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Photo of the Year - Mark's story
![Photo of the Year - Mark's story](/u/news/photo-of-the-year-2013-winners-story.jpg)
We asked Mark Green, the winner of the Photo of the Year competition, to share with us the story of how he captured the prize-winning shot of the Angel Falls in Venezuela.
"As far as I remember this is how the story unfolded: Our group had made a very early pre-dawn start for the 3-4 hour motorised canoe journey up the Carao river from Canaima. The river forked after we had been going for a few hours and we continued up the narrower and faster Churun river until navigating a series of rapids and tight bends and suddenly catching our first partially obscured view over the lush forest of the magnificent Angel Falls towering above us and in full thundering flow....
We
disembarked the canoe and begin to climb ever more steeply upwards,
sweating profusely, through humid, muddy and primeval rainforest for
around an hour or so until we finally clambered up on to some slippery
rocks to a small clearing on a rocky ledge, perched a few hundred metres
above the valley floor.
There right in front of us, across the
river valley is an elemental scene of outstanding beauty. The Angel
Falls appear to be in full thunderous flow spilling over the top of the
1000m high plateau and plunging straight down in clouds of spray to the
valley below. The top of the falls was wreathed in cloud and the spray
was blown in all directions ensuring that we all got a good soaking and
making the small rocky ledge on which where we were perched extremely
slippery and hazardous. One bad slip and we would certainly disappear
over the precipitous edge falling vertically at least 200 to 300 metres
to an untimely end!
I steadied myself by sprawling out on the
ledge, adjusted my camera settings and exposure to 1/125 at f11 at ISO
100, prefocussed, dried my lens with a cloth, replaced the lens cap and
waited for what seemed to be ages until the clouds miraculously lifted a
little from the top of the falls and I had a reasonably full view of
the amazing scene in its entirety. I whipped the lens cap off which
had been shielding the lens from the spray and only had the briefest
opportunity of a few seconds to take 3 quick photos until the lens
became very wet with spray again and the clouds descended once again
obscuring the full views. I knew that I had been very lucky to have had
this chance of photographing this outstanding scene and hoped that the
outcome was successful. I was certain that the other photographers who
were all jostling for what little space there was on the ledge were not
as fortunate as I had been." Mark travelled to Venezuela on our Lost World Trek.
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Farewell to Wilderness Lectures
One summer’s day in 1987 Steve Berry (our MD) and fellow adventurer, Steve Marriott, were standing at the foot of the cliffs in Avon gorge. Having agreed that it was too hot to climb, they had been killing time in a ‘Wouldn’t it be great if…’ competition. This was when the fantasy of listening to the epic stories of their favourite heroes became a solid plan…
Since then, the two Steves and their caving friend Dick Willis, have organised more than 400 lectures whose general theme has been ‘Worldwide Adventure’. These epic stories have taken the audiences from the deepest point of the deepest ocean to the summit of Mount Everest, and from darkest, dankest inner spaces of our planet to even darker journeys in Outer Space. There have been mountaineers, sailors, cyclists, divers, balloonists, and even a man who cycled around the world on a penny farthing, and another who flew his car from Europe over the Straights of Gibraltar to Africa. There have been world famous explorers, record breakers, and people who have headed out into the remote unknown just for the hell of it.
Having run Wilderness for 36 years the three friends have decided to step back and retire so there will be no series this winter. However, they would be really happy if a younger individual, or a group of friends, would step forward to take over Wilderness and pick up where they are leaving off. If anyone is interested contact Wilderness Lectures here.
![NEW Naar Phu Circuit Trek](/u/news/naar-phu-circuit-trek-viewpoint-near-meta-village-300x200.jpg)
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Take a look at the full trip details here or speak to Harry in the Mountain Kingdoms office who completed the Naar Phu Circuit Trek earlier this year and rates it as the best he's ever done.
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If you love a festival, but hate muddy fields, tent villages and rubbish food then it may be time to look beyond Glastonbury and Reading. In our latest enews we reveal alternative festivals in the Himalaya and Mongolia that offer amazing music, unusual sports and unique cultural experiences.
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