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 […]

Knysna

From Wilderness it was only a short drive to Knysna, where we stayed for the next three nights at the very cute Headlands Guest House. Knysna is probably one of the bigger and best known towns on the Garden Route. It is set around the picturesque Knysna lagoon, has lots of eating and shopping options, […]

Hermanus & Wilderness

Hermanus is the whale capital of the Cape region. As the season unfortunately already ended, we didn’t get a chance to go looking for wales, but the town is still worth a visit. They have a beautiful cliff path where we went running and walking in the morning. And Dorin got to eat an excellent […]

Seal snorkelling

Bright and early the next morning we got up and got going, for the experience I looked most forward to: Seal Snorkeling with Animal Ocean. It’s a half-hour drive to Hout Bay, where Animal Ocean outfitted us with 3mm vests, 5mm wet suits, booties, gloves and hoods. It was still freaking cold! From Hout Bay […]

CapeTown day3

Late at night, we got the information that Switzerland with immediate effect stopped all airline traffic between Switzerland and South Africa. Without more information available, we spent a few tense hours thinking about what will happen next but decided that it was already too late to return to Switzerland anyway and that we would not […]

CapeTown day 2

Being on what feels the first trip this year (sorry, Greece, you just didn’t do it for us), we planned to enjoy every day to the maximum. First full Cape Town day: morning run, walking tour, high tea at the Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel, back to V&A Waterfront and drinks at the hotel. No dolphins […]

CapeTown – day 1

Finally back to travel, although with a lot of new safety measures in place. 48h before departure we did the PCR test and then had a nervous one day to wait for the (luckily) negative results. Not being sure until the last minute, we didn’t pack or did too much planning, booking only hotels with […]