Discover beautiful walking tracks and challenging hiking routes. Mountains, volcanoes, coastal tracks and more. All of these articles include lots of photos, maps and practical information.
Climbing up a ridiculously steep mountain with an unpronounceable name.
Scrambling up to prehistorical views.
A coastal track with wild cliffs and puffin colonies.
Mount Etna is Europe’s most active volcano, and it’s in a constant state of excitement. There’s always something going on around the slopes of Etna. Often it’s just quietly steaming away, and you can do many beautiful hikes in the summit area. But when it erupts it can cough up large rivers of lava, fissure fountains, strombolian fireworks, fuming ash clouds and everything inbetween from its various craters.
At just over 450 metres, Mount Amos isn’t really that high, but its inclination gets rather steep & challenging. You’ll have to scramble your way up (and down again!) over huge granite boulders to reach the top of this peak in The Hazards mountain range. Once you’ve braved the hardcore scrambling bit, you will be rewarded with awe-inspiring views over Wineglass Bay and the Freycinet Peninsula on the east coast of Tasmania.
Haleakala is the House of the Rising Sun – literally. The sunrise on this volcano on Maui is of such an epic magnitude that it draws people to get up at ridiculous o’ clock at night and drive up its endless hairpin roads to the summit, in order to gawk over the ethereal beauty of its caldera when the sun lights up and paints it in otherworldly colours. You can hike all the way to Halemau’u on the other side of this vast caldera, and explore its countless craters and cinder cones.
Switzerland is a true mountain paradise with numerous walking tracks. From Engelberg you can take a cable car to the top of Mount Titlis, the highest mountain in the region. It’s worth walking part of the way up (or down), and meander along flowery alpine meadows with breathtaking mountain views all around.
There are plenty of beautiful islands in the sea to discover. In this NaturePic series I share some of my favourite remote islands. Sprinkled across the oceans and seas, these islands are all very different in character. Find your island and see how to get there.
The Cook Islands are the stuff of Pacific dreams. White, sandy, coconut-strewn palm beaches, translucent lagoons in all shades of shimmering blue, and a laid-back atmosphere where everything just circulates on island time. But there are also craggy peaks beckoning in the interior of Rarotonga, the main island. You can discover them on the Cross-Island Track, an adventurous hike across the jungle.
Stromboli is the stuff of legends and the ancient lighthouse of the Mediterranean. The volcano island has been erupting its mesmerizing glow for over 2000 years, in such a way it has actually become the ‘type locality’ for it. When I saw its triangular shape looming on the horizon, it was pulling me like a force from the centre of the earth, excited to finally see the strombolian action from up close.
The enigmatic Big Island of Hawaii, where flows of lava tumble down its rocky shores into the sea. I walked across the fields of fire from Kalapana to the Kilauea lava flows and stood utterly mesmerized looking upon the creation process of Earth itself. It is one of the most mindblowing things one could hope to see.
Hinchinbrook Island in Australia is pure bliss. Rugged mountains covered in lush jungle vegetation, broad sweeping beaches and meandering estuaries. Unspoiled wilderness that can only be explored on foot. The Thorsborne Trail follows a 32 kilometre route along the east coast of Hinchinbrook Island. It’s one of the most beautiful hikes in the world.