You Are My Ultimate Referee

What’s going on?

I’ve made the top 25 – from a field of 45000 – for the Queensland Park Ranger role in Tourism Australia’s Bests Job in the World. The opportunity could change my life. But to make the cut for the final 3, I need to secure the support of ‘ultimate referees’ for the position.

A Park Ranger’s job is to watch over and protect the environment – which means I’ll be doing a job that’s important to everyone. That’s why I think the ultimate referee isn’t just one person. It’s the multitude of people around the world who appreciate the most inspiring areas of the planet we live on.

That means you!

Why should you be my referee?

My whole life so far has been preparing me for this job; academically, professionally and in thousands of hours spent experiencing Australia’s unique wilderness.

This job isn’t just about promoting the Great Barrier Reef – though that’s important. It’s also about the sweeping outback, which is too often out of sight and mind of environmentalists. It’s about animals like the Armoured Mist Frog, thought extinct but recently rediscovered in the remote Far North, and intricate ecosystems of all kinds. It’s about a landscape with tens of thousands of years of enchanting heritage. And it’s about helping people to feel a sense of wonder and connection with nature. I will strive to share stories of Queensland that you haven’t heard before.

So what am I asking you to do?

Some of my first referees – signs in any language welcome!

I need people who believe I can be a great Park Ranger to endorse me, and the video below explains how you can help me by doing this. I need voices of all ages, walks of life, and continents – because everyone has a stake in the natural world. To become one of my ultimate referees, just do these four things:

1. Get your pen and paper out and make a sign, or print one.

2. Take a happy snap with the sign – it could just be you, or with a local landmark, pet, park or doing something you love.

3. Send the picture(s) to me at dave4ranger AT gmail DOT com by the end of Sunday 5th May.

4. Use the sharing options below to spread the word about this post far and wide! In many ways this is the most important part – I’m putting my chances for getting this job in your hands.

Everyone who endorses me will be a part of my ‘ultimate referee’ package that will give me a shot at reaching the final. Think of it like a kickstarter, except it’s free for you to become a backer, and if it succeeds I’ll give you 6 months of great photos, videos and stories :-)

To see my initial application video and find out why I’m perfect for this job, click here.

The camera recalls what our minds erase

I remember this morning – it was one of the best of my life. But I don’t remember the fine detail, the seemingly infinite tree-covered mountains wrapped in fog stretching out to the south-east…

Click through for the full size image.

It’s almost unimaginable to me, here in London, that I was the only person to witness this scene. Thanks, old 40D, you were a good pal. New England National Park, Point Lookout, May 2010 – I must go back to this place!

This gives me ideas

I missed this one when it went viral in 2009, but back then I was planning my own adventures. Now, on a sunny London afternoon (yes, they exist), having just been for a walk in the park (… for those counting, this is a pre-scheduled post!) it seems like a fantastic idea.

But how far could I push myself on a project like this? A week? A month? A year? Where would I do it? China has many obstacles; the language would probably be one of the biggest. Also, though, the culture isn’t something that fascinates me. Europe? Or is it too developed to be fun? Australia? Would I survive the wilderness?

Would I walk, or ride a bike, or drive a car like I did in 2010?

At Congo, New South Wales, on a crisp winter afternoon...

Could I build surfing into the trip, and if so, how would I manage the gear? Could it be an amazing way to experience the United States?

As you can see, my head is buzzing with ideas. London has been an urban adventure, but it doesn’t sate in me the hunger awakened by my youth at the shack, then travel with my family aged 11, then 5 months with Dad aged 15, and my own adventures since.

That there is The Shack at Point Turton, and it holds some of my most precious memories.

If you navigate the map downwards (south) of those buildings, you can see a dark brown area of land – ‘the swamp’ – which we, as a handful of kids, used to explore and trek and play in. It was full of twisted trees and sheep bones and little mystery hideouts. We clambered through barbed wire fences and felt a sense of wonder at the world, but also what I can only describe as naturalness at being there, a state that can only be achieved when the journey is not about achieving ‘place x’ but simply to see what’s there.

OK, this is garbled and long, but it has planted a more determined seed than the existing one inside me which chatters away, vaguely telling me to ‘see more of the world’. It might not be tomorrow, it might not be this year, but… watch this space.

Memories aren’t disposable

This is a tribute. 6 years ago, I headed to Indonesia for a 3 week surf adventure. I took two of those classic little waterproof disposable cameras: no zoom or focus control, crazy colours and inevitable hours of waiting for the corner shop developer to finish with them.

Why am I talking about this now? Because the most excellent fearinenglish has recently posted about these little photographic gems, and I’ve been inspired to dig up some of my shots. Here’s a selection!

Stuck inside at Supersuck, aka the best wave in the world.

Racetrack at Uluwatu, fuzzily throwing out a barrel.

Tom stalling into, I think, the end bowl at G-Land?

Classic poo stance at sunset, Scar Reef, Sumbawa.

Money Trees, the second main section at G-Land, wedging up for a lucky punter.

These are probably painting a rosy picture of the somewhat awful little cameras – mysteriously, all the rubbish shots aren’t on my computer! They did give some magic moments though; I think this is the best shot I managed on about 15 of the beasts over about 5 years of mucking about with them.

An unknown at the epic Scar Reef evening session, July 2005. Was pretty stoked when this one came out of the packet...

So here’s to the disposable camera: bringing photographic glory, or at least the dream of it, into the clutching grasp of skint young-uns for years!

Bike, buildings, and a new design

This post does what it says in the title. Let’s do things in order, yeah?

Lonely bikes like this can be found all over Berlin.

This building is stunning. It's also huge. While the weather wasn't great, the sky made a dramatic backdrop.

Potsdamer Platz has gone through several incarnations; this is the most modern and dramatic architecture it's seen so far.

And finally, I stumbled across this blog design late last night. I like it a lot – simple, clean, with a dark border which brings out photos but still a white background for text. I think I’m going to stick with it for a while; let me know your thoughts!