Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania

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Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania

In what would become a bit a trend in 2015, I signed up to all of the spam mailing lists for low-cost airline carriers in Australia in hopes of finding some good bargains. With fairly flexible working arrangements, it is often possible to take leave with short notice. Moreover, sometimes the travel deities throw you a bone; in this case Jetstar proposed travel to Hobart for $39 during a time Mia was in Hobart for a conference. This meant that I could just pop over Bass Strait, pick up a car and get out and do some hiking!

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Le Midi

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Le Midi

My final weekend in France and my last chance to see the remaining item on my list of "must-see destinations": Carcassonne. Famed for its citadel and as the home of cassoulet, the town is an icon of France. It is also in a poorly serviced area with respect to public transport, so I broke my trip into stages, also stopping in Narbonne and Toulouse. Narbonne was unexpectedly beautiful, even if I did not get access to my accommodation until well after midnight as someone had stolen the after-hours entry keys - for which I got a free breakfast. Carcassonne was as magical as I had hoped, but having cassoulet when it is above 30 degrees was a tough ask. I only had a few hours in la ville de rose, but from what I saw it is a gorgeous city thriving with culture.

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Hartford and New York City, U.S.A.

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Hartford and New York City, U.S.A.

The United States of America has always been a bit of an enigma for me. As an Australian, I was raised in what is effectively a British environment; however there is almost no aspect of life that is not flooded with popular culture from the U.S.A. and consequently, I have always had pretty mixed feelings about going. I have little to no interest in modern american culture, but their landscape is captivating and diverse. As it happened, my work would see my attend a conference in Hartford, Connecticut. I had just spent 2 weeks in Iceland and had no time nor money for adventuring in the U.S.A., so it was to be pure business. That was until I found out the most efficient way to Hartford was via New York city.

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Provence

/ Provence/
Provence

When one thinks of Provence, normally one thinks of hilltop villages surrounded by fields of lavender. We had visited Provence previously, but for outdoor activities, but not the classic provençal experience. The weekend of le quatorze julliet had once again arrived, so we wanted to be somewhere to enjoy the fireworks; googling around let me know that Avignon was a good choice, so we set our sights on a weekend of enjoying all that Provence has to offer and seeing what is supposed to be one of the best fireworks displays in the country.

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La Dent D'Oche

/ The Alps, France/
La Dent D'Oche

The summer was rapidly drawing to an end, so it was necessary to fit in some hiking before the snow started piling up. An excursion to climb Les Dents du Midi in Switzerland was planned, but aborted due to bad weather. With some early snowfalls at altitude, a more modest target was chosen: La Dent D’Oche. (Une dent is a tooth, quite a descriptive (and apparently popular) name for a mountain.) Located in the Chablais massif, it is the northernmost summit above 2000 metres in France and is situated more-or-less on the French/Swiss border. Easily accessible from Geneva, an overnight hike camping on one of les balcons du lac Léman seemed like a good choice.

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