Internationally recognised as Syrian territory, the Golan Heights has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 war. Antony was keen to see the area so we hired a car for a day from Tiberias and set off to the north east of the Sea of Galilee. First stop Mount Bental for amazing panoramic views of the area. After Israel captured Golan Heights from Syria in 1967, it was under Israeli military administration but then in 1981 Israel passed a law to administer it as […]
Mountains
Stunning Svaneti – Georgia
One of the highlights of Georgia for us was our trip into the mountainous Svaneti region. The beautiful snow covered peaks of the Greater Caucasus and the picturesque alpine villages rival New Zealand scenery any day. We visited in April, basing ourselves in the small town of Mestia which was at 1400m elevation. After a couple of days of rain and foggy conditions, the skies cleared for us so we headed off for a half day hike up to a cross 900m above Mestia. […]
The Georgian Military Highway
We did two day trips from Tbilisi when we were there in April and I can recommend both to future travellers to Georgia. The first was with a driver up what is known as the Georgian Military Highway to Kazbegi, a truly magnificent drive. We stopped off at a few beautiful points along the way both there and back. The second trip from Tbilisi was to Uplitsikhe cave city and Gori, birthplace of Stalin and home to the Stalin Museum. I’ll cover this one […]
The Amazing Aras River Valley & Babak Castle
Talk about saving the best for last… we had a real treat in our last two days in Iran. 🙂 Things didn’t go too smoothly when we arrived in Jolfa but once we got on the road exploring the Aras River Valley – first west then east of Jolfa-  we were blown away with how beautiful it was! The last destination before we left for Armenia was Babak Castle and it was incredible… our last hours in Iran were quite possibly the best!! We […]
Sa’adabad Complex & Darband Mountain, Tehran
Finally, after almost two months in the country, we made it to the Iranian capital, Tehran. We heard that Noruz was a great time to visit as most people return to their villages or hometowns for the New Year celebrations leaving Tehran much quieter and much less smoggier than it usually is. This proved true – the roads were very quiet, it was possible to get a seat on the metro and the air was fine to breathe! We headed to a lovely area […]
Alamut Valley & Castle of the Assassins
Don’t these names, the Alamut Valley & the Castle of the Assassins conjure up some kind of dramatic image? To me they sound so exotic and exciting. I had been looking forward to visiting them since I first arrived in Iran, but I had to wait to the last couple of weeks as we started in the south of the country and this area is in the north. We hired a local couchsurf host who couldn’t host us but helped us find a hotel […]