Backpacking Around The World.
An interview with Hilary Fouweather
I first met Hil 13 years ago when I joined our local Mountain Rescue Team. From the outset her love of travel and adventure was evident. Recently returned from a ’round the world’ backpacking trip Hil has been kind enough to share with us some of her experiences of the trip and some tips and compromises when travelling with limited gear - Melanie.
Melanie: I know you love to travel, what is it about travel that you love?
Hil: I really like the idea of going somewhere different each time and not really knowing what the outcome will be. Its definitely the ‘uncertainty of the outcome’ which gives me the real buzz.
Melanie: Your budget for travel is not endless, how do you manage to travel so often and to remote regions?
Hil: I spend my money on ‘experiences’ rather than accommodation. I always go for the cheap accommodation option where possible, looking for the ‘backpacker choice’ rather than a hotel. If street food isn’t cheap I look for a communal kitchen option where I can choose to eat fresh food rather than expensive junk food on the move.
Melanie: Has photography always been a part of your trips?
Hil: In the 80′s and 90′s I was travelling to the European Alps each year on various snow and ice trips.It started off just being a simple record of each trip.
Melanie: You have just returned from an eight-month round- the-world trip, how long did it take you to plan and where did you go?
Hil: The planning was shared between 2 people because it was a bit daunting to sort it out individually. We spent nearly a year putting our ideas together and researching websites. We had to finalise dates very early on in order to sort out our round the world tickets. Towards the end of the 8 months there were no flight schedules available so we had to put in the wrong dates (too early!) and then change them at a later date when flight times became available.
We spent the first 2 months in Nepal doing 2 long treks. Then we spent a month in Southern Thailand, fitting in as much sea kayaking as the budget would allow! We then had 10 days in Cambodia to see Angkor Wat. Northern Laos for three and a half weeks was our next stop followed by 5 weeks in Vietnam. We then had 2 months in New Zealand and finally 3 weeks in Hawaii.
Melanie: How did you decide what to take?
Hil: The 20 kg weight allowance was a real challenge. We were carrying a bit of camping gear –sleeping bags and thermarests, collapsible cups and bowls and a tent in New Zealand so both space and weight was at a real premium. I had an 85litre rucksack as my main luggage and packing that was a work of art!
Melanie: What photographic gear did you take with you?
Hil: I took a Nikon D70 with an 18-200mm Nikkor VR lens. I couldn’t get another lens in my weight allowance so I chose this one because its such a good travel lens covering most eventualities. For back up I carried a Fuji Finepix E900 which I used for quick ‘snaps’ and numerous sea kayaking days. I took 12GB of compact flash cards for the Nikon and 2GB of xD cards for the Fuji. I took 2 lots of spare batteries for both cameras, a Nikon charger and a small travel size AA/AAA charger for the Fuji and to charge batteries for my headtorch. I took 1 universal plug adaptor which worked everywhere except Hawaii. I had a close fitting bag for each camera and apart from when I left Manchester I got away with not putting my SLR in my small rucksack hand luggage and therefore carrying it as a separate item. The rule of having only one piece of hand luggage seemed to be largely ignored but I did make sure I could cram it into my rucksack at the last moment if necessary. I bought a Manfrotto Modo tripod to take with me but at the last moment left it out as I just couldn’t fit it in my 20kg allowance. (I did buy a’ cheap and nasty’ one in Khatmandu which fell apart on the first trek and after much haggling was replaced. I found even a ‘tatty’ one was really useful in Cambodia but eventually I ditched it because I just couldn’t carry it any more!). It wasn’t easy packing for temperatures of –10 Celsius in Nepal and 35 degrees elsewhere! Perhaps the most important bit of kit photographically speaking was my Epson P2000 photostorage device which gave me 40GB of storage.
Melanie: Did you make any arrangements for backing up your images, other than the Epson P2000.
Hil: When I got the opportunity I downloaded photos onto DVD’s in internet places so that I had copies to send home. I kept the originals on the Epson but in New Zealand I started to run out of space. However, I was very lucky because a friend joined me with a very small mini computer and external hard drive and I managed to back up photos on that before I removed them off the Epson to make room for more. I only managed to do this because my Nikon was only 6 megapixels. I started to run out of space because in N.Z. I switched to a friends Nikon D200 with 10 megapixels. I was shooting in Raw for the most part but I would have had to shift to jpeg without the access to another hard drive. 40GB for 8 months is not enough!
Melanie: How did you manage in the more remote areas where you had no access to electricity?
