Not only because of the food and wine, but more important because of a special local encounter.

Here’s my story of that day:

Tick. A raindrop lands gracefully on my leg. It’s a pleasant, almost soothing sound. Another one follows. Before I know it, my trousers are getting wet. The only option is making myself as small as possible and letting my boyfriend catch the increasingly heavy raindrops.

Why did I agree to go motorbiking in Italy again?

The thought of dry clothes only makes me sadder, so I ignore it.

We’re in the Alpi Apuane, a beautiful, mountainous region in northern Tuscany. It is day nine of our trip through Italy and so far it has been good. The nature is mind-blowing; and today we can take that quite literally.

If you’ve never been on a motorbike in the rain, I can assure you: it is horrible. The day turns into a hide and seek game with the rain until we stop in a little town lost in the mountains.

Murphy’s Law is at its best when we hear the kitchen has closed for the day at the only restaurant in town. Our sad faces and wet clothes must awake some empathy in the owner, because he brings out his best cold food.

While we’re enjoying the cheese and bread a serious-looking cop enters. “Is that your motorbike outside?” he says. Our faces, by this time silly red from the cosy warmth, nod a hesitantly yes. We had quickly parked the motorbike somewhere on the street where it definitely shouldn’t be.

“It is getting wet, would you like to put it somewhere sheltered?” We did not expect this.

“I have a garage where you can place it. And if you want you can come to my house and warm up at the stove.” We definitely did not expect this.

The cop turned out to be Azelio, a proud Carabinieri in his fifties. He is tall, handsome, and exudes authority. Of course we follow his lead. Azelio opens a few bottles of beer and we start talking at the fire, while his son is making his homework.

Nice story, right? But Azelio’s generosity didn’t stop there. He found us a B&B, the only one in town, and walked us up to the door. We felt immensely grateful for his kindness.

Once we showered the cold day off us we went to the kitchen to prepare some food. When we entered the table was set with fresh ravioli and a bottle of wine. Azelio had secretly passed by to give this to us.

I wonder if he ever realised how special he made us feel, and how rare it is for a person to behave like that. Encounters like this make me love the world even more. That’s what travelling is about. Getting lost, wet, feeling miserable and then being surprised by the beautiful people in this world.

Have you had special encounters with locals on your travels? Let me know what happened!

Pictures in this article by Nico Babot, my partner in crime and the motorbike driver

The post My unexpected police encounter in Italy! appeared first on The World is a Circus.

My love for Jane Goodall began with my love for monkeys. You know that every kid has their favourite animal? Mine was The Monkey, monkeys, as many as possible, as big as possible. I had a huge stuffed monkey. A perfect big buddy to lean against while reading books about monkeys and Africa. I remember a book about Tippi, a girl who grew up in the African wilderness. I was so jealous of her.

My dream as a kid was to live between the monkeys and study them, like Jane Goodall. The closest I ever came to that, was walking between the monkeys in a zoo in the Netherlands. I was so happy that day – also because one of the monkeys pooped on my brother. Do you see that dorky smile on my face?

Once I went to high school I quickly realised I had to be the good at biology to follow my dream. So I gave up… Biology wasn’t my strength, so my dream stayed a dream. Little did I know Jane Goodall had no formal training or undergraduate degree in biology.

Over the years that dream had to battle with reality, but it is still there and I’m sure one day I will work with monkeys, capturing their life, following researchers or making a documentary. Meeting Jane Goodall in her habitat would be even better. She just blows my mind away with her endless strength and hope – and she is 80! Her fight for monkeys and our planet is just impressive.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJvDlIOMkxk&w=662&h=414]

Especially her video at the end of last year went straight to my heart. I hope you find 5 minutes in your day to watch it.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99gJKzINNow&w=662&h=414]

If there is anything I would like to share with this article is that we all realise how important our planet is. How we need to fight for it and how we need to treasure our wildlife and don’t take anything for granted. And that we need way more people like Jane Goodall, who fight for our planet.

As Leonardo DiCaprio said it so nicely at the Oscars:

Climate change is real, it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. […] Let us not take this planet for granted.

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Wait, what??

I still can’t believe it. I was able to follow the Department of Conservation (DOC)-team for an entire day in Franz Josef. An incredible team of professionals and volunteers, who are all very passionate about kiwi. When writing about it, it almost feels like a dream, tucked far away in my head. But that definitely wasn’t the case. I was there! Surrounded by kiwi! Thank god with a camera in my hand, so I have some proof!

And it wasn’t just any day. It was the day where 50 kiwi would be released at once. That’s the biggest release in one day so far and a HUGE step for the kiwi population! Especially for this little one, the rowi kiwi, there are only about 500 left in New Zealand. Releasing 10% of the population in one day is therefore an amazing achievement!

So what is a kiwi?

I think by now you’ve realised that this article is not about tasty kiwi fruit or New Zealand’s population. There is a third meaning: the kiwi bird. The kiwi is THE national icon and needs our help. It’s a rare and cute bird and it’s very likely that you won’t bump into it in the wild (sorry I don’t want you to get your hopes up).

