Kuwait Day 8 - Souk Salah - The Weapons Market

“Do we really want to go out in that?” I asked Matt, pointing at the darkening clouds and the flat blobs of rain splatting down on the road in front of us.

“Why not?” boomed the 61 year old Texan in his baritone voice, “It’ll be an adventure”

So off we went to Souk Salah, the Weapon’s Market. As awesome and horrific as that sounds, it’s a historic name for Kuwait City’s oldest market, and in fact has no weapons in sight. I was pleased to discover this when a friendly local suggested it early in the day. And if my American counterpart was game for getting a cab to some far flung part of the city and exploring I certainly wasn’t going to back down!

The aforementioned rain put paid to our plans to film the city (for the fourth time) today, and so off we set. Our adventure got off to a somewhat shaky start, as we first had to go to a money exchange to get Matt’s dollars turned into local Dinars, at which point he’d realised he’d left his glasses in the hotel. Our Bangladesh taxi driver then took us to Souk Saliah - which was at the wrong end of town. As it turns out, the money exchange was in the Souk Salah itself, and so we set off retracing our steps once again.

Memories of Egypt and some stereotypical ideas made me expect a buzzing bazaar, ride with shouting locals and hordes of vendors trying to lure you into their shops and to see the latest alabaster models at their stalls. Nothing could be further from what i’d expected. Covent Garden is more down market and pushy, and for the first two hours we had the shops to ourselves. Not once did anyone try and lure us into a shop, nothing but polite straightforwardness. It was brilliant! That’s not to say there weren’t the typical characters and friendly nutters you’d hope to find at a large market.

"I love Americans", hopefully he likes us brits too...

After a spot of shopping and explaining to Matt how wearing local thawbs (full length tunics) would make us look like “twats” or “twots” as he insisted on pronouncing it, we stopped for tea. The locals were friendly, everyone in the tea parlour greeting us and smiling. And before we had time to pay at the end, we discovered a local had treated us to the drinks on him. He wanted nothing in exchange, he was simply being hospitable.

This old dude was too awesome to not photo.

Some further shopping and a bit of bartering later we headed back to the hotel on foot and got thoroughly lost in the process. Spotting a Costa Coffee house we decided to have a spot of coffee and see if we could ask someone to point us in the right way. Before we got inside a friendly trio of locals spoke to us “Hello, where are you from?”, “Ah American! English! Thank you, thank you for freeing Kuwait” he went on to say after we’d introduced ourselves. We then ended up treated to more coffee at our hosts insistence “No thank you, you saved us from Saddam. George Bush very good. Mrs Thatcher very good.”

The best thing about travelling is meeting open minded interesting people. We chewed the fat with perfect strangers for the best part of two hours. We laughed at each other’s jokes, shared stories, talked politics and religion (both Matt’s favorite subjects), and I even managed to sneak in my Top Gear story - much to the amazement of my new friend Sala, a big fan of the show. 

And they even helped me dress up to like like a twot....

Sala, Ben of Arabia, Abdul and Nayve

Wyoming Days 5,6,7 - Riverton to Black Hills

My god! The last few days have gone by in a blur.

In fact, apart from an hour's flying this morning we've actually finished.

The week has gone quickly and it's been pretty intense. The blog has suffered as I've been almost without internet for four days. I cannot suggest strongly enough not to stay at the Hampton Inn - the internet speeds are a complete joke!

Fortunately, back at the Best Western, or Best Worsten as we lovingly call it, the internet is back and once we get back from today's shoot I'll be able to update this blog properly!

Wyoming Day 3 & 4 - Rawlins to Riverton

Holy moly I have gone and made a video:

Fortunately the sounds, image quality and balance of the finished Skyworks product is much much better, but it's still not bad for a GoPro camera. Afixing it on the outside of the helicotper was pretty nerve racking - but I put my new knot tying skills to the test as a backup in case the mount dislodged.

The sound is awful, the picture needs colour correction, the editing is sloppy (seems my aging Mac just cannae cope with 1080p footage) - but at the end of the day it looks pretty sweet!


We finally saw a Moose! Well three of them. In the middle of a bloody desert! We spent hours scouring the mountains of Montana where they are supposed to be, only find find them lurking where they shouldn't. Silly Moose. Is the plural still Moose, or perhaps Meese like Geese? Silly Meese. Yeah, that sounds good (despite being totally wrong, I'm sure).

