Tag Archives: environmental portrait

A Crusader castle? It didn’t feel real to me; it was as if the pictures in an old children’s storybook had come to life. My visit to Shobak Montreal Castle – now known as Qal’at ash-Shawbak in Arabic (the nomenclature and spellings vary wildly) – caused me to take a deep-dive back into my vinyl […]

View full post »

“Life is a journey, not a destination.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance They say that getting there is half the fun and that the journey is more important than the destination. That may well be true, but it helps to keep the destination in mind when you need the motivation to keep going on a […]

View full post »

Petra! It was a dream come true. This ‘rediscovered’ ancient city was built by the Nabateans some time around 300 B.C. Situated roughly halfway between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea in what is now Jordan, the city was at an important trading crossroads between Arabia, Egypt, and Syria-Phoenicia. It grew rich from hosting passing […]

View full post »

Crete, Greece’s largest, most populous, and southernmost island, is a rugged place of mountains and gorges. Every day-trip I took while I was there was a test of fitness! A day after descending a punishing cliff-slope to Preveli Beach (see: Preveli Beach and Palm Forest) and exploring the historic capital of the Rethymno (Rethymnon) prefecture […]

View full post »

It was not yet 7:30am. I’m not a morning person, but I was excited! Our bus was already in the car park outside the Petra Visitor Centre. In an attempt to beat the heat and the crowds, my fellow travellers and I were making our way into this magical ancient city early. We had gone […]

View full post »