All that was once published about me somewhere.
On 65 inhabited islands in the South Pacific, people often live without electricity and on very little money – and still top the Happy Planet Index. A journey to the Ni-Vanuatu, their caves, volcanoes and a sense of community that needs no rules.
“Australia is a continent pretending to be a country.” Duncan Fraser of the Adelaide tourism office says it almost in passing over lunch. I note the line down – it sounds like a joke but reads to me like a riddle. And it will not let go of Annette and me for eight days.
Alberta is famous for its vastness – but the best of it lies just beneath the surface: white buffalo at Métis Crossing, a forest starting over after the fire, a mountain that has forgotten nothing in 7,000 years. Westward, in British Columbia, the way leads up – by helicopter onto ridges and glaciers.
Adelaide is green, friendly and manageable – and then the other Australia begins. On Kangaroo Island an egg-laying mammal waddles through the leaves, and above the outback a Cessna reveals two salt lakes of a scale nobody thinks possible.
Rust-red dirt roads, termite mounds, boab trees – and somewhere deep in the outback, a breakdown that turns everything upside down. A Jeep journey along the infamous Gibb River Road. A blend of adventure and the millennia-old Dreamtime culture of the Miriwoong Aboriginal people.
Zwischen den Wellenbergen der Drake-Passage und den Pinguin-Stätten der Antarktischen Halbinsel liegt eine Welt im Wandel. Eine Schiffsreise zu einem Kontinent, der so verletzlich ist wie nie zuvor.
I experience Switzerland as a winter wonderland – with ice in all its fascinating facets: ice canyoning, ice climbing, cross-country skiing – and finally, my adventure buddy Markus Blum and I take an ice bath in Europe’s first public ice bath facility, the “Eisbadi” in Arosa.
A capital city full of magnificent temples, surrounded by lush jungle. Deep gorges with rushing rivers and breathtaking views over tea plantations and seas of clouds. Dark forests with centuries-old giant trees – Taiwan is all this and much more.
The Río Napo flows deep into the green heart of Ecuador. Among howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys and the ancient knowledge of the Kichwa people, the Amazon reveals its full magic – wild, quiet, overwhelming.
In Finland, I learn how to free dive under thick ice – a borderline experience between ancient reflexes and the question: what is the human body capable of?
Anyone who wants to go to Antarctica has to pass through the Drake Passage: six-meter waves, wind gusts of up to 120 km/h. Those who persevere are rewarded with bright blue icebergs, a world record holder of the skies, and endless silence. An expedition to the end of the world.
I venture into the winter water, even though the air temperature is well below zero. A visit to Switzerland’s largest ice bath.