Reflecting on my 2022 Travels

Posts to read from my time there:

• Pinnacles National Park
• YOUTUBE VIDEO: The US Border Reopened After 2 YEARS! | Home for Christmas

2. Austria

January - February

I flew back "home" to Austria after the holidays to get back to my little apartment in Salzburg, dive back into my full-time job, spend as much time as possible on day trips exploring the surrounding countryside and - best of all - finally getting to go skiing again after three years, and my first ski days in Europe! I spent my weekends on the slopes surrounding Salzburg and I was thrilled and proud to be back up on the hills and actually doing a dang good job. Good thing too, since I had schlepped all my ski gear over from California where it had been sitting in boxes for three years...

Just under two months after I returned to Austria, and I had skiied myself through the season, I decided it was time to get back to chasing the sunshine and once again packed up my suitcases and took a one-way flight to a new adventure.

Posts to read from my time there:

• Visiting the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba
• 6 Things to See in Cádiz
• Visiting the Alcazaba of Málaga
• Visiting the Alhambra
• Pueblos Blancos & Ronda Roadtrip
• A Guide to Sevilla

You can also check out all my blog posts and YouTube videos from Spain!

5. Gibraltar

March

On my mission to see every country in the world, while spending time living in southern Spain, I of course had to make the trip down to Gibraltar. Now, you'll argue that Gibraltar is not a country - and you're right - but my list includes both countries and territories, because there are so many cool places out there that are definitely some degree of different from their motherland and so Gibraltar, while technically part of the UK, falls as a separate entity on my list too.

My trip to Gibraltar was just a day trip from Sevilla with a tour company that drove a group of us down to the border with Sevilla, where we crossed the border out of the EU (thanks Brexit!) and met with another tour guide who drove as around the enclave and up The Rock of Gibraltar, visiting the best highlights of this bizarre place that basically feels like any other British town except it's warm and has monkeys.

Posts to read from my time there:

• How to Spend a Day in Gibraltar
• YOUTUBE VIDEO: What's Gibraltar Really Like? (a tiny bit of the UK in Spain)

6. England

March - April

A work trip to London to finally get to hang out with some of my team members and meet them in person for the first time in over a year and a half of working with my organisation was a wonderful chance to get to be back in my country of birth.

Born and raised during my early years in England, I have always considered it one of my (many) homes. I don't really identify as British anymore, given my lack of cultural identity from so many years away, but it will always play a huge part of my life and background as it was the first place that I belonged to. The last time I was back on British soil was for a very quick layover in 2017 on my way to Cyprus, but really, the last time England was the destination was a whopping eight years ago in 2014.

And so, with the work trip as an excuse, I flew in a few days early to spend time catching up with my aunt, uncle and cousin, all of whom I haven't seen in far too many years, and we spent a delightful weekend wandering around Cambridge together, highlighted by a punting trip down the Cambridge river, perhaps the most idyllic of all activities one can do in this university town.

Posts to read from my time there:

• 4 Things to See in Toulouse
• YOUTUBE VIDEO: Europe's Most UNDERRATED Country

12. Portugal

June

Although I was planning to spend a week hiking and exploring the tiny little mountainous country of Andorra for a week, a friend invited me to Lisbon for a few days. I had spent three months living in Portugal at the end of last year, including three weeks based out of Lisbon, and loved the city (and the entire country) so much, so was excited to be back so unexpectedly soon. One of the best things we got to do was to explore more of the Sintra coast. I had visited both Sintra and Cascais last year, but really got the opportunity to visit some of the more remote beaches and coastal views - a dream.

It was a total whirlwind of a trip - my favourite kind.

Posts to read from my time there:

• Praia da Ursa Hike
• Visiting Parque Natural da Arrábida
• YOUTUBE VIDEO: Europe's Most UNDERRATED Country

13. Austria II

June - July

And then finally, it was home for the summer. Six long weeks stretched before me, the longest I had been home since the beginning of the year. I was still struggling to love Salzburg, and to have it feel like home (a biproduct both of feeling like I was only there because I couldn't be elsewhere, and because I had a tendency to not spend much time there) but it was in these six weeks that that feeling slowly began to shift.

I spent as much time as possible outdoors - I went for long runs by the river, I sat on my balcony overlooking the mountains of southern Germany across the border as much as possible to work and to eat and to read, I worked from little cafes in the city, I went for many long bike rides around the region and of course, I hiked. It was, after all, the mountains of Austria for which I moved to this country in the first place.