Day four and we've settled into our groove. Despite terrible weather and a warning on thunder storms, we managed to dodge the worst of it successfully all day. Well, I say that - we were at times filming through the rain, but if you zoom in on a wide aperture you can filter out all the rain drops anyway so the footage still looked stunning. Richard got a bit wet in the front - it seems the Helicopter isn't that waterproof.

As we were flying along, Simon the pilot pointed out that we lack callsigns for when we radio Colin. So we are now "The Septic Chickens", calling "Mother Goose". Mother Goose delivered in spades today, bringing us Ice Cream to the landing pad at lunch time from Wyoming's famous Ice Cream parlour.

That combined with a huge burger and fries shortly after seems to have filled me up completed. I didn't even eat any supper!

The weather forecast is equally bad for today - but we are hoping to get off the ground and get up in the air regardless. Only two more filming days to go! How time flies.

Wyoming Day 2 - Cheyenne to Rawlins

Another day, another long long day. So long in fact, that darkness had once again decended before I'd finished checking the tapes. But, the good news is we are caught up and back on schedule. The bad news is that I'm so knackered that after our meal at an awesome 50's style diner (buffalo burger and salad), I got back and went straight to bed. Just now, as I started writing this, I had to open up Google Maps and press the "current location" button just to check where I am!

We were all looking forward to staying at the Hampton Inn - good comfy beds, normally nicely kitted out, "probably have pretty fast internet" said Richard. No luck on that last count. Just loading the blog took about 2 minutes. It's the slowest connection I've ever used. Simon took a great pic of me yesterday allegedly - the internet is too slow to download it. So I can neither view it nor upload it here. In fact I can't upload any photos.

On the plus side this means I can claim to have filmed or done any number of things. So I shall. Yesterday we filmed a herd of elephants, all mounted by heavily armored monkeys in the process of staging a riot outside the local police station. Then we had a small spaceship fly alongside us, and established first contact with another world. Then finally as we stopped for lunch, a bald eagle popped over, hopped in the helicopter, started it up and took it for a spin. He brought it safely back, jumped out and gave us a look as if to say 'not bad'. Pics to follow soon....

Wyoming Day 2 - Rapid City (SD) to Cheyenne

Today was a long and arduous day. No really - it was a day so long and tiring that by the time we got to the hotel in the evening I actually fell asleep in the lobby whilst waiting for us to check in. Richard had to wake me up! How embarassing...

The start of the day was beset with small problems. Our missing bracket finally arrived, and we spent a couple of hours fitting it. Then we went for a test flight, and shot some air to air stuff around Crazy Horse. Simon found that the helicopter was only delivering 98% of its power, and so the next couple of hours were spent tuning up the Jet Ranger to get those missing 2%. Ordinarily that might sound like perfectionism gone mad - particularly when were were starting so late in the day, but a Jet Ranger with a Cineflex and three people and all the gear is pretty heavy - those 2% matter a lot!

Finally, we set off and roared into the skies of Wyoming.

I shot a bit of footage on my GoPro - and have decided the mount is useless. I'm going to try and improvise tomorrow, but it looks like it's sat on a washing machine on full spin.

Due to our late start, we weren't able to stop for lunch. So I ate a packet of beef jerky, a banana and a bag of popcorn. Nice.

The rest of the day went well, and we landed just as night was falling. The footage came out perfect, and all in all our first filming day went swimmingly.


I also made an interesting observation (at least to me - everyone else will no doubt find it utterly dull). At the end of the day, we need to charge up a battery that we use to run the system at the end of the day once the helicopter has powered down and I'm checking tapes. Charging the battery up is a bit of a pain, as you aren't supposed to do it in a hotel room or office room (due to the very small chance of leakage of noxious fumes). So we need to get it into a hanger and leave it on charge over night. And I've observed the following.

1) If I walk into the terminal and ask if we can charge our battery, they say no.
2) If I bring the battery into the terminal (it's big - like a car battery), hold it up, and say can I charge it, they say yes. If I ask where and explain it can't be in an office they will often say "sorry, we can't help"
3) If I bring the battery into the terminal, hold it up, and say "Hey, can we charge this up, we normally leave it in a hanger overnight", they say yes, without question, every time.

What I'm asking is the same each time, but it's the way I ask that makes the difference.


Oh, and cos this post is just a wall of text, here's a picture that made me laugh:

Wyoming Day 1 - The Rig

Like the four horsemen of the apocalypse we have returned. Death, War, Famine and Pestilence as the locals have named us, or Richard, Colin, Simon and myself as we're actually called.

