Nick_Kerry

Powder in Nozawa-Onsen We just got back from skiing in a small town Nozawa-Onsen in Japan, an hour and half by bullet train from Tokyo. It is famous for its Onsens (Natural spring Hot Baths) which were great for weary muscles and a hard days snowboarding. The Piste was huge with plenty of lifts to choose from and there was no one there during the week as the Japanese don’t seem to take holiday’s skiing in the ski feilds. The snow was the best that we’ve ever seen. It has possibly spoiled us for skiing in Australia and New Zealand. It snowed early in the week, but really started to come down on the day before we were leaving. We woke up on the Sunday morning and found it had been snowing all night, even thou ... read more

After so many safaris, it was time for some beach work so we made our way from Arusha to Dar es Salaam and then boarded a ferry to Zanzibar. The island is as beautiful as we'd been told and unfortunately we only had time to spend a week there. We stayed a couple of nights in the old Stone Town (if going here, remember to try and find a hotel that is not beside a mosque unless you want a 5am wake up call), and then went to beaches in the south and north of the island for some relaxation and a bit of diving and snorkelling. As you can see from our photos, we loved the sunsets (as well as the seafood).... read more

Tsavo National park was next on the agenda. We had to form a convoy with armed guards to travel from Amboseli to Tsavo in case of bandits. After an uneventful journey we were supposed to camp in the general camp ground which boarded the park. The only problem was that there was no fence between the camp site and the park. The guide suggested we go to a hotel as the Tsavo elephants are known to be the most aggressive and the Tsavo lions have tasted human flesh! Unfortunately the hotel turned out to be equivalent to a jail cell including the bars! The Tsavo Elephants behaved true to form with one young male showing his aggression towards the safari van, with ears flapping and trumpeting his annoyance. The guide had the van running and in ... read more

Mt Kenya After sitting on our bums in a minivan on safari for over a week, we decided to get some exercise. We thought we should climb at least one mountain in Africa so we decided on Mt Kenya, partly because it was on the way and also because it is much less costly than Kilimanjaro. We decided to do a full tour with porters and guide although we realised on the mountain that it would be very manageable for independent trekkers particularly in September when there is little snow and ice. It is worth getting recommendations for good companies because we found ourselves having to look after our porters and guide rather than vice versa. It is also possible to hire a national park guide for the summit day only, when navigation can be difficult ... read more

After surviving several long days of travelling, people trying to rip us off at the border and a hellish, hot, humid bus ride on a a local Ecuadorian bus that stopped at every hole in the banana plantations on the way to Quito, we eventually made it to the capital at 3am in the morning. Luckily we had booked a hostal (the 1st one we´ve ever booked in advance) with 24 hour reception and the taxi driver knew where it was. We discovered later that Quito is not a city that you want to be walking around in after dark. Our first undertaking was to try and book a last minute place on a cruise to the Galapagos (highly organised as usual). This is definitely possible to do, but is much easier if you have ... read more