In those six weeks, my parents also came across to visit me after they took a trip to the Netherlands, my father's home country, for his 60th birthday. We had all visited Salzburg back in 2001 while living in the UK and so it was a full circle experience to now be living here and to show them around from a completely different perspective. My dad went back to work in the States and my mum stayed two weeks longer, during which time I took her out to the prettiest town in Austria, Hallstatt, and up a mountain near Salzburg. It was that hike which I was waiting for and which made me feel like, even though I still don't spend much time there, when I do, it feels a bit more like home.

I also spent a weekend in Innsbruck, a few hours away from Salzburg by train, to hang out and go hiking with Connor, a friend of mine I'd met once six years ago in Vancouver. What ensued was a wholesome and delightful weekend of sunrise hikes, rainstorms, many cows and hostel dinners.

Posts to read from my time there:

• Seven Lakes Valley Hike

16. Ecuador

July - August

While my parents were in Salzburg earlier in June, it was my dad's 60th birthday and so on the day of his birthday my mum and I got to surpise him with a trip we'd been planning since the end of last year. Six weeks later, we all landed in Quito after long journeys; them from San Francisco and me from Salzburg, to spend two weeks in Ecuador, my first time in South America.

Quito was bustling - a vibrant, music-filled, modern and delightful city that offers a rich history and busy beautiful streets surrounded on all sides by the Andes Mountains. We spent a few days acclimatising to the high altitudes, wandering the colourful streets and doing a few day tours to the incredible Quilotoa Lake, where we met the alpaca Juanito, and hiking up to the refuge at Cotopaxi Volcano which sits at 16,000 feet, an elevation higher than Mont Blanc!

However, the real purpose of our trip to Ecuador and perhaps the most surreal week of my life ever was our week spent onboard a yacht in the Galápagos. We spent seven nights aboard Coral I and from the moment we landed, the trip felt like a dream. The islands are visited by so few people and in such a regulated manner so as to preserve the nature of one of the world’s greatest natural preserves that getting to actually be there in person was a privilege. We spent our days snorkeling, hiking, spotting the world's greatest wildlife and learning about one of the most diverse and wildly rich places on earth.

Posts to read from my time there:

• Day Trip to Quilotoa Lake
• Cotopaxi Volcano Hike
• One Week Cruise in the Galápagos
• A Guide to Quito

You can also check out all my YouTube videos from Ecuador here!

17. Austria III

August - September

After Ecuador, I returned to Austria for one more month of summer adventures, spent hiking in the mountains, on bike rides around the city and working from different cute cafes - in one of which I was approached by Sabrina who wanted to draw me. Obviously I was honoured - I feel like this kind of stuff only ever happens in movies. She’s a freelance illustrator, and she wanted to get in some practice in advance of an upcoming fashion event in Salzburg where she’ll be live drawing people. Well, while I sat there working away as she drew me, I had no idea what to expect. The result was this stunning piece. She captured my expression exquisitely, down to my concentrated eyes, my pursed lips. Her vision of me came to life in just twenty minutes. This was a highlight of my year and I am so lucky to now call Sabrina a friend in my little Salzburg.

Posts to read from my time there:

• Salzburger Almenweg Stage 2 Hike

18. Italy

August

Oh Milano. Can you believe, after all my worldly travels, that I'd never been to Italy!? Yeah. Me neither. I met someone in the Galápagos who is from Milan and decided that it was a good an excuse as any to finally dip my toe in the exquisite country that is Italy and book a very spontaneous trip to visit them and spend a few days revelling in the knowledge that I was finally there. The outcome, unsurprisingly, was that I'm completely obsessed with Italy, even with the five short days in one city that I've experienced so far, and there are many plans coming up that involve this country.

Posts to read from my time there:

• How to Spend a Day on Kastellorizo
• YOUTUBE VIDEO: We Went to Greece for a Day

24. Austria IV & 25. Belgium III

October - November

I flew home from Istanbul back to Salzburg tired out but happy and buzzing off of the good energy of our fantastic time in Türkiye. I spent less than a week home before one final trip to Brussels for the year in order to onboard a new team member at work, and then one more week at home upon my return before leaving it for the last time this year. Salzburg was rainy and brightly adorned in autumnal colours and it was good to be home even for a few days to do laundry, repack suitcases for warmer weather and sleep in my own bed.

