My new custom Oakley Straight Jacket sunglasses.

Ive just designed and ordered these bad boys via the awesome Oakley website......

SPEC

Frame:  Smoke Grey                                                              

Lens: Gold Iridium

Lens Etching: Matt Kenney                                                                

Oakley Icon: Gunmetal Grey

Earsocks: Rootbeer                                                                            

Lug/Band: Matte Black

Set me back £175 but should be worth every penny. They're expected to take 5-7 days to arrive and there will be a thorough  product review when they do :-) 

Check out Oakley's website here. 

Re-Boot

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was kitted out with all my "going south" gear at the BAS clothing store in Cambridge.  Paul the clothing store guy was ultra efficient and in no time I was trying things on, and checking things out; it really did feel like the best christmas ever being handed over £1000 worth of top quality technical clothing and footwear! The compliment including base layers, mid layers, salopettes, Jackets, Thermal boiler suits, work wear, trousers, snow googles, sunglasses, gloves, balaclavas, woolen socks, pocket knife, water bottles etc etc, and 2 pairs of boots.  The whole issue goes into the kitbag for loading in the Ship's hold, but I took the boots away to start wearing them in:  A great pair of CAT work boots and an equally nice pair of Meindl hunting boots - they seem perfect for the varying terrain of SG.

My new CAT steel toe, waterproof work boots for the boatshed.

Meindl Glockner GTX - Gortex, waterproof and bulletproof!
.Both Photos taken by Me on my Samsung D73.

I will be bedding these in and expect a product review or two over the next few weeks.  They may even get tried on the North Yorkshire Moors in September.  Just gotta clean them thoroughly before their trip to SG due to very stringent anti - bio contamination measures.  Even so much as a foreign (i.e. British!) seed pod can upset the natural balance on South Georgia!

Happy Snapper....

Well, today I got to indulge in my first big purchase. One essential piece of equipment to my journey is a new Digital SLR camera, for all the stunning scenery South Georgia has to offer.

After plenty of indecision, reading reviews, asking friends and collegues, it boiled down to 2 contenders. The Canon EOS 50D and Nikon D90. In all respects 2 very similar cameras. The Canon is bulkier and abit heavier, but felt tough, but is more expensive than the Nikon. Now I am new to high end digital photography but it didnt take me long to realise there are 2 major camps and you fit into either one or the other. The rivalry between Nikon and Canon photgraphers is surprisingly akin to Portsmouth-Saints, Celtic-Rangers, Chevy-Ford...... the only difference is that the Canon-Nikon camps are sepaerated by almost indefinable differences. It really, so I am told, comes down to personal choice. It is perhaps telling that out of 6 very keen amateur and semi professional photographers I consulted, 5 were Nikon, and only one sat firmly in the Canon camp. Even he admitted the Nikons had caught up at the very least, and would consider a D series. It seems that most say that you have to feel each one, touch it, press the buttons, hold it up to shoot, and one will "talk" to you more than the other, and thats the one you choose........ BUT........ the thinking man will always choose the Nikon path.

Well, not feeling the Zen, I kinda slipped tripped and fell into the Nikon camp, and I am now the Very proud owner of a Nikon D90 with an 18 to 105mm kit lense, and a 30-300mm Telephoto. Its lovely, and despite not actually testing it for real yet, I am happy to pin my colours to the Nikon mast. Come on you REDS!

Here she is.....

See the brochure HERE!