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Ramblings

Photos, travel stories, reportage and random stuff from New Zealand and around the world by Peter de Graaf

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Author: pdg

Asia Photos 

Laos in pictures

September 27, 2020April 11, 2021 pdg 2 Comments Attapeu, Laos, Luang Prabang, Mekong River, Plain of Jars, Si Phan Don, Vang Vieng, Vientiane

Laos doesn’t have the big tourism drawcards of its better-known neighbours — but that’s all the more reason to visit this slow-paced, smile-filled land.

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Caucasus Photos 

Azerbaijan in pictures

August 9, 2020October 4, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Azerbaijan, Baku, Lahic, Lahij, Lenkeran, Qobustan, Şeki

Unspoiled mountain villages where time stands still and mind-boggling environmental devastation left by the oil industry — you’ll find both in exotic, welcoming Azerbaijan.

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Europe Featured Weird Travel 

Is this the world’s most bizarre place for a castle?

July 22, 2020July 4, 2021 pdg 3 Comments Corvin Castle, Hunedoara, Hunedoara Steel Works, Hunyadi Castle, Romania, Transylvania

It has everything you’d ever want in a medieval castle. There’s only one problem: It’s in the middle of a giant steel mill.

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Caucasus Photos 

Georgia in pictures

July 5, 2020July 4, 2021 pdg 2 Comments Batumi, Caucasus, Georgia, Gori, Kazbegi, Sakartvelo, Sighnaghi, Tbilisi

Straddling cultural and geographic boundaries between Europe and Asia, Georgia is one of the most fascinating — and scenically diverse — countries on Earth.

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Europe Photos 

Former Yugoslavia in pictures

May 15, 2020September 25, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Baščaršija, Baška, Bosnia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Budva, Croatia, Dubrovnik, Durmitor, Hvar, Julian Alps, Kake Bohinj, Korčula, Kosovo, Lake Ohrid, Ljubljana, Macedonia, Montenegro, Mostar, Peja, Prizren, Rab, Sarajevo, Slovenia, Trogir, Yugoslavia

Images of the dizzyingly diverse former Yugoslav republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia.

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Pacific Photos 

Tonga in pictures

May 2, 2020July 11, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Ha'apai Islands, Neiafu, Nuku’alofa, Tonga, Tongatapu, Vava'u Islands

Unspoiled beaches, decrepit ferries, spontaneous schoolkids and a slow-paced way of life in one of the world’s last absolute monarchies.

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Europe 

Cares Gorge: Is this Spain’s best one-day walk?

May 2, 2020April 26, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Bulnes, Cares Gorge, Cares Trail, Garganta del Cares, hiking, Picos de Europa, Poncebos, Ruta del Cares, Spain, walking

The Cares Trail clings to the side of a 1.5km-deep gorge in the Picos de Europa mountains of northern Spain.

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Europe Photos 

Spain and Portugal in pictures

April 25, 2020July 22, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Bilbao, Picos de Europa, Porto, Portugal, Santiago de Compostella, Spain

A wonder of modern architecture, a spectacular mountain range, one of Europe’s deepest canyons, and the charming city that gave port wine – and a country – its name.

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Middle East Photos 

Iran in pictures

April 18, 2020July 22, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Chakchak, Esfahan, Iran, Kandovan, Kerman, Persepolis, Qazvin, Qom, Shiraz, Yazd, Zoroastrianism

Former US President George W Bush called it part of “the Axis of Evil”. I call it one of the most fascinating and welcoming places I’ve been.

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Middle East Photos 

Turkey in pictures

April 12, 2020July 11, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Ani, Diyarbakir, Dogubayazit, Erzurum, Hasankeyf, Istanbul, Kars, Mt Ararat, Turkey, Yusufeli

A snow-bound palace, a ruined city, welcoming locals, a shipwreck and a fabled mountain — those are just a few of the things I photographed in Turkey in 2004.

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Middle East Photos 

Remembering Syria: Photos before and after the war

April 11, 2020July 4, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Aleppo, Aramaic, Arwad Island, Damascus, Deir az-Zor, Hama, Krak des Chevalliers, Maaloula, Palmyra, Syria

In 1995 I spent three unforgettable weeks in Syria. Now, after almost 10 years of civil war, many of the places I visited are no more.

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New Zealand 

Takahē and naked trampers on the Heaphy Track

April 4, 2020May 29, 2022 pdg 0 Comments Gouland Downs, Heaphy Track, hiking, Kahurangi National Park, Karamea, takahe, tramping

The author encounters takahē, kleptomaniac weka and naked trampers on New Zealand’s longest Great Walk.

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Pacific 

The Pacific’s forgotten slave trade

April 1, 2020July 4, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Australia, blackbirding, Port Vila, slave trade, slavery, Tanna, Vanuatu

It’s Australia’s shameful secret: A human trade in which tens of thousands of Pacific Islanders were kidnapped as labour for Queensland’s sugar plantations. Their descendants’ calls for an apology have so far fallen on deaf ears.

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Photos 

Best photos of 2019

January 3, 2020April 26, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand, Northland, Paihia, photography, Russell, Sir Hekenukumai Puhipi, Tuia 250, Waitangi

For once picking my favourite photo of the year was easy.