On our last adventure we filmed the top left bit of Wyoming (Yellowstone National Park), and now we're back to finish the job and finish the state. No corner will be left unshot. No bird's nest will be left undisturbed as we roar through the sky.. ahem. No. We're actually quite discreet and most of the time you'd struggle to know we're there!

This shoot is going to be our shortest yet in the USA. With only about three quarters of the state left to film, we'll be done and dusted and back home by the 29th - only 9 days from now! Upcoming highlights to include The Devil's Tower (of Close Encounters Fame)

Our helicopter might, just might, look a bit smaller than this mother of a mothership.

oil refineries, bison, a statue of a fictional animal called a Jackalope, some truly awesome looking mountain ranges, bits of road, some farming activity no doubt, a Uranium mining region (thank god we wear haz mat suits in the helicopter - oh wait), and a raft of other places.

Today though, was about setting up the rig. I attempted to film a timelapse on my go-pro camera system, but I think it failed miserably. I'll see what I can salvage and put together in a minute. All the kit is working well, though we're waiting for a mount to turn up tomorrow morning before we head off and start out shoot!

The kind on the left, not the right.

Montana & Wyoming Day 14 - Deer Lodge, MT to Idaho Falls, ID

WE DID IT!

Bam. Montana = done!

What an awesome couple of weeks it has been, i've had the most awesome of times and am completely drained and knackered. As I write this it's Friday 13th, and we are having a well deserved break. I'm going to update this very soon, complete with pics (there are some great ones), and will fill in all the details.

But not yet. Nope, right now I'm going to chill with a pint of well deserved Bud. What a fantastic journey!

(and it ain't over yet - tomorrow the holiday begins)!

Montana & Wyoming Day 13 - Butte, MT to Deer Lodge, MT

(see above - text to follow shortly)

Montana & Wyoming Day 12 - Dreggs, ID to Butte, MT

We finally made it back to Montana today! Hurrah! The day got off to a flying start - no, literally, we went flying (I can't believe I haven't used that terrible pun yet). We took off out of Dreggs (actually called Driggs - but where's the fun in spelling it correctly when it's so close to sounding awesome), heading back east to Wyoming

This morning we filmed some of the most awe inspiring epic stuff we have ever filmed, I reckon.

I don't have an actual screenshot, but it was like this:

'cept we were flying at 100mph at what felt like 5 ft above the water. One of the most epic locations on earth, methinks. The light was good, we were all in a good mood and it just felt like such an awesome start to the day.

After this, we transitioned briefly back through Idaho before returning to Montana. Montana is such a pretty state, immediately after crossing the continental divide we were greeted with rolling hills, lush forests, lakes, rivers, and not a single bloody animal! We did not see any sign of life all day. I was starting to think perhaps an earthquake was inbound - it was as if all the animals had left. Apart from cows, but they are too boring to really count (and probably too stupid to get out of the way of an earthquake).

We still have yet to film a moose. This saddens me, as they are comical looking beasts.

Derp

We filmed another ghost town, some more lakes, general picturesque stuff, before ending up in the town of Butte. A pretty early end to the day, as we need to get the helicopter in for maintenance (which is hopefully being finished off as I write this). 

I bought a shirt that makes my american get-up from last week look very, very tame. Pictures to follow in due course - the rest of the crew needs to see it in the flesh first and I don't want to ruin the surprise. 

Butte, or butt, as we call it - is an old mining town, which more recently became a new mining town as the price of copper has soared, making it profitable to start pulling it out of the town again. The black "pit" in the off-centre of the mine is 7,000 ft long, to give it some scale.

(and that's just the overground part - it goes down a mile underneath)

This is the 5th biggest town in Montana, so it's not exactly small!

Staying in fancy digs tonight, La Quinta. Has a gym - our first for a while. Am having an internal debate on the merits of going for a run at 6,000 ft altitude. Might give it a shot tomorrow morning if I wake up early. Am also debating drinking the tapwater here, as a flock of geese landed in that pit a few years back, and all 300 of them died pretty much instantly. It's more acidic than lemon juice!

Deep in cowboy country now. Think I might even take out a subscription to this popular local mag:

(I can see myself in that outfit - let's face it, it's pretty conservative compared to some thing i've been caught wearing).

Two more days of filming to go (weather permitting), then it's time to de-rig and start my own holiday. The last couple of weeks have gone by in a heartbeat. 

