Having missed out on the opportunity to visit Karijini national park in the Pilbara as a result of breaking some bones in 2014 it was great to get the opportunity to go again, albeit for just a couple of days.
The best way to go and see this remarkable area would be to grab one’s car, drive all the way and camp under the stars. And stars you will most certainly see.
Crisscrossing the Pilbara landscape on an all-terrain vehicle, drawing and taking pictures of rocks? Right up my alley! The town of Marble Bar prides itself in being Australia’s hottest town, and as far sustained heat goes they have a convincing case. During the balmy 1923/24 summer this place experienced daily highs of over 38°C for 160 days….in a row.
Be as it may the recent wet season (November to April) brought prolific rains to the area, making for an extra green and water rich landscape; the likes of which many locals hadn’t seen for years.
When the opportunity to work for a short while in Tanzania came up, it was one I couldn’t pass up. Working in a remote rural area of a country can often be the best way to find out about its culture, the locals and the real rhythm of life. What makes Tanzanians laugh? What are traditional pet names and nicknames for mothers, relatives and outsiders? how do they poke fun at neighbouring countries? And why on Earth does ‘ 8’o clock’ actually mean 2pm? To find out – go there! Learn a few words of the fun Swahili language, maybe even pick up some local dialect!
My trip was also extended into leisure to include a short stay on the shore of lake Victoria, a three day safari through Serengeti, a one day stop at Ngorongoro conservation area, a whistle stop tour of Lake Manyara national park and several days on the island of Zanzibar.
As some readers may already know I have been working away at constructing a fully featured dedicated mountain bike track at the Lake Giles exploration site. Most of the planning and building took place from late 2012 to mid 2013 using nothing but hand tools and recycled rainwater.
Located in the Yilgarn bush in Western Australia, this is not your local track! The nearest paved road is some 120km away, the nearest major town a good 250km away and Perth just shy of 700km from the trail. Isolated and wild would be the best way to describe the bushland here, but it also uniquely beautiful – this is no desert!
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Instead of flying to Brussels a quick 3 day trip through Europe proved to be a very nice alternative indeed! Going through Slovenia on day 1, visiting the Skocjanske jame, then Postojna on the second day, followed by a drive through the Leogang UCI world championships track for this year (missed riding by a few minutes).
Day 3 included a quick cable car/walking trip to Zugspitze followed by a no-so fast getaway back to Belgium through a 2 hour traffic jam in Luxembourg.
8 Days in the South Island of New Zealand riding my newly built Cove G-spot bike in the Queenstown area. Words can’t describe the beauty of this place well enough, so I will stick to the pictures!
What do you do to wow a special friend on a week visit to the UK in the middle of autumn? Tour the width of Scotland in 5 days of course !
Having been to Scotland a few times before I knew most of the places I planned to visit with the Isle of Skye being the one place I hadn’t been to since owning a camera.
Packing our nifty little Nissan Micra with some tattered road maps and scribbled sticky notes of what we wanted to see and where we planned to sleep we hit up the beautiful city of Edinburgh.
As it turned out Edinburgh was preparing to celebrate the 200th anniversary of The Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society!
Onward through the town of Inverness it really becomes apparent just how huge Loch Ness really is – it takes a good hour of solid driving to cover the length of the famous lake, with plenty of sights to see along the way. Not ones for overcrowded tourist attractions we gave the famous Urquhart castle a miss to concentrate on the more natural parts of the lake.
On our way to Skye we visited what must be one of the very best places to drive through anywhere in the world – Glencoe. Not satisfied with simply being there we got the treat of perfect weather – patchy clouds and a bit of mist here and there, the Scottish highland really was showing us itself in its very best form.
The famous Eilean Donan castle was there as always with its beautiful stonework. A place perhaps as romantic as it is savage in its appearance, no one forgets their visit there !
Arriving in Skye and getting through the better part of our (rather large) beer collection from the Black Isle brewery in the evening we woke up to a beautiful mirror-like Loch Portree. Not the worst of sights for a sore head!
It is often said that Skye is Scotland compressed into a small island. While in some ways I would disagree, Skye is indeed very special. If you only had one day to see Scotland, this is most definitely the place you would go.
Finishing up in the familiar-for-me Kinlochleven proved to be a refreshing experience. It seems the stress and miserable weather of a full-on 2 week field trip there didn’t allow me to fully appreciate the picturesque area!
And so our little trip was finished! Whilst time does fly when times and the company are good it felt like we had seen so much and driven so far that we’d been at it for weeks, yet a mere 5 days later we were back in London, already wishing for more!
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4 day whistle stop tour of Ireland. Ferry landing at Rosslare, up through Dublin, Drogheda, Belfast, Giant’s causeway, Derry, Donegal, Galway, Conemara, Cliffs of Moher, back through Limerick, Kilkenny and off home! And it only rained once!!
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Castellane MkII! No surfing but plenty of swimming, cycling and walking. Highlights include camping at the Sommet de Cremon and a 6hr mountain bike tour of the lake up from Courchons down the west shore of the lake through the crazy La Baume and around the barrage in the south.
All in all some rather gnarrrrly rocky path decents and a worthy return to Castellane altogether !
