the mountains: Emei, Zhangijajie and Tianmen

the scenic part of the trip started. first we went up to Mt Emei, we planned to do the hike, 17km with 3’000m climb (over stairs) but due to organizational reasons we took the cable car and we got an excellent sunrise. After Mt Emei we moved on to the Zhangijajie, also known as the […]

Chengdu – the home of pandas

Chengdu Panda Base was founded in 1987 , started with 6 pandas that were rescued from the wild, overall with 244 births, 10 permanent residents and home to the famous HuaHua; so many accounts on TikTok for that name, we must have been the only visitors who came to see the other pandas. As one […]

Xi’an

Xi’an, or eternal peace, was China’s capital during several dynasties. It surprised us with its ancient and remarkably well preserved history. The most famous attraction in Xian is the Terra-cotta Soldiers, discovered in 1974.  The soldiers, representing Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s imperial guards, are located 1500 meters from his tomb. Each has a unique face, […]

The Great Wall of China

The wall as we know it was continuously built over 1,700 years. It began in the 3rd century BC, before the Punic wars… we were super lucky, I don’t think we saw more than 20 people the entire day. The Beijing crowds usually go to Mutianyu, Sabine arranged for us to go Jinshanling section, parts […]

Beijing

we finally made it to China! we bought our first tickets in nov 2020 for march 21… here we try again, after a super fast and easy visa process, now even easier for Swiss,  we managed 3 years later to make it Beijing is home to 21m people and was founded in 1045BC. the history […]

Tuscany – the scenic tour

Siargao

Malapascua

6 years later we’re back in our most preferred philippino diving location

Tuscany – before bike touring

Gamboa Rainforest Reserve

Panama City

San Gerardo de Dota

returning to Trogon lodge in San Gerardo de Dota did not disappoint, twice we went to search for the quetzal, twice we saw it. last day we even saw three males. but none were posing as the one four years ago…

Corcovado – Sirena Station – Carate

Corcovado – Sirena Station

For the 3rd time in Corcovado, the Sirena park is amazing, just as we were used to. Again our guide was no other than Milton    

Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio

Parque Nacional Carara

La Selva biological station

  the day before we had a super fun day rafting down the Sarapiquí river

Sarapiqui

during the lock down and sequential period made us prioritise our next destination by a simple scale: which did we like most. we are now for the third time in Costa Rica, its wild life is just incredible

Sossusvlei

the place that mesmerised me for so long, I was worried the memories were nicer than the reality, but it did not disappoint. the dunes at sunrise, when only half are lit, the dead trees of the Deadvlei and even the funky petrol station from Solitaire should be on any photographer’s bucketlist

Cape Cross seals

Today Cape Cross Seal Reserve is owned by the government of Namibia  is the home of one of the largest colonies of  cape fur seals in the world. maybe due to its health I was pleasantly surprised to see it does not smell as bad as I expected. along the Sossus coast we have seen […]

Swapkomund

dusting off (literlally) after 3 days in the desert it was time to admire the wildlife found in the Walvis Bay – Swapkomund area. kayaking with the seals from Pelikan point was more than enjoyable, they are very curious and playful creatures, they come and sniff at you, grab your paddle else it might simply […]

Namib desert

I have been waiting a long long time to finally be deep in the Namib desert, especially after the private flight fiasco 9 years  ago (turned out I booked the wrong route..😳) I was hoping in the last 9 years driving from Sossusvlei to Swapkomund would become a reality, still not allowed… we booked a […]

Spitzkopen

Ongava

Ongava reserve – back after 9 years, same amazing waterhole with rhinos coming to drink in the evening, sundowner with 8 rhinos, still remains the place we liked the most in Namibia

Etosha

The waterholes in Etosha park are impressive to see, in some we spent hours just watching the show

Okonjima

Okonjima offers the best chance to view wild leopard in Namibia, as well as those collared for research purposes, in their natural habitats. Research programme leopard are actively tracked, and their collars are an invaluable resource for locating, and then returning to the Reserve, cats which have migrated to surrounding farmland where they are perceived […]

Lofoten – Reine (p.2)

I think best time to see Lofoten is in the winter as well have the chance to see the Northern lights, maybe summer is also nice, but with the weather we had it’ll take some convincing to get Sabine here again

Lofoten – Reine (p.1)

undoubtedly the most famous picture of Lofoten is the one from Hamnoy, we managed to have our manor right behind the usually depicted ones, walking distance, perfect for the sunrise picture, me and lots ofter of photographers. if in the first part we were impressed on how nice hiking is in Norway then Lofoten proved […]

