Travel photography
In part four of our hike around Anglesey we stop by a town called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. We hike to Llanddwyn Island where we visit the church of St. Dwynwen, Welsh patron saint of lovers, who had a magical well full of enchanted eels that could tell the fortunes of lovesick pilgrims.
In part three of our Anglesey hike, we hike around Red Wharf Bay estuary, W hike through some pretty rolling hills to Penmon Point. We visit Penmon Priory, and we get chased by a bull on the way to Bangor.
In part two of our hike around Anglesey we visit a tiny church founded by St. Patrick himself. We spot the dorsal fins of porpoises just offshore. We put in a long day to end up at gigantic Benllech beach.
In part one of our Anglesey hike we visit Holyhead, a port town on the Irish Sea. We hike along sandy coves and rocky headlands to Church Bay, where we stay in a loft above a seafood restaurant. We then hike to Cemaes, where we get lost in a nuclear power plant.
Imagine a red-rock desert with vibrant spring wildflowers at the edge of a deep blue sea. We found just this along the Vicentine Coast of southern Portugal, a stretch of coastline spared from development. We stumbled upon this hike rather by accident.
When we traveled from Kakheti back to Tbilisi, we arranged for a sidetrip to Davit-Gareja. Davit-Gareja is a monastery on the Georgia-Azerbajan border. The landscape here looks somewhat like parts of Utah or New Mexico, and as such it is quite different than the areas visited before. Around Telavi and Tbilisi are wooded hills and agricultural lands with vineyards, but here there are extensive grasslands and exposures of reddish sandstone.
We spent a day hiking to Gergeti Trinity Church and the alpine meadows above it. Most tourists have themselves driven up in Lada 4x4s on a rutted, rocky road. We almost got carsick just looking at the cars bouncing in the track, and decided to hike up instead.
From our guesthouse we walked down into town, crossed the river on the bridge, and then hiked through a meadow to meet up with the dirt track. The road switchbacks up a hillside with ever-expanding views.
Santorini, Greece, is a very well-known and popular travel destination. This is for a good reason: it is very beautiful. The hiking trail that leads from Fira to Oia takes in some of the key sights of the island. It’s a truly spectacular dayhike.
Madeira is a volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It is a very rugged island with coastal cliffs all around. Madeira is known for its irrigation channels called levadas. The levadas contour around steep mountainsides, taking water from streams in the rainy interior and delivering it to drier areas. Alongside the levadas are pathways for maintenance, and these pathways are great for hiking.
Britain is one of the premier destinations in the world for long-distance hiking. Surprisingly, very few North Americans know about this. Many people are aware of the Appalachian trail in the eastern U.S. and the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain, but ask someone about Offa’s Dyke or the Pennine Way and you’re bound to get puzzled looks. In short, these trails are a well-kept secret.