A Spring in the Steppe

The true heart of Kazakhstan can be found in its vast steppe land, at times stretching to an infinite horizon in every direction. The world’s ninth largest country, a third of Kazakhstan’s colossal land area is steppe, an indication of just how immense this landscape is. So common is the sight of eternal, flat plain that it is easy to take this beautiful habitat for granted and many exploring the natural wonders of the country bypass this glorious grassland and focus mainly on […]

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Gorging in Georgia

Legend has it that wine was invented 8,000 years ago in Georgia, a small country which still produces over 100 million bottles of beautiful wine varieties every year. Whilst immersing ourselves in this important part of the country’s heritage, we felt it necessary to soak up the potent grape juice with some of Georgia’s delicious array of culinary specialities and these are some of our favourites. (function(jQuery) {function init() { wSlideshow.render({elementID:”739533000362992880 […]

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Going Wild in Georgia

Within hours of crossing the border from Turkey into Georgia the landscape began to feel more ‘wild’. Gone was the previous week’s dismay of exploring a valley only to be met by industrial development; indiscriminate scarring of the rock sides for roads and mining and rubbish strewn everywhere. (function(jQuery) {function init() { wSlideshow.render({elementID:”918392086740536057″,nav:”none”,navLocation:”bottom”,captionLocation:”bottom”,tran […]

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Dawn Devotion and Breakfast With the Jikheti Nuns

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Lunchin" with the Locals in Armenia

A lasting memory of Armenia will be the warmth of the people we met there, we were welcomed so many times into people’s homes and spent many memorable hours sharing food, wine, cognac and oghi (the latter not so many memories of!).  On one misty morning, we set off from Kapan for a days adventuring with our new friend David in the mountains of southern Armenia’s Syunik province. We explored the villages and landscape of Shikagogh nature reserve, a beautiful, remote expanse of 10 […]

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Turkish Tea-Time

(function(jQuery) function init() wSlideshow.render(elementID:”358215269261816094″,nav:”none”,navLocation:”bottom”,captionLocation:”bottom”,transition:”fade”,autoplay:”1″,speed:”5″,aspectRatio:”auto”,showControls:”true”,randomStart:”false”,images:[“url”:”5/6/1/6/5616847/6574027.jpg”,”width”:”400″,”height”:”288″,“url”:”5/6/1/6/5616847/9316782.jpg”,”width”:”400″,”height”:”288″]) jQuery ? jQuery(init) : document.observe(‘dom:loaded’, init))(window._W && _W.jQuery) It was a cold, grey, […]

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