by Steve Davey
Many people are familiar with the Pushkar Mela: the so-called Pushkar Camel Fair where camels are traded in the Rajasthan desert, but the same Kartik Poornima full moon in November sees a less well known but much larger festival that attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. The Sonepur Mela happens just outside of the town of Patna in Bihar at the village of Sonepur and is billed as being the largest livestock market in Asia. It is most famous for the Haathi Bazaar, where dozens of elephants are traded in a sprawling encampment under an shady canopy of ancient trees.
Every morning and afternoon, these great beasts are taken down to the river to be bathed, and then they have decorations applied to their skin with paint. This shows them off to their best advantage and helps the owner to command a higher price. Technically it is illegal to sell elephants in India and so the whole process is shrouded in mystery, and people work out an elaborate series of leases for the animals to circumvent the law.
Other animals are traded at the fair, including cattle, buffalo and horses. The buffalo market seems to be the most animated. Sellers argue loudly with the owners. Deals seem to be concluded by a group of buyers physically taking the buffalo. This is in complete contrast to the haathi bazaar where trading seems to progress at a slow pace, and then be concluded by touch with hands under a cloth, so that no one outside of the deal knows the agreement. Continue reading Sonepur
For a start I should probably explain that the name of Great Basin is rather misleading. By a basin most people understand a flat area surrounded by hills or mountains. In the case of the Great Basin it is a bit more complicated. For a start it is an absolutely huge region, not much smaller than the whole of Spain, but with a small population. The only real population centres are located on its edges. But more importantly it is not flat at all. In fact the Basin includes valleys, basins, lakes and mountain ranges of Basin and Range topography. For example driving the US Hwy 50 in Nevada includes crossing at least half a dozen substantial mountain ranges and the road often climbs up to 7000-8000 feet. (2100-2500m) above the sea level. They run parallel to each other and are roughly oriented from north to south.
If the landscape wasn’t wild enough then there was the weather. We were crossing the Basin at the same time as a cold front from the North Pacific stretched this way. That meant spectacular cloud formations, dark mysterious skies and snow. Yes we did experienced snowfall along with some freezing temperatures, especially crossing the mountain passes.
After spending some time in the Bay Area and later on the shores of Lake Tahoe (more about that later), we entered the Great Basin following the US Hwy 50 descending from the Sierra Nevada mountains towards the capital of the Silver State, Carson City.
After leaving the capitol we wondered around the downtown Carson City for a while. There is a surprising amount of nice historic buildings for such a small place. Carson City was obviously a much more important place in the second half of the 19th century, when it was centre of a massive mining boom, and it is clearly visible in its architecture. One of those old buildings, an old saloon, was for example converted into an interesting independent coffee shop. It was a really funky place where old pensioners wearing veteran’s hats sat alongside the middle aged hippies. What’s best, a lot of the historic features were preserved and you could clearly make out the layout of the old saloon.
But however hard the Carson City Convention and Visitors Bureau is trying to convince you otherwise, after just few hours there is not really much to do in the city. Luckily just east of the town stretches the vast and fascinating Great Basin. However, before venturing into the truly empty vastness, we decided to follow some advice from the same Carson City Convention and Visitors Bureau (staffed by lovely, if a bit overenthusiastic, volunteers) and head to the historic Virginia City which is located just 15 miles to the north east.
Today its population is less than a thousand and the town represents something of a cross between a ghost town, dilapidated local town (common in this region) and an amusement park. I’m still not sure what to make of it. The historic buildings are still there (kept in the state of managed disrepair so they don’t look to sweet) and many of them are quite interesting (like the Bucket of Blood Saloon, the Old Globe, the Silver Queen, and the Suicide Table) but at the same time they are nowadays mostly converted into tacky and kitschy gift shops full of crap. Still, it was interesting to visit the place where Samuel Clemens first used his pen name of Mark Twain when he was reporter of the local Territorial Enterprise. You might also seriously consider a visit here if you are interested in bikes. For some reason the town seems to be really popular among the bikers and plenty of them slowly ride along the main street. Also, in front of most of the saloons and shops are parked some spectacular machines. So if you are a “bike spotter” head there.
However interesting or lovely Carson City and Virginia City were the real reason to head this direction is the spectacular landscapes of the Great Basin.
by Kasia Nowicka
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We started our trip in Dunton Green station conveniently located less than a mile from the interesting junction 5 on M25 (the one where the M25 is joined by the M26 and A21). From the station we followed London Road and Sundridge Road, and after just a few minutes we were standing on an impressive overpass carrying the local Chevening Road right over the junction. It was a perfect spot for some good road photography (which I can then share on websites even more geeky than me).
For the first time,we hear the stories behind over 200 images taken by McCurry over the past 30 years from across the globe.