Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for travel
Navigating the Zambezi
By Linda Tancs
On its journey to the Indian Ocean, Africa’s Zambezi River meanders through six countries. It forms a border at various points involving Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Flanked by two national parks (Lower Zambezi National Park on the Zambian side and Mana Pools National Park on the Zimbabwean side), it also provides a wilderness area that many tout as unparalleled, free of the tourist hordes found in many South African parks. The two parks sit on the Zambezi flood plain, a peaceful haven for buffalo, elephants, lions, leopards, antelope, crocodiles and hippos.
Share this:
One Scary Walk
By Linda Tancs
Touted as the world’s deadliest walkway, Spain’s El Caminito del Rey (The King’s Little Path) is a king-sized fright for those daring enough to walk this narrow pathway over 300 feet above a dizzying gorge. Re-opened just a few months ago since its closure in 2001 after a series of deaths, the refurbished 110-year-old walkway features new wooden planks and safety lines. Located in the village of El Chorro (northwest of Málaga), the route’s royal association came when it was inaugurated in 1921 by King Alfonso XIII.
Share this:
The Winged Rock
By Linda Tancs
Resembling the mythic Bali Hai (shark-toothed Mount Mouarua in Moorea), New Mexico’s Shiprock is likewise fanciful in its own, geologic sort of way. The landform, known as Tse Bitai (“the winged rock”) in Navajo, is a volcanic neck owing its shape to the erosion of surrounding rocks from an eruption occurring over 30 million years ago. It’s located in the Four Corners region of the Navajo Nation.
Share this:
Cornwall’s Only City
By Linda Tancs
Truro is Cornwall’s only city and the most southerly one on mainland Britain. You’ll find Cornwall’s only cathedral here, a Gothic Revival stunner with an unusually unaligned nave and chancel. What Truro is aligned with, though, is literary great Winston Graham. His Poldark novels are set in Cornwall between the 18th and 19th centuries and inspired by Truro.
Share this:
Africa’s Water Tower
By Linda Tancs
Far from just being second banana heightwise to Kilimanjaro, East Africa’s Mount Kenya provides water for about 50 percent of the country’s population and produces 70 percent of Kenya’s hydroelectric power. That’s one tall order. But lest you think it’s only a workhorse, you’ll be pleased to learn that the scenery is just as compelling. In fact, UNESCO describes it as one of the most impressive landscapes in the region, boasting glacier-clad summits, moorlands and enough diverse forest for the hard-to-spot leopard, bongo, giant forest hog and rhino to peacefully abide.
Share this:
The Great Hunger
By Linda Tancs
Phytophthora infestans, the fungus that causes potato blight, invaded parts of Ireland in August, 1845. By the following year, the blight had devastated the harvest throughout the country. Heavily dependent on the crop, the resulting famine caused widespread death and poverty as well as emigration for those who could afford to do so. The Great Hunger, as it’s called, was one of the first national disasters to elicit international fundraising. The magnitude of this event is chronicled at The Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. The museum is one of many locales memorializing this tragedy in the United States. Other memorials exist in many locations throughout Ireland and also in cities around the world with large populations descended from immigrants affected by the famine.
Share this:
Baker’s Hot Attraction
By Linda Tancs
Known as the gateway to Death Valley, Baker is a tiny desert town in California with a big boast. It’s home to the world’s tallest thermometer, measuring 134 feet. The top temperature it can display is likewise 134 degrees Fahrenheit, recorded at Death Valley in 1913. So what’s the highest temperature it has actually displayed? That would be 127 degrees, recorded in August, 1995.
Share this:
A City Between Two Castles
By Linda Tancs
The Czech city of Brno sits between two castles—Špilberk Castle on the hill in the city centre and Veveří Castle on the Svratka River. The castles play an important role in Brno’s history, having been laid siege by the Swedish army in the 1600s during the Thirty Years’ War. Despite their significant power, the Swedish forces failed to maintain their position and retreated empty-handed. The Moravian victory is celebrated each year on 15 August, Brno Day. The festivities include a re-enactment on the slopes of Špilberk, a period market fair and costumed parades.
Share this:
Chile’s Storied Island
By Linda Tancs
Out of the three islands comprising the Juan Fernández Archipelago (so named for Spanish navigator Juan Fernández), Robinson Crusoe Island has a storied past—in the literary sense. Aside from the navigator and his sojourn in the 1500s, the only other visitor to the island over the centuries was Scottish seaman Alexander Selkirk, who was abandoned there for several years in the early 1700s. His adventures are commonly believed to have inspired Daniel Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe. Sparsely populated today, it is administratively part of Chile and a mecca for scuba diving with visibility extending more than 65 feet. A World Biosphere Reserve, it also reportedly has 61 times more native plant species and 13 times more birds than the Galápagos Islands.
Share this:
First Flight in America
By Linda Tancs
In 1793, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard set off from Philadelphia in a hot air balloon, landing less than an hour later in a field in Deptford, New Jersey. Witnessed by George Washington and other dignitaries, Blanchard entered the annals of history as America’s first aeronaut. So proud is the Gloucester County community of their connection to this event that they’ve emblazoned a hot air balloon logo on their municipal signs and stationery, together with the phrase “1st Flight in America” on the township’s water tower.
Travelrific® Travel Journal 