Today was the 5th annual Ride To The Wall. This is a mass ride by bikers, many of them ex armed services, from all over the British Isles to the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas in Staffordshire.

I set off with a group of about 500 other motorcycles fro the Leicester East services and we rode the 60 miles to the NMA with amazing support from both the police and the RTTW marshals. I have no idea how many bikes finnaly converged at the arboretum but it was way up in the several thousands.

The weather was glorious, and although it is a fairly solemn occasion you could not have a gathering of several thousand ex armed forces bikers without having a pretty good time to.

I met up with an old army buddy, Steve Bartlett who I have not seen for over 25 years. Unfortunately he still has a lot more hair than me.

We had a very busy (and long) weekend at The Midland Game Fair at Weston Park, Shropshire. We had to be on site by 07:00 hrs each day which meant getting up at 05:00 to get the dogs sorted and to drive there. The show was smaller than it has been in the past but there were plenty of “last show of the season bargains”. There was no arena display or working for the Irish Water Spaniels but we did have a presence in the Gun Dog Pavilion, and as we only had 4 dogs there we did spend a lot of time in the pen. There were just over 100 Irish Water Spaniel puppies registered with the Kennel Club last year against over 40000 Labradors, yet when it came to the parade of gun dogs there were no labs to be seen so Harley had to step into the breach and Teresa had her introduction the display ring.

One of the great benefits of being out and about in the early morning,particularly in Autumn is the quality of the light and the combination of the golden morning light and the start of the rusty fall colours is stunning.



The ring had been set up for scurries so it made getting decent pictures quite difficult, but you should be able to pick out some of the more interesting characters

The weekend of the 9th and 10th of July saw the annual running of the Sporting Irish Water Spaniel Club Water Test and Working Gundog Test in the grounds of Chillington Hall in Staffordshire.

I had hoped to run my IWS bitch Sookie in the Puppies 12 - 18 months class, but with her impeccable timing she came into season a couple of weeks ago so I could not take her.

It was an excellent weekend the venue was glorious and the weather was very kind indeed. I think Sookie would have done well as she is easily at or above the standard of the other dogs in her class, mind you it is easy for me to say that given that she was not there

Here are a few pictures from a great weekend.



This is John Rolfe the Chairman of the Sporting Irish Water Spaniel Club running his dog Corcoran Cass

So today was our last full day on the island, all we have to look forward to tomorrow is a knock on our door at 05:30, a swift breakfast followed by a 35 minute seaplane trip to Male, a couple of hours kicking our heels at Male Airport and then an 11 hour flight to Gatwick and a 3 hour drive home. After two weeks of doing very little indeed the itinerary for tomorrow is grim. As if to rub salt into the wounds the weather today has been perfect, clear blue sunny skies all day culminating in an almost perfect sunset.

As they say, “All good things must come to an end” and it looks as if they are right

It’s our last full day on the island tomorrow so the weather did it’s best today to really rub in how much we are going to miss it. Last chance to dive today as there is an enforced 24 hour between the last dive and the flight so I went down to say good by to all my new found fishy friends and it seemed that today was the day that everything wanted it’s picture taken, even a parrot fish decided to show me his best side.



And this little fellow was doing his best to look as cute as possible



This trigger fish even wanted to show me how clean he kept his teeth



And it was not jus the little stuff that was anxious to be recorded for posterity, these chaps also wanted to get in on the act.





On the surface, this guy was happy to hang around and have is portrait taken.



So the only wildlife that really wasn’t playing was T





We watched an air taxi depart this afternoon knowing that the day after tomorrow we will also be departing, the only thing I am looking forward to getting back to is the dogs.

Our plans to get away to a deserted island for our wedding anniversary on the 25th did not work out well. We had a storm of wind , rain, thunder and lightning that lasted all day, discretion being the greater part of valour we decided to stay on Angaga and catch up on some sleep.

The weather today could not be a greater contrast blazing sunshine all day, I kicked off the day with a dive and then spent the rest of the day doing as little as possible, with the exception of discovering that the barman makes a very strong “Long Island Iced Tea”

This is Michael Schauppner from Seelze in Germany, he has been my regular dive buddy, which is pretty good going considering he is here on his honeymoon!



This is not Michael








And this is Teresa my Non-Dive Buddy

The day started off nice and bright. We went to wave off a couple that we met on the island, they were leaving on the 10:30 air taxi to Male, it was sunny and warm, their plane was slightly delayed, and they left at about 11. We waved them off, walked back to our bungalow and the rain started, it is now three feature films later and it is still raining.














It’s coming on for 19:30 and it’s still raining.

