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2015Our year in photos
We were busy this year, travelled a lot, to sensational new places, found many new friends, and enjoyed being with the old friends.
January
Already in January we had a surprise visit from our friends from the Antarctica trip 2013: Frank & Silke. We spent a fun weekend, unfortunately no skiing because of too little snow and bad weather, but fun anyway.
Remembering the good old times
February
We entered the Mala Mala photo competition, hoping to win and get 2 free nights. Somehow my pics got lost, Jürg made it to the finals with his wild dog racing in the river. To see the other finalists check out the link:
http://blog.malamala.com/index.php/2015/03/guest-winner/
March
Spring got there and the travel season started.
April
First was a trip to Holland to go see the amazing tulips at the Keukenhof. Unfortunately we were a little early so only few were in bloom, it was beautiful as it was. To see more click on the photo.
May
Flowers and blue skies at home and what did we do… travel almost as far as the North Pole ( would have been a mere 1338km further north). We took a trip on a sailing ship….To be honest it was a Swedish trawler built in 1953 and beautifully restored as a passenger vessel in 1999. On it we went on a photo trip along the west coast of Spitsbergen, Svalbard with photographer Shem Compion to find and photograph polar bears. And we found them ! In total we saw 9 polars bears which is quite a bit above average we were told. Plus walrus, seals, reindeer, lots of birds and awesome scenery.
Read the story of our trip on the MS Stockholm here
Us in front of the MS Stockholm
A baby polar bear is one of the cutest things ever
June
Since we were already up north we added another week in which we travelled from Bergen to Alesund, both on Norways west coast. The scenery was great, fjords, waterfalls, ancient stave churches, viewpoints, lots of very long tunnels, boat rides, hikes, just the weaher could have been better.
From Bergen
to Alesund
And because of the weather we bought ourselves some nice and warm Norwegian hats
The good thing about these is they really keep your ears warm !
In June our favourite jeepmates Sam & Katrina, whom we met in Mala Mala 2014, came all the way from Australia to Switzerland. They did a little side trip from the horse races in Ascott and came to visit. The weather was more or less Norwegian so instead of sailing on “our” lake, we took them to the south of Switzerland for a day in the sun. After the rain in the north Ascona was perfectly sunny and after great lunch we did a boat trip to the Brisago Island.
Katrina & Sam on the Brisago Island in Lake Maggiore
July
By the middle of July Jürg left for the annual motorbike tour with his friends. They went west to the Elsass in France and returned by the Schwarzwald in Germany, another 1500km in 4 odd days as usual. They have done this for over 10 years now, call themselves the “black sheep squadron” and even have matching t-shirts. It’s not just motorbikes, it’s travelling with good friends, mens talk, driving the one mountain pass they haven’t done yet, many bends and turns and to end the day some good food…
The bikes
The guys enjoying their dinner :
Alban
Mos
Peti
Jürg
Only this time it didn’t end so well and Jürg ended up in hospital after he crashed his bike, too much centrifugal force…? A broken foot and collarbone had him spending quite some time at home, but by the end of the year he’s as good as new and playing tennis again, just not quite as fast as he was before.
The foot before the fixing
The collarbone with some metal in it
August
In left Jürg in the good care of his mom and dad and flew to South Africa with my friend Susi. Mala Mala where else. It is just the best place to be. With my old friend Pieter as a game ranger things just had to turn out well, he got us in prime photo position and thought ahead to allow us some sensational moments. Got some super shots and helped Susi with her first wildlife photos as well. I believe the Africa bug has bitten her too, she is already planning to return. For more photos click on the leopard photo.
September
We visited the small town of Ebnat Kappel for the Toggenburger Balloon Days, just one weekend every two years, it turned out to be a a very colourful and exiting photo shoot. Check out their webpage : www.ballontage.ch or click on the photo to see more.
Oktober
We had planned another photo tour, this time with Christian Heeb in the USA. The week before it started we drove from San Francisco to Las Vegas which was really cool, no to be honest it was extremely hot, especially the part in Death Valley, but we got some really nice photos and were prepared for the photo tour.
Read the story of our private photo trip here
From San Francisco
to Las Vegas
At last it was time for the start of the Indian Canyons Photo Tour with Christian, and it was great !
We saw all the famous sights and canyons: from Las Vegas via the Grand Canyon to Page where we visited the Antelope Canyon and the famous Horseshoe Bend. On to Monument Valley then to Moab for Arches and Canyonlands, stopping in Bryce Canyon and the Valley of Fire on the way back.
Antelope Canyon
Monument Valley and Winnetou
And guess whom we saw at the Dead Horse Point ? Indiana Jones himself !
Read the story of our photo tour here
November
I entered my favourite MalaMala photos in the Africa Geographic Photo Competition. Got quite a lot of likes, but still not good enough to win.
But Jürg did it again and made the famous Mala Mala Photo Calendar !
December
After lots of time behind our computers processing all the photos it was getting closer and closer to Christmas. We did find time to go see the Christmas Market in Einsiedeln, a last chance for some Christmas presents…and a few photos !
Cordula
Many thanks for sharing this link Jürg! Fantastic photos, cannot stop looking at them as a person who does not travel that much! Great colours, great Sujets, great couple!
Regards, Cordula