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Day 1 – A Terminal Case

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September 15th, 2018

There were a couple of notable novelties in the first day of our Croatian holiday. One was a visit to Heathrow Terminal 2. This may not sound much, but in my Corporate youth I travelled a lot through Terminal 2 because it was the British Airways terminal that served European destinations. And it was ‘orrible – dark, dingy and with depressingly low ceilings in the check-in area which tended to start one’s journey off on the wrong foot. The old building was knocked down in 2009 and a new building re-opened in 2014. It’s much improved (not that the bar was set all that high), and we had serene journey from taxi to aircraft via (of course!) a nice champagne and smoked salmon breakfast.

The other novelty was the biggest incident of turbulence I have personally experienced. One thinks of turbulence as a steep drop or jump, whereas this felt more like going over a speed bump much too fast – a big thump, a jerk up and down and the obligatory shrieking from the nervous flyers. The captain came on the intercom to tell us that it we had crossed the wake of another aircraft that had been there a few minutes before. So congratulations to air traffic control for making sure it was just a bit of a thump and not something much, much worse.

Our journey to Croatia started with a flight to Dubrovnik, which had two legs – Heathrow to Munich and thence to Dubrovnik. The legroom in the second leg was negligible

and also betrayed my lack of experience at flights other than direct non-stop ones. Memo to self: next time, remember to check in and select seats on all elements of the journey in order to avoid being relegated to the rear of the plane.

Anyway, it all passed off uneventfully, and we got a couple of nice views of Croatia as we headed for Dubrovnik, including this one, which is of Ploče:

Our guide, Željko, who is an extremely affable, knowledgeable and well-organised chap, picked us up at the airport (eventually – we were just beginning to look nervously around at the diminishing crowd by the carousel when our bags turned up) and we met a few others in the group as we were transferred to our hotel in Dubrovnik, the Hotel Zagreb, a handsome building.

We met the rest as we went out to a local restaurant, Lapad, which, one can easily spot on entering, is a meat specialist place (it calls itself a “barbecue restaurant”) – and the food was good; I can recommend the local sausages on their menu.

But the astonishing thing was what was on the TV as we sat down at the table. With echoes of our South America trip, we were in a far land and the TV was showing Watford Football Club!

The rest of the evening passed off in the usual “get to know you” kind of conversations one has with total strangers, and was thus very interesting. Let’s see what tomorrow brings!

The photographic penalties of abiding by the law

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This is a whinge about the disadvantage of doing things properly. If you dislike self-pitying moaning, then – move on: nothing to read, here.

I’m going on holiday soon to Croatia and am looking forward to the walking, the sailing and, of course, the photographic possibilities. I’ll be taking a decent camera for the outstanding views and I thought there might be the possibility of some great aerial photos and video if I took my drone. After all, there are large numbers of aerial videos and photos on the web – how nice to be able to contribute more, I thought.

Being a law-abiding type, I researched the use of drones in Croatia. This was a mistake.

  • You need permission from the Croatian CAA via form FOD-FRM-005
  • As well as that, you need approval from the State Geodetic Association for any aerial photography

So I downloaded and completed the CAA form, with some advice from a nice lady at the CCAA and have snail-mailed it, as requested, to the CCAA.

I e-mailed the State Geodetic Association. They sent back a form, and, in the covering letter said that “private use” as a purpose for aerial imaging would be rejected. From the form, it’s clear that ad hoc drone flying is not approved; formal planning of a commercial shoot, including export method for the images, is necessary.

So, 10 out of 10 to the Croatian authorities for responsiveness and helpfulness. But I don’t have the slightest chance of being able to get official approval, as I shan’t know what flying I want to do until I get there.

Also, being a Good Citizen, I contacted the travel agency which is organising the sailing part of the holiday, to let them know that I was attempting to get approval for drone photography of the coastal views of where we shall be travelling (I know better than to attempt aerial photography over the towns).  The response was that they weren’t altogether comfortable, as some people on the boat had specifically asked not to be in photographs.

I hadn’t been planning to take photos of people on the boat at all, with camera or drone.  Now, though, the devil in me is saying “go on – take photos of everyone.  After all, if we’re visiting a town and wandering about in public, you’re quite entitled to take photos of whomever and whatever you like.”

So, reluctantly, I have decided not to take the drone with me.

This is the second holiday when I have decided not to take the drone because of local regulations which stifle recreational use of drones.

It seems that the UK is a good place for recreational drone flying.  Why are other countries so down on it? (Though I note that Spain has relaxed its previously draconian regulations.)

You know, in some ways I wish I had the nerve (or the disregard for protocol and the wishes of others) just to say “the hell with it.” I could have just packed the thing, and at the appropriate moment (making sure I wasn’t offending anyone or putting them in danger) flown for the necessary 10 minutes to get the photos and/or footage I wanted. Why not? Plenty of others have – even in places, such as the Krka National Park, where drone flying is expressly forbidden.

Instead (I’m still sulking, you understand), my thoughts are more turning towards selling the drone, because flying one legitimately is such a fucking ball-ache.

