We met Nico on our dive safari on the Wellenreng in Raja Ampat in 2023, there the plot of visiting Bali evolved. We first thought, yeah, that’s the regular let’s meet again from the dive guide, but Nico kept his word! So we went on a second round on the quest for hilariously well hidden pygmy seahorses in Indonesia, this time on Bali! First off the trip was absolutely amazing und incredibly well planned and organized by Nico.
He has managed everything: location, accommodation, transfers, breakfast, lunch, dive spots, tanks, dive guiding and the entertainment program!

We flew from Munich to Denpasar and we were welcomed by our driver.
After a picturesque 3 hours ride, we reached Amed on the North East Side of the island.

The Villa

We lived all together in a very nice Villa with 4 bedrooms and pool.

The house was in the middle of the village Bedulu and directly at Bintang (Bhima) Beach.

The first 3 days we spent diving.

The north east shore of Bali is a great place for macro photographers!

The transfer to every diving spot went perfectly smooth as Nico had organized drivers who navigated us through the sometimes chaotic traffic.
On each diving spot the tanks were already there – properly filled – and ready to pick up.

On some spots we got some help from local people carrying our gear.
A list of all the diving spots can be found at the end of the blogpost.

On our first activity day we visited the Lempuyang Temple.

This Hindu temple is a wonderful place, but a little bit crowdy because of many tourists wanting to have the famous picture. It is faked with a mirror, but we also wanted to have it :-D

Normally it is not allowed to enter the temple, only for people who want to pray. But Nico bought offerings and was able to manage that we were allowed to enter the temple together with a friendly supervisor from the temple.

We had a briefing about the praying ceremony and did the ceremony together. It was a great experience as you are not able to get immersed by an unknown and foreign culture on regular trips.

The next 4 days we spent again diving.

On one of these days Nico had planned a special Dinner.
We were picked up by fishing boats right in front of our Villa for a Sunset cruise.

After a scenic 1 hour ride with a couple of sundowners we reached our target, a very beautiful restaurant at another beach near Lipah.

After the planned diving days, we had again 2 days of activities.

We had a hike on Mount Batur, a 1717m high, active volcano!
Together with a local guide we started to climb the volcano.

Two of us had problems with walking, but for some money the local motocross Taxi guy & lady were happy to help. I was really thankful for them, as was in bad shape – generally and due to the accident – and the tour would have been a torture for me without the help of my biker lady. The terrain was serious and she pushed the bike with her additional 100+ kg load smoothly up the hill!

On the top we were served steamed Banana cooked in the steam from the hissing volcano.

Tirta Empul Temple

And after the Waterfall we visited a water temple with a holy spring to get finally clean from outside and inside.

It was a great experience, but the water ceremony is taking a little bit of time and therefore the participants became a little bit fresh after some time in the water :-D But nobody said cleansing your soul will be easy!

I was lucky, as I am really afraid of cold water, but could not join the ceremony because of my leg injury, i got from falling from a small bridge after a night dive.

Ujung Palace

A beautiful palace with interesting history.

After 10 Days of diving and activities unfortunately it was time to go back home.

Thank you so much for making this trip truly amazing and for organizing simply everything!

Hopefully we can come back sometime.

Warm greetings
Kerstin, Gabi, Michi, Hu and Jogy

List of the dive spots:

This was directly shot from the main entrance of the Maximilianeum, which is freely accessible eventhough it hosts the Bavarian parliament. The Vice mag is right, claiming this is really a cosy spot for a hoibe Bier, the traditional Bavarian sundowner.

I positioned my camera right ahead of the Maximilianeum, which is embedded by the two lanes of the Maximilianstrasse, Munichs super poshy shopping lane. Deeply focussed of taking pictures I was rather surprised by the Tram passing really close aside me.
From that spot I also took some video footage with my DLSR, but I am still fiddling with it to create some cool timelapse clips.

Here’s a good example on the importance of composition, on first sight a cool shot. But then one quickly disccovers the inevitable flaw, that the Maximilianeum is not properly centered as I did not position the camera in the exact middle…
Anway I still like the image, as I had to wait quite long to catch two Trams passing by simultanously.

Munich has many great spots with historic or modern architecture to shoot and we are still discussing where to go next. Got any hints? Feel free to to comment or contact me!

The next one is right down in the natural, wild riverbed of the upper Isar river:

This place is truly magical, I often go there to recharge my batteries and have some serious full throttle chillaxing time.

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Well the video is not very thrilling, due to my still poor piloting skills and additionally with the fear from my last drone experience, when I hammered that drone mercilessly into the ground for a couple of times.
So stay tuned and please give me some time to learn…

The ship wreck of the Hilma Hooker lying on its starboard side on the reef of the tropical island Bonaire.

Let’s start with the name, Hilma wasn’t her first one, just her last. After being built in the Netherlands in 1951 the first name was Midland, then Mistral (1964), William Express (1967) under that name she even sunk, but was refloated and rebaptised to Anna C. (1975) then she became the Doric Express (1976) and in 1979 she was named Hilma Hooker.