We had a very relaxed and quiet Sunday today, a latish breakfast and then a stroll around the island. We had a relaxed swim to cool off, and then decided to have a snorkle along the reef, so minus camera we set off and had a great drift along the coral, Teresa getting very excited as she spotted the shark . then it was back to chilling and relaxing, Chillaxing is the new term I understand.

I took a few pictures around the island today, these should give you some idea of just how small the island is. The water bungalows look ok but we have stayed in them on a previous trip to another island and both Teresa and I prefer to be on the beach.

We are heading off to an even smaller island soon as we are being cast adrift on our own deserted island to celebrate our wedding anniversary on the 25th.













If you look really closely below you can just make out Teresa reading her book in the shade.

We have been here almost a week now, and I seem to have spent all my time either in or under the water, it is not surprising as there is so much to see, every trip turns into a veritable beauty parade of marine life. Teresa is going a lovely golden brown and I remain white and wrinkled (from the water not from age tut tut)

It is not just the “Big Stuff” that is exciting underwater, some of the shrimps that work the cleaning stations are almost glass like and unbelievably delicate.



But the big stuff is also fun, we had a great display from some eagle rays that almost looked like they were showing off.









You can’t visit the Maldives without trying to get the “Ultimate Maldives Cliche Shot” so here it is





As we came to the end of the reef and started to ascend up the sand we came upon a very knackerd shark that was trying to get a bit of shut eye. Unfortunately we woke him up.



And just because I really like them here is a Batfish for you.

We awoke this morning to the most amazingly calm day, there was not a movement on the water and you genuinely could not work out where the water stopped and the sky began, I went for a dive at 10 o’cock and the water was as clear as gin. Unfortunately with there being no breeze you really feel the temperature, but we are definitely not complaining.

Another interesting trip under the water today. You must have seen films of sharks swimming with other fish stuck firmly to their undersides (I can’t remember what they are called, it’s an age thing) well today my dive buddy and I swam thorough a group of them who promptly decided that they could not be bothered to wait for sharks any longer and that we were the next best thing, they were a real nuisance for a while.



Here are some pretty yellow fish, because I like pretty yellow fish.



And now for a “Beauty and the Beast” moment, some of the things you find in the Indian Ocean are very ferocious and ugly, others are completely serene and beautiful, I will let you be the judges

When we arrived everyone told us that the weather had been hot overcast and very wet the previous week, well we have seen none of that, we have had dawn to dusk sunshine since we arrived. The island really is very small but there is lots of palms and mangroves and plenty of crabs, herons, fruit bats and some other very friendly birds that I have not found out the names of yet.

I have not taken too many pictures above the water yet, I am sure I will get round to it eventually. Here are a couple from today to give you a bit of a feel for the place. The first is the jetty where the dive boats set off from and the second two are “Our little bit of beach” directly outside our beach bungalow.







Another interesting day under the water, so here are a couple of highlights ...









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The island is tiny, which is great, you can walk around it in less than 10 minutes, the sand is soft and white, the water clear and warm and the villa is clean and comfortable, what more could you ask for? Well a good house reef for a start and by any standards this one is not so bad

I spent a wee bit of time in the water today just to get used to the new camera housing, I still need to practice practice practice but for a first effort they are not so bad.













Teresa went to the spa for a massage this afternoon and on the way there (all of 100 yards we came across this guy.


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Unfortunately it was an interesting and very long flight. Spending10 hours in seats with a 30 inch rake is not ideal when you are a 6’6” fat boy. And that was in premium the best upgrade we could get (for get read pay for). About 4 hours into the flight the Captain came on the PA telling us that he was considering diverting to Turkey to unload the passenger who was incapable of going 10 hours without a cigarette and lit up in one of the toilets. What is it with some people, just how weak and selfish do you have to be to do that? Anyway, we did not divert to Turkey and I have no idea what happened to the miscreant when we arrived in Male.

Male was hot and humid when we arrived and it was a about an hour and a half before we set off in a Twin Otter air taxi to the island of Angaga.


Male must have one of the busiest air taxi ranks in the world, there are at least 3 companies working out of there and flights are departing and coming in every minute or so.




Our pilot was a cool looking dude and despite the fact that they must fly these routes all the time sat nav is still the way to go.





After a 30 minute flight we got our first look at what is to be our home for the next two weeks.


So we had the longest day possible up at 0600:hrs Sunday to sort out the dogs and cats, a drive to Gatwick the nonsense 3 hours kicking around at the airport a 10 hour flight with no sleep, a couple of hours waiting for the air taxi and the flight and then we arrived.

This is Teresa sitting in reception awaiting the keys to our villa, I wish I looked this good after 30 hours without sleep!