You may have heard of the Big Five – the leopard, rhino, elephant, lion, and Cape buffalo, originally named for being the hardest animals to hunt on foot. Today, with hunting largely prohibited, they’re five of most coveted safari sightings by wildlife spotters. But did you know there’s a complimentary Small Five? They are the … More The Small Five of Africa
Travelling to Iceland is a journey to some of the wildest, most breathtaking scenery in the world.It’s an arctic circle island where glaciers meet volcanoes, creating otherworldly landscapes. Geysers blast boiling water out of portals in the earth, glacier ice washes up on ink-black beaches, and rushing waterfalls fall off geometric columns of basalt. This … More Iceland Ring Road – the ultimate 2 week road trip
Nara might be the perfect day trip. Easily accessible from Kyoto and Osaka, friendly and quaint, with plenty to see on foot in a just a few hours. But what are day trippers missing out on? Dinner menus unique to Nara, for one, and excursions out of the city. So is it worth extending a … More Visiting Nara – is it best as a day trip or overnight stay?
Kyoto’s eye-catching bamboo forest is called Arashiyama, and you’ve probably seen photos of it before. The forest is dense and tall, and wandering through it is a lovely, elemental experience, feeling completely enveloped by these hollow giants.
There is a very interesting snake park outside Mikumi National Park, called the Genesis snake park. It houses several highly deadly snakes (and other reptiles) and some questionable enclosures that don’t appear entirely secure. We received the royal treatment when we visited, a stopover on our long road trip. A friendly Tanzanian man with a … More The Genesis Snake Park at Mikumi, Tanzania
This was not your average safari. We picked up hitchhikers. We got lost at night. A man with a machine gun rode in the passenger’s seat for a while. The car was infested with disease-carrying flies. We visited an African village, meeting locals.
Stop! Elephants! We missed them at first, and drove straight past. Then we saw the herd in the rear-view mirror. A handful were eating by the side of the highway. Another car pulled up and told us to go back the way we came; and sure enough, a few hundred metres away was the rest of the herd, at least … More Driving on a highway with a herd of elephants
There’s a place in Borneo to see Orangutans, and it’s not a zoo. It’s Semenggoh Nature Reserve, just outside of Kuching, where the animals are gradually re-introduced to the wild.Â
A wild pig covered in black, wiry hair shuffled and snorted through the snow on the side of the road, snout crusted in ice. The car stopped and it waddled across the road, looking up at us. It knew we had carrots; and so did the silhouettes of larger animals were moving in the treeline … More Parc Omega – A Snow Safari in Canadian Winter
Montezuma is one of many beach enclaves strung along the Nicoya Peninsula’s gorgeous coastline, a part of the country renowned for sunshine and great surf. The area was understandably popular with surfers, and we spotted many with board under arm on the day-long bus/ferry/bus combo from Quepos to Montezuma.
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