Her new owners wanted to maximize the profit from poor, not very well maintained Hilma so they decided to use her as smuggling vessel.
Due to engine troubles she was towed to Kralendijk harbour were she was searched and 25.000 pound of marihuana were found.
After their owners vanished completly she was towed outside the harbour and moored on sea in sight of the coast. In the morning of September 12, 1984 the Hilma Hooker sank to her last destination on the sandy bottom at the foot of the fringing reef of Bonaire.

Let alone the approach to a wreck is magical and mysterious. When you come closer you first get aware of a slight shadow in the blue, then the silhouette gets clearer and clearer until you finally regognize these huge outlines as a ship. This alone is a great experience, then you can start exploring the wreck…

We were diving there twice, I hoped to do a night dive at the Hilma Hooker, too, but we did not manage to do so.
The scene of the wreck alone is worth a visit, but Hilma also got several interesting inhabitants and visitors. On the first dive I discovered four spiny lobsters in a crack in the hull down in the middle of the cargo bay. During the second dive four large Tarpons were roaming the opening of the cargo hold between the bridge and the stern. They seemed not at all disturbed by your presence.

Besides the fauna the Hilma Hooker is covered by a lot of beautiful hard and soft corals, which offer protection to many ofther reef fish.
A couple of French Angelfish was swimming around the railings of the bow and offered some nice motifs, as you can see on the image above.
Near the mast a moray took position and lion fishes were strolling the sandy bottom in front of the ship wreck.
I also encounteres a cute boxfish exploring the inside of the wreck.
Groups of smaller reef fish gather at the propeller.
So the Hilma Hooker is offering definitely a lot to discover and to observe, I really enjoyed both dives a lot!

Hint: Check out Hilma during lunch time, we did so and could dive the wreck without any other divers!

Here is her entry on wikipedia, but the far more interesting story comes from Bruce Bowker.

Bonaire has over 60 official dive spots!
Here is a map with the divespots highlights made by the Bonaire tourist office. From that list we did 1000 Steps, Alice in Wonderland, Tory’s Reef, the Hilma Hooker and the Salt Pier. Of which the last three are my favourites of Bonaire.
But we started the diving at the house reef of Captain Don’s Habitat, in order to acclimatize first. By diving at Captain Don you can cover three divespots: Cliff (Nr. 26), La Machaca (Nr. 27) and Buddy’s Reef (Nr. 29)
The Numbers indicate the offical Bonairian divespot number, which can be found on maps you can get all over the island or by googling “bonaire dive map“.
These three spots are interesting, but not spectacular, they can be easily accessed by piers with stairs or you just jump in. The tarpons are definitely a highlight here, especially when you can observe another diver being scared off, while experiencing one of these 1-2 m long silver darts suddenly emerging out of the dark for the first time…
La Machaca is a small boat sunk as artificial reef keel side up right in front of Captain Don’s.

After two days we got our rental car and started the shore diving!

This works like this:
You get a dive package for a couple of days, get some tanks, throw them on your pickup truck and go diving! When ever you want, where ever you want!
This is awesome as it rids you of all obligations, no get up early to catch the boat, no quit breakfast as the briefing starts… You go diving when you want!
Just make sure you’ve enough full bottles on the truck.
So here’s the catch, in order to avoid people hoarding tanks, there is just one rule: Only two tanks per person!
But that’s cool, you do two dives, get new bottles before 5 o’clock (usually the dive bases close then) have dinner, do a night dive and you still have bottles for the first dive in the morning!
You can also do three dives until afternoon and do a night dive as you have an air or nitrox flatrate, it is just awesome – a divers dream!
\o/

We had gotten our bottles at divefriendsbonaire.com they had good prices, several tank pickup stations and were super friendly, I only can recommend them.

One of the diving spots that really emerged out of the wide spread of beautiful spots on Bonaire was the Salt Pier. Eventhough it does not look like a diving spot first. As the name implies you dive at a more man made place than a natural reef, but it is an excellent muck diving spot.
It is a conveyor belt on pillars leading to some docks for large cargo ships, which transport the salt into the world.
Between these pillars many fishes and corals found a new home and the colums resemble to a forsaken forrest, which is flooded by sunlight. All together this makes up a supreme muck diving spot!

The yellow stones along the road, sometimes featuring number or name, mark the divespots, in the ocean there is also a buoy marking the exact spot (mostly).
You will notice a lot of spots are called “Do not enter”, then the stones either mark a mangrove swamp or a animal sanctuary, By entering the first you might be dead and for the second one you are definitely dumb. Don’t be either of them!

Bonaire is really a divers paradise! You can easily rent gear, get tanks and a rental car and dive so you won’t get dry the whole day!!!
Accomodations can be found from high priced Hotels, villas and resorts to really fair rooms to rent. I would recommend oceanviewvillas.com (cool & helpful owner) for small groups of 2 – 4 people and “The Pelicans Nest” for the larger bunch…
Both really hold what the images promise, are clean and tidy and I personnally made a good experience with both.

So get Bonaire on your next diving trips list!

Emperor angel fish

The diving was great, the guides were sympathic, savant and fun, so there was nothing to critize here. Space on the dive deck was plenty and the crew was hyper friendly and helpful.
The cabins were well kept everyday and the food was always really tasty, I did not find anything to nag around and I am picky when it comes to food…

A cute harlequin shrimp

I also was lucky with the other fellow passengers, who were all fine and no dim-wits on board, which is a real problem on liveaboards as you cannot run away. So all in all the Junk is definitely a ship I would recommend to others and visit again, as I really had a great time on it!

