A Kenyan Safari, Masai Mara

Our first glimpse of the sleeping lions

There is no adequate way to explain what it is like to go on safari; to spend hours searching the vast African savannah for just a glimpse of an animal, any animal. For those of you who have been, you will know what I'm talking about and for those who haven't, I can only attempt to describe my feelings during the experience. It was so much more magical than I could have ever imagined to see so many beautiful animals in their natural habitat. My first glimpse of a wild lion really did send me into a state of childish euphoria. Not quite sure where to put myself, I hopped around our safari vehicle like a mad woman trying both to calmly observe them and let the moment sink in, and to get a prize winning snap all at the same time; God help anyone who was in my way...Chris!. I was in a constant state of alert for the entire duration of our game drives, adrenalin coursing through my veins at the excitement of what might be around the corner. Naturally, most of the time there was nothing around the corner and there are actually quite long stints where you don't see much at all, but when you did come across an animal hidden in the bushes it was incredibly exhilarating, like winning the lottery (or how I imagine that would be!). Every now and then my excitement would bubble over and I would be convinced I'd seen a leopard stalking through the tall grass....nope, just a log! I think our guide Alex grew a little tired of my 'sightings' after a while!

Whistler...you rock!

Based on my past travelling experience, I have come to the conclusion that on every extended trip you make there are only, realistically, a handful of places and experiences that really stand out as special, life changing and perspective altering, as truly memorable. Whistler was one of these moments and I think our experiences there will colour the remainder of the trip substantially.

A Winter Whistler Wonderland

After what can only be described as the journey from hell, Chris and I finally made it to Whistler last weekend, via Singapore, Hong Kong, LA and Vancouver...don't ask...somehow the aviation industry is so entirely messed up that it makes more financial sense to go Auckland - Vancouver via most of Asia and America (with a two week break in Bali, of course) rather than to fly direct. Mental!

We have spent our first week here finding our ski legs in the famous Whistler powder, revelling in the joy of having our own little apartment to chillax in and gawping at the 75+cm of snow which has fallen since we got here. It is an absolutely stunning resort with a great vibe and our time here got off to a flying start when we bumped into a group of Old Somervillians in the first bar we walked into. It was lovely to see some faces from home and have a bit of company to introduce us to the apres scene.

We start our ski instructor course next Monday which we're both extremely excited about but also slightly nervous at what lies in store. More updates on this next Friday  - you might even get some videos if you're lucky :)

For now though, I will leave you with a taste of the beautiful Whistler scenery.

Playing with ice!

I have been utterly useless in updating the blog for a good couple of months now and the Foto Fridays have all but dried up BUT I intend to be a lot better now that xmas and new year are out of the way and we are in a bit more of a routine.

Chris and I are now in New Zealand. We arrived here a couple of weeks ago and have been racing around the South Island seeing what there is to see - more on this in future posts.This week's highlight was most certainly trekking on the Franz Josef glacier on the West Coast - we opted for a full day of walking around on the glacier, crampons and all and loved every minute of it. I'm a little concerned that the more mountain activities we carry on doing, the more likely it is that I lose Chris to a life as an explorer or something - we think he must have mountain folk in his ancestry somewhere as he is like a small child whenever near ice or snow!

For more photos of the trip (and many more to come once I can get a good enough connection to upload everything up to NZ) please just click on the big 'pathological picture taker' image on the right sidebar to take you through to my Picasa photo albums, else I have just done a mass facebook upload of a fair few so you can take a peek there.

More to come soon...promise.

Om Shanti...Ommmmmm!

This week Chris and I have spent several days in the holy mountain town of Rishikesh, immersing ourselves in Yoga practice twice a day, detoxing on pure veggie food and tea (apart from that illicit bottle of whiskey - oops!) and generally relaxing to a slow pace of life that is rarely experienced in hectic India.

8am Hatha Yoga session followed by breakfast. Sitting on our sun-drenched balcony, followed by 2.30pm Ashtanga Yoga session, followed by lunch, a nap, dinner and an early night. It's been quite nice getting into a routine and with views such as the below to savour, we have thoroughly enjoyed our time here. Yoga is now set to be a firm fixture in our daily activities throughout our travels in this crazy land - expect us to come back fully flexible Yogis - a bit like this dude (hmmm...)!

View from our balcony

A position Chris and I will master by the time we come home...

