Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a very, merry festive season.
I spent Christmas on the M25, stuck in a three-hour tailback that stretched from the A1 to Leatherhead. New Year's Eve wasn't much better. That was spent on a similarly gridlocked stretch of the A303, just before Stonehenge.
It reminded me of my family's annual trek north after Christmas when I was a kid. Then I'd spend Boxing Day on the F1 freeway heading north out of Sydney. The big difference was that there was a six-week beach holiday waiting at the end of it, not an overcooked turkey, the EastEnders Christmas special and an evening of watching the in-laws doing crosswords.
Judging by the activity on just back from, myWanderlusters are starting to drift back from more enjoyable festive adventures. Julia69 has returned from Tromso with tips on seeing the Northern Lights using public transport – take the 425 to Ersfjordbotn and cross the school yard to find a dark spot. Last bus back at 11.15 pm.
Mik welcomed the New Year in Krakow and is already making plans to go back there to see in 2013. Friendly locals, cheap food and a great party atmosphere. I might have to check it out myself.
Further afield, Glen Rooney has just returned from an adventure in West Africa, including a three-day voyage on a cargo boat on Lake Volta in Ghana. The boat delivers food and water to the villages that dot the lake, a great snapshot of daily life there. Glen suggests taking a mat – the metal floor gets uncomfortable after the first couple of hours. He also popped up to Timbuktu. It's not the isolated, forgotten gem it's often painted as but he still managed to watch the sun set over the desert as he shared a cuppa with Tuareg nomads.
Trainboy is back from Cambodia and Laos with tales of a twisted ankle and a pair of Khmer crutches that cost $220. He recommends visiting the COPE centre in Vientiane, set up to help victims of landmines, and taking care on the stone steps in Angkor Wat when it's dark.
Satkinson spent a week in Austin, Texas, visiting the Cathedral of Junk and basically enjoying the comfortable Texan winter. Her advice? Tuck into the TexMex food and hire a car. You need one to get anywhere!
The forum has, understandably, been quiet over the break. But Liz Cleere is doing her best to shake it out of its slumber by posing two thought-provoking posts. In the first, she asks whether you've been somewhere everyone else loathed, but you loved (yes, Nairobi). And in the second, she ponders whether travel broadens the mind. My personal feeling is that travel can't help but change the way you see the world. But maybe, with some people, it may simply confirm long-held prejudices. You can join the debate here.
Elsewhere Satkinson asks whether anyone is going anywhere in January and gets a number of resounding yeses. Hideo is obviously a 'hair-of-the-dog' kind of guy when it comes to recovering from festive excesses. He's off to Munich for lager and bratwurst! Howellsey wants the skinny on seeing the Northern Lights in Iceland and Laurra wants some tips on planning her big Gap Year adventure. I would point her towards our interview with Gap Yah Plannah Orlando, but I suspect myWanderlusters will offer much more useful advice here.
Over at experiences, Glen Rooney and Liz Cleere are duking it out for top honours this week. Liz's piece on the Kites of Kolkata is up to her usual high standards. But Glen has come out swinging with a story about a kinky breakdown in West Africa that starts with a knockout opening paragraph. It's too close to pick, so I'll let you guys decide.
Finally, the photography galleries are hotting up too, as myWanderlusters return from their journeys and post their holiday snaps. Trainboy's shots of hot air balloons over the Mekong are sublime. Runaway has put up some hair-raising photos of Buddhist monks messing about with tigers in Kanchanaburi (I particularly like the one of the monk praying over a tiger). Scott Bennett visited British Colombia and came back with a swag of superb bear photos, including a candid shot of the elusive Spirit Bear. Pam Graeme captured the colour and excitement of Argentina. And Julia69 proudly shows off her photo of the Northern Lights – school bike shed not shown.
Looks like 2012 is going to be another stellar year on myWanderlust.
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