|
|
|
The Noosa Farmers' Market, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, has grown to be one of the biggest in Australia |
|
|
Cape York is one of the most enduring 4WD destinations in Australia. Roderick Eime jumps into a showroom condition VW Touareg for the ultimate road test to the top. |
|
|
The mountainous reaches of northern Thailand – until recent years isolated from the rest of the country – shelter many scenic and cultural treasures. |
|
|
The people of the Seychelles - of English, French, Asian and African origin - have blended their influences into one potent Creole concoction. |
|
|
Amateur aquanaut, Roderick Eime, packs his flippers and trunks for an underwater look at Australia's fabled Great Barrier Reef.
|
|
|
Taveuni Island, straddling the International Date Line, is a lush getaway |
|
|
Alice Springs' Desert Park breathes Life into the Australian Outback |
|
|
Today, the plains of Kenya are ideal hunting grounds for wildlife enthusiasts who do their shooting through the lens of a camera, rather than a barrel of a gun. |
|
|
Long distance cruising onboard a yacht can be a leisurely, personally satisfying lifestyle. Until one runs aground on an unseen sandbar that is.
Join Fiona Harper on a yachting adventure that sees her 15m yacht aground in far northwest Australia. |
|
|
There’s an unusually large amount of gold in Japan's east coast city of Kanazawa |
|
|
Impatient tourist, Roderick Eime, learns the lore of the jungle - and that the jungle is a law unto itself. |
|
|
The island of Pulau Selingaan in the Sulu Sea off Malaysian Borneo is a declared marine park that sits in ancient turtle migration and breeding lanes. |
|
|
Karen Halabi reports from an elephant sanctuary in the remote hills north of Chiang Mai, Thailand, where an Elephant Nature Park and the woman who runs it, are attracting international attention. |
|
|
The Samburu of the Northern Rift Valley of Kenya are intriguing cousins of the better-known Masai of the south. |
|
|
Discover the story behind the oldest landscape on the planet |
|
|
The American West opens up ahead as you cross the Missouri, westbound to South Dakota |
|
|
A former leper colony now makes a most attractive getaway from Carnarvon, on Australia's mid-west coast, discovers Fiona Harper |
|
|
Within another year this dusty ribbon of gravel will become another busy touring route for weekend warriors, when the last stretch across the high plains is tar-sealed. Now is the time to experience the magic... |
|
|
On the "Stevenson Trail" in south-eastern France |
|
|
Visitors to Byron Bay, the most easterly town on the world's most easterly continent, sometimes wonder if they are still on planet earth. |
|
|
The sign at the town entrance tells it all: “Welcome to Cunnamulla, settled in the Dreamtime.” Aussie towns don’t get much older than that. Nor do they get much more welcoming and community-spirited.
|
|
|
There are two sides to Churchill’s burgeoning tourism coin. In winter this tiny Canadian outpost on Hudson Bay is visited by those wanting a (not too) close encounter with polar bears; in summer tourists come to see Beluga Whales frolicking in tranquil waters. |
|
|
Having sailed along the coast of Arnhem Land, traversing the Gulf of Carpentaria and into one of the most remote towns on the Australian coast, Fiona Harper hungrily anticipates a return to civilisation, dropping anchor at Seisia on Cape York, Queensland.
|
|
|
There are some things you should do once in a lifetime. Well, that's what I was told when they suggested sleeping out on the ice in Antarctica. |
|
|
Crocodiles can raise welts in more ways than one, at the Sepik River Crocodile Festival |
|
|
The four-hour cross island walk began as a single lane road winding into the foothills, past ramshackle villages struggling to keep the fast growing jungle at bay. Rarotongan village kids ran beside the road giggling and waving while the dogs were as laid back as the adult villagers, barely lifting their heads in the tropical heat to give us more than a brief glance as we passed by.