Montana & Wyoming Day 11 - Dubois, WY to Dreggs, ID

Before anyone picks up on the title, YES I am in Idaho and NO I will not be renaming the blog Montana & Wyoming & A Bit Of Idaho. It's an overnight stop, I am so close to Wyoming I could spit over the border. Probably.

I have a ton to write about. The Buick LeSabre Custom, the antelope and horses scene, the ascent to 14,000 ft to film the highest peak in Wyoming. The fact that since this trip started, I've not been at an altitude lower than the highest peak in  England

But, I am feeling knackered.

So here is a picture of George Bush II eating a cat.

(I will update this soon - honest!)

Montana & Wyoming Day 10 - Cody, WY to Dubois, WY

As I sit here, feeling fat from the pizza I have consumed, and tipsy from the 4th beer I drank (compliments of the house - apparently ordering two beers at once in America means you get the second one free!), I realise I am falling behind with the blog.

The many, many fluid ounces of beer are giving me a form of writers block.

Therefore, rather than wait until later, until I feel I can write at my best, I will bullet point the day's antics (and tomorrows, as I am writing today's tomorrow - if that makes sense).

(I think that last comment broke the space time continuum)

Shit I saw today:

• Old faithful
• Prismatic Geyser
• Flew at 12750 ft through the Teton mountains
• Elk
• Coyote
• Probably a lot more

Lunch was exciting for one reason, and one only: the courtesy car was a truck. This truck:

(my picture, which makes this monstrous truck look even bigger, follows soon)

Arby's was our destination of choice for lunch. 

(I think Arby's is a thing you try only once. Like eating play doh)

And we went a day without internet. Literally, there was no internet at both the airports we stopped at. We're deep in cowboy country now folks!

Montana & Wyoming Day 9 - Cody, WY to Cody, WY

Hmmm, I should have thought about this set of blog posts before calling them all Montana. A dilemma arises. Do I go for Wyoming Day 1? Though technically it's day 2, or one and a half. Should I call it Montana & Wyoming Day 9? And go back and change the rest? Maybe.. or do I carry on regardless of the fact we weren't anywhere near Montana today?!?!

I think I'll rename all the blog posts, it won't take long. Montana & Wyoming it is!

Today we basically did a big old loop into Yellowstone National Park and back again. It was pretty spectacular in the morning, until the weather started closing in. In the afternoon we filmed Old Faithful Geyser - but it was raining pretty heavily so we will no doubt go back and do it again tomorrow. Old Faithful is probably the most iconic feature of Yellowstone NP, so we want to make sure we get it in the right light, so to speak!

Our DeLorme system is brilliant. I've harped on about it once, but am going to do so again. It's absolutely chuffing marvelous! I can see a topographical map on my iPad, with our helicopter as a marker in the middle, and see the name of every mountain peak, lake, forest, creek and even ditch around me. Not only does it allow me to do a better job of logging the things we are filming, it also means I can play spot the geographical feature, and see if I can pair up the map with the outside world, whilst zooming along at over 100mph. Great fun!

I'm going to keep today's post short, and tomorrow will add in some photos and what not.

Oh yeah, and we filmed bears! Frickin bears! How cool is that?!

Montana & Wyoming Day 8 - Bozeman, MT to Cody, WY

There was a day I'd been looking forward to since before I embarked on this trip. A day I thought would be simply awesome. Today, departing south out of Bozeman, we were headed towards Yellowstone National Park.

Alas, I was wrong. The day did not turn out simply awesome. No, it was far from it. It was magnificently-brilliantly-incredibly-awesome. Words failed us - in fact the only thing to be heard in the helicopter for most of the day was the odd gasp as we entered the next valley and found even more amazing scenes.

Here's what I did today:

• Spotted a solitary male buffalo hiding under a tree out the side window whilst travelling at 100+ mph through low visibility - oh yes, my misspent youth playing all those sniper video games has at last paid off!
• Climbed to 12,000 ft - higher than Simon, our pilot, had ever taken a helicopter
• Skimmed over ice lakes
• Filmed herds of buffalo
• Spotted a group of fairly well camouflaged deer in woodland whilst filming something else (seriously, I'm going to change my career to animal-spotter)
• Filmed hot water springs
• Flew down a canyon
• Filmed two dams
• Filmed the place of Custer's last stand at Little Big Horn
• Ate in a restaurant where Buffalo Bill once ate, and where a present from Queen Victoria (an entire ornate wooden saloon-bar - we're talking 30 ft long - now resides)
• Whittled a piece of wood in down time - I'm getting into the whole redneck thing, what with my patriotic get-up, the beard and cap and all
• Filmed native american indians
• Flew down a valley between the ground below, and low lying cloud that was lower than the peaks of the valley - like a tunnel!
• Found the greatest driving road in America
• Ran 3 miles in the morning, 
• And finally, ate a reasonable UK sized sandwich for lunch!

