TEN TRIPS OF A LIFETIME (and one for luck)
Great ideas about what to do with a financial windfall
1N
ORTHERN LIGHTS
The Northern Lights are one of nature’s most spectacular displays: a mysterious, multicoloured show in which the night sky is suddenly lit up with a wondrous glow that twists and swirls like a heavenly lava lamp.
Elusive and ethereal, it is one of the great, timeless thrills of travel, a beautiful, shifting dance of nocturnal rainbows that many viewers find a humbling and spiritually uplifting experience.
To see the celestial disco in its full glory, you will have to head north towards the Arctic, above latitude 60 degrees at least.
The snowy wilds of Canada and Alaska are fine viewing spots, as are Iceland and northern Scandinavia, where it is possible to see the lights from late September until early April. — Nigel Tisdall
One of the easiest ways to see the magical lights would be from the deck of a cruise ship. Contact MSC Cruises (087 075 0874,
msccruises.co.za).
2GALÁPAGOS
ISLANDS
Roughly 900km off the coast of Ecuador, and slap-bang on the equator, Charles Darwin’s “Enchanted Isles” consist of a cluster of 13 “proper” volcanic islands (ie larger than 10km²) plus six smaller islands and more than 100 islets. Every one has its own unique atmosphere, landscape and wildlife. See everything from penguins living in the tropics and boobies with bright blue feet to tool-using woodpecker finches and male frigatebirds turning their wrinkled throat sacs into red balloons. One day you could be watching time-worn giant tortoises in the highlands; the next you could be snorkelling with playful sea lions in crystal-clear water or sunbathing on black lava rocks next to prehistoric-looking marine iguanas. — Mark Carwardine
ý The Galápagos are not the easiest islands for South Africans to get to but the journey is worth the long hauls and stopovers. Contact Xl Travel (0861 359 958,
xltravel.co.za ).
3MACHU
PICCHU
The draw of Machu Picchu (“old mountain”) hardly needs restating: this 550-year-old citadel built by the most advanced — and in Peru the very last — pre-Columbian society in the spectacular setting of a saddle between two forest-clad Andean peaks has been preserved enough to be recognisable as a city. It is high: 7 973ft above sea level. It is large: the ruins are the size of a village, and combined with an adjoining wilderness park, the Unesco-listed “historical sanctuary” covers more than 300km². It is also mysterious: we know its functions were partly residential and partly religious, but still we wonder about its cosmic positioning and its academic importance to the Incas.
Machu Picchu is set in humid subtropical forests, providing a protected habitat for ferns and palms and several endangered species, notably the spectacled bear. Add in swirling clouds, llamas grazing on the terraces and the option to arrive following a hike on mountain trails and/or a train trip through the valley of the Urubamba River (aka the “Sacred Valley”), and you have a trip that can last two, seven or 14 days. — Chris Moss
ý G Adventures (010 593 2231,
gadventures.com). ý STA Travel (0861 781 781,
statravel.co.za ).
4ANGKOR
WAT
Angkor Wat is Cambodia’s most beloved and best preserved temple. The 200ha site is one of the largest religious monuments in the world and represents the architectural pinnacle of the Khmer Empire. Originally dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, it has remained a place of worship since its founding in the 12th century. Thought to be a miniature replica of the universe, its composition of towers, moats and concentric walls reveals an architectural sophistication, and the bas-reliefs with their plump
figures and triumphal battle scenes reflect a robust, healthy and wealthy period of history. — Michelle Jana Chan
ý Independent travel in Cambodia is well and good if you have the time and inclination. If you want to make it easy for yourself, take a tour — the tour operators will sort the permits, the transport and help you get the best experience. Contact Trafalgar (011 280 8440,
trafalgar.com ).
5 THE GREAT MIGRATION
The key players in this 2 000km odyssey are the wildebeest — 1.5 million of them — accompanied by 200 000 zebras. For them, every year is an endless journey, chasing the rains in a race for life. The action takes place across 400 000km² of woodlands, hills and open plains, a wilderness that includes not only the Serengeti National Park and Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve but also the dispersal areas beyond.
The yearly cycle begins in the south of the Serengeti park, where half a million calves are born between January and March. But when the rains end in May, the land dries fast and the grazing animals must move on, heading for their dry-season refuge in the Maasai Mara. With the beginning of the short rains in late October, the migration makes its way back into the Serengeti; by December, having emerged from the northern woodlands, the herds return past Seronera to mass on their calving grounds again and the circle is complete. — Brian Jackman
ý Wild Frontiers (011 702 2035,
wildfrontiers.com)
ý Wild Eye (010 591 0205,
wild-eye.co.za).
6 TAJ MAHAL
The Taj Mahal attracts so many visitors that it has almost become a victim of its own perfection. But in the right light, it is still magical, looming like a mirage through its main gateway. It seems to float, as though painted on gauze: pink at dawn and dusk, dazzling white at noon, pearly silver by moonlight.
