Category

Beach

5 days, Australia, Beach, Destinations, Experiences, Itineraries, Oceania, On the road

Esperance’s impossible blue

Traveling 631 km south-east of Perth – one of the most out-of-the-way cities on Earth, in far-off Western Australia, is a long way from anywhere. As I traverse Western Australia, I’m hit by that uncanny fizz of sacrifice, the struggle that reminds me this is a part of the world for the patient traveler. The one willing to move slowly and endure large, empty distances to discover pure landscapes, where few others have been. It’s a place that makes you feel things and realize that travel, after all, is an act of movement. I’ve been hooked on WA for a while; perhaps it’s the challenge of getting here, the sense of conquest at the end of each journey that I find so appealing – or it’s the effort that always, always pays off.

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14-18 days, Beach, Culture, Destinations, Diving, Experiences, Itineraries, Oceania, Papua New Guinea

The coral reefs of Papua New Guinea

My search for the world’s most exotic tribes in one of the most undocumented landscapes left on the planet ends in dramatic encounters. In Papua New Guinea, not only do I come across extraordinary indigenous peoples who adorn themselves with wondrous ornamentation and keep alive ancient rituals, but I also discover the most pristine offshore reefs that remain.

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4 days, Asia, Beach, Destinations, Experiences, Itineraries, Kite surfing, Philippines

Surfing and serenity in Siargao

I have consistently found in my travels that surfers get to the best beaches first, before mass- tourism develops. And often, one needs to travel far and say no to the convenience of a direct flight to reach the most interesting places. Siargao, a teardrop-shaped island, in the region of Mindanao, 800 kilometers southeast of Manila, Philippines, validates my theory.

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4 days, 5 days, Beach, Diving, Maldives, Wildlife

Where the Mantas run wild 

When the seaplane lands on the waters of a remote atoll, in an Equator-straddling island somewhere in the Indian Ocean, I am not able to anticipate the dramatic wilderness of the place. The navy-blue waters sometimes interrupted by shades of infinite turquoise are, perhaps, the most obvious appeal of the idyllic paradise where I am headed. But there is so much beyond that. Beneath the surface of this ridiculously alluring ocean, lies one of nature’s most extraordinary events – and this is what drives me to this part of the world in the first place.

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10 days, Beach, Culture, Diving, Indonesia, Motorcycle

Inside Flores

There is something about Flores that is rather unearthly. This diverse island in Eastern Indonesia with its savannah landscape, pristine oceans, impressive volcanoes and lakes resemble a wilderness that seems to belong to another place and time. Though it is just an hour flight from the internationally-acclaimed Bali, Flores is an island still covered in relative obscurity.

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12 days, Beach, Diving, Mozambique, Wildlife

Beyond the waters of Mozambique

From the sky of an almost empty Savannah, we spot three herds of elephants running across Mozambique’s once war-torn plains. As we move from the city to the wilderness, it is the untouched that excites me – Africa at her most genuine. But the open vista has never been like this. 15 years of civil war tore apart one of the densest wildlife populations in Africa, and now, 25 years later, the megafauna is slowly getting back on track. Unlike our previous trips to Africa, though, this time we are not looking for the Big Five. We travel to Mozambique in search of what lies beneath the surface. As our chopper turns from the Bush to the Beach, I’m seduced by 2,500 Km of a dramatic and untouched coastline. And then I’m convinced this journey is all about the ocean.

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