Some highlights of our hikes outside Europe
Cape Town. Our first home swap. We stayed in Anton's home in Durbanville during Xmas 2006. He took us on a vineyard tour to taste the fantastic bubbling Cap Classique and the smokey Pinotage and to a dinner at his parent's house. Anton and his sister, Surita, later visited our homes Iceland, went scuba diving in Glitra and travelled around the country in our old 4x4. The first day in Cape Town we hiked Table Mountain and took in the fantastic view of this amazing city and its surroundings.
China. Easter 2008 our plan was to travel to Tibet and reach the Mt Everest Base Camp. We had to change plans when the authorities closed the area to foreign visitors. From Beijing to Shanghai we went on an extraordinary hiking tour to the picturesque Yellow Mountains in the middle of this remarkable country. We were the only western people in the crowd of Chineese tourists, and the only people taking the challenging early morning hike some thousand meters down, and up again, an enormous canyon only accessible due to the comcrete 'paths' literally bolted to the cliffs, that had taken the Chinese 10 years to construct and had just been opened. You can actually see one of us there...
Georgia
Hiking in Europe
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Corsica. We took the challenge to hike one third of one of the most difficult Grand Randonnées in Europe. This route took us through amazing landscape and some tough climbing was needed in the August heat. A remarkable route and a memorable trip.
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Decending Aiguille du Midi at 3800 m
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| Swiss Alps at 3700 m |
Mt Blanc. Óli contacted one of the mountainguides who took him and his skiing friends on an off piste adventure in the past. The Swiss guides took us and a couple of friends on a breathtaking adventure to acclimatize for Mt Blanc. Unfortunaly the avalance risk prevented us from accending the peak. We took on an unforgettible ice trekk from France to Italy instead.
Hikes in Iceland
Héðinsfjörður. On our very first day in Iceland we hiked in the Tröllaskagi up north. The track went from Ólafsjörður town to Siglufjörður town over two mountain passes via the well preserved and magic Héðinsfjörður. This valley, enclosed by mountains and sea, moved us deeply by its remote beauty. Later, tunnels were made through the mountains, a road passes now through the vally and we found that it lost much of its attraction.
Askja, Kringilsárrani and Töfrafoss ('Magic Falls'). We took the two older girls for a last hike in the area in East Iceland that later went under water for providing hydro to the Kárahnjúkar power plant generating electricity for the Alcoa aluminum smelter at Reyðarfjörður. 'Magic Falls' do not fall any more.
Skaftafell. South Iceland. The hike up Kristínartindar (1126 m) was picturesque and the view of the Morsárjökull glacier, the highest peak in Iceland and a large part of the biggest glacier in Europe is magnificent. Morsárdalur valley is an extraordinary place with its many waterfalls, its calm beauty and crips colours.