Unfortunately the kiwi is on the path towards extinction. It is a small feathered bird, can’t fly, is nocturnal and did I mention cute? There are 5 species of kiwi and all of them are endangered. That’s very bad news. Especially if you know that hundred years ago there were still 5 million strolling around in the New Zealand bush. Now that’s only about 68.000. And we are still losing 2% of our kiwi every year!

So what happened? 

For years and years New Zealand has been a beautiful paradise for kiwi. They could go wherever they wanted and were relatively safe. Their main predators were eagles and falcons, but they adapted to their predators and stayed (mostly) in their nest during the day, so life was quite safe.

Since people arrived in New Zealand and introduced land mammals, kiwi have been struggling to survive. Kiwi became an easy target for ferrets, stoats, dogs, cats and any other mammal you find in New Zealand. To give you an idea: an average of 27 kiwi are still killed by predators EVERY week.

How did the big release go?

A day where 50 kiwi are being released is a busy day. That being said, everything went very smooth from morning till evening.  A lot of respect for the DOC-team and their volunteers, they spent 2 days on a predator-free island to find all kiwi. Without much sleep and with all 50 kiwi they were ready at 7am for the health checks.

The released kiwi were part of the ONE-program, where eggs or chicks are removed from the wild and raised elsewhere (i.e. on predator-free islands) until they can be returned to their natural habitat at a safe weight.

We first had to find our way through the bush, looking for possible nests for our little ones. Then it was finally time for the big release. After a long journey in boxes the kiwi were back in the bush. And apparently it was my lucky day, because I could release one too!!

The entire team that day was magnificent. Everyone was very organised and treated the kiwi with a lot of love and respect. From the health checks to the transport to the actual release. The kiwi always came first.

So what now? 

Without any active help, funds and volunteers, there will be no more kiwis in 50 years. We don’t want that, right?

Luckily the Department of Conservation, Kiwis for kiwi and over 90 community-led kiwi conservation groups work together to fight for kiwi. They bring together all their efforts to protect the kiwi in the long-term. They use different recovery tools, like predator-trapping and poisoning, marooning populations on predator-free islands, captive breeding and Operation Nest Egg (ONE).

This turned into a long article, but the kiwi-story is an important one. It would be such a pity to let another species get extinct. I refuse to be part of that and I hope you too. If you’d like to find out more about kiwi and how to support, visit www.kiwisforkiwi.org.

I’m also making a video of that incredible day! Can’t wait to show you guys, but that will be for next week! For now you can enjoy the pictures!

The post Kiwis for kiwi: an inspirational story! appeared first on The World is a Circus.

As the word explains, you stay on the couch of someone. You can stay one, two or more nights, don’t need to pay, but it is definitely not a hotel. Couchsurfing is about exchanging cultures, travel stories, experience; meeting people that are the same and yet so different than you. I find it the best way to discover a country. You see everything from the eyes of a local. You live for a couple of days their life, and that can be so rewarding. Much more than being the typical tourist and only do the main highlights.

Through Couchsurfing I had the luck to do a cheap, thrilling plane flight over Hoover Dam in the US; take some hidden rock water slides somewhere in Yosemite National Park; go cliff jumping in the area of Vegas on a beautiful undiscovered place; to have a not so traditional thanksgiving; to sneak in a casino pool and take a slide that goes between an aquarium filled with sharks; discover all the best bars in Melbourne; have a legendary night with great people, a guitar and a fire in a cave in Yosemite; go hiking in Arizona in the middle of nowhere; see a bloody weird movie about a penis detaching itself from a body to kill women and so on.

Couchsurfing is a community; but you participate as much if you want. You can open your couch or extra bedroom for travellers, you can organise events, pub-crawls or just go for a coffee with someone. Nothing is obligated, you just look what interests you. And before you know it, you have a network of friends around the world.

Ok there are weirdo’s out there and some guys just use it to get laid, but that is only a small amount. Couchsurfing uses a system of references, which is really convenient. If you meet someone or stayed at their couch (or vica versa), you can write a reference that can be positive, neutral or negative. Like this you know what kind of people they are and if they are truly genuine.

So before you decide to sleep on a couch somewhere, check the profile, check the reviews and photos. I always couchsurf with people that have photo’s and have good references. If you’re thinking of couschsurfing at a guy his place, have a look if all his references are written by women. If so, this can indicate he is a player and mostly has some hidden incentives to host you.

I’ve been using it during all my travels the last two years. I love it, especially when I travel by myself. I’ve met some of the coolest people ever and I’m so thankful for that.

If you want to have a look if it is something for you or not: www.couchsurfing.com

Visiting US National Parks with a lovely bunch I just met

TJ and Matt, The best hosts in Yosemite National Park

Hanging out with my host in Melbourne bars!

Flying in a tiny plane over Hoover Dam

Thanksgiving in California

Moody weather in Yosemite

Natural waterslides in Yosemite

Cliff jumps near Vegas!

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