Win A luxury trip for two to nEw york And los AngElEs issue #43//$8.95 gst included www.getlostmagazine.com
cAnAdA in the sAddle
Cycling the wild Yukon
AmAzon Antics Spiders and spells in Peru
south AfRicA River rock festival
VAnuAtu’s lAVA lAke
WILD THINGS 12 months
Discovering black magic island
shAun micAllef
Misadventures inspired by movies
of AmAzing
ANImAL eNcouNTerS
ISSN 1449-3543
AustrAliA | EthiopiA | omAn | sErbiA | switzErlAnd | thAilAnd | usA
GO WILD spSEeCciTaIOlN
88 The ultimate month-by-month bucket list of animal encounters for 2015
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PERU An adventure on the Amazon following the gringo trail.
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VAnUATU
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cAnAdA
Peer into the fire pit of a volcano on Ambrym Island.
Explore the Yukon with two wheels and nerves of steel.
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AUSTRAlIA heli-kayaking the nT’s katherine River. #10 get lost ISSUE #43
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EThIoPIA Mining salt flats in the hottest place on Earth, in pictures. get in the know The volcano on Ambryn island in Vanuatu is one of the most active in the world.
WIN
contents
Pool, 19 Survey Prizet books, 20 e Lonely Plan rillaPod Joby Go Pack, 21 USA trip, 44 19 s, 1 Tamron len
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News & Views All the goss Get Social Your pics and tips Places to Stay The weird and wonderful
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Top Trips Adventure wrapped up Top 10 Petrifying plunges You Wish Paragliding in Switzerland
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Get Packing Thailand’s undiscovered north After Dark ’Round midnight in Muscat Festival Riverside riffs in South Africa
112 lIkE A locAl
122 TRAVEl JoB
116 Food
124 ToP BARS
118 PhoTogRAPhY
126 REVIEwS
121 MUSIc
128 conFESSIonS
Street art in Belgrade
San Fran’s Italian classic Top tips for people pics
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The tunes of Timor-leste
get in the know The highest summit in the Swiss Alps, at 4634 metres, is Monte Rosa on the Swiss–Italian border.
A TV producer’s gap Year This issue’s top tipples All the gear you’ll need Shaun Micallef’s family holidays
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Winner
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t Was mY last nigHt in bagan, myanmar, and as i was walking back to my hostel i spotted this umbrella shop open for evening trade. During the day the shop sells handmade umbrellas, but it was the first time i had seen it open at night. it was humid and the street was quiet, but the umbrellas’ vibrant colours gave the scene life. i asked the elderly owner if i could photograph his shop and assistant. He happily agreed and i got down on my knees and took 10 shots before thanking him and walking off with a spring in my step.
• Nikon D600 • Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens • ISO 1250, f/1.8, 1/80sec Photography by Jason Van't Padje. Congratulations to Jason, who submitted this image to our Tamron competition. As this issue’s winner he’ll receive a Tamron f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Macro lens. See page 119 for entry details. tamron.com.au
The Mutrah Corniche glows beneath the Hajar Mountains. #32 get lost ISSUE #43
get in the know In 2013 the Omani government banned hotels and clubs with fewer than four stars from showing live music acts with more than three performers.
MUSCAT Through streets imbued with frankincense and shisha, Nikola Sarbinowski discovers an understated nightlife thriving within Muscat’s conservative walls. Photography by Nikola Sarbinowski
get in the know Expats make up more than 60 per cent of Muscat’s population.
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Take 30 local bands, a crowd dressed for the beach and an unlimited supply of bright blue cocktails and you’ve got South Africa’s best music festival. Amy Rankin gets wet and wild at Up The Creek. Photography by Belia Oh
Up The Creekers wallow in the Breede River while Beach Party perform on the river stage. #38 get lost ISSUE #43
get in the know Three years ago there was a wedding ceremony held on the river, with the bride arriving in a rowboat.
South AfricA
get in the know There are many pools and ponds along Breede River where people fish for bass, catfish and carp.
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Shamansays Deep in Peru’s Amazon jungle, Guy Crittenden discovers all creatures great, small and infinitely horrifying. Photography by Sidney Smith
A pink-footed tarantula from the thatched roof of the jungle lodge. #48 get lost ISSUE #43
get in the know The 6500-kilometre-long Amazon is the second longest river in the world, after the Nile.
PERU
get in the know The Amazon River pours about 227 million litres of water into the Atlantic Ocean every second.
