Grüblspitze Skitour&Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding, Ski Touring Short Link

After a late season dump of snow, and with a slightly uncertain forecast for xc paragliding, I decided to make the most of the snowy conditions and head out for my first ski tour of the year, and my first skitour&fly. Given the recent snowfall careful route choice was necessary, especially as I was heading out alone. I ended up settling on the Grüblspitze in the Tuxertal, which had the added advantage that I could get a lift into the Zillertal with Becky who was skiing at Zillertal Arena. I got the local train up the Zillertal to Mayrhofen before changing onto a bus which took me to the start of the route. The first section of the route up from the valley was untracked, which made me worried that I was going to be breaking trail the entire way up, thankfully this was not the case! The conditions were wonderful with clear skies, wintery scenes due to all the fresh snow and cold air. The only downside was my complete lack of fitness, having essentially done no exercise since November due to our trip to Southern Africa and the. Read the full article…

South Africa and Overlanding from Windhoek to Victoria Falls

Alastair BegleyAfrica, Botswana, Landscape, Namibia, Overlanding, South Africa, Wildlife, Zambia, Zimbabwe Short Link

This blog post tells the story of my five weeks in southern Africa between two jobs. This is the longest period I have had off work since I left university, and it was a great break between the stress of finishing my previous job and starting a new job. The main part of the trip was overlanding through Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. However our trip started in South Africa which allowed us some time to acclimatise to the heat prior to starting the intense travel of the overlanding portion. South African Prequel Prior to heading up to Windhoek to start our overlanding adventure, I had 12 days in South Africa. The first 10 days were spent paragliding in Porterville, just north of Cape Town. The weather was unfortunately not always the best, so there were some other activities thrown into the mix during this time. Prior to heading up to Namibia, Becky and I had planned two days of wine tasting in Franschhoek, a classic wine valley near Cape Town. South African Open Pre-PWC Paragliding Competition (Full Post) After my first paragliding competition in North Macedonia in August, I signed. Read the full article…

2025 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, Africa, Austria, Bavaria, Dolomites, General, Germany, Italy, Landscape, Mountaineering, Namibia, Paragliding, Road Cycling, Skiing, South Africa, Wildlife Short Link

2025 was certainly a year that I couldn’t have predicted at the end of 2024, it started with difficulty as Becky was not able to be very mobile due to an operation on her second knee. She was then allowed to ski prior to the end of winter, but in spring still wasn’t really allowed to do much walking, so she focussed on road biking and I focussed on paragliding. As far as a paragliding season goes, it was a pretty spectacular one, with my absolute highlight being flying 200km through the alps while crossing the main alpine ridge with spectacular views over glaciated peaks from above. I also completed my first two competitions which was a great learning experience. During the year I knew that this was my last year on my secondment, but as I didn’t want to leave Munich I explored my options to get a local job here. In July I was successful which meant that at the end of the year I left Rolls-Royce, a job which I have loved and thought would be my forever job. When I left in December, it ended over. Read the full article…

Pilanesberg National Park

Alastair BegleySouth Africa, Wildlife Short Link

As we booked our flight to Johannesburg from Victoria Falls separately from our flight back to Germany, we did not want to risk a 4 hour connection, so ended up with a 28 hour connection. To make the most of this time we headed north west from Johannesburg to Pilanesberg National Park, hoping for a final hurrah with some wildlife, prior to heading back to start a new job. Our flight was very prompt, but immigration to South Africa was unfortunately not, so our timing went out the window, which was then not helped by having to go to Lufthansa to sort out an issue with my seat an then Hertz, who’s pace was glacial. This resulted in our ETA at Pilanesberg being 20:30, much later than I wanted, and honestly regretted not bailing the day before when we discussed it due to the wonderful wildlife we had already seen. Here the sunrise a lot earlier than it had in Namibia and Botswana, so we did not enjoy our 4:40 alarm call, for a 5:15 meeting time for the game drive. The weather was unfortunately not that great for photography,. Read the full article…

