Monday, August 12, 2013

Welcome to the last post!

On this blog you can read about our world trip! From July 2012 until June 2013 we traveled around the world. “Trekking” was our travel theme and we hiked on five continents.



The route


We started our trip in North America where we drove from the North East (Boston Massachusetts) to the North West (Anchorage Alaska). We initially drove west and stopped in Chicago, Iowa, the Badlands, Mount Rushmore until we reached the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. We then turned north and followed the Canadian Rockies to the Alaska Highway. Once in Alaska we did backcountry trips to the Yukon River, Wrangell St. Elias, Gates of the Arctic, Denali and the Kenai Peninsula. After selling our car we finished our North American trip a lot closer to the equator on the Hawaiian Islands of Maui and Kauai.

In South America we stayed in the mountainous regions. We began in Northern Peru and did two treks in the Cordilleras Blanca and Huayhuash. After Peru we flew to Bolivia where we maximized on our level of acclimatization by climbing Huayna Potosi. We followed up on our 6,000 meter summit with a short trek in the same area before heading to Lake Titicaca for a short rest. Via the Salar de Uyuni we left Bolivia and made our way to Argentina. In Argentina we only visited Salta and Cafayate and then bussed to Santiago de Chile where we flew to Patagonia. In Patagonia we hiked in Torres del Paine and Los Glacieres.

Christmas 2012 was spent with Maurits’ relatives in Tasmania. While we were on Australia’s largest Island, we also walked the famous Overland Track and did a couple of shorter camping trips. The trip continued to New Zealand where we only spent a couple of days on the North Island. In the South we tramped through Nelson Lakes, Routeburn, Kepler, Milford and finished with Laura Beth’s parents on a road trip.

Via Bali we then flew to the highest of them all; the Himalayas in Nepal. In Nepal we did two long treks; the Three Passes in the Everest Region and Kanchenjunga ( 2 & 3 ) in the North East.

After Nepal we crossed the equator once more and flew to South Africa. We started our African leg in Cape Town and via wine country, the Otter Trail and Golden Gate, we finished with the animals in (and around) Kruger National Park.

The end of our trip was in Europe. We visited Maurits’ family and friends in the Netherlands and went on short road trip to Sweden.

Needles to say; “We had an amazing year!”