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Justin Jamieson journeys to the centre of the earth on Vanuatu’s black magic island. Photography by Justin Jamieson
Guide Timoty standing above Mount Marum’s bubbling lava lake. #58 get lost ISSUE #43
get in the know Ambrym’s initial eruption more than a thousand years ago was so fierce it changed the planet’s climate.
VANUATU
get in the know Vanuatu gained independence from France in 1980.
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Off-loading supplies en route to Ambrym.
“
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ou wanna have a look?” yells the pilot over his shoulder, his question barely audible over the screaming propellers of our Air Vanuatu Twin Otter. As I nod eagerly he veers around the smoke billowing from two craters below. Staring out of the small plane’s window I feel as though I’m looking down on a Spielberg movie set. There is no life below, just two gaping holes in the puckered earth, belching smoke menacingly as we buzz closer like a curious blowfly. We are flying over Mount Marum and Mount Benbow, the two volcanoes on Vanuatu’s ‘black magic’ Ambrym Island. Relatively undiscovered by travellers, Ambrym has long played second fiddle to Mount Yasur’s nightly fireworks display on the more accessible and far more visited Tanna Island. The lure of Ambrym, however, is not just exclusivity but also the chance to stare directly into a bubbling lava lake. For unlike Yasur, Marum’s eruptions are few and far between. Ambrym is not far geographically from Port Vila, the main tourist hub of Vanuatu, but the journey is a long one. Our plane is up and down onto runways that look less and less like runways the longer we travel. Locals jump on and off unloading supplies as the pilot stretches his legs. I stare down the grass strips amazed at how easy it seems to be to land on what looks like a small football field. The pilot explains later that the locals are tasked with maintaining the airports and generally they do a good job. The problem, he says, is when they let the grass grow too long and you can’t see the lights. “Near bloody impossible to land at night. But it doesn’t happen too often. Otherwise they get no supplies.” We eventually land at Craig Cove Airport on Ambrym’s far eastern tip. From here we board a small banana boat (the main form of local transport), hugging the coast as we head north to Ranon, the starting point for the easiest ascent to the volcano’s rim. Like everything in these parts, the boat trip is relaxed. Our captain and his mate throw in a hand line each and regularly stop to pull in their catch. Six fish and three hours later we pull ashore at a hot spring. I choose the cool Coral Sea over the volcanic heated spring. An Ambrym Islander wanders from the jungle, covered head to toe in black volcanic sand and dives in beside me. I ask Maina, my guide, if the man has been exfoliating, and she laughs and #60 get lost ISSUE #43
explains that he has been burrowing for megapode eggs. These large chicken-like birds bury their eggs deep in the sand. It isn’t uncommon, Maina tells me, to see just the feet of a local digging deep for his bounty. Maina buys a large egg from the smooth-skinned local. It could make an omelette big enough for the four of us, I joke. “Easily,” she says, smiling back. It has been a long day when we finally reach Ranon Beach Bungalows. Freddy, the owner, and his wife greet me with a hearty meal of vegetables and fresh fish. Dessert is a perfect sunset from the window of the dining bungalow. Their children play on a makeshift swing on the beach at the water’s edge. There are only two accommodation bungalows here, each offering water views from small balconies. It should be the end of a great day’s travel but Maina suggests we head to the local nakamal for some kava. “It will help you sleep,” she tells me with a cheeky smile. The nakamal is a traditional meeting place in most Vanuatu communities and is where the men gather to make then drink the narcotic-like liquid. Stumbling through the pitch-black jungle we come upon a shelter at the bottom of Ranon village. I’m introduced to Edwin who sits cross-legged crushing the kava root down into an ornate silver tube called a tambil. The pulp is then mixed with water and strained through what looks like an old sock. Rather ironic given that is what it tastes like. All the while the men chatter and laugh. The only light comes from the mobile phones of the surrounding women. It is a surreal scene. We have a couple of coconut shells of the dirty water mixture and I sit staring at the ground for what seems like an hour. My mouth is numb and control of my body is limited. My body is drunk, but my mind seems fine. Edwin insists I have another – so as not to offend I oblige. It is a mistake. get in the know The three official languages of Vanuatu are English, French and Bislama.
VANUATU
A leisurely fish whilst travelling to Ranon.
Dense jungle and banyan tree tunnels approaching the ash plain.
Mulching the kava root at the nakamal.
The idylic Ranon Beach Bungalows. get in the know Vanuatu is considered the home of kava, which is a member of the same plant family as black pepper.
