Travel for Travel's Sake

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to simply move.

Robert Louis Stephenson

I booked my summer holidays this week and already I’m excited, I’m like a child anticipating Christmas, I imagine the sun on my face, the warmth on my back, the

sights I will see, the indigenous food I will taste, the crisp white wine under an umbrella, the smells, the sounds…… I can’t wait!

An essential travel companion is my camera, I’ve been very fortunate over the years to see some of the most beautiful places on the planet and my camera has always been there to capture that one memory, the memory you can flash up on your computer screen several months or years later that makes you smile and sigh.

Whilst beautiful and wondrous places to visit, destinations like Florence and Seville are almost predictable, we’ve seen them in books and films and we visit with a certain expectation and in my experience, I’m never disappointed, but it’s the places that take your breath away through their enormous, surprising beauty that make me wistful.

Places like Landmannalaugar, the Icelandic highlands with the rich colours of the Rhyolite mountains and the outstanding contrasts appearing in the midnight black Riolit-lava fields, are truly amazing. I smile now as I remember looking around our group, their facial expression identical as their chins thudded to the ground. Landmannalaugar is simply unique, an exceptional show of nature at its finest. Landmannalaugar has the added advantage of being geothermal so it’s off the bus, out of your Sweaty Betty skiing jacket, into your swimming costume and plunge into the pleasantly hot river that bubbles and steams. I can still feel that sense of euphoria as I sit back and look at the beauty all around.

Places like Cappadocia in rural Turkey. As you approach you see what appears to be a manmade film set for a new sci-fi movie but as you get closer you realise they’re not manmade at all but perfectly formed geological features called fairy chimneys. The large, cone-like formations were created over time by erosion of the relatively soft volcanic ash around them. Over the centuries people have dug into them to create dwellings, castles and even entire underground cities like Kaymakli and Derinkuyu. But the best way to see Cappadocia is by hot air balloon, try and get there early in the morning and get the first flight up, the warm hue of the sunrise reflecting off the formations and troglodyte dwellings turns it into a place of magic and dragons and fairies and elves.

Places like the Islet of Vila Franca do Campo, a tiny little island off the south coast of São Miguel in the Azores, itself a gem of nature. Islet of Vila Franca do Campo is one of those places where you think……. Noooo…… someone’s made that……. But no, the islet, which from a distance looks a little like a slice of pizza has a perfectly shaped circle right in the middle of it and I mean perfect. The circle is a lake formed by an ancient underwater volcano, with a small channel connecting it to the ocean waters. It’s stunning and the more the fact that it is indeed carved by mother nature sinks in, the more you will be in awe of this unique and wonderful place. Also, if you’re lucky, you might even see a whale or two from the shores. , a tiny little island off the south coast of São Miguel in the Azores, it’s self a gem of nature. Islet of Vila Franca do Campo is one of those places where you think……. Noooo…… someone’s made that……. But no, the islet, which from a distance looks a little like a slice of pizza has a perfectly shaped circle right in the middle of it and I mean perfect. The circle is a lake formed by an ancient underwater volcano, with a small channel connecting it to the ocean waters. It’s stunning and the more the fact that it is indeed carved by mother nature sinks in, the more you will be in awe of this unique and wonderful place. Also, if you’re lucky, you might even see a whale or two from the shores.

Places like Alberobello, a tiny village just at the top of the heal of Italy, another place that looks like it’s straight from the pages of a Tolkien novel a place inhabited by Hobbits. Most of the dwellings were built over 5 centuries ago and they are still inhabited by locals, some are daubed in mystical symbols or primitive animals further enhancing the sense of fantasy. The tiny houses, which are actually called trulli, are stuck to one another and their interior is rounded. They have no foundation and for years people have tried to understand why these flimsy structures have not been flattened in one of Italy’s many earthquakes over the period – local will tell you it’s because their ancestors made a deal with a lonely marabbecca, lost on a trip from its native Sicily that if they remained in their homes and kept him company, he would keep them from harm, much more interesting than the boring old geological theories!

And finally, for now, places like the Glenfinnan Viaduct which to most people is just a railway viaduct on the line between Fort William to Mallaig but, for those of us that know the route of the Hogwarts Express, it’s the place synonymous with the famous scene from The Chamber of Secrets where Harry and Ron, in Mr Weasley’s flying car catch up with the train. For Harry Potter fans the whole 84-mile journey is full of wow moments, the carriages are as they were when the movie was filmed, there’s even a witch walking up and down the train corridor selling chocolate frogs and other magical goodies. They told me it was now called the Jacobite Steam Train, but I know it’s a muggle cover, I know it’s still connects King’s Cross and Hogsmeade station!