26. South Africa

November

A friend of mine asked me in early September if I was up for a three-week trip in Africa, starting in Cape Town and ending in Johannesburg, both in South Africa, and for traveling for two of those weeks in a 4x4 with a roof tent, camping and road-tripping our way through five additional countries. Knowing my adventurous spirit and my inability to say no, I did the natural thing and agreed, booking two weeks off work and arranging this great final 2022 hurrah. I ended up spending much more than just those initial three weeks in Africa, extending my trip for a solo month to squeeze in a few more places and continue to chase my never-ending dream of seeing the world.

So, on a cold November evening in Salzburg, where we both live, we met up at our tiny city airport for a flight across to Istanbul before an eleven-hour flight directly down south to the tip of Africa, landing in Cape Town on a beautiful Saturday morning. In Cape Town, we picked up our rental car, immediately got dinged by the rental company for speeding (44km/h in an unmarked 20km/h zone so we take no blame, thanks) and drove through the city for the afternoon before making our way eastward to Stellenbosch.

From the moment we flew in, Table Mountain became a dominant icon on the skyline, its flat top juxtaposing the vibrant pink sunsets we would enjoy every evening. The equally famous pointed Lion’s Head stood just nearby constantly in our view and one we tackled on an early Tuesday morning for sunrise. The tide came in and out diligently along the city’s long coastline, from which serene beaches offered prime sunset-viewing spots. Vegan cafes and restaurants tucked along every corner, offered a likeminded haven where I felt like I belonged.

We did a quick drive-through the city on the first day we landed, visiting some of the city’s best-known spots. As the days went on, we explored more little corners, based in an AirBnb in the heart of the city and wandered more streets, tried out loads of cafes and hiked challenging and rewarding trails across the city. I was obsessed.

Posts to read from my time there:

• Panorama Route Hike
• Lion's Head Hike
• Kasteelspoort Hike up Table Mountain
• A Complete Guide to Cape Town
• YOUTUBE VIDEO: Finally in AFRICA | South Africa

27. Namibia

November

After our exceptional week spent in Cape Town, we dropped off our rental car at before spending the night sleeping on benches in Cape Town airport. From there, we took an early morning flight in a tiny airplane up to Windhoek in Namibia where we picked up our rental 4x4 truck with a roof tent and headed into the city, anticipation at an all time high for the adventure we were about to undertake.

We spent a few hours at a cafe in town - and within those first few hours, our car window was forced open and a suitcase stolen from inside. We got the entire thing on security camera footage (the city is full of them) and spent the bulk of our day filing a police report. It was a horribly unsettling feeling to start a trip on and while the suitcase and about a third of the belongings were recovered four days later and delivered to us in Johannesburg, we wanted out of Windhoek and so as soon as we could, we drove out of the city, four hours deep into the Namibian desert where we camped under the stars, trying to feel at peace and whole.

Although I'd love to say that the trip got easier, I want to be honest and say that it was a challenging six days traversing the intense and wild landscapes of Namibia. Having said that - we absolutely loved this trip. It was wild, challenging and eye-opening but it was also rewarding, raw and strengthening. If you've got some solid travel experience under your belt and are looking for an adventure that will push you to the far edges of your comfort zone requiring a large dose of resilience and perserverance to battle through, a roadtrip through Namibia might be just the thing.

During our roadtrip across Namibia, we witnessed extraordinary places, deep in the desert and thousands of years old. The incredible sand dunes of Sossusvlei took our breath away; the majestic spikes of Spitzkoppe rising out of the flat red neverending horizon were awe-inspiring; the rock carvings at Twyfelfontein are the best preserved in southern Africa; and Etosha National Park was supreme and by far our favourite visited on our cross-Africa trip.

Posts to read from my time there:

• Our Journey to Sossusvlei
• A Guide to Spitzkoppe
• Visiting the Rock Art of Twyfelfontein
• A Guide to Etosha National Park
• 6 Day Roadrip Through Namibia
• YOUTUBE VIDEO: Everything Went Wrong | Namibia

28. Botswana

November

From Namibia, we turned eastward and completed our first African land border crossing into Botswana. During our four days in Botswana, we visited two exceptional game reserves - the revered Okavango Delta, a wet river delta teeming with life, before entering Chobe National Park, home to a huge elephant population (and terrible roads).

