This week’s dream: sailing in the wake of Alfred Russel Wallace
With dense jungles, dazzling wildlife and pristine coral reefs, the remote islands of eastern Indonesia have changed little since the mid-19th century, when the great naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace spent eight years exploring them. His account of his travels, The Malay Archipelago, was published in 1869. To mark its 150th anniversary, you could join the evolutionary biologist George Beccaloni on one of his 12-day cruises around the region, says Mike Carter in the FT. Beccaloni will be sailing again in October aboard Ombak Putih, a “stunning” 12-cabin, gaff-rigged phinisi ship built in Borneo in 1995. It’s a luxurious “floating home”, where you’ll experience none of the “unimaginable hardships” Wallace endured on his trip, including starvation and shipwreck.
The mud flats on Manipa Island teem with millions of fiddler crabs, each waving its one big red claw as if to welcome guests (in fact, this is a mating ritual). Next comes the island of Seram, where Beccaloni rummages on the forest floor to produce huge spiders, scorpions and giant stick insects for guests to admire. He might even net a “glorious” black and yellow birdwing butterfly, whose immense wings – with a span of up to 25cm – so impressed Wallace he almost fainted.
Next comes the island of Ternate, where, laid up with malaria, Wallace came up with the theory of natural selection independently of Darwin. Further on lie the “mushroom-shaped” karst islands of Raja Ampat. Finally, you can trek through the jungle at dawn to witness the “astonishing” mating dance of the Wilson’s bird-of-paradise (a creature so colourful, it looks as though “a child has gone mad with a paintbox”), before snorkelling over “vast” coral gardens thought to be home to the greatest density and variety of marine life on Earth.
Audley Travel (01993-838450, audleytravel.com) has a 16-night trip, including the 11-night cruise, from £8,025pp, with international flights.