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!
An Autumn Trek in Arctic Sweden: The Kungsleden Trail from Saltoluokta to Kvikkjokk
September 30, 2016
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An Autumn Trek in Arctic Sweden: The Kungsleden Trail from Saltoluokta to Kvikkjokk
In the far reaches of Northern Europe there is a land of cold rushing rivers, vast forests and snow-capped mountains. A wild and timeless land where huge herds of reindeer roam and the Northern Lights electrify star-studded skies. This land is called Sápmi, ancient...
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‘España Verde’: Spain’s Green and Pleasant Wonderland
July 28, 2016
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The cliffs of craggy limestone tower over our convertible as we power our way up through a deep gorge carved by the Cares River that is taking us into the heart of the Picos de Europa National Park, a 647 square kilometre wonderland that straddles Asturias, Cantabria and Castile and León. This does not feel like Spain, that parched and arid land so...
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‘Nature’s Coliseum’: Exploring the Cirque de Gavarnie, Pyrenees Mountains
July 05, 2016
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A Five Star View The modest two-starred Hôtel des Cimes in Gavarnie is a world away from the flea-ridden Pyrenean hostelries described by Hilaire Belloc who travelled through the region at the turn of the twentieth century. It’s most certainly not The Ritz, but our first floor ensuite room has a five star view up the valley to the Cirque de Gavarni...
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The Journey to 'Middle Land' Narsarsuaq, Greenland: Or There and Back Again
October 11, 2015
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Our flight from Reykjavík to Narsarsuaq Airport took us spell-bindingly low over the immense Greenland ice cap and then down a narrow valley hemmed in by jagged snow covered mountains. Below lay Mellem Landet (Middle Land), a 30 km long and 6 km wide rocky peninsula pincered between two enormous glaciers containing vast volumes of water frozen aeon...
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The Stuff of Sagas: Trekking Erik the Red’s Land, Greenland
October 04, 2015
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The Vanished World of the Vikings The boat that had carried us the short hop across the icy turquoise waters from Narsarsuaq recedes across the fjord leaving a faint white wake as it weaves its way amid huge icebergs. It’s so quiet, the sound of its engine humming like an angry hornet takes ages to fade. We have alighted at the sleepy sheep farming...
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Through a Net, Dimly: Wilderness Trekking in Klosterdalen, Tasermiut Fjord, Greenland
September 13, 2015
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The New Patagonia It’s early afternoon, late July, when our rib boat glides out of Nanortalik harbour. Located on an island of the same name, the southernmost town in Greenland (population about 1,300), rather worryingly means in Greenlandic, ‘place where polar bears meet’. Our boatman assures us that the chances of spotting a polar bear anywhere i...
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The World's Scariest Hike? El Caminito del Rey, Andalucía, Spain
June 24, 2015
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Bliss is an evening in the limestone hills of Andalucía, when the heat of the day has ebbed and the landscape is bathed in the rich tones of the sinking sun. It’s mid-May and I’m sitting under a carob tree at a quiet finca in El Chorro northwest of Málaga sipping a bottle of chilled Giatenejo, a divine, locally brewed craft ale. I let my thoughts d...
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Mulhacén: King of Mountains, Sierra Nevada, Spain
June 08, 2015
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“It’s a bloody long way”, says the silver-haired man with a South East of England accent upon hearing that we are making our summit attempt in a day. “Our group stayed the night at the Refugio de la Carihüela to break the climb," he continues, barely pausing to draw breath. "Last year we didn’t even get close to the summit because of all the snow a...
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Land of Fire and Ice: A Winter Road Trip Round Iceland
February 06, 2015
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The First Taste of Iceland The sky above Mount Esja begins to turn candy floss pink as the setting sun slides behind a thin bank of grey cloud stealthily creeping in from the west. The raucous cries of numerous seabirds fills the air and a frigid wind blows in off the restless North Atlantic sending waves crashing and foaming onto black shelves of...
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To the Roof of Africa: Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, via the 7-day Machame-Mweka Route
January 04, 2015
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Day One: The March to Machame Through the dusty, chipped windscreen of the minibus, I get my first good look at snow clad Kilimanjaro soaring high into an azure blue sky above rust red farmland and deep green jungle. It’s late-November 2014 and we’re en route from our hotel in Moshi to the Machame Gate to begin our attempt to stand on the roof of A...
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Two Tickets to Ride! A Journey through time on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, India
December 10, 2014
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Without warning, our jeep judders to a halt to avoid colliding with an old man with a sack slung across his back who has been indecorously jostled off the nearby pavement. It’s mid-September, the fag end of the monsoon season, but still teeming with rain, and he struggles to hold his umbrella aloft in the crush of shoppers. The jeep lurches forward...
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Close Encounters of the Ngorongoro Kind: A Tanzanian Safari
December 10, 2014
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The cloud on the western horizon turns tandoori-red as our Toyota Landcruiser labours up a winding dusty road through dense cloud forests of acacia garlanded with Spanish moss in the volcanic highlands of Tanzania. Emmanuel, our driver and guide, stops the jeep and signals us to follow him. Shivering, we climb out. The November dawn air is thin and...
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Tomb Raider for a Day! A Moto Trip from Siem Reap to the Beng Mealea Temple, Cambodia
October 16, 2014
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Heaven on Earth Angkor Wat is a name that has summoned up adventure, excitement and mystery for me ever since I first thumbed through my childhood atlas. The largest temple complex on earth, and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, nothing can prepare you for its sheer scale and majesty. This recreation of heaven on earth reduces you to mere superlati...
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Monsoon Madness! Five days trekking from Sandakphu to Phalut in the Eastern Himalaya
October 14, 2014
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Day One: Walking in the Rain I step into a room with a cement washed floor. Faded and dusty, age curled posters depicting blooming rhododendrons, conifer forests, red pandas and snow clad mountains cover the grubby plastered walls. ‘Namaste, welcome to Singalila National Park’, says a man in a beige uniform, hands pressed together. He bows deeply a...
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A Pair of ‘Mad Swivel-eyed Cloons’? A 22km hike in the Dunkerron Mountains, Kerry, Ireland
August 12, 2014
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We haven't long left our car by the bridge over the Owenroe River to tackle the Cloon Horseshoe, a tough circuit in the Dunkerron Mountains of County Kerry, when a Land Rover pulls up alongside us, window wound down. ‘You’ll be well advised to avoid that field up there’, says the farmer in a thick Kerry accent as he touches the brim of his check cl...
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