When I heard that there were more pyramids in Sudan than in Egypt, I suddenly developed an interest in a country that so far had not been on my radar screen. It was at the Adventure Travel Show in London and pictures of rows of steep-sided pyramids surrounded by honey-coloured sand caught my eye and […]
North Korea is perhaps not the first place many people would think of for a holiday, but if you look beyond the newspaper headlines there is a fascinating country well worth a visit. The Korean peninsula has a long and rich history. The first kingdom there was founded in 2333 BC. Others followed and competed […]
The Aral Sea has become synonymous with environmental disaster resulting from human activity. Once the world’s fourth largest lake, it used to stretch some 400km from north to south and 280km from east to west. Now, only a small part of it remains, the waters that fed it diverted for cotton production. I had the […]
The Faroe Islands are a small volcanic archipelago in the North Atlantic midway between Scotland and Iceland. Rising out of the cold grey waters that surround them, the rocky Faroes exude a rugged beauty and give the visitor a real sense of isolation. The 18 islands are a self-governing region of the Kingdom of Denmark, […]
The Peruvian city of Cuzco, high up in the Andes mountains, was the capital of the Inca empire from the 13th century until 1533 when it fell to the Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, the city now attracts over two million visitors a year, many […]
The Channel Islands are a group of islands off the coast of Normandy, northern France. Their unique history has created an unusual combination of English and French cultures. This, together with the pretty scenery and sunny climate, makes them a popular holiday destination. The Channel Islands are not one of Europe’s microstates, but like Andorra, Liechtenstein […]
Armenia – or Hayastan to give it its Armenian name – is a small, landlocked country in the South Caucasus, a mountainous territory between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Lying at the eastern most boundary of Europe, the region is a strategic crossroads linking the ‘Old Continent’ with Asia. Over the centuries, Armenia […]
Before visiting Easter Island, I had not really realised quite how isolated it was. In fact, it is one of the remotest inhabited places on our planet. Set in the south eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, the small triangular island lies over 3700km west of Chile and more than 2000km east of tiny Pitcairn Island […]
