Djurdjura National Park Algeria

Algeria is much more than the Sahara desert. There's plenty of mountains and vegetation around us on the coast. Our friends invited us to go camping and hiking at the Cairn Mountain glamping site in the Djurdjura National Park in Tizi Ouzou, which is about 2 hours east of Algiers. The hike had wonderful views and we even saw monkeys in the trees. It was a great weekend trip away from the city!

Tamanrasset Algeria Day 4

 

Tamanrasset Algeria Day 3

Tamanrasset Algeria Day 2

Tamanrasset Algeria Day 1

 

More Iceland Ring Road Random

I skipped some good random pictures along Iceland's ring road. We did a lot of coastal driving and had great views to soak in everywhere. There were lots of ocean views, mountains, and small waterfalls to see everywhere. There was a red chair bolted to a rock. 

Galipán In The Clouds

Galipán is a small town on top of the mountains overlooking Caracas. You can hire a driver to take you up the steep roads in a four-wheel drive vehicle. The driver can be arranged by one of the restaurants. Our driver was arranged by a chocolate shop. Most of the roads are paved but it's easier letting a local take you since they know the little one lane roads around where we needed to go. We ended up going on a beautiful day since the clouds passed around us but also gave us clear views every now and then.

Hiking El Ávila

El Ávila National Park is the distinctive mountain view in the background of most Caracas pictures. Usually we're looking at it from the city or from the hills where we live on the other side of the city from the mountains. It looks nice from down here so why not get a closer look?

The park has many trails and you could hike all the way to the top given enough time and energy. We don't have that kind of energy so we hiked up the very popular Sabas Nievas trail. It's sad to see on the map how little we actually climbed when it felt like so much more! I saw on a map there that we went from about 1,000M to 1,300M.

It was a lot of work but definitely worth it for the views. I guess the exercise is good too. This is a nicer way to exercise and lots of locals use it as a workout. If it isn't enough to climb all that way then there's an outdoor gym where we turned around. Crazy people!

The entrance we used to the park is a tunnel under a road that runs alongside El Ávila. There were vendors selling drinks and snacks to the large crowds that run up and down the trail.