My Travels Around the World

Tag: Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III

Borneo and the Proboscis Monkeys

August 21-September 1, 2022

My friend Ruthi and I visited Borneo in August-September 2022. We traveled with Natural Habitat Adventures (@NaturalHabitatAdventures) and our fabulous expedition leader Harsha Jayaramalah and local guide supreme Bedley Asun. We spent 12 days traveling around the country from the south to the north seeing wildlife that can only be found right here in Borneo. I was mostly in charge of photography with my two OM Systems OM D-E M1 Mark III and my Olympus 12-100 f4 and my Olympus 100-400 F5.6. Ruthi also shot with the OM Systems, but she was more responsible for videos.

There is so much to write.  So much to tell. So there will be multiple posts, some focused on specific wildlife, some on the cities and the rivers and the amazing resorts we stayed in. But this post is on monkeys. But not just any monkeys. This post is about monkeys you may have never heard of. The proboscis monkeys.

Proboscis Monkeys

The proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) is also called the long-nosed monkey, because, of course, the males have a very, very large and long nose (note the females have small noses)! It can only be found Borneo and is one of the reasons Ruthi and I wanted to travel here.

Karen and Tony Barone – Artists Supreme

April 2021

Those of you who follow Journeys With Sonia know that I write about places, not people. But in this time of the COVID-19  pandemic, anything goes.

I found myself back in the desert in April 2021. It was still the COVID-19 pandemic. No one was going inside restaurants. No one was seeing people. We were all masked. So it was time for another art tour/road trip. This time to see rabbits (well, it was almost Easter). But these were not just any rabbits. These weree nine aluminum rabbit sculptures by local artists, Karen and Tony Barone.

Desert X

March 14-15, 2021

Yes, still COVID, still not traveling the world and still writing about local sights. This time I am in the Palm Springs area in California. It is a beautiful desert surrounded by beautiful mountains.

Once a year there is an art exhibition called Desert X taking place all over the surrounding towns. I have never been before, so what better time than during quarantine. It is all outdoors, so safe for everyone. I masked up, got in my car, and off I went. There were ten exhibits and little did I know it would take about six hours.

Western Grebe Pas de Deux at Lake Hodges

January 14, 2021

Those of you familiar with my blog know that I love to travel to places off the beaten track, the exotic, the hard to reach. My motto is get there before Starbucks does (although I love my Starbucks at home). But in this time of the pandemic, with Covid-19 nipping at our heals, with hundreds of thousands of people dying and with all the experts saying “Stay home,” there is no travel to be done. So we don our masks and make the best of it.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t safely explore our own surrounds. While I have traveled the world, it seems I have missed some beautiful sights in my own backyard. Luckily, I have a friend who also loves to shootpictures so we have been exploring, all at a safe distance and all while wearing masks.

Which is how I got to Lake Hodges. I had never been to Lake Hodges, although it is only 30 minutes from my home.

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