Less than 24 hours to go before the big myWanderlust meetup at Destinations and a mood of anticipation has settled over the Towers. Names and avatars will be put to faces. Cyber personalities matched with offline ones. Online legends will be made flesh.
One such legend is Fintown Trekker. He has popped across the Muir Éireann to grace us with his presence. He is such a commanding presence online I was surprised to read in our meetup Forum post that he is experience butterflies in his stomach at the prospect too.
Speaking of inspirational figures, Liz Cleere posted on the Forum, asking who had influenced myWanderlusters most in their travels and it seems the answer for most of you is dear old dad. Liz reckons her father made travel a normal way of life, 'like Sunday lunch and tears before bed time.' Kavey agreed. So did AngelaR and satkinson. For Howellsey it was reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Who did it for you? Make sure you tell us.
A new month has begun – where did January go, by the way? – and the inevitable 'Where are you going this month?' post has appeared, courtesy of satkinson. She's off to Chamonix and Paris. And Destinations tomorrow. I always approach this Forum post with trepidation, especially when it looks like I'll be chained to my desk for the entire 29 days. Ocelus was toying with Tangiers but is heading to Granada instead. Bilbo Baggins is off to California. Mooseontheloose is going to Cambodia and Natalya24 is heading to Jordan. Fintown Trekker is off on a personal tour of Greenwich with DrG. Where are you going?
Elsewhere on the Forum, a number of myWanderlusters have posted requests for advice. Scheungy wants discount parking at Stanstead. Emmaroe1983 needs advice on getting from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City. Liz Cleere won a couple of tickets to Jordan and needs advice on how best to use them. JustinC is looking for travelling companions to Khartoum. Sudan just won Top Emerging Destination in the 2012 Wanderlust Travel Awards so I'm sure he'll get plenty of takers.
Just Back From and oddmolly had a terrific time in Dominica. She says it's a real eco-travel gem that gets considerably less visitors than other islands in the Caribbean. JayR spent 8 days of walking in Andalucia, based in Canillas de Albaida, a hilltop village on the edge of the Sierra Tejeda Natural Park. Her advice? Go easy on the Rioja and stay away from the bodegas at lunchtime otherwise your afternoon trek will be more of a stagger.
Travellergrounded spent most of her week in Alvor, Portugal at a sardine restaurant in the little village port. She suggests getting there at four, just after the catch of the day has been unloaded from the boats. She wasn't too impressed by Portimao and recommends beaches nearer to Alvor instead.
Nick Ledger has just returned from lands further afield. He stayed with a nomad family in the heart of the Orkhon Valley in Mongolia. And popped down to Harbin for the ice festival. Avoid the taxi drivers in Harbin, take good cold weather gear and keep a flask of vodka at hand to help warm your extremities. Oh, and make sure you check out the photo gallery of his pics from the trip. Stunning!
There's been a lot of activity on Experiences this week. ColinO takes us from Los Angeles to San Francisco along the Big Sur. Big breakfasts, whale sightings, miserable weather. There's something for everyone. Sergeant Pluck goes psychedelic, jumping on the jungle juice in Peru. Hmoat 01 gets lost in a small corner of Germany. And jodiekinsx takes a helicopter ride over Manhattan.
Hideo gets hot, hot, hot over Montserrat. Denhamj gets caught up in a confusion of canyons in San Diego. And Goccia visits the islands of Fiji and discovers the world's last Eden. Make sure you check out Liz Cleere's love letter to Udaipur, the bronze medal winner in the Top City gong in the 2012 Wanderlust Travel Awards.
The Galleries, as usual, are awash with terrific images that are guaranteed to have you scanning airfares, looking for the next flight out of town. Jodiekinsx has posted some suitably big images from her big trip around the States. Stehutch has a collection of wildlife from Costa Rica. And closer to home, hmoat 01 has put up some pics of a very chilly Peak District.
As I mentioned above, Nick Ledger's shots of the family he stayed with in Mongolia are legendary.
See you all tomorrow at Desties.
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