Expert Insights

September 11, 2013 Kerala – God’s Own Country

Read time – 2 minutes A gentle voice coaxed me from outside my cabin on board the Kerala houseboat. A faint knock accompanied the words, “good morning – tea or coffee?” Already awake, I had been lazily gazing through my cabin window since the first blush of dawn. Watching Kerala wake up, palm trees swaying...

September 11, 2013 Bear Watching in Canada’s Great Outdoors

Read time – 3 minutes Vicky bears all about her recent wildlife adventure in Canada’s great outdoors hotspot, British Columbia… “CAUTION: BEAR IN AREA” proclaims the yellow and blue sign on the jetty. The boat’s engine is cut. We drift full of anticipation. I am not the only one scanning the forest ahead, half expecting...

September 10, 2013 Egypt Family Holiday

Read time – 2 minutes “After we have seen the Mummies can we see the Daddies?” asked my son on a recent visit to the British Museum. By the time I had finished explaining that Mummies actually had something to do with bandages and dead, rich people rather than ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’ his attention had...

September 10, 2013 Finding Shangri-La in Nepal

Read time – 4 minutes Let me start by saying “Namaste” – a Nepalese greeting, and a word which will always conjure up my fondest memories of Nepalese culture. It translates as ‘I bow to you’, just one facet of the respectful way the Nepalese treat all forms of life. Nepalese prayer wheels For years...

September 10, 2013 Lapland Winter wonderland

Read time – 2 minutes This is the part where I’m supposed to say how silent it all was. But it wasn’t. I could hear everything; the crunch as snow compacted under my boot, the distant burble of the icy river, even the soft whisper of snow landing on frozen pine needles. The forest was...

September 10, 2013 Angored in the past, steeped in the sublime

By Sasha Reid The monsoon is due to arrive at any moment and the Tonlé Sap is at its lowest ebb. Our boat scuffs the riverbed sending plumes of mud and silt billowing in its wake. Behind us, Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s present day capital; ahead Siem Reap, gateway to the ancient Khmer capital, Angkor. The journey...

September 10, 2013 Souk-ed in: A Marrakech Adventure

Read time – 2 minutes Marrakech – the ‘Pink City’, where the world rushes and laughs with an acrobatic nonchalance. The imperial stronghold calmly absorbs one more visitor without batting an eyelid. Colourful Moroccan slippers It is a city which demands to be wooed. You must prove your devotion to unearth its secrets. Brave the...

September 10, 2013 Walking Adventure in Morocco

Read time – 2 minutes As I stood in line wondering what I was going to make for dinner, the cashier said, “That’s nice, where did you get it?” I looked down to see her pointing at my bracelet glimmering in the bright shop light. Bought on my recent trip to Morocco, I had been...

September 10, 2013 Attenborough’s Africa

Read time – 2 minutes The BBC spoils us with their visual spectaculars of the Earth’s wildest continent: Africa. Narrated by Attenborough, this is a steady supply of groundbreaking footage. From introducing us to new species, uncovering previously unseen animal behaviour and shedding light on some of the most remote parts of Africa, these documentaries...

September 10, 2013 Pilgrim’s progress

Winding between the jagged spires of the French Pyrenees before threading its way west across Northern Spain to the Atlantic Coast, the Camino de Santiago is well and truly scuffed by the footprints of time. The Camino de Frances, The Way of St James, El Camino de Santiago, or simply The Way, this historic trail...