(Oh, and I will update the post with some images of the beautiful shippee, too!)

A large lobster – yummy!

Ragged-finned Lionfish

A snoozing puffer fish

Durban dancing shrimps

This guy or girl was nice and patiently let me take several pictures.

Fimbriated moray seen during a night dive

Durban dancing shrimps

A fimbriated moray eel yawning at me

Ribbon eel

A swarm of barracudas on the hunt at Richelieu Rock

Find the ghost pipe fish!

This ghost pipe fish should get a matching coral for his disguise

Scorpion fish are amazing masters of disguise! First I was: “Oh! What a nice one!” and took several shots, but I needed quite a while to recognize the second one, lying directly under the first one!

Butterflyfish and beautiful soft corals

Red striped shrimp

A small manta ray crossed our path

Blue-lined surgeonfish

Not only the marine animal life offer splendid beauty, but also the whole underwater environment grants stunning an remarkable sights.

A beautiful squid

Blue spotted stingray

A hermit crab climbing a soft coral

Mating Leopard sharks

More about the leopards in love…

This is what a romantic sharks dating place looks like…

During our dive safari through the Similan islands, Tachai island and Surin National Park we did not encounter sharks like white or black tips or grey reef sharks. Which is very sad and frightening at the same time and shows the influence of commercial fishing and the finning poachers. The dive guides told me, they noticed a significant decline in shark encounters in these waters.

But there is hope, as I could see these sharkies do their best to keep up their numbers! :-D

During a morning dive we stumbled over two leopard sharks deeply engaged in their foreplay.
The male shark had snapped the tail fin of his loved one – I am sure he did that as tender as he could!
She was rubbing her back lasvicously in the sand…
If that is a natural behaviour for inviting others for sexual intercourse, then this lovely nurse shark lady probably made some promiscuous offers to me…
Here is more information about the reproduction of leopard sharks.

Anyway I was quite happy to see these leopard sharks taking action themselves and not relying on humans as Panda bear’s do to prevent them from extiction.

So on the following images you can see what leopard shark like as foreplay.
In order to get really naughty they were probably heading for a more quiet place.

I feel a little bit guilty we have disturbed them during their important task to produce more little baby sharkies…
But I wish them all the luck they need and that their efforts will be rewarded by a lot of spotted and sharp toothed kiddies!

Sharky love!

Mating Leopard sharks

He did not let loose the tip of her fin.

Compared to other species their flirtation looked quite peaceful, others look more like they would fight.

Mating Leopard sharks

We tried to keep a maximum distance, in order to keep the disturbance due to our presence at a minimum level.

As they went off, I was lucky and they passed about 5 m below me.

The male Leopard sharky was really clinging to his chosen darling.

Have fun and good luck on your mission!

Here is the video footage, my dive buddy made. Get ready for some raunchy shark action!

If you are fascinated by these beautiful creatured, please check ou this short post about helping sharks in their struggle for survival!

One of the many temples in Luang Prabang

After exploring the Sultanate of Oman on four wheels, the idea of discovering another country by the same way quickly arose and the destination was picked fast, too: Laos!
We decided to do the tour with a guide, which later on showed as a good move as it really enriched our Lao experience.
Mostly due to Phay, the man who gave us an insight into the north-eastern region of his country, was as witted as sympathic. He let us dive into the Lao language and was giving answers to our multiple questions!
We booked a 4 full day tour at offroadlaosadventures.com starting in Luang Prabang and then leading into the north.

This bamboo bridge only exists during the dry season, during the rainy season it gets deconstructed and rebuild afterwards.

The wild and beautiful jungle scenes were stunning!

At the end of our first day on tour we were awarded by a great sunset

The sunset seen from the bridge in Nong Kiaw over Nam Ou river. Here we stayed at the guest house at Joy’s restaurant, which offers rooms with a balcony with hammocks and a great view over the river!

At this part of thr track the vegetation was quite dense and natural. Often we also drove through cultivated land with banana, tobacco, rice and natural rubber tree plantations.

This scene is quite typical for the region, one mountain is crouched to the other.

We really enjoyed that view on that tree reaching its blossoms over all other trees.

Sometimes when a forestal area is getting cultivated the old and large trees get spared.

Strong roots

Mountain village

That was our drive: a nice Ford Ranger!

These traditional Lao houses get disappear more and more, as people prefer concrete houses. These houses are build only with wooden bolts and wedges. The stilts are put on stones to protect them from termites.

The dog kept guard over the fishing kids.

The water buffalos not really could decide which lane to use…

Water buffalos at their favorite place – a cool muddy pool.

Water buffalo scratching his neck, he did not let himself being distracted during this task.

The morning hours with the fog clinging to the hills are magical.

Rice paddies

The large trees always offered a great sight.

If you can stand the heat you will find a lot of unclimbed walls in Laos!

The Mekong river seen from a jungle track

The mighty Mekong river

A lizard – anyone knows the exact species?

The 1000 Buddha cave is quite a touristic spot, but it’s definitely a must see and the banana boat ride over the Mekong is fun!

