If like me you live in the Northern Hemisphere, there’s something magical in discovering the world of the Southern. Africa in particular seems to draw us to explore, with its vast plains and forests, still-wild spaces, fascinating animals and very different cultures. Maybe too there’s a lingering romantic sense of the continent as an unknown frontier to be opened up, despite the somewhat negative associations attached to our historic explorations there.
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When you come back from a trip you have tales to tell. You may start by describing the big stuff, the famous sights you saw: the Taj Mahal perhaps or the Eiffel Tower. But what often remains in the memory long afterwards are the small happenings that punctuate a trip. Those are the stories that you will return to again and again …
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When I travel I am always curious about the people who inhabit the places I visit. I seek to understand their way of life and observe how it differs from, or is similar to, my own. But there are other people who populate my travels, the people who ONCE lived in these lands.
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I have been fortunate to have seen many different animals in the wild, or in ethical preservation projects. When asked to name my favourite I am always torn between elephants and the various big cats. Usually my answer is whichever I have seen most recently, as it's impossible for me to choose!
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Deserts take many forms, but to most of us the word conjures up rolling dunes as far as the eye can see. Such a desert is the Namib, home to the world’s highest dunes. Many of them surround the clay pan of Sossusvlei, and one of the best ways to appreciate the scale and sheer number of these dunes is from above, in a hot air balloon.
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Top ten lists are somewhat invidious things. No sooner have you published one than you realise you have omitted something you should have included, or included something that on second thoughts might have been better omitted. So it is with some hesitation that I offer my top ten list of places we have stayed.