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Biking on the Yukon River Trail. #66 get lost ISSUE #43
get in the know On average, there are 269 hours of bright sunshine in the Yukon during June but only 27 hours in December.
CANADA
wild
On an epic ride through Canada’s wild Yukon, Liz Ginis discovers a landscape brimming with hear t-thumping adventure, quirky characters and a grisly past. Photography by Liz Ginis
get in the know The Yukon River is 3520 kilometres long. You can canoe 3300 kilometres of its length from Whitehorse to the Bering Strait.
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SEPTEMBER BritiSh ColuMBia, Canada
DECEMBER
SPIRIT BEARS
yelloWStone national Park, uSa
GRAY WOLVES
ATL ANTIC OCE AN
JANUARY MiChoaCan, MeXiCo
MONARCH BUTTERFLIES JUNE CoCoS iSland, CoSta riCa
HAMMERHEAD SHARKS
APRIL leVera BeaCh, grenada
LEATHERBACK TURTLES
JULY Pantanal, Brazil
JAGUARS PACI F I C OC EAN
NOVEMBER St andreWS Bay, South georgia
KING PENGUINS
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get in the know King penguins are able to drink salt water, thanks to a supraorbital gland that acts as a filter.
FEBRUARY ladakh, india
PACIF IC OCEA N
SNOW LEOPARDS OCTOBER
MAY
Minneriya national Park, Sri lanka
danuM Valley, MalaySia
ELEPHANTS
WILD ORANGUTANS
MARCH Serengeti national Park, tanzania
WILDEBEEST
AUGUST I NDI A N OCEA N
12
VaVa’u iSlandS, tonga
HUMPBACK WHALES
animalS MONTHS AMAZING DESTINATIONS
get in the know Breathing is not an involuntary response for humpback whales – they have to consciously think about each breath.
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Image: Astrid Frisch
JANUARY
MIGRATE wITH THE BUTTERFLIES Michoacan, Mexico
T
hink of animal migration and the great beasts of Africa thunder to mind, but one of the world’s most curious journeys is that of the humble monarch butterfly. Fleeing the paralysing winters of Canada and the United States each January, these delicate bugs travel up to 4500 kilometres, fluttering into the depths of Mexico’s forests in the state of Michoacan, where they cling to oyamel firs, forming a layer of moving colour that coats the branches and bristles. Grab your camera and snap them in whirling clouds at El Rosario Sanctuary, ride horses and hike mountainous terrain to see them at Chincua Sanctuary and make a final butterfly stop in dense vegetation at Piedra Herrada Sanctuary. Thriving in the warmth, these butterflies surpass their usual six-week lifespan, surviving until spring, when they return north. The following year their distant relatives will migrate to Michoacan to smother the same trees chosen by their ancestors. When you’re not marvelling at fluttering insects, visit waterfalls, ruins and vibrant markets and discover the local culture, which is rooted in the Aztec belief that the souls of the dead are reborn as butterflies. This migration may lack thundering hooves, but the pulse of billions of beating wings is equally captivating. Need to kNow Natural Habitat Adventures offers six-day small-group tours from about AU$3540, which includes a carbon emissions offset. nathab.com
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get in the know Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on toxic milkweed plants, which are the only food the caterpillars eat.
FEBRUARY
TRACk SNOw LEOPARDS Ladakh, India
N
othing quite prepares you for the moment you stare down one of these enigmatic felines. Asia’s alpine answer to the big cat, the snow leopard is an endangered species and seeing one is no easy task. When you do, however, you’ll be rewarded in spades. Agile and calculating, snow leopards lead a life of solitude and are the ultimate cold-weather predator; their enormous padded paws function like snow boots in deep powder, a scarf-like tail provides warmth at night and thick patterned fur is ideal camouflage. Begin your quest in Ladakh when the winter snow is thick across the mountains and these mysterious creatures stealthily make their way to lower altitudes to hunt blue sheep and wild argali (mountain sheep) and mate. Snow leopards can take up to four days to consume their prey, giving hopeful viewers plenty of time to bask in the presence of this magnificent cat. Need to kNow Go with a guide trained by the Snow Leopard Conservancy and know you are doing your bit to help preserve these endangered cats. KarmaQuests offers 17-day snow leopard tours for about AU$5137, including all meals, camping equipment, domestic flights and airport transfers. karmaquests.com
get in the know There are thought to be only 4000 to 6500 snow leopards living in the wild.
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