Pak Ou Caves along the Mekong river

The Mekong river seen from the boat station of the 1000 Buddha cave

In Laos there are no more free elephants, which is a sad thing for the Kingdom of a Million Elephants. This elephant was held in a camp for tourists. I cannot say I felt good visiting these animals as I did not know the circumstances of the treatment of these lovely creatures. There are facilities, that keep them in an as proper as possible manner, if interested please email me.

A Mahout bathes an elephant in the Mekong river.

The pools of the limestone terraces at the Kuang Si waterfalls offer great opportunity for a refreshing bath.

Unfortunately the Kuang Si waterfalls were the last stop on our trip. We ended our journey through Laos with a tasty hot pot meal in a restaurant at the Khan river.

On the early morning dive at the Daedalus reef we had drawn the lucky number:
We stumbled into a nice school of scaloped Hammerhead sharks!
Not only as we had to go deep down, much farther that 40 m, this encounter was so thrilling, the sharks were curious and came very close, having a close look on us, too.
That was my first contact this beautiful and out-of-this-world looking species and I was really amazed!

I would love to have so much more encounters like these. But:

All Sharks are in danger.

So here are some thing you can do in order to help sharks:

• Please do boycott shark fin soup in restaurants and all other fish products that include sharks.
  Mostly shark meat is not referenced as such, so please inform yourself, what you buy and eat and avoid fish products of uncertain origin.
  This is a very difficult topic, best would be to avoid fish in general, but I like eating fish and it is healthy food, so it would be irrational for me to advocate abandoning fish as food.
  As you cannot rely on the eco-badges the industry awards themselves, try to only eat fresh fish from traders, you know they are fishing in a sustainable way.
• Take a stand against long line fishing or large haul nets where ever you can.
  Sharks and other species, like dolphins, often get caught accidentally and get thrown back into the sea, as they are not allowed to fish.
• Help to inform people about the horrorfying methods of finning and support organisations and goverments that endorse finning bans.
• Let people know that most species are not dangerous to man at all.
  Sharks play an important role the ecosystems of our oceans and are no ruthless predators.
  Around 6 (six!) people get killed by sharks worldwide per year, in the USA lighting strike fatalities demand around 40-50 lifes a year…
  So the risk by loosing your life in a shark incident is absolutely low.
• Do not fish on sharks for fun, trophy or records. That’s valid for any other fish, too. Never do that.
• Keep the ocean clean. But you should do that anyway.

Here are some organisations you can support in order to help lovely sharkies to survive:

https://www.sharkproject.org/
https://www.sharktrust.org/
http://www.sharkwater.com/
https://marinemegafaunafoundation.org/
http://www.sharkadvocates.org/
http://www.ocearch.org/

Here is another example how fascinating sharks are, this was my new years eve dive 2016 and one of the best dives I ever did:

Nightshift at the Nürburgring

This is my personal bucketlist of (some) dream destination, spectaculae, awesome or dangerous things I definitely want do do, dream of doing, want to attend or experience before I get transferred into another sphere of consciousness:

• Climb the Alpspitz ferrata
• Attend the Palio in Siena
• Freak out at the Burning Man
• Observe a tiger in his natural habitat (Siberia or India)
• See Angkor Wat
• Climb on an active volcano (I walked up 200 m in height to the Whymper refuge on the Chimborazo and the thin air was messing me up totally – so it doesn’t count.)
• Bungy jump over a high gorge
• Encounter the following marine life while diving:
  whale sharks
  manta rays, giant manta
  hammerhead sharks
  nurse sharks
  bull sharks
  leopard sharks (Oh, yes I am quite into sharks, just in case you haven’t noticed.)
  humpback whales ( YAY! I saw two jumping on the way back to Buenaventura from Malpelo!!)
  orcas
  white sharks (here a cage would be nice!)
  tiger sharks
  blue-ringed octopus
  manatee
  sea lions (they are really funny fellas, curious asf, but they can scare you to death, when they show up out of a sudden and say “hello!”…)
  humboldt kalmar
  penguins (I already fear the cold…)
• Airboat ride in the Everglades
• Do skydiving or parachuting
• Live in a foreign country for over a year
• Travel over 100 countries
• Swim in the Valle Verasca in Switzerland
• Camping and hiking in the Yosemite Valley, the Yellowstone NP and Monument Valley
• Drive a long the Malecon in an American oldtimer
• Cross the Sahara from north to south in a 4×4
• Make a safari in the Okawango delta
• Go hiking in Patagonia
• Cruise the Mediterranian on my own boat (and wear a cheesy captains’s hat, alternatively a pirate costume)
• Spend a weekend in the alps without sleeping in a hut or refuge
• Walk the Camino del Rey
• Fly through the Grand Canyon in a helicopter
• Watch a Komodo dragon eye to eye
• See Block IV in Tchernobyl
• Hiking in Nepal
• Explore the Namib in a 4×4
• Make a dive cruise and explore the Galapagos Islands
• Dive spots I wanna dive:
  Daedalus Reef
  Brother Islands
  Maldives
  Tofo
  Raja Ampat, Indonesia
  Galapagos Islands, Chile
  Malpelo, Colombia
  Ningaloo Reef, Australia
  Moal Boal, Phillipines
  Cocos Island, Mexico
  Bonaire
  Tonga
  Islas de las Mujeres
  Palau
  Socorro Island, Mexico
  Bora Bora
  Triton Bay, Indonesia
  Isla Guadalupe
  MV Karwela wreck on Gozo, Malta
• Go hiking the valley of the Soca in Slowenia
• Experience the Sardine Run
• Make a one week (better two weeks, but probably my butt cheeks will decide on that) mountain bike tour through the Alps
• Going “All in” at a poker table in Las Vegas (having a crappy hand and trying a pitiful bluff)
• Make a hike with snow shoes
• Climb a long via ferrata in the Dolomites
• Observe an aurea borealis
• Sleep in an self build iglu or snowcave
• Make a fishing trip to Finland
• Visit Son Doong cave in Vietnam
• Cruise through Halong Bay in Vietnam
• Hike in the Bataara gorge in Lebanon
• Visit Bora Bora
• “Ride” the wave in Arizona
• Sniffing the flowers in Casteluccio
• Visit Petra wearing my Indy hat
• Visit Florence
• Climb Mürren via ferrata in Switzerland
• Go snowboarding, climbing and surfing in New Zealand at the same day!
• Watch those gigantic waves rolling in at Nazaré in Portugal
• Walk one (or more) of these European long-distance paths, preferably E1, E3, E5 or E7…
• See a wild polar bear