Overlanding Day 20: Victoria Falls Flight of Angels

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Overlanding, Zimbabwe Short Link

Unfortunately today marked the end of our overloading adventure through Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The plan was for us to start the day with an early morning helicopter ride over Victoria Falls, however the weather had some other ideas. After a few hours of waiting for the low cloud to lift, we had some brief excitement when another group took off, but they were back 2 minutes later, as the visibility was so poor. At this point the provider took us back to our hotel room so that we could pack up and check out, before bringing us back, so that we could hopefully fly later in the morning. Thankfully as we were heading back to the Heliport, we saw both helicopters starting their engines, definitely a good sign. When we arrived we were informed that it all looked good and we would be on the next wave, in our own helicopter. This turned out to be even better than expected, as it meant that we were both on the left hand side as I was in the front seat which resulted in us doing multiple circles in the. Read the full article…

Overlanding Day 19: Victoria Falls (Devil’s Pool and the falls)

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Overlanding, Zambia, Zimbabwe Short Link

Today was the first day in almost three weeks where we haven’t changed accommodation, which was a nice change of pace. Although this was slightly hampered by waking up at 05:20 feeling a bit worse for wear after our beers and late night. We started the day heading to the Devil’s Pool, a pool right at the top of Victoria Falls where you can swim in the Zambezi and look over the edge of the falls, while you are being nibbled at by small fish. It really was quite an experience. After swimming in Devil’s pool they provided us with a really rather good breakfast, before we headed to the Zambian side of Victoria Falls. Here was really spectacular when we arrived in the sun, as there were beautiful rainbows and it was all pretty quiet – probably because most things you read say no to bother with it, but I am glad Becky was very keen to. After finishing the main circuit on the Zambian side, we walked over the border and over the bridge to the Zimbabwean side of the falls, which are definitely more impressive, with a. Read the full article…

Overlanding Day 18: Senyati Safari Camp to Victoria Falls

Alastair BegleyBotswana, Overlanding, Wildlife, Zimbabwe Short Link

Unfortunately today was the day where we had to give our truck back, to end the self-drive section of our overlanding trip. We had a lie in and woke up naturally, which was a nice change to the past few days. After getting up we packed our things, before heading into Kasane for breakfast and then headed to Bushlore to give the truck back. Bushlore took us to the border, where immigration was very quick and easy and we were picked up by a taxi from Victoria Falls. This was all very smooth and we then made good time to get to Victoria Falls, which enabled us to chill out before our dinner cruise on the Zambezi. The dinner cruise was very civilised, with great food, an open bar and some wildlife thrown into the mix. After the cruise, we met up with a group of cyclists who we had been constantly bumping into over the previous week for one beer, which turned into many beers and getting back to out hotel after midnight, which was less then ideal for the early start the next morning.

Overlanding Day 17: Ihaha Camp to Senyati Safari Camp (Chobe National Park)

Alastair BegleyBotswana, Overlanding, Wildlife Short Link

Today we started the day with a morning game drive, which was the quietest drive we have had so far but we saw our biggest crocodile and had a lovely experience with a family of elephants, where the baby just wanted to play with his cousin, while the cousin just wanted to sleep. When we arrived in Kasane we enjoyed some good coffee, before having Chobe Bream for lunch, quite a contrast from the last few days in the wilderness! In the afternoon we did a sunset river cruise which was wonderful with elephants playing in the river, and more importantly, hippos in great light on the ground and a hippo yawning in great light in the river. Morning Game Drive After watching elephants moving around literally just outside our roof tent as we went to sleep, we were a bit disappointed to wake up with no elephants, one of our thoughts was to have breakfast watching the sunrise from our campsite over the elephants. It is safe to say the drive this morning started off fairly slowly, the elephants had all vanished to wherever they were sleeping, and it. Read the full article…