FIVE OF THE BEST

I thought we could share our best-ever travel experiences – here are my five: Picking passion fruit from a tree while drinking real Kenyan tea standing on the edge of the Rift valley; Kings Canyon was mind-blowingly brilliant; heading home to Discovery Bay on the 3.30am Star Ferry from Central with the Hong Kong skyline slipping away behind; Edinburgh castle; walking in the steps of the Birdman and Harry Callahan in San Francisco – Alcatraz is definitely the eeriest place I’ve ever been to. Sailing the fjords around Bergen on a yacht in the sun with the backdrop of the mountains plunging into the clear, blue-green water; a tour of Madrid on a Segway; arriving in Hong Kong early evening on the QE2; swimming on the Sunshine Coast (Coolum Beach), Queensland; the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Manhattan skyline seen for the first time; the Caucasus mountain range in winter, covered in snow, under a clear blue sky; pelicans fishing off the coast of San Diego, seen from the bar while taking a second margarita; the Turku Archipelago, seen from the air; boobies diving off Cape Point, and gannets off St Kilda. Table Mountain; being on a boat just off the Cape by Seal Island, watching a Great White shark lift out of the water to snatch a seal; walking over the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge; bungee jumping off the Sky Tower in Auckland; a trip on a paddle steamer on the Mississippi before Hurricane Katrina wiped out New Orleans.