In the background you can spot the Orca dive base and the Breaker’s hotel

The Orca Divebase in Soma Bay near Safaga at the Red Sea, Egypt is a safe bet, as I already been there and was amazed by their quality of service, but this time I tried the Breaker’s Hotel for accomodation.
My final verdict is that the Breaker’s is a fine alternative to the Sheraton for lodging while diving with the Orca Divers.
I was eager to try out my new camera setup sporting a [amazon_textlink asin=’B01BYERRUG’ text=’Canon G7x Mark II’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’mrmojorisi-21′ marketplace=’DE’ link_id=’275c4838-c0a7-11e7-ad9d-f3b8fa758dab’] additionally to the GoPro Hero 4, which is great for videos, but only capable of making point and shoot images.
So here are the results of my new approach to underwater photography:

Silouhette of a reef fish

He is the reef watch!

The reefs are boasting with life and diversity

Nemo engaging!

Nemos (clown fishes) huddeling into their anemone

The anemone offers protection for the clownfishes as its tentacles have nasty nettle cells.

The Arabian Picasso Triggerfish is a beauty – and has a fake eye on his butt. This makes him the fish with the funniest rear section of the Red Sea!

Orange hard coral at the house reef

A moray heading out for prey during the night

Another reef inhabitant I do not know the name

Busy reef life at sun down

A large pufferfish showing his teeth

You talking to me?

Spiral worms are shy, but beautiful – and look like christmas trees

Just as clown fishes use anemones these fellas use a hard coral for protection

A lion fish placed at the top of a cave, I turned the image otherwise it would make you sea sick

The reefs are boasting with life and diversity

This fella imitates the lion fish pretending to be dangerous

A funny looking blue spotted boxfish

A blue spotted stingray resting on the sea bed

Blue spotted stingray sniffing at me

A reef fish gets cleaned by a blue cleaner fish

An emperor angel fish at the panorama reef

A hard to spot spotted eagle ray

An ancient four armed sea monster

The first stop was the lovely island Murter in Croatia, known from previous trips, where we intended to stay at the Stella Maris Camping. Even though we arrived at 22:30 and they were fully occupied, they got space for two cars and we even could have something to eat after the kitchen was closed. In the morning we enjoyed a quick bath in the bay and the view over to the Kornati islands, then hit the road and gave metal to the pedal (the caravan of our Swiss friend had a travelling speed of 90 Km/h…). The immigration into Bosnia was quick and smooth without any long waiting times, only the Swiss fella had a loss of two bottles of beer, as he did not hide that treasure properly and the border control used that opportunity well…Then we just were pushing the mileage, as we had a long way to go and a short time to get there…
Arriving in Montenegro it was time to scout for a camping place. The landscape after the border looked nice, so I suggested to just leave road and look for a cozy place to sleep. My driving buddy just smirked and nodded to a sign warning of land mines in the area, so we decided accordingly to cover a little bit more distance between us and the border. The quite dried out lake near Niksic seemed a good spot to settle for the upcoming night, we found the lovely church St. Nicola where we stretched our tired bones.
I can recommend the whole area behind the dam as a campground as it did seems to belong to somebody and it is not very frequented as it is used as sheep and cattle meadow. In the morning we got a visit by a sheperd, who was very friendly and did not drive us from his sheeps grazing grounds, he refused our coffee and water we offered as “rent”. He was very friend and kind and told us he once was in Germany, but got deported.
After passing the capital Podgorica it was our turn to get “plundered”! A cop waved us to stop at the right, we tried to show him our ids and the car papers, but he was wasn’t interested at all. He was talking to us in Montegrin, which we did not understand, but he was pointing to the levers on the left side of the steering wheel of the Landrover and made a twisting gesture with his hand. My friend got it and turned on the lights – the cop smiled. Then he showed up one finger and with the other hand he formed a circle and said “Euro”. We passed a 10 Euro bill through the window, which straight disappeared in his pocket and he waved us on. For a short second I thought about asking for a receipt, but quickly omitted that again.

