Totally stoked. Just published my first printed magazine article under the "Travel" section for Ariztos Magazine (An African Entertainment Magazine) - http://www.ariztos.com/magazine

Posting the travel story as a blog

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Painting Navua by Lola Akinmade

Wanderlust is a huge part of my life and drawing inspiration from my surroundings is what I do as an artist. Sharing different perspectives of places we’ve all been or yet to explore through art is a passion and style of mine. Whether it is looking up at a lamp on Quay St in Auckland or looking down at Marienplatz from St. Peters in Muenchen, I look for unique angles that shed new light on the subject. My rendition of the untouched Navua River deep in the heart of Fiji is one of my favorite pieces because it attests to a time in my life when I realized a dream; if only for a moment.

Arriving with my volunteer team at Checkpoint Five - Beqa (Mbengga), it still had not dawned on me why I was truly here and how I got here. Separating us from our destination – the remote village of Beqa – was a river. Shallow yet so full of life, this river split the gorgeous hunter green scenery; providing a beautiful blue contrast to the surrounding colors.

All I knew at that point was that I had to wait……

Soon enough, competitors emerged on their mountain bikes across the river as villagers stood watching in awe. Helmets, backpacks, worn out feet, country and team number patches all over, they came face to face with the Navua river and had to cross it to get to our side.

Then it finally hit me why I was there waiting for those amazing athletes. Volunteering with the Eco-Challenge in its final year before hiatus was the experience of a lifetime. Being within a race of that magnitude and seeing how all the cogs work together made me appreciate expedition racing all the more.As part of the web team, I was a field reporter/photojournalist and got up close to the competitors. To get our daily stories for the website, we had to be in the middle of it all with them – whether it was canoeing down a river, trekking alongside them, or driving alongside them on their bikes. Team after team picked up their bikes and gear and crossed that river to the other side. The amazing contrast of Western advancement against the untouched, natural backdrop was captured in picture after picture by event photographers as well as me. Once I got my story for the day, I finally decided to cross that river myself. Still in disbelief that we were actually in this part of the world, a couple volunteers and I waded across the river; giggling like school kids at an experience we would never soon forget. Halfway through, I stopped and looked all around me in awe.

At that moment, the halfway point was ingrained in my mind and I knew I had to capture it. If it was impossible to fully communicate the feeling of actually being there to others, I could at least try.

More on Lola’s travels in Fiji can be found at http://www.lemurworks.com/lola/html/ecofiji2002.htm