Lofoten – Svolvær

located in the middle of the Lofoten archipelago, traditional fishing village, was chosen due to the proximity of the some hikes we wanted to do. The initial plan was to do 11 hikes overall in the 8 days we planned in Lofoten, we only did 2 (two), the weather was that bad. Don’t be fooled […]

Lofoten – Andenes & Orcas

second part of the Norway trip takes us to Lofoten, an increasing destination in popularity. it is constantly featured in photographic magazines and forums, for me it was clear we must see it. Unfortunately we also left the nice weather behind and we experienced what might be the traditional Norwegian summer everyone was talking about. […]

Stavanger

being one of Norway’s oldest cities Stavanger did not disappoint, its ol town is a pleasure to stroll or run through. first night we went to a tapas place, rather good rated…by all U20s, we felt ancient…

Preikestolen

an we thought Trolltunga was a busy hike…welcome to what must be the busiest hiking path in Norway leading to none other than what might be the most known cliff drop in the world. i think this was the first thing I knew of Norway. I was hoping to see some base jumpers, the hight, […]

Skapet huts

I think the entire Norway idea came when Sabine saw an episode of Kara and Nate when they visit these super cute huts. the hike there is short, about half of it on boulders but along a cute spring making its way through a beautiful meadow. it is not serviced so you are responsible to leave […]

Trolltunga

Very popular hike and known destination Trolltunga did not disappoint. The hike started with a super low cloud which in the end I liked much more the view it provided as opposed to just the lake. being a rather famous instagram spot the queue to have your picture taken was rather impressive and I was […]

Husedalen waterfalls valley

4 waterfalls on a 5hrs hike, I must admit I was impressed by the Norvegian waterfalls, and indeed they proved to be rather standard around here, filled by the glaciers are impressive in size (if I get sabine to write there will be more interesting text 😏)

Juklavass glacier

After first fjord crossing we drove almost entire day to do a hike on the Juklavass glacier. Although the glacier is not even close to the usual glaciers, this one being pretty much a cone cap, the organisers were focused on teaching how to cross a glacier using ice picks, ice screws and crampons. from […]

Norway – Oslo & Bergen

second leg of our mini sabbatical takes us into Norway. Oslo was a brief harbour visit hence only one picture. Bergen though super cute and beautiful what you see in the pictures is pretty much all of it 🙂

Tour de Mont Blanc – day 10

Tré le Champ – Chamonix lovely 10 days of hiking, it can easily be done in 7 or 8, we chose the relaxed way, on avg 5-6hrs per day, sometimes up to 9. stunning hike, apart from Fenetre d’Arpette is an easy hike 12.2km ↑1102 ↓1070 in total 156km with 9’666m elevation gain & loss

Tour de Mont Blanc – day 9

Trient – Col du Balme – Tré le Champ 15.5km ↑1128 ↓1070

Tour de Mont Blanc – day 8

Champex Lac – Fenetre d’Arpette – Trient the most scenic but also toughest stage of them all, the upper steep part is like climbing Mt Doom and descending into Mordor…we even saw a helicopter mountain rescue into action… 15k.4m ↑1200 ↓1400

Tour de Mont Blanc – day 7

La Fouly – Champex Lac 15km ↑630 ↓666

Tour de Mont Blanc – day 6

Rifugio Bonatti–Grand Col Ferret–La Fouly 20km ↑937 ↓1321

Tour de Mont Blanc – day 5

Tour de Mont Blanc – day 5 Refugio Courmayeur – Rifugio Bonatti 15km ↑1’094 ↓469  

Tour de Mont Blanc – day 4

Refugio Elisabetta to Courmayeur – till now the most scenic stage 14km ↑517 ↓988

Tour de Mont Blanc – day 3

Les Chapieux–Col de la Seigne–Rifugio Elisabetta 15km ↑1’100 ↓469

Tour de Mont Blanc – day 2

Les Contamines–Croix du Bonhomme–Les Chapieux 19km ↑1’200 ↓940 (knee festival)

Tour de Mont Blanc – day 1

Les Houches–Refuge de Miage–Les Contamines 14km, 38 degrees max, 1’180 m up / 1‘336 m down  

Aletschgletscher

a long overdue hike but was worth the wait  

CapeTown

Back in Cape Town we stayed again at the Radisson Waterfront Hotel, as it just has such a good location. The remainder of our days we spent running at Sea Point, going for a walk and a picknick to the beautiful Kirstenbosch botanical gardens with its treetop walkway, the boomslang, meeting a friend of Dorin’s […]

Oudtshoorn

Our last stop before driving back to Cape Town was Oudtshoorn. Compared to the green and lush Garden route, this area is much hotter, drier and with the landscape we expected to see it in Africa. After one last oysters lunch, we visited the Cango Caves before checking in into the Riverside Guest Lodge, an […]