Note: In many countries like Austria, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania it is mandatory to drive with lights turned on during the day.
Most fines for driving with lights turned off are more than 40 Euro, so this was quite a bargain for the cop and us. And besides that, it is a funny story.

At the northern wing of the Skadarsko or Skutari lake, as the Albanians call it, we crossed the Albanian border, the immigration went smooth, no searching, no special fees, we just required our passports, car paper and the green insurance card. Via Shkoder the trip went on to Koman, were the first part of our journey would end and the ferry to Fierza started.
Event though I just made not that much kilometers on Albanian roads, some lessons were learned: the Albanians like clean cars (you’ll get it, once you’re there), they favour German cars, especially the ones with the star on the bonnet, and the quality of Albanian road may vary – suddenly. The road through the hills to the lake Komani dam in our guide (three years old) was described as properly paved, good maintained road. Well. It was not. Or at least not everywhere, as you can see the curvy road runs up the steep mountains, in winter there is heavy snow. So the road may have suffered in three years, but to it seems that some part always have been a gravel and dirt track. To us it didn’t matter as for the Land Rover Discovery this wasn’t even foreplay, but for the caravans, it was quite a challenge. I overheard a husband gnarling to his wife: “Your damn Koman lake be better worth the pain of pushing the caravan up here!” His lady didn’t bother to answer that, except with a little smirk. According to that smirk and the fact that the Koman lake was a absolutely beautiful spot, I did not want to be that guy, when she had her payback.

This was the pitoresque cafe area of the “Natura” Camping site

Right below the Koman dam along the Drin river we ended our first day in Albania in the “Natura” Camping site. When you picked up the ticket for the Rozafa ferry from the guy along the road to Koman, you can pay it at the owner of the camping site, he will write the price you paid on the ticket and you are good. Early next day, we made it up the dam to the ferry station. one should be early, as it is first come first serve, so if you have a large caravan, be there on time. The guys on the ferry know what they are doing, they were directing the cars on the deck within centimeters, if a owner lost its nerves, they steered them selves.

The Fjord like passages of the ferry trip were impressive and beautiful at the same time.

The ferry ride over the lake Koman should really be on your list when you visit Albania, as you pass a wild stunning landscape and probably will  meet interesting people, locals and travellers.
Narrow passes will change with smooth slopes, in the background one can admire the high mountains of the Nature Park Nikaj-Mertur. Hiking there must be a great thing to do as I heard from friend and saw of their images, unfortunately we could not integrate that into your trip, but its marked for the next time!

The surrounding mountains rise up to over 1600 m

High walls gracefully guard the lake

After dis embarking in Fierza we took the road rising high above another dam holding the Drin through the mountains towards Kukes.
The region between Fieza and Kukes is beautiful with its deep forests in the mountains and steppe like vegetation when you approach Kukes.
Near Kukes one can find a weird attraction of Albania, the Sultan bin Zayed Airport, which has been financed by the UAE Sheik Zayed Bin Sultan AL Nahyan.
The airport had been supported for bring relief for the refugee crisis during the Kosovo War as the border wasn’t far.
Nowadays it is rarely in use, so we snooped around it, trying to find a spot for camping, but failed.
We headed in the direction to Peshkopi as a track along the black Drin would start there. At sunset we agreed on a campsite, which luckily was the beginning of that track, what we noticed the next morning.
The track itself was amazing, the road was pressed against steep hills above the Drin river valley, zig-zagging through a lovely rock, but very green landscape.

The stunning view on the Drin river

The Drin river showing his vivid colors was our steady companion

Even the valley was very remote the former paranoia driven Dictator Enver Hoxha had had those mushroom shaped 2 man bunkers installed here. Sometimes they were hard to spot, as they were properly placed or already in a progressed state of decay. Luckily mostly they did not mess up the pittoreske sights the country side had to offer!
From time to time we had to cross a side arm of the Drin where old, rusty communist standard brigdes led us over the water.
They looked bold and adventurous, but they where sturdy and solid, as I inspected one while climbing on top of it:

What the hell is corrosion protection?

Thankfully there were no deep thoroughfares, as the Landy had a snorkel, but thecaravan in the back would have had problems…

Crossing the Drin

At the end of the day we found a lovely meadow for camping, where the sheep and the sheperd did not drive us off and had brilliant sunset and a great night under the stars.

The black Drin was reflecting the the dying sunlight and gifted us with this stunning colour play.

More to come about the rest of the journey…

Hope you enjoy it!

The crowd in front of the mainstage

It was great to see this festival rise to the biggest (and once even voted the best) music festivals in Europe.
Great due to the attractions they added and the larger and larger crowd and a bit sad as the ticket prices rocketed, so nowadays locals can hardly afford them.

But the Sziget festival should definitely be on your to-do list!
Yet alone the location itself is a awesome place to have the party of your lifetime, I mean almost a whole island in a capital city crammed with  80.000 people willing to go full throttle!?! A recipe for big time fun, thrills, excitement and extasy!

We were always getting there two or three days earlier to camp on the island for free, have better beer smuggling odds and get our favourite place:

My VW caravan on our campground of the Sziget festival

As the festival itself offers a mind blowing amount of attractions, like the luminarium, but you should not forget you are in Budapest, an exceptionally beautiful, vivid and interesting city!