Fiona Harper fights tropical lethargy in the Cook Islands. |
|
|
Queensland's lush rainforest retreat |
|
|
Thanks to the actions of protesters a quarter of a century ago, we can now enjoy the pristine World Heritage forest of western Tasmania. Roderick Eime investigates this 'no dam' wonder. |
|
|
The thylacine, the Tasmanian tiger, has been declared extinct: but many prefer to believe a few survive, and where else but deep in the forests of the Tarkine wilderness? |
|
|
A cycling trip around Samoa's "big island", overnighting at some inexpensive and supremely relaxing beach resorts. |
|
|
Cunning dingoes roam Fraser Island, in southern Queensland, often getting just a little too close to visitors who long for a gentle wildlife encounter. Visitors are advised to keep a close watch on their belongings, particurlarly their passports. |
|
|
Thomas E King journeys from the Thai island of Koh Samui, in the south of the country, to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai in the far north-west |
|
|
Estonia is much more than just its mediaeval capital Tallinn |
|
|
This article details the amazing Fraser Island off the coast of Queensland and includes information on accommodation provided, and cuisine, things to do and see. |
|
|
They say the best holidays are those with an element of romance. They also say that sometimes the best romances are those that end with the holiday, leaving nothing but happy memories. That's the kind of romance you get when you fall for sea lions, discovers Fiona Harper. |
|
|
Kamchatka is the show-stopper of Russia's Far East, a 'wild west' frontier region |
|
|
Over 25 years on from the war between Britain and Argentina that claimed nearly a thousand lives, the Falkland Islands town of Stanley - the world's smallest and most remote capital - is once again an important port. |
|
|
4WD or kayak are the best means of transport in the rugged interior of Fiji's main island, Viti Levu |
|
|
Get out of Taiwan's main cities and you'll encounter a nature-feast without peer |
|
|
India's oldest and largest tiger reserve is the legacy of the last of the Great White Hunters |
|
|
You know that there's something special about a place when you've hardly arrived there, and already you are planning how you'll return. Soon. Flinders Island is like that. |
|
|
After civil strife, earthquake and tsunami, the Solomon Islands are on the rebound |
|
|
Make a list of the most remote, isolated and fascinating places on the planet that you'd ever want to visit. If the Galápagos Islands are not on that list STOP READING NOW. |
|
|
Many of the rough-hewn shelter huts scattered across the Australian Alps represent the legacy of earlier, more innocent visitors, including the now-banished mountain cattlemen. |
|
|
Will global warming affect Bostwana's unique wildlife habitats? |
|
|
Rajasthan's World Heritage Keoladeo National Park is no longer bird-friendly, as its wetlands dry up |
|
|
When the vast island continent of Madagascar wrenched itself free from the mighty Gondwanaland tens of millions of years ago, it took with it a veritable Noah's Ark of plant and animal species. |
|
|
Tucked away in the mountainous hinterlands of south western China, unpolluted and relatively sparsely populated Guizhou Province is untrammelled by international tourism. |
|
|
Yesterday we stalked one of India's last lions and her cubs; later that evening we joined in a garba, a neighbourhood carnival, joining in a Gujarati folk dance. |
|
|
The once treacherous seas of the polar regions are almost tamed by these modern marvels. Roderick Eime ventures aboard the world's most famous passenger-carrying icebreaker. |
|
|
Australia's legendary "Black Outlaw" |
|
|
Stepping into the workshop at the Wooden Boat Centre, waterside on the Huon River at Franklin in southern Tasmania, Fiona Harper inhales the sweet aroma of Huon Pine permeating the air. |
|
|
Ghosts still roam parts of Estonia's Hiiumaa Island, renowned for its wilderness and heritage. |
|
|
Trek with Roderick Eime amongst the smoldering outflows around Hawaii's Kilauea volcano |
|
|
Japan's Hida region is Japan's heartland |
|
|
There is no elegant way to climb up onto an elephant. Tricia Welsh learns this at a mahout’s course in Northern Thailand. |
|
|
India dances to a different beat throughout the Malabar, a culturally rich and scenically diverse region of northern Kerala. |
|
|
Sabah's Kinabatangan River is a wildlife refuge without peer, home to both orang-utans and the endangered Proboscis Monkey |
|
|
Living in one of the world's most mountainous territories, the people of Sikkim have had to learn how to adapt to nature’s whims. But the whims of nature are as nothing when compared with the escapades of Sikkim's politicians |
|
|
Often overlooked by their media tart cousins, the Whitsunday Islands, Fiona Harper explores some of the lesser known islands of north Queensland. |
|
|
Queensland’s striking Sunshine Coast lazily arcs north from the tongue twisting towns of Caloundra and Mooloolaba, past Maroochydore and Mudjimba to end at Noosa.