Phew. I'm knackered. I think we filmed a greater variety of things today than we film in some weeks. 

We're now in Wyoming. Tomorrow we are in Wyoming all day, and probably the day after too. I should probably amend the title of these blogs - but that's far too much work! So despite the fact that tomorrow will be a Wyoming day, I'm going to call it Montana Day 9. It's my blog after all!

[Apologies - the internet here seems to be shit - I've spent the last 20 minutes trying to upload a picture from my phone without success. I will try tomorrow from the FBO and update this] Photo below!

Er, in the mean time, how about this:

Buffalo Bill. Badass mofo, and patron of a place that does a damn good half rack of baby back ribs. Avoid their "house" fries. They are shit. Go for mash instead - looked much better!

Caption for the missing photo: Refuelling before entering Yellowstone. This place was run by a real mountain man. The facilities were so basic, that the unisex toilet didn't even have a door - just a sodding curtain! Thank god we were probably the first people to pass by in years!

Montana & Wyoming - Day Off

Hurrah! At last, a day off. Good timing on our part too, as the weather is TERRIBLE today.

Only joking. It is overcast though.

Here's what I'll be doing today:

(in case any American's have started reading the blog, that's supposed to be a pun, as I plan on doing sweet F A today)

(in case that still means nothing to you "sweet F A" means, er, not very much)

Montana & Wyoming Day 7 - Bozeman, MT to, er, Bozeman, MT

Feeling refreshed after a good night's kip, we set off on today's trip. It was a big old loop, taking in a variety of awesome sights. First off were the ghost towns of Nevada City and Virginia City. These old mining towns are a fascinating juxtaposition of old and new, and seem to be real tourist traps. Horse drawn carriages were taking families down the streets and alleys of old mining towns in the baking heat.

Too busy operating to take photos at the time, but here are the ghost towns from the ground at least!

We then filmed canoeing, a bald eagle, a rodeo and white water rafting! It was an action packed day, with some fantastic close up shots. I've now got the urge to spend my week off after this travelling into the wilderness! 

And I may have found the perfect companion:

This isn't the actual one I saw for sale. This is much nicer. The one I saw was broken, missing a front bumper, rusty and every panel was dented. BUT, it was only $1,000 (so $500 after some harsh negotiation), and it has awesome roof mounted floodlights!

Hmmm. After last time, perhaps not.

Although, I have discovered a rather awesome piece of kit, which I feel I may have to invest in, regardless of whether or not I go exploring the great outdoors. It's called a DeLorme, inReach, and it's a satellite GPS device with two awesome features. 1) At the push of a button, it sends an SOS signal, via satellite, sending your lat/long/elevation 2) You can send/receive text messages by pairing it with your iPad. How cool is that?! It's not even that expensive. Think I'll get one!

After the morning's flying, we landed at Ennis Airport. Simon dared me to go out with some white paint and draw a P on the runway in front of the airport's name. Fortunately, I am not a hooligan, and declined. Nor did I have any white paint come to think of it. Ennis Airport is a fascinating place. The FBO (fixed-based operator) is normally a large building, with staff, a pilots lounge, wifi, showers, vending machines, coffee. At Ennis, it was literally a shack. One room. Despite this, it had wifi and a fridge stocked with soft drinks and candy bars. In another show of American trust, they have an honor system. If you take anything from the fridge, you leave the money in a tin. How trusting is that? Less awesome was the outhouse toilet with a hole in the ground.

The less said about that the better. 

We lifted up for the final bit of filming, the rodeo, run by a bloke whose name is, and I kid you not: Pokey Armitage. What an insane name! Although perhaps not, considering top 20 Montana names include: Wyatt, Hunter, Landon, Caleb and Shelby. That last one being a girl's name. "thanks ma, fer namin' me after the railway station".

Anyway, the bucking bronco's are an impressive sight. Apparently the horses buck because their testicles are tied together. Fair enough really, it would probably make be buck too... Surely that's an urban legend though? Right? I mean surely the most popular sport in this north-western state isn't based around a group of leather clad men constricting a horse's nutsack? I'd Google it, but I'm too afraid of what I might find....

