Surfing with turtles and hiking Maui’s valleys

The first day we went surfing in Maui we lasted a mere two minutes before a lifeguard on a jet ski zoomed past telling everyone to get out of the sea as a shark had been spotted. All of the coast around our Airbnb house and surf board rental place was closed for the rest…

Finding another hidden gem in The Philippines

We hired a motor bike to visit some beaches around El Nido and headed north to Nacpan Beach. The last 5km were dirt roads and quite nasty but nothing my chauffeur, I mean Craig, couldn’t handle. Unlike some other backpackers we saw who toppled sideways on some soft sand. It explains all the bandaged right…

Taal volcanic island, the Philippines

Two long days of transport, a stop in a hotel with a swimming pool which was empty on our visit and hours spent sitting in gridlock traffic through Manila but we finally made it to Tagaytay. The town sprawls along a ridge line 600m above Lake Taal crater lake.       We met a French…

Up in the clouds of Huangshan

Mount Huangshan, otherwise known as the yellow mountains are said to be among the most impressive of China’s mountains. So as nature lovers we had to visit the area. After battling through Hangzhou’s traffic in a battered taxi full of cctv cameras we got a bus from the west bus station to Tangkou, a 20…

Buarbreen glacier and the return of the cat

It was due to be a rainy day so we decided to save the long Trolltunga hike for better weather and hike up to the Buarbreen glacier near Odda. It’s an ‘arm’ of the Folgefonna Glacier, and at 200km2 it’s the 3rd largest glacier in Norway. In the past 100 years it’s been receding back…