|
|
|
Explore a mysterious landscape of deserted mountains, black lakes and red earth, an ancient terrain which conceals an exceptional ecological diversity. |
|
|
Tourist Police or policing the tourists? |
|
|
Expedition cruiser, Roderick Eime, climbs aboard Western Australia's premier adventure yacht, True North, for a unique and intimate sampling of our west's own special character. |
|
|
Whether it's spelled Guipuzcoa or Gipuzkoa, this Spanish province is the heartland of Basque identity |
|
|
Don a safari suit and take off like Livingstone, either in five-star luxury, cocooned in some of Zimbabwe'sfinest hotels and resorts or sleeping out under the African stars in a tent or thatched tree-house. |
|
|
Visitors to SW Queensland in the Australian outback are invariably stunned by the richness and abundance of nature-treasures. |
|
|
Tricia Welsh finds that a four-day ‘bush skills’ adventure on Phinda Private Game Reserve in South Africa can somewhat spoil it for regular safaris. |
|
|
The remote Svalbard (Spitsbergen) Islands of Norway are a nature wonderland |
|
|
With its astonishing landscapes and fascinating history, South Australia’s Flinders Ranges is just begging to be explored. |
|
|
The history of the Grampians, the oldest National Park in Victoria (Australia), has just undergone drastic revision. |
|
|
Is the Finke the world’s oldest (and driest) watercourse? |
|
|
Never let a beetle piss in your eye, warns Philip Game |
|
|
Like sand through the hourglass, these are the days of our long-suffering feet. Eschewing the need for a 4WD to explore Fraser Island, Fiona Harper decides to explore by foot instead, walking the sand trails that crisscross the worlds largest sand island. |
|
|
Cruising the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, Bruny Island reveals a few of her secrets to those who linger long enough to look beyond the wildlife and the laidback lifestyle.
Fiona Harper takes time out in southern Tasmania. |
|
|
Tricia Welsh takes an exhilarating ride on a zip-line high above the treetops in Costa Rica |
|
|
Don’t overlook one of the last frontiers in the South Pacific, writes Philip Game |
|
|
The twin towns of Daylesford and Hepburn Springs, in Victoria, are united by the outstanding healing qualities of their natural mineral springs |
|
|
China's "renegade province" forges its own identity, while at the same time developing trade ties with the mainland
|
|
|
This article details food producers and wineries in the north and north-west of this island-state and includes information on accommodation, dining and things to do and see. |
|
|
It's not every day you get to narrowly avoid falling into a volcano - even on Tanna Island, in Vanuatu |
|
|
The chieftain of Kundu Hite (Skull Island) in the Solomon Islands is last in a long line of headhunters |
|
|
Preconceptions of Antarctica are shattered like the pack ice beneath a ship's bow. |
|
|
The son of Zambia’s first President Kenneth Kaunda reminisces about his days growing up at "The Mushroom House", where Africa's history was shaped |
|
|
Cultural bridges along the Amur River, in Russia's Far East |
|
|
The Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, one of the most important nature reserves in Mongolia, is true wilderness country where yaks meander and stocky Mongolian horses graze. |
|
|
A day's drive northwest of Hyderabad is a wilderness that few foreigner visitors to India have ever seen. |
|
|
The two approaches to northern Italy's Gran Paradiso National Park reveal a huge diversity of landscapes |
|
|
A Jeepney takes me along a bumpy road that winds through the hills a few km out of Banaue to a vantage point that has a sweeping vista over what’s been called the ‘eighth wonder of the world’. |
|
|
The world's wettest town runs out of water during the dry season |
|
|
Roderick Eime travels to the scenic east coast of NZ's South Island to investigate the 'deep secret' of Kaikoura |
|
|
Hunting regally striped felines has long been banned in India but that doesn’t stop enthusiastic camera clutching tourists from actively ‘shooting’ tigers on wildlife safaris. |
|
|
Australia is a wildlife paradise full of some of nature’s oddest creations says Karen Halabi. |
|
|
Wrangel Island is an enigmatic landmass trapped in the fringes of the permanent Arctic ice pack. Born out of legend and maintained by tales of hardship, endurance and tragedy its apparently austere appearance hides a UNESCO World Heritage-listed, self-contained island ecosystem. |
|
|
Most southerners shun Australia's Top End during the hot, expectant time of year around October. Yet there is no better time to to visit, for now the Yellow Waters wetland becomes an Ark of browsing waterfowl, crocodiles half submerged like floating logs and the odd bird of prey, all jostling for space in a habitat which shrinks daily.
|
|
|
Gold! Gold! Gold! On August 16, 1896 George Washington Carmack’s announcement echoed through the vast expanses of Canada’s Yukon. The Klondike Gold Rush had begun.
|
|
|