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Featured New Zealand 

The Te Araroa Project

November 13, 2019December 14, 2021 pdg 2 Comments hiking, Kerikeri, Mangamuka, Ninety Mile Beach, Omahuta Forest, Puketi Forest, Raetea Forest, Te Araroa

What drives more than 1000 people a year to walk the length of New Zealand? I decided to find out.

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Europe 

The Girl Fair: Matchmaking centuries before Tinder

October 7, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Apuseni Mountains, Avram Iancu, Girl Fair, Maiden Fair, Mount Găina, Romania, Târgul de Fete, Tinder

Long before dating apps Romanian villagers would bring their daughters to a remote mountaintop in the hope of finding love.

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Europe 

Bagpipes in Bohemia: A festival full of surpises

September 7, 2019September 10, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Czech Republic, Czechia, International Bagpipe Festival, Mezinárodní dudácký festival, Strakonice

The world’s biggest bagpipe festival is not in Scotland but in an obscure, post-industrial town in the Czech Republic.

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Europe Top stories Weird Travel 

The Merry Cemetery: Where folk art conquers grief

August 24, 2019December 28, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Cimitirul Vesel, Maramureş, Merry Cemetery, Romania, Săpânţa, Sighetu Maramaţiei

Anyone who tries to tell you death is no laughing matter clearly hasn’t been to Romania’s Merry Cemetery.

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Europe Photos Weird Travel 

Is this the world’s strangest parade?

August 11, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 0 Comments ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Bosch parade, Den Bosch, Hieronymus Bosch, Netherlands

The 500th anniversary of the death of one of history’s most original — and macabre — artists deserves a parade. But an ordinary parade just won’t do.

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Europe Featured Weird Travel 

Transnistria: How to visit a country that doesn’t exist

July 19, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 3 Comments Bendery, Kvint, Moldova, Pridnestrovie, Sheriff Corporation, Tiraspol, Transdniestria, Transnistria

A Soviet time warp and unrecognised breakaway state, Transnistria is one of the strangest places in Europe.

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About Ramblings

Kia ora and welcome to Ramblings, a fairly random collection of travel stories, photos and reportage from New Zealand and around the world by Peter de Graaf. I’m a reporter and occasional travel writer based in Kerikeri, a small town in New Zealand’s Far North. Read more...

LATEST

Auckland’s island escape: Great Barrier’s Aotea Track
New Zealand 

Auckland’s island escape: Great Barrier’s Aotea Track

June 5, 2022June 5, 2022 pdg 0

The island boasts spectacular beaches, hot springs, raucous birdlife and lush forest — and it’s just half an hour from Auckland by plane.

Fiordland’s Hollyford Valley: A walk back in time
New Zealand 

Fiordland’s Hollyford Valley: A walk back in time

April 6, 2022April 7, 2022 pdg 0
The Hunger Diary: My father and the Dutch famine
Europe 

The Hunger Diary: My father and the Dutch famine

March 26, 2022March 28, 2022 pdg 2
Ukraine revisited: Invasion rekindles memories of long-ago trip
Europe Photos 

Ukraine revisited: Invasion rekindles memories of long-ago trip

March 20, 2022March 20, 2022 pdg 0

WEIRD TRAVEL

The Bone Church of Kutná Hora: Final resting place of 40,000 people or macabre tourist attraction?
Europe Weird Travel 

The Bone Church of Kutná Hora: Final resting place of 40,000 people or macabre tourist attraction?

November 18, 2021November 19, 2021 pdg 0

The monks of Sedlec Abbey, in what is now the Czech Republic, turned a problem into a morbid masterpiece.

Is this the world’s most bizarre place for a castle?
Europe Featured Weird Travel 

Is this the world’s most bizarre place for a castle?

July 22, 2020July 4, 2021 pdg 3
The Merry Cemetery: Where folk art conquers grief
Europe Top stories Weird Travel 

The Merry Cemetery: Where folk art conquers grief

August 24, 2019December 28, 2020 pdg 0
Is this the world’s strangest parade?
Europe Photos Weird Travel 

Is this the world’s strangest parade?

August 11, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 0

PHOTOS

Ukraine revisited: Invasion rekindles memories of long-ago trip
Europe Photos 

Ukraine revisited: Invasion rekindles memories of long-ago trip

March 20, 2022March 20, 2022 pdg 0

Towering monuments, vibrant cities, and a national identity which has somehow survived Soviet oppression and a turbulent history — those are a few of my memories from a trip to Ukraine long before the Russian invasion.

Egypt in pictures
Africa Photos 

Egypt in pictures

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021 pdg 0
Cambodia in pictures
Asia Photos 

Cambodia in pictures

October 4, 2021October 4, 2021 pdg 0
Albania in pictures
Europe Photos Top stories 

Albania in pictures

September 13, 2021October 4, 2021 pdg 0
Czechostalgia: A photographic ramble through 1990s Bohemia
Europe Photos 

Czechostalgia: A photographic ramble through 1990s Bohemia

August 28, 2021August 28, 2021 pdg 0
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