Montana & Wyoming Day 6 - Miles City, MT to Bozeman, MT

It is perhaps unsurprising, that none of us slept particularly well. It wasn't the quality of the rooms, which were fine, nor the ineffectiveness of the air con, which was aging, but just about working. No, the reason we all slept badly, is that some bright spark decided the best way to design a motel by a busy road is like this:

After dragging ourselves out of our rooms, we were greeted with a breakfast that can only be described as being cooked by Satan himself. The bacon was so crispy, it actually snapped in half as I tried to pick a piece up. Abandoning this (along with overcooked smeggs - fake eggs, that are called smeggs, for reasons we won't go into here), I opted for the "healthy" option of a bagel, muffin and yoghurt.

Our day of filming was shorter and sweeter than most. We started our journey west, covering a few interesting features such as Pompey's Pillar, before landing at Livingston.

(apologies for the delay - here is the second half:)

Livingston is like the land that time forgot, except it's an airport. They were missing basic things like hot coffee, flat screen TV's, magazines, oh and electricity. Yep. We landed, they unraveled the pump to fuel the helicopter with some Jet A fuel, and it just went click. The pump didn't start. At this point they discovered the power was out in the local vicinity. I find it somewhat incredible that they only discovered there was no power when they were trying to fuel something. Obviously the poor old dear behind the counter had been sitting in the dark for the last few hours oblivious. Strange.

We waited. It felt like an eternity. Colin was miles and miles behind us, and we had to wait for him to catch up. My first lunch consisted of two bananas and a handful of nuts, this was washed down by a warm can of Monster energy drink. Loverly. :s After that I attempted dozing, but in the stifling un-airconditioned heat I soon gave up and ended up watching the rest of the Sherlock Holmes film with RDJ. Pretty decent, in a light-hearted action adventure kind of way.

Eventually Colin arrived, and we set off to lunch at the Ribbentrop, ahem, sorry, I mean the Rib 'n' Chop which seems to be a Montana chain. Richard and I decided to feast on the animal that had spent so long eluding us from our aerial perch: the buffalo. Buffalo burgers are darned tasty things! A bit gamey, and not as strong a flavour as beef, but decent nonetheless.

It's hard to take pictures up in the helicopter, as there's always something going on. Here's a quick on I managed to grab. In  America they make fields round, as there is so much space, it' makes them easier to irrigate I suppose. The corners are just abandoned land - imagine that in the UK!

A short flight to Bozeman, where we're going to be staying for the next three days and we checked into our hotel. I asked for a room near the gym, at which point I was laughed at (quite rightly), but the rest of the team: "let me get this right", asked Colin, "you want a room that's near the gym, so you don't have to walk so far to get there?". Guffawing ensued. I ended up in the room directly opposite. With a run up, I could actually jump from my room into the gym.

So to the gym I went. Despite the late and very filling lunch, I felt like going for a run. Half an hour on the treadmill, at a steady 6.5 mph, I thought. That'll do the trick. Having spent half the day crammed in a helicopter, and the other half sweating like John Prescott in a pie shop, I was feeling pretty out of shape by the time my running shoes hit the rubber. But off I went, and my god, it felt torturous. After 15 minutes I could feel myself struggling, and by 25 minutes I could feel the buffalo burger threatening to make a reappearance. I heard a good expression recently: pain is weakness leaving the body. I decided though, that buffalo leaving the body is probably a step too far, and so a minute later I stopped.

Dinner was a very civilised affair at a local restaurant. I've decided I am a beer heathen: I like cold lager, preferably European, but budweiser, coors, or even a miller will do. These weren't on tap in the restaurant, and I had a choice of ales. I settled for something that was sort of OK, a light ale I think. For someone who likes lager quite a lot, I'm really not into any other beer. Richard and Colin found this quite amusing, after I sent the first one back having ordered an ale that was simply gross. Hey ho.

Montana & Wyoming Day 5 - Glasgow, MT to Miles City, MT

Awaking from about 9 hours sleep, I almost jumped out of bed, filled with energy. Last night I flopped into bed and just fell asleep - I didn't even get undressed or crawl under the covers. Either this film making malarkey is taking it out of me, or the combination of 10oz steak and several pints of beer proved fatal!

