Welcome to our blog page. Below are descriptions of some of our most exciting adventures worldwide, written by professional travel writer, Sharron. Read about our amazing adventures whilst wilderness trekking in Greenland, Chilean Patagonia and Arctic Sweden. Follow us as we take on challenges such as the Inca Trail in Peru, an eight day trek through Ethiopia's Simien Mountains, and climbing Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain. Travel with us as we describe a Moto tour to a Cambodian temple hidden deep in the jungle, a journey on the world-famous Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, and a jeep tour across the otherworldly Bolivian Altiplano. Learn about our experiences of winter photography in the Lofoten Islands of Norway, Southern Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Skye and the Hebrides, the Scottish Highlands, and Orkney. Join us on our phototour to the Canary Islands to witness and photograph the truly amazing night skies. We provide lots of useful information about many of the world's top treks and trails, and some of the best travel photography locations. We warmly welcome your comments and queries!
The Magic and Majesty of the Mangertons: A Two Day Mountain Trek in County Kerry, Ireland
July 31, 2014
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Misty Mountain Hop The smell of summer flowers, damp earth and wood smoke waft in through the open window of our B&B. It’s early morning and we’re preparing our kit for a two day traverse of the Mangerton Mountains. The day doesn’t appear to hold much promise; the tops of the nearby hills are shrouded in a line of thick mist, but this is typical of...
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A Wild Altantic West: Exploring Three Islands off County Mayo, Ireland
July 16, 2014
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The Melancholy and Majesty of Inishark It’s a typical Irish summer’s day: rain is pouring from a leaden sky and lashing against the car windscreen as we head for Roonagh Pier on an early-July morning. The weather forecast for today is typically ambiguous - ‘sunshine and showers’ – an oft-quoted prediction for the West of Ireland where the weather i...
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Mission Iguazú: Journey to a Rainforest Wonderland
May 01, 2014
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There’s a Storm Coming Saffron yellow butterflies the size of my fist drift past as I take another sip of Malbec on the shady wooden veranda of our hotel surrounded by lush, tropical vegetation. Somewhere close by, the shriek of a bird rises above the continual low hum of thousands of insects. It’s late afternoon, the sky is deep blue and the air i...
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‘P-p-picture a penguin…’: A journey to Tierra del Fuego, Chile
December 10, 2013
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Throughout a spell in my childhood they appeared on the TV almost nightly, advertising a chocolate covered biscuit which we were exhorted to ‘p-p-pick up’ when we were a bit ‘p-p-peckish’. I, like millions of other British kids, fell in love with the king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus), cute, comical-looking birds waddling about as if bedecked...
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Paine is Pure Pleasure: The ‘W’ route, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile
December 04, 2013
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The Eighth Wonder of the World Through the cracked windscreen of our mini bus, the Paine massif, an eastern spur of the Andes, rises dramatically above the Patagonian steppe, a primordial, little travelled region at the far end of the earth. It's late November, spring in this part of the world, and Martin and I are deep in Southern Chile, bumping a...
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Delectable Donegal: Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Northwest
November 27, 2013
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Donegal is a magical corner of northwest Ireland: remote, not on the way to anywhere, a land of wide open spaces and big skies. Brian Friel's Donegal, a place of jagged coastline, treacherous cliffs and unspoiled Blue Flag beaches along the dramatic Wild Atlantic Way, with a remote hinterland of shimmering loughs and great tracts of boggy wildernes...
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Sky-high in Bolivia: A three day jeep tour across the Altiplano
August 02, 2013
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The White World of the Salar I'm convinced I can hear gunshots as I'm rudely jolted awake just after sunrise. For one moment panic floods through me until I hear the out of tune brass band accompanied by pounding drums from the street below our hotel room. This is the second day in a row that a din has ripped me from the arms of Morpheus: yesterday...
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The Lost City of the Incas: Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, Peru
August 01, 2013
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Hitting the Trail The scene before my eyes is one of frenetic activity. Kit bags lie gaping open on plastic sheeting, with gas stoves, kettles, cartons of eggs, vegetables and tents piled up alongside them. Amid the chaos, porters are dashing round almost tripping over fowls, piglets and guinea pigs which are roaming this grassy compound. It's earl...
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The Mountain that Eats Men: A Journey into the Mines of Cerro Rico, Potosí, Bolivia
July 30, 2013
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The 'Monstrous Babylon' I can scarcely believe my eyes when I peer into the gloom of the small store before me. Amid the clutter on the floor are several plastic bags marked ‘ANFO’ which are bulging with light pink grains. ‘That’s ammonium nitrate!’ I whisper to Martin, who then proceeds to raise the jaw-dropping stakes even further by pointing out...
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Hiking to the Summit of Thabana Ntlenyana, Lesotho, ‘The Kingdom in the Sky’
October 16, 2012
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Sallying Forth up the Sani Pass... Getting to the tiny landlocked Kingdom of Lesotho from KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa is no easy matter. It entails a drive up the infamous unpaved Sani Pass that snakes its rocky, tortuous way 1,330 metres in just eight kilometres up the edge of an escarpment in the Drankensburg Mountains. Named for the San people...
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