Features

—by Vernon Hoium, Minneapolis, MN

During a previous visit to Australia, I was advised that The Ghan, an Australian train which then ran from Adelaide to Alice Springs, would continue on to Darwin beginning in 2003. As it turned out, the line was not completed until February ’04. We returned in June ’06 to take The Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide.

The Ghan

To give some perspective, I should point out that Australia and the continental United States are virtually identical in size. The 2,979-kilometer trip from Darwin to Adelaide is similar to traveling from International...

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by John Scheleur, Arnold, MD

To mark my 60th birthday with something more than just an attempt to blow out 60 candles, my wife and I set out in September ’04 to walk across northern England, following the 84-mile path of Hadrian’s Wall. ‘Why in the world would a man want to travel over 3,000 miles to do this?’ you are asking. Well, he must have a love of history, a love of England and a love of the outdoors — and, according to my wife, be slightly deranged! It turned out to be a fantastic 6-day trip.

A bit of history

First, a brief history lesson. Nearly 2,000 years...

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by Florence Drake, Readfield, ME

I wanted to do something special for my 60th birthday. So was born the idea of a birthday trip. This wasn’t to be merely a trip to celebrate my birthday, taken when it was most convenient. This trip had to have me someplace wonderful on my birthday.

I researched our many travel catalogs. However, most itineraries would have had us either flying to or from someplace or otherwise trapped — in airports or on a long bus ride between cities — on November 5th. No, it had to be better than that.

We finally settled on Overseas Adventure Travel’...

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by Mary Beltran, Associate Editor

As our introduction to China, my husband, Cesar, and I toured the highlights of its imperial past and took a short cruise on the Yangtze. In April ’05 we participated in the 10-day “Imperial Jewels of China” cruise-tour, starting in Beijing, as a guest of Viking River Cruises (Woodland Hills, CA; phone 877/668-4546).

Since we wanted to explore our own interests in Beijing as well, we contacted Mrs. Ping Lee of ChinaPlus, Inc. (Las Colinas, TX; phone 888/868-8811 or 972/887-9088 or visit www.chinaplustour.com) to set up a pre-cruise visit....

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by Jim Hendrickson, Bellingham, WA

Armed with a frequent-flyer ticket, a Lonely Planet guidebook and a good knowledge of Spanish, I decided to escape the wet Pacific Northwest winter by heading south to sunny Argentina in January ’06. I had been to Argentina twice before, but I had seen little of its immense region called Patagonia.

Buenos Aires beginning

My 5-week solo journey began in Buenos Aires, where I stayed at a small guest house called Mi Casa en San Telmo (Chacabuco 764, Departamento 18; phone 005411 4300 8583, www.micasaensantelmo.com.ar). I booked my...

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The Holy Island of Lindisfarne lies three miles from the mainland of Northumberland, England, not far from the Scottish border. It’s not only a picturesque site but a religious and historical place well worth a visit if one is traveling in northern England.

A little history Since the island is connected to the mainland by a causeway at low tide, visitors must check the tide timetables located at the entrance to the causeway so as not to be stranded on the island for a much longer time than planned.

Centuries ago, pilgrims waded through the water and sand at low tide following...

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Story by Dave G. Houser, Photos by Jan Houser, Nogal, NM

It was 7:00 on a crisp July morning in northern Mongolia. Nine of us — veteran travelers — were eager to get under way on a 17-day adventure with Pacific Delight Tours.

For the moment, we were comfortably loaded into a pair of 4WD Russian-made UAZ vans for a 4-hour, 125-kilometer drive from the rustic frontier town of Mörön to Lake Hovsgol, a jewel of a mountain lake geologically related to better-known Lake Baikal in nearby Siberia.

The UAZ was designed during the Cold War for off-road use by the military....

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by Nili Olay, New York, NY

I believe I was always meant to go to Egypt...

I received my undergraduate degree in ancient Near Eastern Studies (Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, etc.) from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. I was married to an Egyptologist who, for a while, worked at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC.

But while he made frequent trips to Egypt, I was barred from entering the country — I had been born in Israel and the two countries were at war. Peace (of a sort) came, but life interfered in the guise of small children and a divorce.

So now,...

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