2007-06-14

Reading 25: Wildlife Adventures (2007-06-13)

Yesterday we went to Wide World Books & Maps for ideas on where to travel next. My travel ideal has these characteristics:
  • It's new.
  • It's adventurous.

New

I like variety, so I want to go somewhere I haven't been before. Somewhere new has different meanings at different scales, however:
  1. Considering supercontinents, I have been to Afro-Eurasia and the Americas. However, I have no desire to visit Antarctica, because extreme cold scares me. Consequently this scale is too big to help decide.
  2. Considering continents, I have been to Africa, North America, Europe, and Oceania. This leaves Asia, South America, and Antarctica.
  3. There are also vast regions I haven't visited within some continents I have:
    • In Africa I went to East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania), in Sub-Saharan Africa, so I haven't been to North Africa--or west, central, or south Africa within Sub-Saharan Africa.
    • In North America I've been to both North America (Canada, Mexico, and the United States) and Central America (only Honduras, though the plane landed in Belize), but not the Caribbean.
    • In Europe I've been to England, France, Germany, leaving southern Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, and eastern Europe (depending on how one divides Europe).
    • In Oceania I've been to Polynesia (Hawaiʻi), but not Australasia, Micronesia, or the south Pacific.

Adventurous

As a child, I read high fantasy authors like J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia), and Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea). As an adult, I find travel the closest experience to a quest. Elements encountered in a quest include castles, caverns, long distances, foreign languages, forests, mountains, oceans, ruins, sacred places, sailing, and wild animals. Examples in my travels are as follows:
This desire for more adventure travel led to the purchase of 25: Wildlife Adventures and A Year of Adventures: Lonely Planet's Guide to Where, What And When to Do It. In the first book I found I had been to 3 of the 25 places (Baja California, Tanzania, Florida) and experienced 5 of the 25 wildlife adventures (wildebeest migration, alligators, rhino, lions, turtles).

The question remains: Where should William go? I pose this question to the readers of this blog; recommend a place to go. While I'm asking a question of readers, I'll also ask: What should William blog? Of the score of examples above, only a half-dozen have posts.

[Update: I corrected the date to this year!]

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I'm nothing if not opinionated. My recommends, in order:

1) Indochina. Retains the outdoor options--you've seen my beach photos from Thailand, for instance*--but there are ancient temples and such as well. I think you'd very much enjoy the Ankor Wat (in Cambodia), for instance.

2) Australia. I've gotten the vibe from you that the East Africa trip was your favourite, and that you liked the outdoorsy aspects of it especially. Visiting the Outback would be new, yet similar.

3) The Kansai, in Japan. It's more on the "Castles and Sacred Places" side of things than "Caverns and Savannah", but it's definately worth visiting Kyoto anyway.

--Richard

*Yes, I am aware that by many delineations, Thailand is not part of Indochina. It's not entirely dissimilar, however.

Anonymous said...

The wilds of Western Sichuan, China are waiting for you!

William said...

Jeff likes the idea of New Zealand. 25 Wildlife Adventures recommends kiwi-spotting in Trounson Kauri Park.

ma_ryan79 said...

I'm not strong in the adventure department--well, not the adventure-adventure department. I like new though, and I've always wanted to go to Japan, which fits this criterium (?). Though China does have the Yangzee River.

David G said...

I think you should go to New Zealand. This is mostly because I would like to go to New Zealand and this way I could live vicariously through you. Also, you mentioned Lord of the Rings, and since the movies were filmed there, at least someone thought that's as close as you can get.

Anonymous said...

You definitely should visit central Italy--Tuscany and Umbria. Florence, San Gimingnano, Cinque Terre...

Great food, beatiful scenery, friendly people, incredible art. Everything you could want.

Do it. Do it now.





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