Breakfast got off to a slight misfire. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but we ended up split into two groups, each one having scouted for the other before sitting down. This was followed by a senile old waitress, who carried over our breakfast, a plate in each hand, and the third resting on her bosom. And not in a good way. Think Jabba the Hutt more than Dolly Parton.

Over breakfast we discussed the arduous heat that was afflicting us. It's hot in America at the moment. I mean really hot. So hot that this happens:

Yep, that happened today (full disclosure: that is not my photo - our helicopter flies low, but there's a limit!)

And so, our acting sergeant in chief, ex-RAF man Simon Cookson, taught us an old army trick to keep cool whilst flying: the sweat rag. The premise is simple, take a bit of cloth (like a handkerchief), not too dense, preferably a light cotton of some sort. You take the rag, you moisten it, then you wrap it around your neck. The end result, if done right, should look something like this:

It looks like I'm wearing a bib, it's actually just a really bad choice of t-shirt to wear for this photo.

Why, might you ask, do we need a sweat rag? Well, today, and yesterday, it reached 38 degrees celcius in the cabin. And it stays that way. For hours. Our record is 42 degrees. Yeah. It gets hot. And when you are wearing a helmet, headset, and covered in various control panels, you end up feeling like you being slowly grilled alive!

Our day of filming saw us take off and head for Sidney, which we arrived at two hours and 5 minutes later. Two hours from Glasgow to Sidney? Alas, the Glasgow we stayed at was more dire than it's hellhole of a namesake in Scotland, and Sidney looked pretty Mad Max-esque: by that I mean post apocalyptic. Still, we saw some awesome sights yet again. Abandoned shacks among still working oil derricks. The owners, as Richard pointed out, have no doubt long since moved to their new homes in the Cayman Islands.

Lunch at Sidney was a pleasant affair. We normally try and forage for food somewhere in the local vicinity. Midday is the only point in the day where I am completely at a loose end. Simon is busy fueling the bird, Richard is making notes and reporting back to base. I have nothing to do. So I do what comes naturally: find a way to fill my stomach. This usually involves finding a courtesy car, getting a restaurant recommendation, and hoping we don't end up with enough food to feed Italy. For a month.

This time though, the courtesy car was already gone. "Don't worry", exclaimed the woman behind the counter, "you can take my car", as she thrust the keys to her car, house, and all her worldly belongings into my hands. The hands of a stranger and foreigner she had met only minutes before. Can you imagine that happening in England? Or indeed anywhere else? They say Americans can be paranoid, with their guns and what not. But there's a very trusting and over-the-top-trying-to-be-helpful-and-please manner that is frankly awesome. And so we took this woman's Chevy Suburban, complete with her kids booster seat, down to the golf course to lunch.

I ordered a club sandwich and coleslaw. I then discovered that in America, coleslaw is served sweet.

Gross.

After forgetting my doggy box of half a sandwich in this poor woman's car (which I realised hours later, much to the delight of my colleagues), we headed off towards our destination: Miles City. On the way we filmed the Badlands, some terrific rock formations called the Medicine Rocks, and I continued to marvel at how varied and pretty the Montana landscape is.

Our final treat, before the day's end, was a trip to Walmart. At long last! Walmart, you see, is a source of all my tackiest of clothing. I decided this trip would be no exception, and promptly kitted myself like so:

America. Fuck yeah!

I'm now drinking my second cup of real tea, made in a Kettle (thank you Colin for the tea, and aunty Clare for the kettle - which I have now used for the first time in 4 years!). In five days we've traveled the whole way across the top of the state. And what a state it is!

Montana & Wyoming Day 4 - Great Falls, MT to Glasgow, MT

Day four has been short and sweet so far. Flying east, we decided to wait for the sun to get out of the way (it's easiest to shoot forwards and you don't want to shoot into the sun!), and so had a leisurely 8:30 start, a real lazy call time compared to the last few days. Over breakfast we had a good banter over some more delicious breakfast sausage patties. I had my second healthy thing ever in america - some fruit! Perhaps I am able to resist the lure of american food after all?

Despite deciding to start late, we then some mild weather warnings, and so were underway before midday. Although we left the Rocky mountains behind yesterday, today we had some of the best filming of the shoot. A deserted ghost town, an eagle chasing a smaller bird of prey, a group of a dozen elks roaming around in the prairies. For only a few hours filming, we got a bucket load of shots.

Now we're just resting up in Glasgow airport, waiting for Colin to catch up with us. This is a small railway town, so not expecting much out of food and accommodation - let's see!

