throwback

My intention for this site was originally just to keep an online portfolio of my favourite work and while it will somewhat feature this intention I’ve come to the realisation that I’d much prefer to keep a record of the stories behind some of my favourite photos. Not every photo has a story behind it and of those that do, many may not be interesting or worth telling, but the ones that are worth telling are what I feel I should use this site for.

For me, what I enjoy most about travelling, besides getting away from work for a while, is the experiences and stories we can come back with.  I know many people that are more than content with having a lazy holiday, lay by the pool, getting a tan, going shopping or whatever; but that’s not for me. Not that I think what they’re doing is wrong, it’s just not for me, I need to be out there, doing things, witnessing things and experiencing things otherwise I feel like I’m not making the most of the place I’m in and all it has to offer.

However, as much as I may want to travel, it’s not something I can regularly do and write about cue these throwback entries. The idea of these being that I can tell some old stories about some of my favourite shots and how they came about starting with one of my more recent photos from China September 2015.

This is another photo that I have to be thankful for the Royal Academy of Engineering scholarship for. Through their scheme I was able to secure an invitation to the Global Grand Challenges Summit in Beijing thus leading to possibly the greatest trip of my life thus far. The Global Grand Challenges Summit is an event organised by the UK Royal Academy of Engineering along with the Chinese and American equivalent academies aimed at highlighting the challenges that humanity, scientists and engineers face today ranging from security and health all the way to the joy of living and revitalising urban infrastructure. The two day conference is one of those events where you just can’t fail to be drawn in to the energy and atmosphere created by your surroundings and the speakers on stage and it genuinely makes you feel like, if you put your head and heart to it, you could achieve anything you wanted to, and help save the world. I’ve questioned a lot about myself and my careers choices since those two days and try to act on those lessons whenever possible. One of the things I’m most thankful for about that conference and the RAE scheme itself, is that it introduced me to my travelling companions for the next few weeks following the two day conference. These were people I had only ever briefly met before, once a year at the RAE annual get-together but we had all taken a risk and agreed to go travelling together following the conference.

Photo Credit: Pooja Moonka

The stories we made for ourselves and experiences we had on that trip make me consider these people some of my closest friends despite the relatively short time I’ve known them, but when you live together in tiny hostel rooms for any amount of time, without showering, and spend every day exploring a strange country together like that, I think it’s impossible not to either massively fall out with them or consider them a close friend after that. Beyond these three people I spent the majority of the trip with, I was also lucky enough to share time with other great people along the way who I’d met at the conference and I don’t think anything will ever beat some of the nights out we had together clubbing in Beijing when we had around 40 American and UK young engineers piling in to a small bar and overflowing out on the street, dancing on tables, singing at the top of our lungs and drinking in to the early hours of the morning (all while being filmed extensively by locals passing by who were fascinated by so many western tourists together at once).

One of my biggest concerns about not knowing who I was travelling with was whether they would tolerate my constant desire to stop and take photos, I know it’s not to everyone’s liking and for those who just want to walk and explore it must be infuriating to have to stop and wait on someone like myself or so my parents have told me after the many times I went on holiday with them growing up, fortunately though I was with like-minded individuals who were more than happy themselves to stop and take their own photos at every opportunity they could.

My favourite photo from the whole trip, and currently on my wall as part of my “Best of 2015 Series” was definitely from the Great Wall of China. My group and I arranged to visit the Wall while in Beijing through our hostel (Downtown Backpackers) who provided transport and a friendly guide, Jerry (one of the hostel workers). The trip was advertised as a 10km walk of the wall, it sounded amazing. Up until this point we had been mostly confined to the conference and city so I considered this our first proper adventure out in China.

The day began fairly early with us being picked up from the hostel by mini-bus, worrying that we would be too early for breakfast we had stocked up on yoghurts, cucumber flavoured crisps and cookies for the journey the night before but were pleasantly surprised by the offering of more cookies and snickers bars from our hostel upon entering the vehicle. I think our excessive number of cookies ended up lasting us until almost the end of the entire trip!

The drive itself was fairly uneventful, but we began to have concerns over the legitimacy of our trip as we approached our final destination. Every mile or so we would see big signs and billboards reading “Keep Out”, “This area of the wall off limits”, “Thank you for not entering this area of the wall”, of course our mini-bus ignored all of these and headed straight on, who were we to question it.

The early morning light marking our path through the forest

Unlike most organised trips to the Great Wall, this one did not intend on dropping us off at one of the hotspots of the wall that are renovated and officially open to the public, instead we were dropped at the base of a steep hill outside a thick forest. The next forty minutes were a fairly gruelling uphill struggle (for some of our party anyway) and several of us, myself included, did fall a tad far behind the main party. Part of our journey up hill was brightened up by a rendition of “Happy Birthday” for Pooja, one of the members of our group, which another tourist group also got involved in.

Along the way we were only treated to brief clearings in the foliage to see how high we were and where we were going and it never prepared me for when I rounded a corner and was then just smack bang, up against the wall.

It can get pretty steep and slippery on the wall

Despite following one of the hostel workers, it still felt like a real adventure elevated by the act of having to climb up on to wall using a ladder made of lashed together branches. An official tour of the wall would never take you to the areas we visited but we were treated to 6km of incredible scenery along the crumbling remains of one of the greatest man-made structures in existence. Many parts of the route are dangerous but it is all beautiful and I couldn’t help but have a grin on my face the whole way despite the heat and exhaustion caused by my poor fitness.

Andy on the edge

After around 6km of walking, the frequency in which we saw other people increased greatly along with the general structural integrity of the wall itself and eventually we passed a sign that only solidified our belief that we probably weren’t meant to have walked the previous 6km we had. We took a moment to celebrate this milestone and the Pooja’s Birthday with a can of beer each at 11am stood on the Great Wall of China, not many who can say they’ve celebrated their birthday like that.

I don’t think we were meant to go there

The photo I’m most happy with from this day occurred during the final 4km of the excursion of the more built up section of the wall. I’d been trying to capture the perfect panorama to commemorate the day, going so far as to climb up crumbling towers to get a better vantage point, but think I finally achieved it with this one. It may not be the most technically brilliant photo but I think the composition works well and I love that it features several members of the group I travelled with within it even if they weren’t aware of it at the time. This makes it not just a photo of the Great Wall of China to me, but a photo of amazing friends I made during some of the greatest weeks of my life.