After almost 4 full years, I finally made it back to the BVI for a couple of weeks.  To be completely fair, it was a work trip so I saw very little of the island during the daylight hours, but it really hasn’t changed much.  All the same bars and restaurants, some under new names & management, but things don’t move along all that quickly on Tortola.  Lots of strange faces though, which is sad but expected given the transient nature of the island.

On my one day off (where I wasn’t gorging myself at the Tamarind club) I spent my time circumnavigating the island and taking photos of all my favourite spots.  My first stop was Josiah’s Bay beach, where I spent the majority of my beach time in the first few years on the island.  Like everything else, the changes were minor apart from a bit of welcomed polishing. The new beach huts were solid and vertical, two things that couldn’t always be said about the coverages of the past.

I drove up the ridge road though the east end of the island and around behind the local prison to capture some great views of Guana Island.  The stretch of dirt road along the north eastern most point of Tortola has long bit a favourite area for me, with great views, very few people and often lots of roaming goats to keep you company.

From there I continued around the eastern tip and made my way back towards Road Town, following the ridge road again for it’s stunning northerly views.  I made a stop at a very popular pull over point high above Brewers Bay for some iconic imagery.

I skipped through Apple & Carrot bay in order to make my way down to another favourite spot in Smugglers. It used to be an out of the way, hidden beach complete with an honour bar that was almost always empty apart from a few other locals willing to drive the rough roads to get to a secluded beach. Now the roads have been cleared, signed have been posted and the once exclusive beach was overrun with people.  I even spotted a pair of local life guards, something I never experienced on even the busiest of beaches during my six year stay here.

There are still a few hidden beaches however, but with the increase in housing development that I saw they won’t stay that way for long. I dread that my next return to the BVI will find the road down to Little Elizabeth Bay paved and the small parking space full of those terrible tourist trucks.  It’s only a matter of time I’m sure.

I realize I sound like an old man complaining about how things used to be. Maybe that’s just who I am now? I hope not, I’ve still got a long way to go before I can collect my pension and shout at kids to get off my lawn!

More tropical island type images can be found in the gallery, if that’s your kind of thing.

Danni’s father wasn’t all that keen on seeing the sights of the UK, so when he did have a request we made sure to take him where he wanted to go.  One of those places was to Stonehenge.  I’ve visited ‘the henge’ a few times in the past but it’s always a cool visit even if it doesn’t change much from year to year.

Baba forgot to bring a winter hat, so he borrowed the one I picked up in Bulgaria as a bit of a joke.  Oddly enough, it really suited him and he looked like a Chinese military dignitary visiting the UK.  Not that that got us any sort of entry discount or anything.

It was fairly chilly, windy and threatening to rain during our rather short visit.  We made the requisite lap around the columns and then hopped into our little rental car and made a dash for nearby Salisbury for lunch and a traditional English pint or two.  Ok, only one for me given that I was driving (Oh how I miss the BVI on days like this).

We found a spot called The Mill, which looked full of character on the outside but was more of a run-of-the-mill (no pun intended) Wetherspoons style pub inside.  Decent food and beer, but generally on the soulless side.  We’d taken Baba to better pubs during his visit to London, so I wasn’t too concerned that he’d paint all UK pubs with the paintbrush found here.

All in all it was a nice day out and it’s always fun to show family the sites of my current home.  There are several more photos from the day in the gallery.

I didn’t realize just how behind I was in posting updates to the site until I saw how far back I had to predate this post.  The wedding in October followed by the honeymoon (the subject of this particular post) and Danni finally moving her things into my our home not to mention my continued work on my 365 project have kept me rather busy.

But enough excuses.

We spent an amazing week at Coco Palms Dhuni Kolhu resort and couldn’t have asked for better weather, food, drinks or anything!  The island itself was accessible only via a seaplane from Malé and the entire landmass was circumnavigable (my big word for the day) in about 30 minutes.

We spent most of the week lounging around on the beach (as was a honeymoon requirement), snorkeling (Danni’s new love) or simply gorging ourselves on the amazing food offered from their kitchen.  And when we weren’t doing one of those three things, we were taking photos of Danni in her many wedding dresses at various stunning locations around the island.

We also managed a couple of boating excursions during our week.  The first was an early morning outing to do some dolphin watching.  I’d expected to see a couple of dorsal fins here and there, but what we ended up seeing were about 200 dolphins in several pods splashing around and doing their morning hunting.  Most of them were too far from the boat for my longest lens (85mm) to really do them justice, so no great photos but it was a great experience (apart from Danni getting sea sick of course).

The other trip was a gifted private sunset cruise for two with champagne and canapes that was bought for us by my good friend Robert.  It was a lovely little motor around the island that didn’t go so far out as to encounter any big waves (and thereby make Danni ill again).  The sunset was one of the weeks best and all the better for enjoying it aboard a private boat with my new wife.

It was definitely difficult coming back to dreary London after being spoiled so fully for a week.  We can’t recommend the resort enough.  If you get a chance, take it!

There are LOTS more photos in the gallery.

My old BVI flatmates and good friends Mo & Kerry have recently found themselves working in Jasper which just so happens to be close (in Canadian terms) to Edmonton.  I managed to borrow dad’s car for the day to drive the ~300km trip out to spend the evening with them and take in the sights of Alberta’s other big national park.

Mo & Kerry were my tour guides for the afternoon and we did a bit of hiking while wandering around some falls.  I don’t remember the name I’m afraid, but it was suitably impressive for someone living in London who doesn’t get to see such things on a day to day basis.

After our little hike it was off to Jasper for dinner and then to Hinton for a quick walk around the beaver boardwalks.  These are a series of very cool elevated boardwalks that meander through a marshy area directly around a beaver damed pond.  We sat and watched 3 or 4 different beavers swimming around collecting food and just doing their beavery things the way only beavers can. ( I’m trying to increase traffic to my site by collecting search results for the word beaver, you may have noticed)

There was a pretty amazing sky on the way back to Mo & Kerry’s place so I took quite a few images like this next one all through the car window.  Gotta love nature in Canada!

More images of lovely Jasper in the gallery.

Danni and I made the trip back to Canada to visit my Dad and his family for a few weeks.  Dad has been fighting cancer for a couple of years now and it’s gotten to a state now where he’s too unwell to travel, so he wouldn’t be able to make it to our wedding.  This was just a chance for him and the rest of his family to meet my fiancée before she becomes my wife.

For some reason I had quite a bit of room in my luggage so I decided to take some lighting gear and get a few family portraits done as we don’t have anything like that on my dad’s side.  This first shot if almost the whole family, less the eldest of my dad’s youngest sons Evan who was away for work unfortunately and my brothers girlfriend Holly.

If you’re interested in seeing a few more shots (clearly you’re family), you can find them in the gallery here.