Here's a shot of me and my rig:

Montana & Wyoming Day 3 - Polson, MT to Great Falls, MT

Our longest day of filming yet (and in fact possibly ever)! 6.9hrs of flight (which is about as much as you can do on two tanks of fuel), and seven shot tapes. And the footage we got was outstanding!

Being a bit mad, I decided to go for a jog first thing, so I set my alarm at silly-o-clock (that's 5am), and off I set. But did I factor in the higher altitude? Nope. So after 20 minutes I'm struggling to breathe as I'm running around alongside this stunning lake. Even so, it was superb!

We met for breakfast at 6:45 and I treated myself to pancakes with some sausage patties. I cannot understand why the only place you can get sausage patties in the UK is at McDonalds! They are delicious. I'm quite tempted to get a 40ft freezer container and ship a ton or two back - there's got to be a market for them back home. If you go to the states, do NOT miss out on the best thing america has to offer.

This was, of course, washed down with a gallon of lukewarm liquid, that's probably coffee. Or bovril. Or river water. I'm not sure. I am missing tea though, to the point that I can feel physical withdrawal symptoms. Typical isn't it? On trip 1, I have neither kettle, nor tea. On trip 2, I remember the tea, but forget the kettle! On trip three, I remembered the kettle - but in my rush to the airport I didn't have time to pick up any tea bags. And the shooting schedule has been so full on that we've not even had a chance to pop in to Walmart.

After our action packed day, Simon the pilot retired immediately to the sanctuary of his room (and who can blame him!), whilst Richard, Colin and I were treated to some live country music at the local gaff. Can't say it was the best music in the world (you know it's a bad sign when one of the singers is holding up a music sheet to sing along to), but the burger was delicious and I consumed my first salad so far on this trip!

Finally got some pics up, here's the view from my office!

Montana & Wyoming Day 2 - Whitefish, MT to Polson, MT

What an fantastic second day, despite the grueling 5am alarm for a six thirty departure, my god was it worth it. We started the day by flying north over the glacier national park, before bad weather grounded us for the next six or seven hours. We had an enjoyable lunch, worked on various bits of kit and enjoyed the hospitable FCO before taking off in much better weather later in the afternoon. Heading south east we finished up in Polson, where there was a rodeo show in town. It was absolutely awesome, with cowboys and cowgirls bucking around on horses and the whole town cheering them on.

Pics to follow - can't seem to work out how to get pics of this damn iPad!

Update: Polson Rodeo!

Montana & Wyoming Day 1 - Spokane, MT to Glacier National Park, MT

What an incredible first day! Still feeling her effects of jet lag I woke up about half five and decided to go for a run. Last time I was state side I ate everything my eyes fell upon and left several pounds heavier. This time I'm determined to avoid the same fate. A three mile run in the hotel's gym should help offset some of the days calories.

This was followed by a very early start - we left the hotel at 7:30 and headed off to the airport to do a test flight and finish configuring the kit. All checks complete, we lifted up and off we set! I'm always most nervous for the first tape. Have I done everything OK, will anything rattle loose in flight? Did I check and double check and triple check every connector, setting, mounting point? But, it's just like riding a bike, within moments I'm racking away and pulling focus as if I'd been doing it yesterday. And what an epic first day! We flew east over the Montana state line and were instantly presented with some of the most gorgeous scenery I've ever seen! Snow capped mountains, lakes, rapid rivers, trees and greenery as far as the horizon, where the jutting silhoutte of the glacier national park can be seen from miles away.

After a a brief rest and a bite to eat in Whitefish, we're now waiting for the sun to sink a little lower, before we head up to film glacier national park at sunset.

Montana & Wyoming - The Trip Out

The day got off to a stressful start, with a coach fire on the M25 making me an hour later than I'd planned for the flight, and then security holding me back for some random check for half an hour once I'd checked in. Obviously I must look suspicious. Arriving at the gate only 10 minutes before boarding, I understand why they tell you to arrive at heathrow 3 hrs before your flight!

The iPad has revolutionised air travel, the in flight entertainment system offers me a choice of: Act of Valor, Jeff Who Lives At Home, John Carter, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Safe House, This Means War and Project X. 7 filmed I have never heard of, all of which seem completely crap! Fortunately I watch Scarface instead. And it only used up 15% of the battery. It's a three hour film!

This time I finally remembered my travel kettle - but in my haste this morning I forgot tea bags! Doh. One day I'll get this right!!!