Living on the edge: 5 thrilling trips
If you are someone who loves to travel for adventure, consider going on these five thrilling trips around the world.
What's with these 'bucket lists anyway'? I mean, seriously. I find the whole concept vaguely macabre. Why would anyone create an I-want-to-go-here-before-I-die list of the most exotic, fantastic, adventurous, glamorous, romantic places?
You're thinking of death and your own mortality instead of looking forward to planning some amazing, life-changing experiences. You're looking to 'tick them off' your list, as if it were a list of groceries. Truly, there's nothing drearier than that when it comes to travel. So there's no bucket list for me. I call it my 'Just Do It List'. It's a list which says, I'm going. You coming? It's a list that says, "Take care of the baby for 10 days darling, while I take off on this amazing trip." So here's my Just Do It List; replicate, replenish or rewrite at will. Ready for some fine adventures.
Climb Kilimanjaro
It's one of the 'Seven Summits', the highest peaks on the seven continents, and hence on every climber's checklist. Not for me though. I have no intention of climbing the other six summits, not in this lifetime for sure. 'Kili'(as many of us dreaming to summit it, lovingly call it) isn't really a mountain in the strictest sense; it's actually a dormant 'stratovolcano'. Composed of alternate layers of lava and ash, built when the eruptions began about a million years ago, one of its volcanic cones is still considered 'dormant'; it last erupted 360,000 years ago.
It's one of the 'Seven Summits', the highest peaks on the seven continents, and hence on every climber's checklist. Not for me though. I have no intention of climbing the other six summits, not in this lifetime for sure. 'Kili'(as many of us dreaming to summit it, lovingly call it) isn't really a mountain in the strictest sense; it's actually a dormant 'stratovolcano'. Composed of alternate layers of lava and ash, built when the eruptions began about a million years ago, one of its volcanic cones is still considered 'dormant'; it last erupted 360,000 years ago.
Just imagine the history, the stories, the babble of voices this enigmatic mountain contains. That's why I want to go there. Besides, there's a fantastic prize waiting for me at the end of this amazing trip..Serengeti National Park. Two days of the most amazing wildlife watching ever. The nimble blue monkeys, the lazing baboon troops, the legendary tree climbing lions, the outsized ostriches, the spotted hyenas, the migrating wildebeests that I've only seen on National Geographic Channel thus far...a wildlife smorgasbord of everything I've ever dreamt of.
Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
Fluorescent green terraced mountain sides dotted with stone houses, a blanket of thick fog suspended in mid-air and the Huayna Picchu in the background; this image of Machu Picchu has haunted me ever since I was a teenager. The story goes that in 1911, Hiram Bingham, a historian from Yale University, was doing some research in Peru, when a local farmer told him about this mysterious ancient ruin high up in the Andes mountains. I can just imagine Bingham's face when he staggered upon Machu Picchu, a city that had remained lost to the word for almost 400 years. The marauding Spanish conquistadors had subdued the entire Inca empire but for some strange reason, they missed Machu Picchu completely. Thank God for that.
Fluorescent green terraced mountain sides dotted with stone houses, a blanket of thick fog suspended in mid-air and the Huayna Picchu in the background; this image of Machu Picchu has haunted me ever since I was a teenager. The story goes that in 1911, Hiram Bingham, a historian from Yale University, was doing some research in Peru, when a local farmer told him about this mysterious ancient ruin high up in the Andes mountains. I can just imagine Bingham's face when he staggered upon Machu Picchu, a city that had remained lost to the word for almost 400 years. The marauding Spanish conquistadors had subdued the entire Inca empire but for some strange reason, they missed Machu Picchu completely. Thank God for that.
There's several different routes that you can take to Machu Picchu but the classic Inca Trail is by far the most popular and that's the one I intend to take. This 4-day trek needs to be planned well in advance; there's a daily cap of 500 people who can walk this trail on any given day and that includes trekkers, guides and support staff. In essence, only 200 trekkers get to walk on this trail per day. So before I book my ticket to Peru (which is expensive), I need to book my place on this trek.
