Circular breathing

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Circular breathing… The art of breathing in through the nose while simultaneously blowing out through the mouth in order to bring constant air intake to some kind of instrument. If you succeed in doing this fluently and continuously into the hollow end of a eucalyptus trunk, you’re on the way to becoming a real didgeridoo player. I won’t say I’ve already mastered the technique, but since the past couple of weeks, Jean-Paul has been vibrating at a more constant tempo.

Last week, after watching our video inscription to Van-tastic contest, Southern Cross CEO, who has allowed us to camp on site for the last six weeks, asked me to produce a one-minute promotional video for the tour they provide in the nearby National park. One day of film shooting and a later exchange of services, HERE IS THE RESULT. It’s a little bit more conventional than what I’m use to produce, but they are absolutely thrilled with the final product. The video is currently running in a loop amongst other films, in all the area hostels and in tour bus, meandering around the streets of Agnes Water every morning at 10 o’clock. Not bad for a first corporative production featuring real people instead of vectors and polygons. Watch it and give me your input; you might also recognise a very familiar face quite a few times.

In the Bush, on a clear night, the amount of stars visible to the naked eye is just crazy. Even more surprising is to realise what a wide open lens aiming at the southern version of the Milky Way can catch. Not always easy to find the correct balance between aperture and exposure time, but I was able to capture a few good prints of the sky above our little tent in the Australian Bush. The Southern Cross proudly adorning the flag, besides a scaled down version of the Union Jack, and which, in the sky is aiming at the geographical pole is always very clear at night. She also is used as a beacon for sailors, indicating their latitude. Here, she is very low, 25 degrees above the horizon, reminding us we are at the edge of the Tropic of Capricorn, at the boundary line separating the South more favourable climates from the soon to be hit by tropical storms of the North. Up until now, we had planned to continue driving on the road to the Equator, but we are less and less convinced it’s a sound plan. The problem with Australia is the enormous distances between landmarks… Since we came all this way up, it would be a shame to go back on our tracks because of a little rain. The other option would be to go deeper towards the Red Rock and exchange torrential rains for drought and heat only deserts can produce. We’ll have to think a little more about this one …

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From Hawaii to the shores of Peru

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For the past 24h, I’ve had the catchy surf rhythm of Brian Wilson and his gang in my head. Incidentally, did you know that only one of the Beach Boys actually surfed? What a bunch of posers... Not like us though, we are the real deal. We now know how to read the irregular patterns of oncoming waves and feel comfortable with 9 foot long boards under our feet. As of today, Stephanie and I are gnarly surfers!

Every morning, the local surf shop takes out a group of newbies and teaches them the ropes of how to handle the gigantic and awkward foam boards needed to ride the waves that constantly crash onto the 6km long beach of our local bay. I have to admit that at first, I was really not sure of how I would fare on one of these floating contraptions. From the beach, it looks so technical and physically demanding. First, you need to fight the first set of crashing surf and go beyond the zone of white water. Second, once you get to the area where the waves are forming, you need to paddle in at just the right moment; start too soon and you’ll tire out before the water starts to push you. Start too late and you miss the ride entirely. It was with great surprise that I managed to catch the very first wave (with a helping push from the instructor) and even more amazement, got up on the board and rode the surf for a good five seconds. What an incredible feeling! Of course, the next couple of tries were concluded in disastrous wipeouts, but before the morning was over, I was able to get a pretty constant success rate and even started playing a bit with the more intricate maneuvers of the boards (the ones that do not involve just standing on it and waiting for something to make you fall off). Stephanie also got the hang of it pretty quickly. She can read the wave pretty well and knows instinctively when to start paddling. We’re both hooked! Hang ten mate!

Last week, I stumbled upon a pretty interesting contest. It’s really poorly advertised so our chances are significantly better than for that “Best job in the World” thing they had last year. They are looking for a team of two people to travel Australia in a fully equipped camper van for six weeks, making a weekly video to document the adventure. Up for grabs are: Free gas, Free admission to all the local attractions and the Possibility to win 10,000$ at the end. To determine who the 7 teams that will participate in the adventure will be, all they ask for is a 2 minute video presenting ourselves in an original manner. The contest is called Van-Tastic and HERE is our entry. Watch it and tell us what you think before we upload it on the official website.

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