I left Bishkek early in the morning and traveled an uneventful eight hours to Karakol, in the far east of the country. The drive took us along some atrocious roads and along the northern shore of massive lake Issy-Kul. Karakol is a very “nothing” town that has the feel of a border post. I, Read More
With everyone at work during the weekdays I decided to pull the boots on and go for a day hike. I originally planned to do a bunch of overnight hikes while I’m here but the weather has been absolutely shite. Appears I missed summer by a day and it’s been cool, cloudy and rainy, Read More
From one of my fave places in Europe to another… I spent a long 12-hour travel day on a EuroCity train from Ceske Budejovice in the Czech Republic to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. The train took me through the beautiful Central Alps of Austria and then into the Alps of eastern Slovenia. I'd, Read More
I was orignially planning on getting to the Slovakian side of the High Tatra mountains, but the logistics of getting there from Krakow were too much of hassle, so I settled for a day in Zakopane (on the Polish side) instead. I was up at the crack of dawn and as we drove further, Read More
For Mum and Dad’s last full day in the US I suggested we rent a car and drive to Yosemite National Park, a 3-4 hour drive from San Francisco. We had an early start and were on the road by 7am. We got caught up in some of the peak hour traffic, stopped off, Read More
This blog is still under construction and I’m slowly bringing my entries up-to-date. Please come back again soon, when I should have the following pages up and running: More Swiss Alps: mountaineering, hiking, snowboarding Rugby: Rugby Club Zurich, Swiss Rugby, Berkeley RFC Trip summaries (text with a few select photos) from my travels around, Read More
This was the highlight of my trip to Belize! The Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) cave is a river cave that was used by the Mayans centuries ago for human sacrifices and other ceremonies and rituals. The government has limited the number of companies that can conduct the tour in order to preserve the site, Read More
Darren Miao and I decided to go ice climbing with an outfit called Sierra Mountain Guides. I have a fair bit of experience on ice and rock in the mountains, but I’d never tried technical ice climbing – the steepest I’ve climbed before would have been around 50-60 degrees. Our destination was a one, Read More
We had a few more days together in Melbourne before Karen flew back to Townsville and Sally and Ren flew back to Perth. Before everyone went their separate ways we had some pre-dinner drinks at Marnie’s apartment in the Docklands, followed by one last big family dinner at our favourite Chinese restaurant in Hawthorn., Read More
Adri and I took a day trip to Muir Woods, a park just on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County (ie. not far from San Francisco). Muir Woods contains a some of the largest coastal redwood trees in California – and they are HUGE! After a short hike through, Read More