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Can the sound of a temple bell call forth a mountain range? It would seem unlikely. But in the case of Korea's "holy of holies" Mount Kumgang (aka Kumgangsan, Geumgangsan National Park, or the Diamond Mountains), nothing appears to be impossible. |
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The mountainous reaches of northern Thailand – until recent years isolated from the rest of the country – shelter many scenic and cultural treasures. |
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The people of the Seychelles - of English, French, Asian and African origin - have blended their influences into one potent Creole concoction. |
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Taveuni Island, straddling the International Date Line, is a lush getaway |
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Alice Springs' Desert Park breathes Life into the Australian Outback |
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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. |
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Near-record rainfalls along the Zambezi River in 2006 and early 2007 have transformed the landscape into a nature wonderland |
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Impatient tourist, Roderick Eime, learns the lore of the jungle - and that the jungle is a law unto itself. |
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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. |
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The Samburu of the Northern Rift Valley of Kenya are intriguing cousins of the better-known Masai of the south. |
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Bandung’s biggest drawcard is ugly, smells bad and often can’t even be seen at all. |
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The surprising city of Belém, gateway to the lower Amazon |
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A former leper colony now makes a most attractive getaway from Carnarvon, on Australia's mid-west coast, discovers Fiona Harper |
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Glenn A Baker is blown away by Brunei - and finds much more than oil and Sultans. |
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Visitors to Byron Bay, the most easterly town on the world's most easterly continent, sometimes wonder if they are still on planet earth. |
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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.
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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. |
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Gujarat is the land of the Mahatma - the birthplace of Ghandi - and the only place on Earth where you can still see the Asiatic Lion, says Karen Halabi. |
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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. |
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Never a dull moment on the long, dusty road which follows Australia’s largest river, even when the drought-stricken Darling is little more than a string of stagnant pools. |
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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. |
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Tourists come from as far away as Korea Japan and China to see blue nosed dolphins at Port Stephens on the coast, just north of Sydney. |
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As Zimbabwe fades off the tourist stage, the new star on the southern Africa stage is Zambia. |
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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. |
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Get out of Taiwan's main cities and you'll encounter a nature-feast without peer |
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The Aboriginal heritage of the world's largest sand island |
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Hwange National Park is the largest and best gameviewing area in Zimbabwe and, some say, all of Africa. With roughly 15,000 sq km of protected parklands, it's around the size of Wales or Belgium. During a short stay here it is not impossible to see up to 50 different species of animal and bird life... |
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Looming out of azure blue waters at the gateway to the Mediterranean Sea is one of the world's most unmistakable landmarks, the Rock of Gibraltar. |
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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. |
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Rajasthan's World Heritage Keoladeo National Park is no longer bird-friendly, as its wetlands dry up |
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"Welcome to my home", said the beaming taxi driver at Harare airport in such warm, lilting tones that I should have realised the pull had already started. "To my home" I kept thinking on the drive into the Zimbabwean capital, not to Harare or even Zimbabwe, but "to my home". In all my years of travelling, no-one had ever said that to me before.
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A live geography lesson in wide screen, Zimbabwe is an ideal place to take kids on a family holiday but check first - many lodges won't take children under 12 and they often aren't allowed on game drives. |
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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. |
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Ghosts still roam parts of Estonia's Hiiumaa Island, renowned for its wilderness and heritage. |
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Russia's remote Kuril Islands are not a people place |
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There is no elegant way to climb up onto an elephant. Tricia Welsh learns this at a mahout’s course in Northern Thailand. |
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India dances to a different beat throughout the Malabar, a culturally rich and scenically diverse region of northern Kerala. |
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Sabah's Kinabatangan River is a wildlife refuge without peer, home to both orang-utans and the endangered Proboscis Monkey |
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While the rest of Australia bakes in a dry heat, Darwin welcomes the summer months with bracing showers which reveal the Territory's staggering natural beauty. |
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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 |
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Karen Halabi discovers that sun, sea, sand and ancient buildings are why Hollywood is in a sweaty love affair with Malta. With a bit of art direction it can be ancient Rome, Africa or Asia. |
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Birthplace of the revolutionary movement that tore Mozambique apart in the 70s and 80s, the northwest of this country is a spectacular landscape of twisted rock forms - the background to one of Africa's most colourful rail trips. The trip by road to the coast concludes a fascinating journey of discovery |
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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.
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Explore a mysterious landscape of deserted mountains, black lakes and red earth, an ancient terrain which conceals an exceptional ecological diversity. |
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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. |
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Visitors to SW Queensland in the Australian outback are invariably stunned by the richness and abundance of nature-treasures. |
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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. |
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The mighty Himalayan Mountains span some 2560 km from northern Pakistan to China. Eight of its colossal peaks are often visible from Pokhara, Nepal’s largest second largest city. |
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The history of the Grampians, the oldest National Park in Victoria (Australia), has just undergone drastic revision. |
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Is the Finke the world’s oldest (and driest) watercourse? |
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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. |
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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. |
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Tricia Welsh takes an exhilarating ride on a zip-line high above the treetops in Costa Rica |
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Enormous, square white sails billow against an impossibly blue sky. Her elegant bow plunges upwards into the gentle ocean swell.
Join Fiona Harper for an Indian Ocean crossing onboard luxury tall ship Star Clipper. |
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It's not every day you get to narrowly avoid falling into a volcano - even on Tanna Island, in Vanuatu |
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This article details the custom of these men who bring their caged birds to a cafe so they can learn from each other how to sing beautifully in order to win singing contests. |
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The chieftain of Kundu Hite (Skull Island) in the Solomon Islands is last in a long line of headhunters |
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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 |
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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. |
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A day's drive northwest of Hyderabad is a wilderness that few foreigner visitors to India have ever seen. |
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Walking in Central Australia is rewarding when you rise with the sun! |
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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. |
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Australia is a wildlife paradise full of some of nature’s oddest creations says Karen Halabi. |
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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. |
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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.
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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.
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