Category: Travels for Fun
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EXPLORING RUINS OF SYRIA
Every schoolchild has heard of the Sphinx, the Parthenon and the Coliseum but who has heard of Palmyra, Ebla, Ain Dara or even Crak de Chevalier? Syria has never gained the international recognition it deserves for its archaeological wonders and as a result has never benefited from the mighty tourist dollar which has allowed Egypt, Greece and Italy to restore their ancient cities and bring in even more tourists and recognition. Unfortunately Syria has limited funds to restore some of the world’s greatest archaeological sites and when they have attempted restoration…
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TORTUGUERO
Recollections from travels in Costa Rica – 1981-1986. Many images are scanned from duplicates (hence the poor quality) as the original Kodachromes remained in Costa Rica In the far north-east corner of Costa Rica, lies Tortuguero National Park – a park bursting with biological diversity and an important nesting area of four species of sea turgles. The park is bordered by the Caribbean on the east and consists of a maze of interconnected canals. A naturalist’s paradise. There are no roads leading into Tortuguero. You arrive either on boat by travelling…
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CHECKING OUT CORCOVADO
Upon arriving to their host country, Peace Corps Volunteers go through a very intensive three-month training course. About a month after arriving in Costa Rica, my fellow volunteers and I finally learned who we would be working for and where. Three of us were assigned to Mario Boza, of the Environmental Education program of the Costa Rican Open University (UNED). Mario visited our Peace Corps training grounds with our assignments and said he wanted ‘books, books and more books’ as he said there simply weren’t enough books about Costa Rica’s natural…
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TWO ASCENTS OF CHIRRIPO
At 3,280 metres Cerro Chirripó is Costa Rica’s highest peak, the second highest in Central America and the 37th highest in the world. The peak is the centrepiece of the 50,000 hectare Chirripó National Park which was established in 1975. I climbed Chirripó twice –alone in January 1982 and with a couple of mates in March 1983. It’s not a technical climb but does involve an ascent of 2500 metres in elevation and when carrying a full backpack can be quite exhausting. The hike alone is quite spectacular as you pass…
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BRAULIO CARRILLO
Recollections from travels in Costa Rica – 1981-1986 Just north of San José, looms Braulio Carrillo National Park, a rugged park of almost 500 square kilometres. Braulio has an elevation variation of almost 3000 metres so you’ve got seven life zones from cloud forest to lowland tropical forest. Yet despite its proximity to San José most of the park was rarely visited in the 1980s simply because it was impenetrable. A highway completed in the late 1980s changed that and now Braulio is probably the most visited park, although most people…
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SANTA ROSA
After viewing the photos I’ve presented so far you might start to visualise Costa Rica as lush and verdant with raging rivers running through every valley. While that’s certainly the case in the Talamanca mountain range, if you travel less than 300 kilometres as the crow flies to the country’s northwest, to Santa Rosa, Costa Rica’s first national park, you’ll feel more like you’re travelling in the savannahs of Africa. Costa Rica has a ridiculous amount of life zone diversity for such a small country and this – together with its…
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AL FURAT
The mighty Euphrates River – better known as Al Furat to the locals – starts as a trickle in the highlands of eastern Turkey and flows for 700 kilometres through northeastern Syria before joining the Tigris River in southern Iraq. The basins of both rivers form the cradle of civilisation – Mesopotamia. The banks of the Euphrates are rich in archaeological sites – but you’d probably need a mask and snorkel to see them as they have been inundated by the rising waters caused by dams. The Roman fortress of Halabiye…
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ALEPPO’S COPPER SOUK
You will hear Aleppo’s copper souk long before you arrive. BANG BANG BANG PING PING PING BANG BANG BANG. On a narrow street in Aleppo’s old quarters, copper craftsmen in the Souq Khan al-Nahhaseen congregate as they have for hundreds of years and pound out copper products. It is a drab and filthy area where dust, ash and grit hang in the air and after visiting it you will certainly feel the need to shower. But like all of Aleppo’s old quarters if you look beyond the dirt you will find a…
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THE BRIDGE OVER THE AFRIN
About 70 kilometres northwest of Aleppo, and just a stone’s throw from the Turkish border, a Roman bridge crosses the Afrin River. I came across it one day while a mate and I were trying to find the Greek – and later Roman – city of Cyrrhus. We came to the bridge and stopped the car and said ‘Whoa – can we drive over that?’ It looked solid enough and sure enough it was. In fact for nearly 2000 years it had stood up to continued traffic. I liked to imagine…
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