In the summer of 2011, Austrian photographer and cinematographer Klara Harden hiked solo through Iceland. During the expedition she worked on a film project, documenting the entire journey and acting as her own film crew. The images are breathtaking as she shows varied scenery of mountains, brooks, terrain, valleys, glaciers, volcanoes, homes, and more during her 25-day expedition.
MADE IN ICELAND from Klara Harden on Vimeo.
From Ulaanbaatar, the flight to Ölgii Airport was just 2 1/2 hours in a noisy Saab 340B. Flying over the wide expanses of the Gobi desert and Altai mountains, it was difficult to imagine that I’d be traversing everything that was passing below me in just under a week.
Joined by Mel, a journalist from an English newspaper, I arrived in Ölgii without much of a plan; to get a ride into town and hope to hitch a ride. But in order to find a team to ride with, the only thing we could do was sit by the side of the town’s one main road and wait – hoping that whoever came along would be willing to pick up two outsiders carrying cameras and notepads.
So, we waited. We wandered markets and sat by the side of the road. After just a few hours in the sun, we were relieved and exhilarated to see a convoy of four brightly painted cars and one ambulance heading in our direction. We were no longer lost in the Gobi; we had found the chariots that would (hopefully) take us across Mongolia.
Luckily for Mel & I, we quickly made friends with a team dubbed Party of Five; consisting of a team of three (one member had dropped out) friends from Australia and their mutual friend from England. They were proudly commandeering an old Ford ambulance that they had named ‘Olive’ – a reference to the lovely interior paint job in the back of the ‘ambo’, which had served as their home for the past several weeks. With just enough room for two more people and our bags, we hopped in and got on the road; eager to begin our journey.
It was short lived; only a few kilometers down the road, we encountered our first breakdown – a car that had left Ölgii before us had lost the use of one of its tires after slicing through the rim of the wheel. The unforgiving nature of the dirt tracks that served as highways here, suggested that we’d see many more breakdowns in the coming days. The dust, rocks, and bumps would surely put everyone to the test. So after a quick push to turn it the broken vehicle around for towing, the convoy packed up and headed out to scout for the evening’s camp site.
Finding the perfect spot wasn’t very complicated; we pulled off to the side of the road, looked for a flat place to pitch our tents, and set up camp for the first night in the wilderness of Mongolia.
For more information about the Mongol Rally, including how to sign up for the 2012 rally, visit the Adventurist’s website.
Transportation was made possible by the scholars & gentlemen at the Adventurists. No editorial content or opinions were guaranteed, and nor was anyone’s safety or hygiene.
The crew performed a landing without the nose gear on runway 29L and came to a stand still on both the main gear and the nose of the aircraft. The flight, traveling from Moscow to Iran, held 94 passengers and 19 crew members; none were injured in the landing.
Video of the landing has now surfaced on Youtube, demonstrating an incredibly skillful landing executed by the pilot and his crew.
On October 24, 2011, major flooding to Dublin, Ireland, caused the Dublin City Council to put into action its major emergency plan. Homes, cars, major roads, and even shopping centers were submerged underwater as rainfall failed to cease. In some areas of the city, inflatable boats had to be used to rescue stranded motorists, while roads leading out of the city experienced 3-hour delays. A number of rivers broke their banks and overflowed, and an off-duty police officer who lives close to one of these rivers is currently missing.
See the natural disaster for yourself in this video compilation of live footage:
When did ziplines become so prevalent? Somewhere along the way, we went from traveling to places to either relax or explore local cultures to careening through trees on a series of cables. When did this happen? Why are they so popular? Beyond that, I have a hard time believe that everyone staffing these ziplines knows what they are doing. I mean, are there accredited zipline certification programs? If there are, I’m certain that the folks in this video failed to pass the required courses.