Walking
At home in England, walking is a big part of our lives, either in the countryside or by the coast. So of course, as we make our way around the world we love to go trekking. Mountains are there to be conquered, hidden waterfalls need to be found, those ruins need to be experienced. In some more challenging places we may use a guide, for safety and for information. However, we usually walk alone, just us and the map and our sense of direction. There are few feelings better than sinking that rewarding beer at the end of a long day walking thinking back over all that you’ve seen. Quaint villages, fabulous views, village bars, classic buildings, you will see it all, the rewards are endless.
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Waitomo, Taupo & Raw Power
Sometimes you have to do something illogical to make the most of things when travelling, and so it is as we leave Rotorua to head to our next destination, Taupo, via a somewhat staggered route. The most direct route would be less than 100km but a detour west is the only way we can take in something which we want to see, so we dogleg our way across to Waitomo and then back across to our next base. What attracts us to Waitomo is the cave network in the hillside which is home to a particular species of glow worm, the arachnocampa luminosa, and seeing them turns out to be…
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NZ Road Trip: The Coromandel Peninsula
Time is an illusion, it has often been said. Somehow in the process of returning home from California and then heading out here to New Zealand we have moved forward 21 hours, meaning that we’ve lost, somewhere, almost a full day of our lives. Whilst the 8 hours from California was effectively repaying the 8 we gained on the way out there, we won’t be reimbursed the other 13 until we go home from NZ in mid April. Given that delay, wouldn’t it be good if, like a savings account, it was possible to earn interest on the time invested? You know, be given bonus time in return for investment.…
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Cusco & The Rainbow Mountain: Life At Over 11,000 Feet
So now we enter the first part of this journey – there’s plenty more coming – where altitude sickness is a looming enemy, so as a result we have developed a strategy long before the day we arrive in Cusco. Flying in from Puerto Maldonado adds to the risk, coming straight from low lying wetlands to a city at 3,400 metres in less than an hour gives no opportunity for graduation, just a steep learning curve in which a large dose of being sensible is called for. We’re not always good at being sensible. Consequently we hatch a plan. There’s a certain regime to follow for the first 48 hours…
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The Rice Terraces Of Banaue: A Stay Of Two Halves
Our stay in Banaue took something of a different turn as a proper deterioration in the weather took hold. The Philippines has this week been hit by a weather front known as a “shear line” – no, we hadn’t heard of it either – which has brought torrential rain to several islands. South of here the damage has been much worse with devastating flooding, here in northern Luzon it was less damaging but still pretty extreme. Our perseverance in getting out to the rice terraces on the wet day was rewarded by some better weather on Day 2. This is how it went… The thing which draws visitors to the…
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Sagada: Hanging Coffins, Lemon Pie And The Paytokan Trail
Sagada, say the travel websites, is not an easy place to get to, but is without doubt worth the effort. Let’s deal with the first half of that sentence: it’s a ridiculously long drive to this remote location no matter where you start from. Look at the basic mathematics: a drive of just 143 kilometres (89 miles) takes 6 hours – yep, SIX HOURS ! – so it’s pretty obvious that this is no ordinary journey. There is, of course, no highway, the whole route is a narrow, twisting mountain road of steep inclines, dramatic descents and tight hairpin bends. Add to that trucks struggling up the mountains, long trails…
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Beneath The Great Plateau: Exploring The City Of Zomba
It’s noticeably more chilly here, both after sundown and in the morning. We are now in Zomba, former capital of Malawi, where the town sits at around 1100m above sea level, some 600m higher than Cape Maclear on the shores of Lake Malawi. Days are hot but darkness calls for an extra layer and long trousers and at breakfast time there is a pleasant freshness to the air. Our paths cross once again with the history of Dr Livingstone, and will continue to do so as, more by coincidence than by design, we trace sections of the great man’s journey through Central and Southern Africa. Here in Zomba his presence…
- California, Independent travel, North America, Outdoor Activities, Photography, Travel Blog, USA, Walking, Wildlife
California: Chill Time Before We Head Home
Underfoot the ground is parched, rock hard and dusty, the sun shines hot from crystal skies and occasional breezes rustle the trees and send dust clouds up into small eddies while only marginally cooling the heat. Tufts of weed and grass remain but seem to be turning to pale yellow by the hour, some already sun kissed enough to disintegrate into more dust if we step on them. It’s all very different from the verdant forests and regular rain of the last three weeks. Spring is turning into summer into the mountains above Los Angeles. Acton, the small town which is my daughter Lindsay’s home, receives its hot days of…
- History, Independent travel, North America, Outdoor Activities, Photography, Tennessee, Travel Blog, USA, Walking, Wildlife
Smoky Mountains, Black Bears & The Trail Of Tears: Gatlinburg, Tennessee
It’s the sort of thing you take with a pinch of salt, advice placed inside the apartment on what to do if you meet a bear when you go out the door. I mean, it’s never really going to happen, is it…. Except it does. On our fourth, and last, night here, we set off towards town for our last evening meal, and get no more than 50 yards from our door when we come face to face with a young black bear in the street outside. Thankfully he or she is more scared than we are, and turns and trots the other way, soon joined by what looks like…
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High Climbs & High Tides: Last Days In Paraty
We’re not always altogether comfortable with organised group tours, and although both of the outings with Paraty Tours have been good, it’s time to go independent again after two successive days of being chaperoned by others. So Wednesday morning we head to the bus station and wait in the heat for the number 25 bus to Trindade which, by the time the driver reverses out of the stand, is ridiculously overloaded with far too many people and far too much baggage. The little bus really struggles on the mountain climbs, with the driver opting for first gear and a raging engine uphill, then inching slowly down the other side with…
- Brazil, Independent travel, Outdoor Activities, Photography, South America, Travel Blog, Walking, Wildlife
Hello Again Brazil: Discovering Paraty
Exotic bird calls boom or squawk through the trees, now and again the undergrowth rustles with the movement of an unseen creature. We are drenched in sweat, dripping wet from head to toe; the baking sun casts searing heat into the occasional clearing but for the most part the lofty canopy traps intense humidity in the spaces below. Official signs warn of poisonous spiders, scorpions and snakes. The heavy air is full of the scents of foliage and damp earth. This is the Atlantic Forest, its million shades of green scaling every mountainside and sweeping with sumptuous colour to the very edge of the shore. The climb has been testing,…
