Travels

In January and February, my wife and I lived in Kabelvåg in Lofoten for seven weeks. We enjoyed the quiet, the snow and the northern lights, and went on ski tours and winter hikes.

My third trip to Georgia, this time in a Lada Niva with a roof tent. We drove up to Svaneti, swam in the Black Sea, crossed the dry plains of Vashlovani and ended in Tbilisi. Plenty of Georgian food along the way, and a few dogs that joined us in the middle of nowhere.

Most people know Kamchatka from the board game Risk. It is also a good place for hiking and packrafting. We flew into Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and were dropped in the wilderness near Gorely volcano, with packrafts rented in Switzerland. The weather ruled out our planned descent of the Opala River, so we explored other parts of the peninsula instead: bears, salmon, and a great many mosquitoes. Not a place I expect to see again.

My second visit to Georgia, four years after the first. Back in Tbilisi's old town, then a hike to the Black Lake in Lagodekhi, close to the border with Dagestan, a short trip through Vashlovani National Park, and some time in the vineyards.

A week in late September, driving the ring road in unexpectedly good weather. Cold, and worth it. We also saw the northern lights. I would like to go back.

Central Asia had caught my interest, so my brother Esra and I cycled the Pamir Highway through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, the second-highest international road in the world. A month of 40 °C in Dushanbe, high passes and long descents, nights by the Afghan border, dust, flat tyres, and evenings with locals over vodka. Above all, I remember the warmth of people living simple lives.

With my brother Esra, I climbed Mount Elbrus in Russia, the highest mountain in Europe, by the historic north route. We ended the trip with a few days in Moscow.

Just before Elbrus, my friend Andrej and I climbed Mount Kazbek, on the border between Georgia and Russia, to just over 5,000 metres.

My brothers and I drove a 1984 Lada Shiguli from Kyrgyzstan home to Switzerland. Through the old cities of Uzbekistan and the marble of Ashgabat in Turkmenistan, by freighter across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, then through Iran, where we climbed its highest mountain. From there over tea in Turkey, through Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia, and via Italy to Switzerland.