We spent four days driving nearly 900km through Botswana, starting at the land border crossing from Namibia at Buitepos and traveling northeast through the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park, before heading east to cross the border at Kazungula into Zimbabwe.

Botswana was an incredible adventure, but we struggled with enjoying it as much as Namibia because truly the roads in Botswana are really horrible. We spent a lot of our time in Botswana focusing on getting safely to our next destination in one piece and perhaps would have opted for drivers to take us on some of the excursions. Thankfully, we scheduled our time really well and didn't have long drives to tackle every day, just short and tough ones, allowing us to spend a lot of down time catching up on rest.

Posts to read from my time there:

• Visiting the Okavango Delta
• A Guide to Chobe National Park
• 4 Day Roadtrip Through Botswana
• YOUTUBE VIDEO: Our Most Challenging Adventure Yet | Botswana

29. Zimbabwe & 30. Zambia

November

From Botswana we continued east across the continent, making the long drive from Chobe National Park towards Victoria Falls, a famous spot in northern Zimbabwe and right on the border with Zambia.

I think it was partially due to the relief of being back on safe roads and the fact that my body had been on high-adrenaline fight or flight mode for so many days that within an hour of getting back onto the paved roads, I got quite severly ill. During the border crossing from Botswana to Zimbabwe as we were filling out our paperwork for our visa I temporarily lost my vision with the entire world going completely purple. I spent the next four days quite sick and weak which we reckon was entirely stress-based; it was too soon for malaria and COVID-19 tests came back negative. Given how sick I was feeling during our time in Zimbabwe, we forewent camping and booked ourselves for two nights into a darling little AirBnb in the heart of Victoria Falls to recover and have a warm and safe place to sleep. This was an exceptionally good decision in hindsight given the stories we heard about wild animals wandering the streets of town...!

Victoria Falls is a UNESCO World Heritage Site shared between these two countries. The falls are basically a gigantic sheet of water that stretches nearly 1.7km across the countries on both sides o the Zambezi River. While based on the Zimbabwe side, I walked across the land border into Zambia one afternoon and spent a few hours exploring Victoria Falls on the Zambia side.

After Victoria Falls, we made the 910km drive southward across all of Zimbabwe, stopping to spend the night in Matobo Hills, before crossing the border back into South Africa.

Posts to read from my time there:

• How to Visit Victoria Falls
• YOUTUBE VIDEO: Our Hardest Days on the Road | Zimbabwe & Zambia

31. South Africa II

November - December

We gratefully re-entered South Africa in late November after our wild roadtrip across southern Africa. After managing the border crossing from Zimbabwe, we headed eastward to Kruger National Park. Like all the national parks we visited across southern Africa, it can be visited with a guide or you can simply self-drive through the park, stopping whenever and wherever you may choose. We entered Kruger at the Pafuri Gate in the far north and spent three days / two nights driving south through the park.

Whilst Kruger was certainly the most developed and best maintained national park we visited, we found the paved roads, while easy to drive, actually to be a detriment to animal viewing as the animals all avoided the areas or ran away as we approached in our car. We looked up the best bush routes to drive through the park, getting off the paved roads and back onto the gravel and, while they were bumpier to drive, that’s where the animals came out in full force. Not only did we witness hundreds of wild animals, but we also watched eighteen giraffe all coupled up on a massive open plain before coming across all of the big predators: three buffalo, two lions and a cheetah. These animals are completely wild and we have zero say so on what they do or where they go, so every single sighting is a rare and lucky chance and somehow our stars aligned and we got them all. Feeling utterly privileged for moments like this.

We left behind Kruger and looked towards the final few days of our cross-African roadtrip with anticipation. Our final stop in South Africa was to drive the revered Panorama Route, a 160km loop near Graskop connecting mountain passes, waterfalls, hikes, viewpoints and other incredible natural formations of the region. One of our favourite moments of the entire roadtrip was the hike down to the base of the exquisite Lisbon Falls.

Posts to read from my time there:

• A Guide to Kruger National Park
• Driving the Panorama Route
• YOUTUBE VIDEO: Our Happiest Days on the Road | South Africa

32. Eswatini

December

Our final hurrah of our big cross-African roadtrip that saw us traversing six incredible countries, spending two weeks and nearly 6000 kilometres chasing views, wild landscapes, epic experiences, incredible animal sightings and most of all, life-changing adventures that pushed us to the edge of our comfort zones, was to visit the tiny Kingdom of Eswatini.

