He’s one of my favourite photos from Loule Carnaval, and let me tell you, things can get a bit wild there.  It’s a while since I entered a photographic competition, so when I discovered that my friends at Blacks were hosting one with a pretty wild prize, I thought it was time to have a go.  It’s just a bit of fun really, but you never know where it might lead, do you?

The prize is £2000 to spend with adventure travel experts Explore.   When I opened the link to them and read “Burma for under £2000”, I was convinced to enter!  They organise walking tours and wildlife tours, and cycling tours, of course.  I wondered what a ‘tame’ option like rail journeys would offer and was beyond excited when I saw ‘Japan by rail’ and ‘India by rail’.  Go and have a look at the boat journeys ‘to die for’!  The Nile on a felucca or the Maldives on a dhoni?  I’ve taken a gulet cruise off the Turkish coast, so that’s one less to think about.

So, now you need to know what to do.  Simply, compose a blog post around the subjects ‘Wild, Fast, Panoramic, Epic’.  I’ll give you more details later but for now you should know that Leo the Lion, up there, is my entry for Wild. Well- you can go pretty fast with two pedalling, can’t you?

In case you haven’t guessed, this is my entry for Fast.  They do say at Blacks that you should be creative, and certainly have fun with it.  I haven’t made it onto that Shinkansen train yet, but I have been to Barcelona.  Stick with what you know, right?  El Quatre Gats was a venue for one of the most creative artists our planet has ever known.  I was walking in the footsteps of Picasso.

I looked up Epic in my dictionary to be sure of the meaning and it seemed to have connotations of history and grandeur.  A few places came to mind, but in the end I decided on Warsaw’s amazing reconstruction of Stare Miasto, the Old Town.  Nothing can have been on a more epic scale than the rebuilding that was necessary after it’s total annihilation in World War 2.

And while I’m in Poland I thought I’d finish on a slightly different, interesting panorama.  I was rather surprised by these chess pieces the last time I was in Krakow.  I’m returning next week for a family wedding so I’ll have to check if they’re still there.  Hope you like my Panoramic entry.

So now you need some competition details, but you have to promise me not to win!  Otherwise how will I get to Burma or the Maldives?  The closing date for entry is Monday, May 5th at midnight.  You need to tweet your post to Blacks #epicadventures or put it on their Facebook page.  Full details are in the link.

I hesitate to wish you luck.  Oh, go on then!  Good luck!  But expect to be struck off the friend list if you win.