Hil: The only place we really had to be careful was in Nepal on the 18 day and 23 day treks. The spare batteries lasted everywhere but we made sure we didn’t view our photos until we got back to ‘civilisation’ and had access to electricity. It wasn’t easy not taking a ‘sneak’ at the photos ‘on the move’.
Melanie: Were there areas where you felt uncomfortable about taking photographs?
Hil: I spent a lot of time in remote villages but I always made sure I asked before taking a photo. I was only refused once in a remote village in Northern Laos where the local women were clearly uncomfortable with the camera. However, in a neighbouring village as I wandered round a local gentleman grabbed me by the arm and beckoned me into a grass hut and I was then asked to photograph a young couple who had got married that day! I felt quite privileged to be there. When I got back to a local town a week later I managed to get some copies printed and arranged for someone to walk to the village to deliver them as promised.It did mean that I did miss out on the odd ‘candid’ photo but that was a small price to pay for being somewhere special and seeing something special. I like to think I’m not obsessed with taking a photograph. Sometimes you do have to settle for just storing it in the memory bank however poor that is!
Melanie: On this trip which spots did you enjoy photographing most and why?
Hil: On this trip there were so many photographic highlights its really difficult to single out a small list. My first view of the Annapurna range when I was above 4000m on the Annapurna circuit did make me gasp with sheer delight. The hill tribe villages of Northern Laos were full of really welcoming people. These people were extremely poor but seemed so content with their lot and were happy to show us round. They were rightly proud of their village and the photos taken there are so full of life and viewing them now transports me straight back. It just felt like a real treat staying with people who have nothing and share everything. It seems to be the one country in S.E. Asia not ‘chasing the dollar’.However Angkor Wat takes some beating as far as the ‘Wow’ factor is concerned. I explored it for 3 days and wished I’d organised a 6 day pass such were the photographic opportunities.
Melanie: Were there spots where the conditions were not right and you’d give your right arm to
go back and photograph again?
Hil: It’s probably true that there were plenty of places where I didn’t make the most of the photo opportunities ( Halong Bay in Northern Vietnam was grey and dull for all 4 days of our trip) but I try never to ‘look backwards’ and just move on to the next trip and look forward to new experiences rather than trying to ‘improve’ on the ‘old’ ones. I rarely travel long distances to revisit a specific location. There are too many other places on my list to visit!
Melanie: In terms of photography what were the worst points during your trip?
Hil: A week before I set off I noticed that the display on the control panel on my Nikon didn’t always go off when I switched the camera off. After a further 2 weeks it refused to switch off at all! I could still take a photo with the switch in the off position! Although permanently on the control panel display was using only a miniscule amount of battery power so it wasn’t really draining the battery. Since I wasn’t carrying a second lens I didn’t need to worry about changing lenses with the camera still switched on. It basically stayed on for the next 8 months! I tried to get it repaired in a camera shop in Khatmandu but the part alone was £100 and there was no guarantee it would have been fixed so I just had to put up with it. However much more serious was a mugging in Hanoi very early one morning when my travelling companion had her D70 torn from her grasp by a mugger on a motorbike. Her D70 had also developed a fault with the formatting of cards. I was having to format all her cards in my D70 so the mugger got less than he bargained for. Getting a police report took a whole day and would have been impossible without the help of the receptionist from the hotel. Amazingly we managed to replace it with a new D300 and the 18-200mm lens from the Tax Department store in Hanoi with a considerable saving on British prices. Unfortunately Canon and Nikon seem to be no longer giving out international warranties with new cameras so she ended up with a Japanese warranty.
Melanie: Do you have insurance for your photographic equipment?
Hil: I’ve made sure my camera equipment is covered on my house insurance rather than taking out a specialised camera insurance.
Melanie: When is your next trip and where?
Hil: My next big trip is in September and October of this year. I plan to do a 24 day trek starting in Manali in the Himachal Pradesh area of India, travelling through various regions of Ladakh and Zanskar, and a further trip to the
Nanda Devi area for a series of short treks.
Melanie: Do you have any recommendations based on your own experience for others who
may want to undertake a similar trip?
Hil: It’s really important to do your research before you go so that you are aware of what’s possible. This allows you to make better use of the time available in the country. I always set out a rough itinerary so I can see what can be fitted in but it must not be ‘fixed in stone’. There is however no substitute for local knowledge and your plans must be flexible enough to be able to make use of new ideas if they are presented to you. As always word of mouth is hugely important and gleaning info from fellow travellers can help you to make choices as long as they are like minded!
Melanie: It’s been wonderful to catch up with you and to to hear about your trip. As and when you get chance to go through your images send me some, I will upload them here. Good luck with your next adventure, I believe you may have a new camera by then.
