Wandering Fractal

The vast forest of the Stolby nature reserve. After seventeen hours of train I arrived at Krasnoyarsk. The city is pleasantly build along the huge Yenisei river. But the main reason I stopped here was to go see the Stolby nature reserve. It's only 10 km from the city and can be reached with a city bus. I went there with Louis and his dad, Malcolm from London. I met them in Ulan-Ude and by coincidence we were in the same train/hostel in Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk. That's one of the crazy thing about the trans-Siberian, you always meet the same people again and again on your journey. In the bus, we met Aptem, a local guy who was also heading to Stolby to hike. He became our guide for the day. He showed us the best spots. We also met three Ukrainian tourists and they came with us. They all shared their food with us poor westerner who didn't bring anything. It was a wonderful day and more than the beauty of Stolby, I will always remember the hospitality and generosity of ...

From Cairns I took a plane to Bali since it was the only direct flight to Indonesia. I quickly went away from the airport and the party places around Kuta and headed to Ubud. This town is still touristic (can't walk on the street without people yelling at you "Taxi !?") but it's more a cultural and artistic center. Inside the city you will find many Hindu temples and traditional houses. Outside of town you can stroll along rice fields and old villages. But one thing you must not miss is the traditional Balinese dance. The mix between enchanting Gamelan music and mythological story told through dance is truly exceptional. You can find many places in town performing each night. I went to the Ubud Palace and payed 100'000 Indonesian rupiah. Ubud has many sleeping offers, so you won't struggle to find a bed. The aggressive competition is also lowering the prices, making Ubud the cheapest place I stayed in Indonesia. I stayed at the Happy Mango Tree...

Wreck of the S.S. Maheno Fraser island or K'Gari for the locals is the biggest sand island in the world. It's not a barren pile of sand as the name might suggest. It's actually covered by a rainforest with many lakes and rivers. It's an exceptional ecosystem. The main attraction is it's population of dingoes. Those native wild dogs can be spotted wandering on the island. The guides and rangers of the island made a good job of explaining the correct behavior to have in front of those animals: no feeding and stay away. In the past there was a few cases of tourists doing stupid thing and getting bitten as a result. There even was  a child who was killed by dingoes. I did a 3 days/ 2 nights tour on the island organised by the Palace Hostels & Adventures in Hervey Bay. It includes the camping, food, transport in jeeps and nights in their hostel before and after the tour. There are other tours by other companies but they are mostly similar. We spent most of...

The Weka is a flightless bird endemic of New Zealand. On the south island, I went sea kayaking and trekking in the Abel Tasman National Park. There I could see: stingrays, seals, fishes, cormorant and the Weka. The best experience was sleeping in a boat in the middle of the park, where we could admire the Milky way in the sky and a bio-luminescent sea around the boat. The water was filled by plankton that would emit light if disturbed, thus moving your arm in the sea would make it glow. All the fishes moving around the boat where leaving a trail of light. It was a magical night. Part of the park seen from the trail. Cormorant. Swimming back to the boat after having jumped from its roof. Drifted stick on the beach growing back.

Looks like a night sky, but it's actually the ceiling of a cave. Waitomo is a place where the ground is made of karst, thus the rocks are easily eroded by water. This creates deep caves and underground river systems. This is the preferred habitat of the New Zealand Glowworms. This larvae lives suspended in a silk hammock from where it drops several sticky threads. It lures prey by emitting a bio-luminescent light. Once an insect get stuck in the thread, the larvae real in the silk like a fishing line and eat the victim. The caves found in Waitomo are covered by a constellation of glowworms that make them look like a starry night. Sticky silk thread produced by the glowworms. Taking pictures from a moving boat on an underground river can give some nice effect. Bush around Waitomo.

Geyser in Te Puia. Rotorua is a city in a highly volcanic area. The first thing you will notice when arriving is that the whole city smell like rotten eggs. Volcanic water and fumes comes out from everywhere. I visited the Te Puia, a park run by the Maori of the nearby village. It mixes geysers and bubbling mud with a presentation of Maori culture. Another place to visit is the redwoods forest. More than a 100 years ago the government decided to plant various tree species to determine which one would grow better on New Zealand soil. The best species would be used for timber exportation. The redwoods forest is now a great day hike place. While walking on its trails you will encounter a huge mix of trees, from native ones to the Californians sequoia. Volcanic mudd in Te Puia. Small volcanic pond in the city. Volcanic spring in the Redwoods forest. The sulfur in the water keep the dead branches from degrading and gives the water this beautiful blue color. R...

Kyushu is the southernmost of the four main islands of Japan. We went down to Kagoshima. A city around a bay with an active volcano at its center. From there, we took a ferry to the island of Yakushima. We spent a few days hiking and soaking in natural hot springs. The best onsen of those three weeks was, without a doubt, the Hirauchi undersea hot spring. It's a group of pools that are under the sea during high tide. At low tide the pools fills up with spring water bursting from the rocks. If you're shy don't go there, cause it's unisex and you can't wear a swimsuit, just like the bath used to be in good old times. Dolphin from the Kagoshima aquarium. Three times a day they let them play in a closed part of the sea around the aquarium. Thus we could see them for free. Trail close to the summit of the Miyanoura dake. It's the highest peak of Yakushima and the whole Kyushu region (1936m). Yakushima is famous for it's forest covered in moss....