Om Mani Padme Hum

This week I spent some time in Bodhgaya (amongst other places), the most important of four main pilgrimage sites for Buddhists around the world. It was here that Gautama Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment, under a Bodhi tree, and the surrounding landscape is dotted with foreign Buddhist monasteries, each exhibiting their own local architectural style. The most impressive of these was the Thai Monastery and temple, topped with a glitteringly adorned gold leaf roof and set in tranquil and beautifully maintained gardens, a haven away from the chaos outside the temple gates.

The actual tree under which Buddha's 6 year path to enlightenment culminated is no longer here (the original is actually now in Sri Lanka and a cutting has been planted here), but a beautiful temple has been built to mark this holy place and hundreds of pilgrims flock here annually to meditate and pray in the extensive gardens. Things were particularly chaotic at this time as everyone was preparing for the Dalai Lama's visit in December.

The Mahabodhi Temple is a beautiful place to sit and contemplate life, a peaceful oasis in an otherwise dusty and noisy town. I spent a couple of days here wandering around the various different monasteries (all very different in look and feel) and taking in the unique vibe and spirituality of the town.

Thai Monastery and Temple

Mahabodhi Temple

Small things that bring great joy

It's been a bit of a nothing week this week. Plenty of bus and train journeys, and plenty of chillage in the bars and restaurants of Kathmandu. So I thought I would share one of my favourites pictures of the trip with you instead of a foto Friday 'what's been going on this week' update.

The topic of children has come up a lot recently. Once when Chris and I met the inspirational Garry Goddard,  who set up his own children's charity in Nepal about 13 years ago helping to reunite displaced kids with their parents, and then again on a bus ride to the Indian border where I met an Australian woman who had been volunteering in an orphanage in the Kathmandu valley. The topic has also featured heavily in the books I've been reading ('Stones into Schools', and 'Half the Sky'). I have heard so many heart-breaking stories with children at the centre of them that it made me think, paradoxically, of a happy little chappy we encountered in a rural Tibetan village. I had been playing hide and seek with him and just managed to capture the perfect shot (I think!) of that moment with him, darting between the trucks and jeeps. His smile was so readily given and genuine, his giggle so infectious that it really did create a small moment that I will never forget. As ever, it's the small things that really make an impact in life.

The Land of Plenty

Ok, so I've been lazy on the updates. It had to happen at some point and Nepal was finally the place to make Chris and I go 'wow', and simply forget ourselves in trekking, biking, laking and safari-ing. There will be many many more blogs to come on our time here but here are a few photos of the highlights to make up for all the lost foto Friday's I've spent away from the internet.

Reaching for the heights!

Last week I was unable to post because, yes you guessed it, we were in Tibet and the Chinese firewall was still a hindrance. We took a record number of photos in Tibet (925 on an 8 day trip), so as you can imagine, picking just one is a bit tricky. Nevertheless, I have done so.

Chris and I hadn't planned to visit Everest base camp as we'd heard it was a pretty touristy place to go, both on the Nepalese and Tibetan sides, and that there are some much more impressive and beautiful mountain ranges to explore. However, our itinerary simply took us that way so we didn't have much choice. We were both pleased that it did. There is something very surreal about looking at a mountain peak that is only about 3000-4000m higher than you are, that actually looks pretty small up close, and thinking, 'wow, that is the highest point on the planet'. It was surprisingly thought provoking, and the walk up there, at 5200m quite literally took our breath away!

There are many more photos of our trip over the Roof of the World which I will upload soon (having trouble with the connection speeds here) but for now here is a cheesy one of Chris and I at EBC, in front of the 8848m peak that is Mount Everest.

Gotta love those matching hats!

Foto Friday - Two weeks in One

You may or may not have noticed that there has been a distinct lack of activity on the blog of late...Chris and I are in China/Tibet and it is proving pretty hard to get around the Great Chinese Firewall.As a result I missed foto Friday last week.

I have finally managed to get onto blogger so here are a couple of pics from the last two weeks...we will upload many more snaps and posts as soon as we get to Nepal in the next week or so.

First Foto Friday!

Welcome to Foto Friday!

Every Friday I will endeavour to post my favourite photograph of the week, or the one that best sums up our experiences and escapades over that time period. If I've been particularly snappy happy then you may get more than one!

We have just got back from an 8 day adventure into the Mongolian wilderness and so, this week, you have got 8 photos...one for every day on our trip. We saw so many things that I couldn't choose just one. More on these adventures to follow in another post soon.