Panorama view of Pest with the famous Szecheny bridge

Budapest – actually two cities separated by the Danube river, Buda and Pest – features a lot of great bars, like the Corvinteto or the Szimpla Kert:

The old Szimpla Kert was magnificent!

Ok, ok, some of you will say that the new one is very touristic and overrun, but I have had a great time there, so I would at least recommend to check them out and leave or stay on purpose. I was lucky to have locals to drag me from one cool joint to the other, but also exploring the nightlife by oneself is fun and there are many hidden gems, as the clubs and bars open and close quickly where ever there is room and opportunity to pull them up! So be curious and put on your walking shoes!

Budapest also offers interesting museums, like the “House of Terror” or the Museum of fine Arts.

Another must-do-thing is to relax in one of the great spas in Budapest, the most beautiful ones are the Szécsényi bath and the Gellert bath.
In the Szécsényi bath sometimes party events are held, I once enjoyed one and all I can say here, is that it was a wild party!
But it can be a good way to restore yourself after a long night before you dive into the next party.

Ok, back to the festival. One of the great features of the Sziget festival is the Caravan Camping where you have electricity – so bring your fridge!
The camplife is really cool, you will meet a lot of friendly and chillaxed people there and maybe you make friends there – or even find your wife or husband!

A spontanous fire show right beside our camp

Our camp in 2008

Our awesome festival caravan

Besides the concerts you can attend various cultural happenings, art shows and installations, courses for yoga, bellydance, chess, juggling and much more! You can even get married for the duration of the Sziget! Just dive in and enjoy!

Sculpture made of plastic bottles

La Fura dels Baus gave shows every evening in 2009

OH! Almost forgot the music! Yes, there are concerts! A lot! You will be racing from one to another, in order not to miss anything!
Unfortunately to me Rock and Metal almost disappeared, I saw Iron Maiden, Faith no More, (Fantastic performance!), Motörhead (they were great!!) and my favourite band the Suicidal Tendencies !!!
Leningrad are always a sure shot and pretty smooth: two of their band members wiped the floor with a friend and me in table soccer in one of the bars at the festival… The first The Prodigy concert was great, but then they messed up!
Chemical brothers were brilliant, I definitely recommend to join DJ Shadow this year!
I enjoyed Maceo Parker, Buena Vista Social Club, Robert Plant a lot!
La Brass Banda gave a two awesome shows and even left the stage to play inside the crowd!
Be sure you check the small stages and tents, too! You can have great fun there and discover new tunes.

Prince: “I can do this all night long – do you know how many No. one hits I have?”

Skunk Anansie gave an awesome performance

Veronika Harcsa: a great voice from Hungary

Deadmaus

Ska-P was rockin!

Die Fantastischen Vier at the Sziget festival

Yasmin Levy a Israeli – Spanish Ladino singer

Bonaparte did a crazy show!

Another sadthing is that the Roma Tent is no longer present on the Sziget!
My friends and I always enjoyed hanging around there because of the good music and the people going there, too.

A Klezmer band in the Roma tent

The Sziget really lost something good here…

Aside from the concerts the party around the mainstage is crazy:

Colourful play

Party people – go wild!

Even the Clergy has some serious fun at the Sziget!

Hungarian ladies posing

They looked really badass – and were friendly as hell!

Well, be ready for anything! Always.

They got me a way too small bike!!!

The decoration is lovely and detailed

One last hint from me:

You always should be careful with whom you are travelling – I had a bad awakening…

But nevertheless, visit the Sziget festival and enjoy one week of music, art, party and good vibes!

Location: Reit im Winkl, Hausbachfall
Duration: Ascend: 1h 30m, Descend: 30m
Difficulty: B/C

The access is really easy and there are signs guiding you from the center of Reit im Winkl. Before reaching the bridge at the Hausbach waterfall, where it starts, you can warm up in the bare foot parc or cool your feet in a traditional Kneipp bath.
The difficulty might be suitable for beginners, if they are accompagnied by experienced partners.
The start looks pretty scary as it is very steep and exposed, so you definitely should not have fear of heights..
One of my friends was doing his very first via ferrata here and made it without problems, but he is a fit and sporty guy.

The Hausbachfall in Reit im Winkl

The first part of the via ferrata

The waterfall is all along the via ferrata

The first part features most of the tricky passages

The sight is always gorgeous

Via ferrata Reit im Winkl

As the rock was quite wet you had to use the cable quite a lot

The Hausbach waterfall in the background

Klettersteig Reit im Winkl

The water is crystal clear and drinkable

Always look for you buddies!

From below you hear the water rushing

Via ferrata Reit im Winkl

Via ferrata Reit im Winkl

Via ferrata Reit im Winkl

Klettersteig Reit im Winkl

Via ferrata Reit im Winkl

Hausbach waterfall

The first section from above

The second section seen from the descent hiking path

The first section of the Klettersteig

Via ferrata Reit im Winkl

One thing is important to mention, as we encountered this “problem” of the via ferrata:
The via ferrata is not drying out fast, as there are meadows above it and they conserve the rain water and slowly pour it over the rocks.
That gives you cooling on a hot day, but also rises the difficulty level and the risk of injuries due to slipping.
But it is still doable when the rocks are wet, you just need more power and concentration.
I guess it will need 3 or 4 days to dry out properly, we had rain 2 days before!

