a photo journal
06 August 2026
Some views have to be earned. Ala-Kul, the "Motley Lake", lies at around 3,500m in the glaciated heart of the Terskey Ala-Too, reached only on foot after a long climb up the Karakol valley. The reward at the top is a sheet of impossible turquoise, hemmed by scree and snow, that shifts colour with every passing cloud.
03 August 2026
Kyrgyzstan's trekking capital sits where the steppe runs out and the Tian Shan begins. Karakol is a low-rise huddle of Tsarist cottages, an Orthodox cathedral of carved wood and a pagoda-roofed Dungan mosque. A Silk Road crossroads that still holds a roaring animal market every Sunday. Just up the valley, the red cliffs of Jeti-Oguz mark the threshold of the high country.
29 November 2025
Behind rose-red ramparts, Marrakesh is a tangle of souqs, snake charmers and hidden riads. A city best surrendered to rather than solved.
23 July 2024
Some 118 islands float on this fairy-tale lagoon, linked by 400 bridges. Each is crammed with dazzling palazzos and heart-stopping art – Venice really is a place like no other.
22 July 2024
This silent and remote land where fresh and salt water meet is one of the most important wetlands for shore-birds and migrating waders in the Mediterranean.
15 January 2024
It's here that you'll find Europe's most compelling archaeological site - the ruins of Pompeii. Sprawling and haunting, the site is a stark reminder of the destructive forces that lie deep inside Vesuvius.
14 January 2024
Naples is raw, high-octane energy, a place of soul-stirring art and panoramas, spontaneous conversations and unexpected, inimitable elegance.
13 January 2024
You can’t go far in Naples without seeing something of Diego Armando Maradona. From a ten-storey mural to a sticker on the back of a road sign, ‘D10S’ (God) is everywhere.
07 January 2024
By terms of history, Arsenal are by far the "Kings of London." No team in the UK's capital has achieved as many domestic titles or overall trophies as the North Londoners.
24 September 2023
The name "Pinzgau" is derived from the Celtic tribe of the Ambisonten (cf. Moosleitner). The counties of Ober, Mittel and Unterpinzgau in Austria were first mentioned in 923.