Namibia self-drive safariThis is classic Africa straight out of the movies and this particular self-drive safari starts from Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. The self-drive SUVs are equipped with roof-top tents (RTTs) that allow you the freedom to park your cars at campsites on the route and just hit the sack whenever you're done for the day. The overnight stays are a unique combination of your own RTTs, homesteads and bush chalets.
The epic road trip will take me through (note the confidence; the power of positive thinking) the starkness of Skeleton Coast, so bleak and beautiful that African Bushmen call it "the land God made in Anger." I can't wait to see the petrified forests, wood that isn't really wood at all, but plants fossilised over centuries to reflect amazing hues of green, blue and pink, colours of the minerals that fills its pores.
On to Sossusvlei, home to some of the highest and oldest sand dunes; many of them are above 200 metres and the highest is nicknamed Big Daddy, about 380 metres high, that's 80 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower. Damaraland with its open plains and rock engravings and Sesfontein; home to the Himba tribe, an ancient indigenous group of tall, slender and statuesque herders. And then the clincher: Etosha National Park, a game reserve teeming with the abundance of animals as only Africa can boast.
Zanskar rafting
I did this trip in 2014, and I'd go right back in a jiffy. This is the only trip in the world, I would not mind repeating more than once, and this time I want to do it with my dearest friends; the ones who will understand the tears that roll down my face when I see the waves of purple mountain again, and the green and gold rocks that pass by, the reflection of the stark mountains on the river when it remains still for an infinitesimal second, as you camp on the beach by the riverside.
I did this trip in 2014, and I'd go right back in a jiffy. This is the only trip in the world, I would not mind repeating more than once, and this time I want to do it with my dearest friends; the ones who will understand the tears that roll down my face when I see the waves of purple mountain again, and the green and gold rocks that pass by, the reflection of the stark mountains on the river when it remains still for an infinitesimal second, as you camp on the beach by the riverside.
Zanskar is a fearsome river with roaring rapids. When I was packing for the expedition, Akshay, my husband, said: "be careful babes." I looked up from the dozen confusing dry bags lying on the bed, the tenor of his voice telling me more than his words were saying. He'd rafted this river more times than he could remember. "Is it dangerous?" I asked. For the first time I realised, I'd never thought of that part at all. "It's not an easy river" he said. "The rapids are bigger and far more technical. Be careful." But this river expedition isn't just about the river. It's about the little monasteries deep inside the mountain ravines that few people can reach; the giant gushing ice cold waterfall at Nyerak that you simply have to stand under; uphill hikes to little secluded hamlets where friendly Ladakhi homes offer you yak tea and momos and that amazingly stunning Zanskar gorge steep and deep, with towering mountain walls on either side. I'm hoping to go back this August for another fill of this amazing river.
Trekking in Bhutan
That's my present to myself on my 50th birthday this year; a trek to the Chomalhari Base Camp, Bhutan's most sacred mountain. Bhutan is a conundrum. A mystical kingdom that is moving from the medieval to the modern. Often compared to the mythical Shangri-La, its ancient Buddhist culture happily co-exists with brand new highways and fast developing internet service. Bhutan has always fascinated me and I hope, come October, I am trekking through its virgin forests, past the soaring peaks and ancient dzongs and on to the high pastures where yaks happily graze and the Lammergaiers soar through its valleys. The highest altitude you reach on this trek is 16,240 feet, not as high as the Everest Base Camp, but high enough to face serious consequences if you're foolish enough not to listen to your body when it's screaming altitude.
Trekking in Bhutan
That's my present to myself on my 50th birthday this year; a trek to the Chomalhari Base Camp, Bhutan's most sacred mountain. Bhutan is a conundrum. A mystical kingdom that is moving from the medieval to the modern. Often compared to the mythical Shangri-La, its ancient Buddhist culture happily co-exists with brand new highways and fast developing internet service. Bhutan has always fascinated me and I hope, come October, I am trekking through its virgin forests, past the soaring peaks and ancient dzongs and on to the high pastures where yaks happily graze and the Lammergaiers soar through its valleys. The highest altitude you reach on this trek is 16,240 feet, not as high as the Everest Base Camp, but high enough to face serious consequences if you're foolish enough not to listen to your body when it's screaming altitude.
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