By Vladimir Brezina
The perfect stillness of an early morning…
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(A Paddle Among the Islands, Cape Cod, May 2013)
A contribution to Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge, Still.
By Vladimir Brezina
The perfect stillness of an early morning…
.
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(A Paddle Among the Islands, Cape Cod, May 2013)
A contribution to Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge, Still.
Posted in Nature, Photography
Tagged Cape Cod, Kayak Expeditions, Massachusetts Sea Kayaking, Morning, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2016, Still, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
After seven days on the water, the finish of our big kayak trip is still some way off over the horizon, but we’re suddenly sure that we’ll make it today. What could go wrong now? ;-)
A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, Jubilant.
By Vladimir Brezina
Let’s eat before the rising tide submerges this sandbar, or the bugs bite us to death…
(During the 2014 Everglades Challenge, Florida.)
A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, Dinnertime.
By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson
We are getting our presentation ready!
It’s billed as “True Tales of Mystery, Majesty, and Mishap Mere Inches from the Water”. We think we can supply all of that…
… and if the prospect of hearing us share our kayaking adventure stories isn’t enough, come for the live music, acrobats, and a growing roster of additional entertainment.
Hope to see you there!
By Vladimir Brezina
Before the big paddle into the unknown: first tension—
then fear—
(OK, she’s acting out for the camera, a bit)
and then pure happiness on the last day…
Yes, long-distance paddling is all about the State of Mind!
This was the 2014 WaterTribe Everglades Challenge. Not coincidentally, the 2016 Challenge starts in a couple of days…
A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, State of Mind.
By Vladimir Brezina
It was late December 2013, on the first day of one of our shakedown paddles through the Florida Everglades in preparation for the 2014 Everglades Challenge. We had just landed on the muddy beach behind the Everglades City ranger station to get our permits for camping in the Everglades.
As Johna tells it, “as we headed inland I caught sight of a couple of figures—a man and a woman—dressed identically in Army-green T-shirts and black pants. The woman was wheeling a loaded barrow, and I took them for park rangers.
But Vlad stopped and said to the man, ‘I know you! We’re friends on Facebook!'”
The couple were Doi Nomazi (“Two Nomads”), Adrian and Mihaela, a Romanian husband-and-wife adventure team. Even though they too are based in New York, we’d never met before, and this was the only time we have crossed paths so far.
Like us, they were on a kayak expedition in the Everglades over the holidays—but they were sailing, rather than merely paddling, their black U-boat, a double Long Haul folding kayak.
Later, back in New York, I looked to see how their trip had gone, and found that they had produced an enchanting 86-minute “video diary” of their adventure, entitled “Echoes of the Eskampaba—2013”.
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“Echoes of the Eskampaba” remains my favorite among their videos, perhaps because it features many of the places in the Everglades that we, too, visited on our trip (such as the lovely but mosquito-plagued Highland Beach, where Doi Nomazi camped a few days after us).
But that’s just one of their videos. There are now 28 of them. Once or twice a year, on their vacation, Doi Nomazi visit some fascinating, remote corner of the world. The resulting video is as well-produced as any commercial movie, and more watchable that most. (It’s perhaps not surprising to find that Adrian has a rich resumé as a journalist, cameraman, and film producer and director.) In addition to the Everglades, Doi Nomazi have paddled in the Black Sea, in the Gwaii Haanas of British Columbia, in Greenland, in Alaska’s Glacier Bay… And it’s not all paddling, either: they have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, driven through the back country of Africa and Australia…
Here is their latest video, from Glacier Bay:
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Doi Nomazi say that “we have no special training, we are not athletes and we are not seeking any records.” Perhaps not, but their thirst for nature and adventure, and their willingness to endure the inevitable discomforts and hardships, are extraordinary. An inspiration to us all!
Posted in Culture, Kayaking, Travel
Tagged Adventure, Doi Nomazi, Everglades, Florida Kayaking, Kayak Expeditions, Kayak Sailing, Kayaking, Video
By Vladimir Brezina
Mischievous? Thieving is more like it.
Everywhere in our travels through the Florida Everglades, we encountered creatures that wanted something from us.
There were the mosquitoes, of course. But there were larger creatures too. The campsite in Fort De Soto Park, at the start of the Everglades Challenge, was infested with raccoons that, as soon as the sun went down, prowled through the camp without fear in search of food.
But the worst were the crows, those famously mischievous birds. Almost everywhere, as soon as our back was turned, there was a crow trying to fly off—sometimes successfully—with that apple or bag of cookies.
Here are some of the crows that laid siege to us as we were repacking our boats in Flamingo—
And then there are the black vultures of Flamingo, which—as signs in the parking lot warn—have acquired a distinct taste for the rubber lining around car windows…
A contribution to Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge, Mischievous.
Posted in Kayaking, Nature, Photography
Tagged Birds, Crows, Everglades Challenge, Florida, Florida Kayaking, Kayak Expeditions, Mischievous, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2015, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge