Spending only two weeks in my favourite city in the world was never going to be enough.
I could wander the laneways, waterfront and mosque gardens everyday for the rest of my life and still never tire of the charming contradictions of this Ottoman city.
I dream, daily, of returning and pursuing a life there.
Until then, I look at these photos and can feel the memories I made towards future not far away.
Read MoreThe Overland Track is Australia's premier multi-day alpine hike and probably the country's most popular. It's a 65km+ trek through Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, which sits in pristine Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. You traverse ancient landscapes: valleys formed from long lost glaciers; rainforests from the Pangaea period; peety buttongrass moors and towering eucalypt forests. There’s no phone reception, few manmade structures and little evidence of the life I’d come to escape.
Read MoreAfter leaving Page and Antelope Canyon, I had only left myself two days to visit the Grand Canyon, and both were working days, so I'd need to be online for a large proportion of the time. After driving around so many National Parks of the South West though, I didn't think that the Grand Canyon would be any better than the others.
Turns out I was wrong.
Read MoreA photo essay of hiking Mt Bogong via Staircase Spur
Read MoreSa Pa, in the north of Vietnam, can be reached by a rickety overnight train from Hanoi, then a climbing drive south from Lao Cai on the the Chinese border back towards Mt Fanispan (the highest mountain in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia), which lies just beyond the city. The town of Sa Pa is just a base - and a rather ugly one - from which to explore the seemingly endless rice paddies and hills that lie beyond.
Read MoreI was told no information other than to meet my guide out the front of my Airbnb at 4.30am. I set my alarm for only moments before, which saw me rushing down the stairs still pulling my tshirt over my head at 4.30m exactly. The door was locked from the inside with a key I didn't have, and I heard nothing but the whizzing and chirping of tropical, nocturnal insects and the loud snores of my host's father, drowning out soccer still blaring on the antennaed television.
Read MoreAfter leaving Zion National Park (see Southwest USA - Part One) in the morning, I drove for only a couple of hours before reaching Bryce Canyon in time to find a commercial campground, fitted out with shower - necessary after my two days of hiking. Unbeknownst to me, Bryce was actually higher in elevation than Zion, and as I was checking in a woman saw my glee at the (very few) snowflakes dropping and asked whether I was from California, on account of having never seen snow.
Read MoreIn April of 2017 I spent two weeks in a campervan working and travelling across the deserts of Utah and Arizona in the USA. I was inspired by my mum's memories of her roadtrip around the area in the late 1970s, and wanted to see - and explore - the landscape for myself. My first stop was Zion National Park, Utah, and it was beautiful and humbling and vast beyond expectation.
Read MoreTo anyone that will listen, I will tell you that my 2015 trip to Sri Lanka changed my life. But when asked why, I am unable to find the words. All I know is that I left for Sri Lanka as one person and returned another - bolder, wiser and kinder. What I do know is that the people I met were funny, welcoming, gracious and loving. Here are the photos and stories of too few.
Read MoreEscaping life is rare. There is always some reminder - some impossible to ignore breadcrumb - that has you turning around before you have even departed just to sap a little more energy.
So it was with great joy and surprise that I managed to go 'off grid' for over two weeks recently when I travelled around Southern Africa. I worked until 11.30pm the night before, with a 4.30am departure planned the following day. I charged my iphone, charged my battery packs, prepared to respond to only 'urgent' emails, and scheduled my out-of-office.
18 days later, I arrived back to reality and an untouched inbox, having evaded the constant news cycle and the ping of new emails without even missing them; the lack of internet and wifi across South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana preventing any urge to check in.
One of the places that I travelled, without internet, reception, electricity or permanent structures was the Okavango Delta in Botswana.
Read MoreTourism has rapidly increased across Myanmar since the military junta officially 'dissolved' in 2011 and instituted some semblance of democracy. However the main areas to benefit from tourism tend to be the major cities: Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay, Inle Lake. Previously Aung San Suu Kyi, the spiritual leader of Myanmar who spent 15 years under house arrest for her efforts to convert the country to democracy in the 1980s, condemned tourism due to the most of the money lining the pockets of the military elite. The National Democratic League, whom Aung San Suu Kyi leads, now supports tourism but they are keen to stress that it must: promote the welfare of the common people and the conservation of the environment and to acquire an insight into the cultural, political and social life of the country.
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