If you try it, I wish you a great day in that lovely valley!

When I return to Oman, this will definetly be on my todo list! But as we were just one single car and lacking of time, we had to drop it and head to Shannah by road. We left the street from time to time to explore the surrounding area and to praice driving in loose sand.

Near Shannah large salt pans are located, but one cannot miss them driving to Shannah port.
These salt pans form a barrier for a bird sanctuary lying behind them at the coast at Barr al Hikman.

The ferry ride takes about one hour, depending on the sea, the ferry is quite modern and sports two large rooms with AC, separated by men and woman.
Be sure to confirm the dates of departure locally or online.
The ferry is operated by National Ferries Company run by the government of the Sultanate of Oman and the price (two way) for an adult is 6 Omani Rial and a 4WD costs 22 Rial.
Exact prices can be found here. You will need passports and car papers and you can pay with credit card.
The bureau of NFC is not located on the pier, so buy the tickets at the office in the small container on the right before driving along the pier to the ferry.

Road from Sur via Ras al Hadd to the ferry at Sannah Port

Road from Sur via Ras al Hadd to the ferry at Sannah Port

Me and my buddy on a salt pan on the way to Sannah

Masirah Island is the largest island in the Sultanate of Oman, once a British military post, now the Royal Airforce of Oman ist stationed there.

The island has an important hatching ground for loggerhead sea turtles.
Kite boarders will appreciate the steady winds during monsoon time from June to August, June is the hottest month during the year.

Track to a Wadi through which we crossed the island

The Wadi Muwaydi (?) we just found the track on map and tried it

The wadi was really beautiful and interesting to explore and the dried out riverbed, for us beginners, offered several challenging passages.
Especially when you exit the wadi, you have to take a steep and rinsed out right turn featuring some nasty lane grooves.

This wadi was absolutely beautiful, we just had no idea if it would lead us through the island

We were close on time, the sun was setting and we feared to have to exit the wadi in the dark

All in all Masirah island is definitely worth to explore it over several days and enjoy the large beaches.
If you seek solitude and calmliness Masirah Island is your spot.
Eventhough I stayed just one night, I would strongly recommend the Masirah Island Resort.

The service there was ultra friendly, we were given a welcome drink and they refilled our cooler box with ice without hesitation, the food in the restaurant was good and the rooms were nice.

This was the sunrise on the balcony of the Masirah Island Resort

The tour nicely starts along the Isar followed by a passage along the B13. After that you need to catch the bicycle path into the forest which leads you over the Sylvenstein Dam.

The outlet of the Sylvenstein Dam

View over the Sylvenstein lake from the dam

The next passage leads you along the B307 via the Sylvenstein bridge to Vorderriss.

Upper part of the lake from the bridge

The riverbed of the Isar

Here I recommend to have a break at the Gasthof Post Vorderriss, where they serve good valuable meals. Whith you batteries reloaded you continue in the direction to Wallgau via a private road. It is free for cyclists, but costs a little when you are on a motorbike or go by car. In that lovely valley you can find many occasions for taking pictures or having a pic-nic stop!

Riverbed of the Isar behind Vorderriss

From Wallgau the road goes down to the Walchensee which has some detours through the forest on gravel paths, but its nice, you should take them, just follow the sign to Walchensee via Einsiedl. Reaching the Walchensee you have to cycle around a small and beautiful half isle offering many spots for taking a cool bath!

Nice bay for taking a bath

The Walchensee

From Urfeld on begins the nastyiest part: You have to climb the Kesselberg pass! But you get rewarded once you done it!
Then you can either choose the scenic tour through the forest or hammer down the road and try to be faster than the cars!

If you choose the scenic detour you should visit the Walchensee Powerplant and its museum!
Before the train ride home I had another food break at the hotel/restaurant Grauer Bär which has a beautiful beergarden right aside the Kochelsee.
Then only a short ride above a hill at the Franz-Marc Museum is between you and the train station in Kochel! Have fun!

To make things easier the route I elaborated contains much street parts, but there you mostly got bicycle paths so you can bike without fearing to get blasted off the road. So here is the detailed route I can highly recommend.
If you are a more professional biker than I am, you can add many nice and challenging detours – send me your propositions!
To go from Munich to Lenggries and from Kochel back to Munich, I recommend the Bayern ticket for 25 € and additional 6 € for anyone who joins you. Sorry, there is no good english version of the DB shop to buy that ticket. Oh, and you will need a bike ticket for 5 or 6 €!

Optimus Prime in Munich

My excitement couldn’t even be harmed as I had to explain to my colleague who Optimus Prime was, atleast he already had heard of the  Transformers and saw one of the movies…
They stopped near my office, so had to have a closer look and got some shots, so here they are:

Optimus Prime in Munich, he even got german licence plates to blend in even better!

Optimus Prime leoader of the Autobots

Optimus Prime the Autobot in Charge

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee with a strange german Deception luring in the background

Bumblebee in Munich

Bumblebee and Barricade in Munich

Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Barricade

Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Barricade

Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Barricade