Category: Topside nature
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North Seymour, Galapagos
North Seymour island is a small flat island north of Baltra and Santa Cruz islands. It hosts one of the largest populations of magnificent frigate birds as well as blue-footed boobies and other birds. There is a trail around the nesting site of the birds and the island is a very popular day trip destination…
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San Cristobal, Galapagos
We arrived to San Cristobal by a regular ferry boat from Santa Cruz. Before and after our liveaboard, which departed from here, we explored San Cristobal. The main port town is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. It is the administrative capital of Galapagos, though with 6,000 people has less than half the population of Santa Cruz. When…
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Santa Cruz, Galapagos
Our trip to Galapagos started with arrival to Seymour Galapagos Ecological Airport on Baltra island and transfer to Santa Cruz island. There is no international airport in Galapagos and all the arrivals come from mainland Ecuador. We arrived via Guayaquil. Getting from the airport to Puerto Ayora – the main town on Santa Cruz island…
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Diving in Bonaire
Bonaire is a Dutch island in the Caribbean sea close to the coast of Venezuela. It is known as a shore diving capital of the world. We dove around Bonair for a week in early August 2022 before heading for another week of diving in Curacao. The video below has highlights of what we saw…
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Diving in Curacao
Curacao is one of the three Dutch Caribbean islands close to the coast of Venezuela – Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao known together as ABC. We went diving in Curacao for a week in August 2022, combining with a week of diving in Bonaire. The video below has diving highlights from 14 dives during our week…
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Around Muscat and a day trip to Wadi Shab
While diving in Oman in November 2019 we also did some top side exploration around Muscat and a day trip to Wadi Shab. It took a while to write this up with the pandemic dampening the mood. Muscat is the capital city of Oman. The city is wedged between the mountains and the sea. Distances…
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Dallol in Danakil Depression, Ethiopia
Dallol in Danakil depression is about 120km from Mekele – the capital of Tigray region in Ethiopia. We travelled in December of 2018 when the situation in Tigray was peaceful and there was much hope about normalization of relations with Eritrea. Since then war broke out in Tigray making travel to Danakil an impossible proposition,…
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Gonder and Simien Mountains National park, Ethiopia
The city of Gonder and Simien Mountains national park are located in the northern part of Ethiopia. Gonder is a former capital of Abyssinian empire and is mostly known to tourists for its castle. Now it is one of the major cities in Ethiopia with a number of daily flights from Addis Ababa. Simien Mountains…
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Blue Nile Gorge, Ethiopia
Blue Nile Gorge is about 200km away from Addis Ababa and makes for a good day trip. The Gorge is sometimes described as the the largest canyon in Africa – competing with the Fish River Canyon in Namibia. Having not yet seen Fish River Canyon it is hard to tell – but definitely Blue Nile…
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Awash national park, Ethiopia
Awash national park is one of the oldest in Ethiopia and is only about 200km east of the capital Addis Ababa. We visited in November 2017 for a weekend trip leaving Friday afternoon. The drive takes about 3 hours. The first part of the drive is along the new excellent Adama expressway toll road. After…