…and Planes – Adios, South America

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20th April 2018

My original plan was to “pen” this whilst sitting comfortably in the business lounge in Lima airport, in transit after having travelled from Juliaca. I even put a “Farewell Puno” photo up on Facebook. Serves me right for being smug.

There was a “maintenance issue” with our Juliaca – Lima flight. Our 13th of the holiday, if you can believe that.

We sat on the tarmac in increasing heat for about 90 minutes until it was too hot to keep us on board, so we returned to the departure lounge. To their credit, LATAM did their best to let us know what was going on, via announcements and e-mail. I decided to be optimistic and write the valedictory blog post to sum up the holiday and sign off from regular blog updates (this is the 31st blog post of the holiday; I think I’ve done a reasonable job of keeping the blog up-to-date when I can, and I’ve had a thoroughly enjoyable time writing it).

So, whilst we wait for more information, let’s say a few thank yous – these are, after all, still valid whether we make the London flight or not. So, thanks for an utterly brilliant and beautifully-executed itinerary are due to:

  1. Judy Campbell, of Spear Travels, who took on the basic brief of organising our South America Odyssey
  2. Stephen Bray, of Sunvil, who created and tuned an itinerary according to our (slightly eccentric) demands. The resulting schedule was nicely paced (giving us occasional time to draw breath), met and exceeded our expectations, and was also nicely planned to help deal with potential altitude issues as we headed towards the Peru highlands.
  3. The agencies that Sunvil employed to handle us: Andes Nativa (Chile), Attipica (Argentina); Andesconexion (Ecuador), Ecoventura (Galapagos) and Coltur (Peru). Australis, operators of Ventus Australis also did an outstanding job.
  4. I don’t know who settled on the hotels that we stayed in, but, by heaven, there were some crackers: the Singular in Puerto Natales; the Llao Llao in Bariloche; the Casa Gangotena in Quito; both Inkaterras (Urubamba and Machu Picchu); these were exceptional. El Mercado in Cusco was very charming as was the Casa Andina in Puno. The boats, Ventus Australis and M/V Origin also functioned as excellent hotels.
  5. The guides who looked after us: Ronald (Santiago); Jenny (Perito Moreno); Malena (Easter Island); Paul (Quito); Hernando (Lima); Camila (Sacred Valley and Cusco); Alex (Machu Picchu); and Aidee (Lake Titicaca).
  6. All the others who picked us up at airports and who drove us places. At every new destination we reached (bar one) there was the reassuring sight of someone holding up a board with our names on it. Organising, checking up and executing these logistics is very complex and the whole thing operated effectively faultlessly.
  7. Last, and by no means least, Jane, who kept us organised, provided some photos and who has done her best to make sure this blog is as accurate and error-free as our failing faculties allow.

Excellent job all round, chaps – thanks!

In the second half of the holiday we learned a few new things to add to our first-half analysis.

  • Tips. Take more than you originally thought you might need. Our outlay was about US$100 a week beyond what we knew we needed for the two cruises. Of course, you could be British and just Not Tip, but the guides we encountered were such good folk and did such a good job that they all deserved extra for their efforts.
  • If you’ve moved to high altitude, be careful when opening items such as sunscreen bottles, otherwise you’ll be scraping stuff off the carpet.
  • For South America, pack earplugs. Everyone in South America owns at least eight dogs, and doesn’t seem to be able to stop them barking at night. Perhaps they wear earplugs.
  • I packed a travel tripod. It was space unwisely used in my suitcase, as I either didn’t need it, or didn’t have it with me on the approximately two occcasions it might have helped.
  • The pace of a long holiday is an important consideration. Tourism is relentless, and we’ve been forced to get up earlier almost every morning than is our natural inclination; 0630 was a common alarm time and even as early as 0430. The half- and full-day breaks in our schedule became very valuable for relaxing, doing laundry, pausing for breath and, of course, writing the blog.
  • It’s important to take notes as you go along. This blog will be a very useful aide-memoire for all sorts of things after we get home – organising something around 4,000 photos and 25GB of videos (250 clips), creating a photobook, a reference for friends and family rather than listen to us drone on, that kind of thing.
  • Specifically for me, as a photo buff, the right technology would have been to bring a Windows-based laptop or similar. I could have then (a) post-processed the photos as we went along to bring you better quality images and (b) used time on the flights to do this. The combination of Android-based devices I had at my disposal couldn’t deliver the image quality or workflow speed I would have liked.
  • And, finally, at the end of the longest holiday either of us has ever taken, we are still (a) having fun and (b) talking to each other. That’s not to say we shan’t enjoy unlimited Early Grey and convenient laundry facilities once we get home, and it would seem that six weeks is about right for a long holiday; but we shall certainly be looking forward to a similar scope of travelling in the not-too-distant future.

Ooh, look – there’s some activity indicating we might be boarding soon….

….and we just about made it to the gate for the London flight. We tried to get into the Club Lounge but it was full, so we’re sitting with a G&T by the gate, waiting for the flight therefore….

It must be Time For The BA!