The Taj — commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal — is many visitors’ first experience of India, often viewed as part of a “Golden Triangle” tour that also takes in the monuments of Delhi and Jaipur. — Stephen McClarence
ý Flight Centre (087 740 5000,
flightcentre.co.za).
7 GRAND CANYON
The Grand Canyon is one of the greatest natural wonders of the world. Running in an east-west direction for 445km, the canyon is an average of 16km wide. Your experience there will be determined by which rim you visit: the South Rim is easier to reach from Phoenix or Las Vegas, and consequently much more crowded, but has far more amenities (it’s also open all year long); the North Rim is inaccessible from mid-October to mid-May.
Ride a helicopter above it; step out onto the Grand Canyon Skywalk; walk down to the Colorado River at the bottom. Don’t be blasé about the Grand Canyon: get morning-before-Christmas excited about it. And expect the dictionary definition of awe when you see it for the first time: “solemn wonder tinged with latent fear”. — Pamela Petro
ý STA Travel (0861 781 781,
statravel.co.za ).
8 THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA
The Great Wall is far more than a triumph of engineering — it is a direct link with the legendary emperors of China’s past, and seems to embody our sense of China as a nation separate from the rest of the world. To see the wall — made from brick, stone, tamped earth and wood — snaking
away over the parched mountainsides of northern China — is to imagine more than two millennia of cultural isolation and political resistance.
This series of fortifications stretches from Shanhaiguan, on the Bohai Sea, to Lop Lake in the Gobi Desert and roughly marks the southern edge of Inner Mongolia — formerly part of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan (whose incursions the wall was designed to prevent).
Many people are satisfied with a day trip as part of a wider China tour, but for those who want to explore, it’s possible to run or cycle along sections, take a helicopter flight, spend a night beside the wall in a boutique hotel (such as Commune by the Great Wall), or even sleep in a watchtower. There are cable cars and toboggan rides for those travelling with children. Many people combine the Wall with visits to the Ming tombs, Eastern Qing tombs, the Ming-era village of Chuandixia or the Qing-era summer palace at Chengde. — Chris Moss
ý Gateway Travel and Tours (0860 43 8292,
gatewaytours.co.za).
9 AN AROUND-THEWORLD CRUISE
In March 1992, when I was still wet behind the ears, I boarded P&O’s stately (and much-missed) SS Canberra for a 14-night voyage via Dakar and Lisbon to England. The ship was heading home after a three-month circumnavigation and I was merely along for the ride for the last few days. Once aboard, however, I met the most amazing people.
Some had been on the ship for weeks as it steamed across the Indian Ocean from Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore; others — like Pierre, the young French law student — had been aboard from the beginning. By the time the ship docked at Cape Town, most of the passengers were in a state of transcendent bliss, their worries and cares long gone with the sea breeze. A three-month voyage is not for everyone, but having enjoyed a sliver of the circumnavigating life, I can imagine no better way of relaxing while the world comes to you. You should try it. — Paul Ash Various lines are offering world cruises in 2016 — see their websites for more inspiration.
ý Crystal Cruises and Oceania, contact Cruises International (011 327 0327, cruises.co.za)
ý Fred Olsen (021 443 9030,
tritonsea.co.za) ý P&O Cruises (011 463 3293,
whitestar.co.za ) ý Cunard (011 463 3293,
whitestar.co.za ) ý Imagine Cruising (0861 001 251,
imaginecruising.co.za)
10 TRANSATLANTIC CRUISE
The sea route between Southampton and New York has long been seen as the blue-riband journey of oceanic travel — with Cunard’s QE2 making the crossing between the two great ports many times in her four-decade career.
Those with a liking for life at a gentle pace can still make such stately progress across the Atlantic in this most elegant of fashions — with the QE2’s successor, Queen Mary 2, sailing horizon-ward on a regular basis.
The journey entails seven days at sea — days in which to switch off and tune in to the rhythms of the ocean, to dress up for dinner and nights at the opera, to linger over white-glove afternoon tea. And, this year, to reflect on the fact that it is now 175 years since the first transatlantic Cunard voyage. — Adrian Bridge
ý Cunard offers numerous Atlantic crossings during the summer-cruising season between May and October. Check whether a one-way flight between New York and London is included in the fare. Cunard (011 463 3293;
whitestar.co.za ).
11 RUN AWAY TO SEA
The call of the sea is lodged in our DNA. How else do you explain why otherwise content and settled people would up sticks and run away to sea on a sailing ship?
Happily for those who believe they have salt in their veins, you can in this modern age travel the world on a full-rigged ship with canvas sails and hemp ropes and live an 18th-century seafarer’s life.
The barque Picton Castle is a full-rigged ship, which sails from its home port in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, on round-the-world and transatlantic voyages.
The crew are mostly volunteers guided by a small complement of professionals. It’s no boutique cruise and it’s hard work — but once you’ve been to sea in a square-rigger you will never be the same again. —