Wanderlust Issue 155 (April 2015) Antarctica: including Falklands & South Georgia ♦ The Ultimate Bucket List ♦ Galápagos ♦ New Zealand ♦ India by train ♦ Pocket guides: Vietnam, Ushuaia, Essaouira
W i n!
T R AV E L M AG A Z I N E
A trip to Ant arc for two peo tica p worth £17,0 le 00! See page 4
www.wanderlust.co.uk April 2015
Antarctica
Cross the Antarctic Circle, visit the Falklands, South Georgia and more
THE ULTIMATE BUCKET LIST
USA, Kilimanjaro, Cuba, Trans-Siberian express, Iceland, Machu Picchu & more...
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♦ Galápagos ♦ New Zealand ♦ India ♦ Morocco ♦ Ushuaia
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CONTENTS
Issue 155 April 2015
360˚ – NEED TO KNOW
nder 6 Viewfi to know this month... 14Need Go now 16Eat this... 18 5 minutes Dervla Murphy 20Have a wildwith... out! 22Know your...night Komodo NP 24 New Guinean tribesmen, a great grey owl and the Angkor of old
Have you missed out on the Inca Trail? Head for the Sardinian capital, Cagliari, a hit for history-lovers Develop an addiction to the crowd-pleasing South Korean kimchi
The author tackles Israel and Palestine
Bucket-list-worthy UK adventures
Indonesia’s dragon-filled National Park
▲ Cover story
Ultimate 28 Wanderlust’s Bucket List
We’ve compiled a definitive list of must-dobefore-you-die travel experiences, from rafting the Grand Canyon to tracking a snow leopard and visiting an endangered tribe
■ Special feature
Travel Awards 107Readers’ – the results are in!
WIN! An opulent £3,950 tour of India’s Golden Triangle p106
TRAVEL MASTERCLASS
76The masterclass
Our guide to taking on a charity travel challenge, complete with fundraising tips and inspiring words from a septuagenarian challenge veteran
79Instant expert: Charles Darwin Ask the experts 80Travel clinic 84Traveller’s guide to... 87mid-footwear
Your 60-second guide to the father of evolution and his battle with a mystery illness This month: dive sites, listeria and surviving a plane crash Dr Jane tells you how to deal with a real-life rabies emergency We review the very best short boots/tall shoes on the market
141
The £17,000 trip of a lifetime to Antarctica p136
Where did you name Top City, Top Country and Top UK Destination? Which TV programme was your favourite? Which equipment brands got your seal of approval? Turn to p107 to find out...
“Essaouira’s spice trade lives on in the ancient souk; the mesmerising gnaoua rhythm you hear around the medina was created by the descendants of African slaves.” Sarah Gilbert
60 “Every day of every visit to the Galápagos brings new gripping dramas. And the uniqueness and diversity of the animals is still a surprise.” Lyn Hughes
Galápagos Islands, p60
Inca Trail, p14
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“Nearby, seal pups scattered, an albatross took flight and we, in our small inflatable Zodiac, were struck silent.” Phoebe Smith
Ushuaia, p137
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Antarctica, p44
Wanderlust April 2015
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TORTURED GENIUS... Charles Darwin, p79 FEATURES
FROM THE ROAD
44Antarctica 60Galápagos
Cross the Antarctic Circle and visit the Falklands and South Georgia – for icebergs, penguins and Shackleton tales The islands on every wildlife-lover’s bucket list: meet nature close-up on a sail around the dramatic Ecuadorian archipelago India All aboard the Maharajas’ Express! We ride the rails from Mumbai to Delhi, in opulent, opium-fuelled style
90 118South Island, New Zealand
Saddle up for a picturesque pedal along the Otago Central Rail Trail, a gold rush era relic that’s now a modern-day travel treasure
POCKET GUIDES
102Your Story 104Letters
24 Hours: 137 First Ushuaia
Reader Rhoda Allen paints a picture of 1940s Britain seen through Bermudan eyes In our mailbag: a guide with a gift for dung identification; a mosey through Mauritania; insider tips on Jordanian visas; hooray for Hong Kong
The world’s southernmost city is often dismissed as merely a gateway on the way to Antarctica but there are plenty of reasons to linger
Icon: Cu Chi Tunnels, 139 Travel Vietnam
This intricate network of Vietcong tunnels provides a unique, if claustrophobic, perspective on one of the 20th century’s most notorious conflicts
105
This Month You Have Been... Ballooning in Kenya;
Rethinking Macedonia; spreading the word about the Wanderlust World Guide Awards; discovering Dominica and St Lucia; riding the rails from Thailand to Cambodia across the Tonle Sap Lake and much, much more...
Break: Essaouira, 141 Short Morocco
A mesmerising medina, Phoenician history, exuberant festivals and sea views – this is Morocco at its most relaxed
“All our conversations came to an abrupt end as the white-marble dome of the Taj Mahal, basking in the warm rosy glow of sunrise, came into view.” Nick Boulos
107
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“Monks, trees, sunsets, sticky rice, boat rides, beaming people: Luang Prabang just has that travel X-factor.” Readers’ Travel Awards
Cagliari, p16 Essaouira, p141
Luang Prabang, p107 India, p90
“Winding up the S-bend towards the summit, I took in the views over New Zealand’s Dunstan Range and the outcrops of tor-like schist. ” Anthony Lambert
Cu Chi Tunnels, p139
118 TALKING HEADS Dervla Murphy, p20 “They will never be able to travel in the way I did 40 years ago, because the world has changed so much. There were so many places where you could get away from motor roads and really enjoy yourself in remote and beautiful places.”
