Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette

Christmas Day last year we found ourselves in the desert city of Jaisalmer, a beautiful place to spend the day but somewhere that doesn’t celebrate the festive season like we’re used to.  With not much to do in the way of Christmas evening festivities, we decided to climb up a hill to watch the sunset over the city and the Fort.

Along the way we walked past small homes, cows in the garden briefly paused their grass munching to watch us, old people sat in the doorways and waved hello to us as we passed, and children ran out to climb the steps with us.  When we reached the top, they sat with us, smiling and grinning that they’d made new friends, even if we couldn’t speak the same language.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Texture

India is full of such diverse landscapes from huge bustling crowed cities, snowy mountains, the dusty orange deserts, rolling green hills and white sandy beaches. Every new place we explored seemed like it was in a whole other world to the place we’d just come from and I loved everywhere for each different sight it offered.

The Thar Desert was one of the highlights of our time travelling around this incredible country. Just outside the desert city of Jaisalmer, our home for the night was a gorgeous (if freezing) luxury tent.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Zigzag

To me, the window seat of a plane is like candy to a baby.  I love flying and I always try to grab a window seat so I can watch the world go by and ooh and ahh as we get a glimpse of our next destination as we come in to land.  Sitting slightly behind the wing of the plane is my favourite spot where I can get some great shots of the sky or the landscape below us with the tip of the wing lined up perfectly.  It helps that Mr Ayla doesn’t like flying in the slightest so he’s always perfectly happy to let his eager wife take the best seat 🙂

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The Taste of India

This week’s photo challenge theme – containers – immediately made me think of the huge amounts of food, spices, sweets, flowers and little trinkets that we came across on our travels across India, all stored in containers, bowls and sacks, bundled on top of carts and spilling out of roadside shops.  Although the weekly photo challenge is usually just a photo with a small story or caption, there was absolutely no way that I could say so little about the food in India.  It accidentally turned into a slightly longer post – oops! – as I found myself writing more and more and wanting to share the deliciousness of India with you 🙂

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Split Second Story

While we were wandering around Lima, we came across Kennedy Park, a pretty green area nestled in the district of Miraflores. This is now my favourite park in the world – not because of the abundance of green grass for people to relax on in the sunshine and not even because of the people that gather to dance to the Peruvian music – but because of the cats. The park is home to an array of cats who roam around, finding shelter amongst the flowers, climbing the trees to hide from lively children, and trying to pinch some food from people having picnics.

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On The Move

Sitting still doesn’t come naturally to me.  After a day of relaxing on a beach, my feet start twitching, and I’m ready to get up and start exploring.

All the travelling to reach new destinations can sometimes take it’s toll.  I don’t even want to think about the ludicrous amount of hours I’ve spent waiting at airports or train stations; the number of times I’ve rushed in a panic to catch a flight; the amount of delays that have frustrated me, and the hours of sleep I’ve lost to jet leg; the irritation of bartering over prices for a local taxi, tuk tuk or bus; the air miles I could have earned if only I had been clever enough to sign up in the first place; and all the plane food I’ve consumed (and yes, I’m one of those rare few people who actually enjoys plane food. It’s food…what’s not to like?!).

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring

I love Spring, when the weather gets warmer, the smell of fresh rain and cut grass drifts through the air and colourful flowers are in abundance. Everyone seems that little bit happier and, in London, you may even get the odd smile from a passerby.

The cherry blossoms that dot the trees are my favourite, bright pink or white, giving a normally dull looking street a burst of colour. On my trip to Edinburgh this weekend, the view from outside the guest house we stayed at was beautiful. Not only could did we have a brilliant view of the Castle right at the end of the street, but the road was also lined with pink cherry blossoms, making it look like a pretty picture from a Scottish fairytale.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Letters

Tanzania is one of the most incredible countries I’ve ever been to; not only is the wildlife and landscape amazing, but we also fell in love with the people when we did some volunteer work in Moshi.

Every afternoon we would make our way through the fields to Swiwsco Orphanage, where we helped look after the children and played with them until we were all exhausted. The boys all loved Alex, one of very few male volunteers, who played football with them and taught them some tricks.

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