We left the Panorama Route in South Africa and headed the 260km southward to the Oshoek Border Post crossing into Eswatini. The capital of Eswatini is Mbabane and where we had our AirBnb for the night, so we entered at the closest border crossing. The border crossing between the two countries was a total breeze, perhaps one of the easiest of our trip. Maybe it was a combination of it being our sixth African land bordering crossing and we were pros by this point as well, but certainly it felt like there was no corruption and no strange expectations; we picked up our gate passes, got our immigration departure stamps, paid our customs fee, got our immigration entry stamps and then we were in Eswatini!

Once we had entered Eswatini, we made our way to our accommodations for the night. It ended up being probably the nicest AirBnb I've ever stayed in, with gorgeous chic contemporary decor and a jaw-dropping view that looked right over Sibebe Rock, the largest rock in Africa and only the second largest in the world. It's three billion years old and made of volcanic rock, reaching nearly 1500 metres tall and covering 165 square kilometres. It's BIG! Because it's so big and so nestled into day-to-day life (and not sitting protected off somewhere in the distance), there is no singular "viewpoint" where you can look at the whole rock and take in the enormity of it. Short on time, we instead drove a big chunk of the loop road that circles around the base of the rock and, even though the sky was overcast and moody, we thoroughly enjoyed the varying views of this gigantic ecological feature.

Posts to read from my time there:

• 24 Hours in Eswatini
• YOUTUBE VIDEO: All Good Things Come to an End | Eswatini

33. South Africa III

December

Our southern African roadtrip was an intense adventure, witnessing surreal landscapes and facing adverse struggles, and we both came out of it exhausted and pushed to the very limits of our comfort zones, yet utterly grateful for the privilege of such an experience. I then faced another solo month on the continent. And so the struggle to decompress and comprehend the wildness of our roadtrip and process what we'd been through laid the foundation of my week in Johannesburg, the end point of our southern African roadtrip.

I was so grateful to return to my beloved Cape Town after my weekend in Lesotho where I checked into a hostel and spent most of the weekdays working and enjoying wandering the streets of Cape Town in the early evenings. When the weekend rolled around, I was amped to get back out onto the many trails of Cape Town. The city is exceptionally lucky in that there are simply loads of hikes literally right in town, what with Table Mountain and Lion's Head both in the heart of everything; in fact Cape Town wraps itself around these two beautiful mountains offering numerous places to explore. I have a few colleagues based in Cape Town and am endlessly grateful to them for hiking with me, doing a 10km early morning run in celebration of Reconciliation Day through a township, brunching with me and inviting me over for my first ever South African braai. What a privilege to know people across the world.

Posts to read from my time there:

• Is It Worth Visiting Johannesburg?
• 3 Spots to See in the Drakensberg
• Lion's Head Loop Hike
• Oppelskop Hike
• Skeleton Gorge Hike up Table Mountain
• A Complete Guide to Cape Town

34. Lesotho

December

After my week in Johannesburg where I felt virtually trapped in my hostel, I was so ready to get out and explore again. With my mission of visiting every single country (and some others) in the world, I booked a guided tour from JoBurg down to Lesotho, the other tiny little fully-enclaved-by-South-Africa country just like Eswatini. The company was excellent; it was with a private tour guide who collected me at 6am from my hostel in JoBurg on a rainy Friday morning and drove me all the way down through eastern South Africa towards Lesotho.

Along the way, we stopped for some beautiful excursions in the Drakensberg Mountains, a wild and expansive mountain range traversing both Lesotho and South African land. On the Saturday of my tour, I was met at my accommodations by another guide from another tour company with a 4x4 vehicle who'd be taking me and five other travelers up the epic Sani Pass from Underberg into Lesotho. The final 8km between the two nations' border posts is completely gravel and really quite a steep treacherous trek. You can only drive this route with a 4x4 and it's strongly advised not to try to attempt it on your own. We had gorgeous conditions on the way up and were able to see for many miles across the pass, but on our way back down, heavy rain made the drive even more sketchy. We conquered the top of the Sani Pass and entered the little kingdom of Lesotho, nicknamed the Kingdom in the Sky.