Rambling About

Milford Track: Day 3 – McKinnon Pass

McKinnon Pass, that notoriously awful crossing between the surrounding peaks, turned out to be a beautiful and relatively easy trip thanks to our great good fortune with the weather. The day involves a 16km walk and going about 700m up and another 900m down in the course of a few …

A day that definitely didn’t jump the shark

A day that started with a plan to see a killer whale ended with us swimming with sharks. We had had a long-term plan to go to SeaWorld today. That plan came to a screeching halt this morning over breakfast when we slipped into a discussion of the ethics of …

The Valley of the Poison-Dart Frogs

Last night when Declan and I went spotlighting on the river the jungle was a dark lowering place. The trees were pitch-black walls, the clouded sky a dark grey and the river itself a fustian path leading ever onwards. The sounds of monkeys, birds and frogs seemed almost alarmingly close. …

The wonderful Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

The Inca Trail was a stupendous experience; absolutely brilliant. The boys managed the walk without a murmur of complaint. Declan wasn’t fazed by even the toughest parts of the Trail; Callum found some bits hard-going but gritted his teeth and dealt with them. The boys actually handled the highest point, …

Riding in style on the Andean Explorer

A little girl wearing a bright yellow jumper runs afar her brothers as they herd the family’s sheep and alpaca over the flat plain of the Altiplanno. Suddenly the still and calm is shattered by the blaring air horn of a train. A bright blue train of five cars snakes …

Joining the huddled masses

To get out of Dublin and into the US we had to show our passports five times and go through two full sets of security. We had to give our fingerprints and photos into the haphazard care of a US government database under Barack Obama’s photogenically watchful gaze. And we …

Connemara morning

There’s hardly a movement on the water. It is so still that faint ripples seem to follow the beating wings of a sole bird as it flaps heavily down the length of the lough. The black currach’s don’t move, but their reflections seems to shimmer slightly as the bird passes. Two old …

Driving on water and walking on ice

The Vatnajokull glacier is receding by about 150m every year at the moment. At Jokulsarlon the receding tongue has left a lake behind it and that lake is filled with icebergs. Yes, icebergs! So we went on a salamander ride through the icebergs. Being big fans of The Mysterious Benedict Society books we …

Eg tala ekki islensku

If you think of Iceland as a clock-face, we started in Reykjavik at about 8 o’clock and travelled clockwise. We’ve gone over 1600km so far and are now at about 4 o’clock. The South-Eastern coast is a contrast to further North. It’s much calmer, with flat seas and rocky inlets. Even …

Guessing at prehistoric art

In some ways you need to see some of the oldest human works to understand the impact of the last few hundred years on the world. This area around the Dordogne is riddled with caves where our ancestors have lived for millennia. They lived, they died and they left evidence of …

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