Getting the flavour of…
Tree climbing in Costa Rica
The Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica is among the world’s most biodiverse places, said Michelle Jana Chan in The Sunday Telegraph–thesizeoftheIsleofSkye,but home to twice as many species of flora and fauna as the US. Any tour should take in the Térraba Sierpe wetlands and the Golfo Dulce, a tropical fjord; but the peninsula’s “main draw” is its rainforest, where one wildlife biologist, Andy Pruter, offers supervised tree climbing, with all the right ropes. His preferred target is a huge, 400-year-old strangler fig that he calls “the cathedral”. Climbing it is a thrill (as is swinging back down, like a monkey), the views from the top are “expansive”, and it’s the only way to see the canopy – the epicentre of rainforest life. Visit psychotours. com for more information.
A sidecar tour in Portugal
The area around the town of Pombal in northern Portugal is “full of contrast”, with historic villages, dense woodland and fine views of the mountains of the Serra da Estrela – and there can be few more exhilarating ways to explore it than in a motorcycle sidecar, said Simon de Burton in the FT. That’s precisely the speciality of Gusto Sidecar Adventures, an outfit founded by retired Royal Marines officer Rob MacDonald and his partner, graphic designer Zayne Dagher. MacDonald and Dagher tailor itineraries for guests, who choose to either drive themselves or sit back in the sidecar and relax, allowing for a “cinematic” view of this extraordinary landscape. And their Russian-built Ural vehicles can tackle rugged trails that are inaccessible to regular four-wheel-drives.
Visit gustosidecaradventures.com.
The perfect Cornish cycle trip
Wending its way through western Cornwall in a “drunken figure-of-eight”, the West Kernow Way is a newly designated cycle route that takes in a “perfect mix” of the area’s landscapes and sights, said Richard Madden in The Daily Telegraph. Starting in Penzance and finishing 143 miles later at St Michael’s Mount in the adjacent bay, it follows (as far as possible) quiet off-road trails, looping around the Land’s End and Lizard peninsulas and reaching as far north as Portreath. The route was created by the charity Cycling UK, and includes no “extreme technical sections”, but has enough uphill stretches to justify hiring an e-bike from a local shop such as EBike Cornwall in Penzance (which also provides waterproof satnav systems). It’s a good idea to book accommodation in advance, allowing at least four days for the journey. Visit cyclinguk.org and ebikecornwall.com for more information.