travel adventures
I enjoy kicking around and seeing new places. I'm hardly an adventure traveller, but I've done some things and been places I've seen while traveling. Here's a personal log I thouht I'd share.
I have:
+Walked around Stonehenge, climbed the great pyramid at Chichen Itza, hiked around Uluru, climbed Loughcrew, kayaked into Ninstints, stood in a circle of standing stones, and toured Newgrange—all heritage sites of interest.
+Gazed upon the Grand Canyon, driven through Zion Canyon, and hiked the King's Canyon (the one in Australia).
+Been to such natural features as the Giant's Causeway, the Great Barrier Reef, the ancient meteorite crater at Sudbury and Oregon's volcanic Crater Lake
+Stood on Mt. Saint Helens, the Zugspitze, and the unnamed hill in Melanesia (at right)
+Hiked in the Rockies and the Cascades, and many places in between. I've hiked the Niagara trail in several places, and hiked the Valley of the Winds (the greeny valley in the distance in the pic at right)
+Swam in rivers traipsing across the Great Plains, in the lakes that dot the Canadian Shield, in three of the Great Lakes, in the Caribbean Sea, in the North and South Pacific Oceans, in tropical lagoons, in leech-infested streams, in an estuary off of the Indian Ocean, and in a glacial lake. I have swam in pools thick with a weeds, reeds and fish. I have swam in pools thick with a scum of sun tan oil. I have swam with both sharks and dolphins in the wild (I prefer dolphins). I have dived off of a five metre rock cliff into cold water and slipped from a surfboard into warm water.
+Seen all of the world's oceans except the Arctic and South Atlantic. The pic at right shows an Ocean I didn't even know existed; the 'Southern Ocean' that rings Antarctica!
+Camped in rainforests, the Australian outback, high Canadian alpine valleys, windswept beaches, trailer parks and muddy air fields
+Ridden horses in the Rockies and under forests of eucalypts in the Megalong valley
+Watched cars race on frozen lakes, and dogs fight in a Berlin parking lot, snow geese migrating near Vancouver, vultures gather in an Ontario field, and vast schools of fish circling in tropical waters
+Tried rock-climbing, gliding, surfing, and rollerblading (in the Rockies, on the Great Plains, at an Aussie beach, and on a formula-1 race track, respectively)
+Visited excellent museums of art (Amsterdam), science (Toronto), archeaology (London), natural science (Sydney), and sex (Hamburg)
+Handled Roman coins and rip-proof plastic money
+Sat in a pub where the ceiling was made of old doors and the locals were singing. They sang one song per table. It was Ireland, naturally.
+Seen New Zealand's Mt. Cook, Japan's mount Fuji (once with a shoulder covered in white cloud), and Canada's Mt. McKinley. I've seen Greenlandic inselbergs and Hawaiian volcanoes. I've visited sulfuric volcanic vents (p-u).
+Observed the Magellenic clouds in the pitch black of the Australian outback, peered at Aldebaran through a 64" telescope (it's blue!), and watched a meteor shower on a mountain top.
+Weathered a storm in the root boll of a fallen tree.
+Seen Niagara and Katoomba falls, which are about 16 000 km apart. I've seen the long slender veil of the waterfall at Nikko.
+Failed to spot any whales or life of any kind on two dull whale-watching trips in eastern Australia, then seen Humpbacks breach on a third at the other end of the country.
+Gazed upon an abandoned viaduct in Alberta, and walked across a ruined colleseum in Germany. I've also sat in a colleseum in Alberta and travelled across viaducts in Germany in a high-speed train.
+Watched water bombers drop orange fire-retardant/fertilising gunk on a forest fire
+Attended a dog show won by a Dutchess. Someone yelled "Fix".
+Been scammed by taxi drivers, hotel owners, and airlines
+Admired the incomparable walls of Roka Koeen Eki.
+Been spat on (in England, naturally), chased (by a farmer in the Queen Charlottes; when he discovered I wasn't trying to steal mushrooms from his property, he gave me a lift to the airport), attacked (by a drunken street person in Seattle, and by a drunken Aussie in a bar), searched (by the security people in Japan) and accosted (by a security guard in the Canadian parliament buildings).
+Been diverted en-route due to a coup in progress. Twice.
+Flown a kite from a ferry (badly—it's hard)
+Slept in various places
+Eaten many fine and wondrous foods
+Run into a whole whack of critters
+...and encountered some noteworthy toilets
toilets of the world
I've encountered some notable toilets in my travels.
critters of the world
Here are some of my encounters with the world's biosphere.
sleepless in Berlin
One day my friend Kamil and I managed to screw up all of our travel plans. It took bad planning, bad luck and impatience, but we had all three in spades.
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