst into flames but had been doused. We watched as the Pompiers painstakingly checked each of the apartments above for people who may have been overcome by smoke.
Meanwhile as the second photo shows, Parisians continue with their Sunday dinners just beyond the Police cordon.

Tour de France flâneur

It was a wet Tour on the Champs this year. The tough women's race in the leadup to the arrival of men's epic endurance event was made bloody by alight rain. Just enough on the cobbles to cause major crashes that sent some to hospital and others to be so delayed that they were allowed to pace in the slipstream of support vehicles in order to make them competative

Being a spectator is a bit like being in a battle: moments of high tension surrounded by hours of boredom holding your precious rail vantage point.

Off the track the sponsors make the most of the crowds, organising stationary bikes for competition...if you have a shopping docket from their stores

Then there are the official souvenirs to buy. And the hucksters appointed to pedal them

Rain stops play.

English supporter of Mark Cavendish