New Zealand, p118
Wanderlust April 2015
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SOUTHERN A hundred years after Shackleton set off, we follow in his
Pure Gold
Thousands of king penguins and elephant and fur seals await visitors to South Georgia’s Gold Harbour
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Antarctica
EXPOSURE footsteps, on our own mission to cross the Antarctic Circle
WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS PHOEBE SMITH
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Frozen planet
Navigating the channels between icebergs at Spurt Island, Antarctica; gentoo penguins at Neko Harbour; leopard seals can be spotted at Elephant Island
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Wanderlust April 2015
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Antarctica
T
he guttural growl of a fur seal hung in the air for a good few seconds, echoing off the sides of the sea cliffs before being stolen by a gust of wind. It was like the call of a dinosaur, the cry of a CGI-ed movie monster or the throaty roar of a lion. Nearby, seal pups scattered, an albatross took flight and we, in our small inflatable Zodiac, were struck silent. But one creature didn’t react. A single macaroni penguin, its yellow hair-like plumes whipping around its face in the wind, was far too busy attempting to scale a near-vertical rock wall to reach the safety of the other nesting birds above. At first his task appeared fruitless. He’d take a few steps, then slip down onto his white belly and skid back into the water with a splash. But each time he would get back up again, determined to achieve his goal no matter how long it took. We watched for about 15 minutes while the choppy waves lapped the side of our vessel; eventually – after more than 20 attempts – the penguin’s little padded feet found purchase and he scampered triumphantly up the wet rock. It was an impressive show of determination in the face of adversity, which was quite apt given our location. This was Elephant Island, a spine of rocky land that sits in the Southern Ocean at the north-eastern end of the South Shetland Islands, and once home – for four and a half months – to the shipwrecked crew of the Endurance, lead by Ernest Shackleton. It was his footsteps that I was following in now, as part of my own ⊲ Wanderlust April 2015
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Looking at me?
Darwin dimissed the Galåpagos’s marine iguanas as ugly
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Galápagos
Evolutionary journey The origin of a species – Wanderlust – began en route to the Galápagos. We revisit a truly unique world, only to be blown away by its awesome wildlife all over again Words LYN HUGHES photographs SIMON CHUBB
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All aboard!
...well, if you can afford it – the Maharajas’ Express is reassuringly expensive
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India WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS NICK BOULOS
GOLDEN TICKET
Tigers, tuk-tuks, the Taj – we all want to see India’s highlights. But how about seeing them from a cabin aboard the opulent Maharajas’ Express?
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Plus: best of Ecuador
India by train
T R AV E L M AG A Z I N E
All aboard the Maharajas’ Express
www.wanderlust.co.uk April 2015
Antarctica
Cross the Antarctic Circle, visit the Falklands, South Georgia and more
THE ULTIMATE BUCKET LIST
USA, Kilimanjaro, Cuba, Trans-Siberian express, Iceland, Machu Picchu & more...
W i n!
rctica A trip to Anta ple eo p o tw r fo 00! worth £17,0 4 e g a See p
New Zealand
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Cycle an old gold rush trail through the South Island
♦ Vietnam ♦ Morocco ♦ Ushuaia
£3.99
Wanderlust Issue 155 (April 2015) Antarctica: including Falklands & South Georgia ♦ The Ultimate Bucket List ♦ Galápagos ♦ New Zealand ♦ India by train ♦ Pocket guides: Vietnam, Ushuaia, Essaouira
Galápagos
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www.wanderlust.co.uk February 2015
top 50 trips 2015 Including: burma, Vietnam, Colombia, Chile, norway, Cuba, Cambodia, Iran, Zimbabwe, Montenegro, Usa, China, Greece, Peru, Iceland, Japan, sri Lanka, nicaragua, Italy, Uganda & more...
plus: haItI, botswana, Jordan, IndIa, MIaMI
Trips to: Cana da, Rwanda and South-East Asia.. See pg 4 .
Wanderlust Issue 154 (March 2015) 12 Best South America Walks ♦ Vietnam ♦ Kenya ♦ Austria’s Tirol ♦ Travel Photo of the Year – Results ♦ Connemara’s Wild Atlantic ♦ Pocket guides: Boston, New Zealand, Skopje
Wanderlust Issue 153 (February 2015) Top 50 trips for 2015 ♦ Haiti ♦ Okavango Delta, Botswana ♦ Jordan: photo special ♦ Kumbh Mela, India ♦ Top travel resolutions ♦ Pocket guides: Miami, Laos, Thessaloniki (Greece)
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Win!
t r av e l m ag a z i n e
Win!
t r av e l m ag a z i n e
A train trip Austria for twoacross worth over people £1,50 See pg 4 0
www.wanderlust.co.uk March 2015
12 Best South America Walks
Peru⋅Chile⋅Argentina Ecuador⋅Colombia⋅Bolivia Venezuela⋅Brazil
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♦ Vietnam ♦ Austria ♦ Ireland ♦ Kenya ♦ Boston ♦ New Zealand ♦ Macedonia ♦ Travel Photo of the Year
5/3/15 13:01:42
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New Zealand
Rail crossing A cyclist passes over the Manuherikia River near Lauder, one of the many impressive structures on the former train track adapted for cyclists
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OFF THE RAILS
Follow a gold rush train track that’s become New Zealand’s greatest ride – and is bringing new hope to old communities WORDS ANTHONY LAMBERT
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