From the Editor: The best from myWanderlust this week

This week our editor has his shovel out. And he's not afraid to use it

5 mins

When I was a young boy growing up on the outskirts of Sydney it often fell upon me to deal with the snakes that ventured into our front yard. If Dad wasn't home from work it would be up to me to get the shovel from the shed and dispatch the hissing pest bailed up by our dog.

I'd try and chop it just behind the head. It was less messy that way and it minimised the chances of the snake swinging around and giving me a bit of a nip. I got pretty handy with that shovel and soon I was dealing with all the snakes, even when my Dad was home.

I mention this in passing because it seems I had a metaphorical shovel out this week defending my choice of Photo of the Week (a terrific photo, by the way. You can check it out here). Well guys, the shovel is still out of the shed. And I'm not afraid to use it.

Having said that, over on the forum this week it's all about building bridges. In particular, who has built the best one. Alan Taylor posed the question and nominated the first Severn Bridge and the old bridge at Mostar. Liz Cleere provocatively thought of the entrance gateway to the Blackwall Tunnel. Treacleminer suggested the living root bridges of Meghalaya in India. And Fintown Trekker reminisced about the rickety wooden bridges he crossed in the swamplands of southern Venezuela. All very nice suggestions, but when it comes to the best bridge in the world, I have but three words to say: Sydney. Harbour. Bridge. It's criminal that no-one else has nominated it.

Speaking of crime, Austinmini started a thread about close encounters of the criminal/dangerous kind. Bilbo Baggins reminded us to be careful in Windhoek. Mattyboy876 got robbed in Goa but found the real criminals were the company he got his traveller's cheques from. And ttbko's partner got propositioned by a gay prostitute. Thankfully, the underlying theme of the thread seems to be the kindness of strangers when bad things happen.

Sloswan is looking for a travelling companion for her trip to South East Asia next year. Annabel fi Balloch wants to know the ins and outs of hiring a car in Thailand. And mattyboy876 is looking for good places to spend Christmas that aren't too far away. Denhamj is looking to travel independently and overland between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Hideo wants to read a good travel book set in the Caribbean. And our very own Sarah Baxter is researching our upcoming Unique Honeymoons issue and wants your stories. You can help them all out here.

Over at experiences, Liz Cleere has posted a story about her arrival at Jalpaiguri where she was greeted by a banner celebrating “2,600 years of the enlightenment of Lord Buddha” and ended up at Joey's Pub. That's my kind of spiritual journey. And DavidRoss discovers the night towns and white towns of Andalucia, surprising havens only 20 miles from Torremolinos (am I showing my age by admitting that every time I see the name Torremolinos I think of the Monty Python Travel Agents sketch where Eric Idle complains about sitting next to a party of people from Ryhl singing 'Torremolinos! Torremolinos!'?).

Just back from and our commander-in-chief Lyn Hughes has posted her thoughts on Wadi Rum and Petra, moments after returning from taking a group of aspiring writers and photographers on assignment there. Her advice? Don't rush Petra. Take the time to stop and smell the siq.

Closer to home louiseheal popped over to the Forest of Dean and shot a couple of memory card's worth of photos of Tintern Abbey. She also spent half a day at the International Centre for Birds of Prey and heartily recommends getting hands-on with the owls, kestrels and falcons. Andy Morris suggests avoiding the vegetarian cafe in Brixham (very Fawlty Towers), Angela R loved Bath Abbey, and satkinson says the Resistance Museum in Amsterdam is a must-see. Mattyboy876 is just showing off by reminding us that he just got back from Ladakh, Kashmir, Amritsar and Haridwar/Rishikesh. Having said that, he's right about visiting the Golden Temple in Amritsar...

Finally, to photography (he says, reaching for his shovel). Mattyboy876 is showing off again with pictures from his trip to India. AngelaR proves that you don't have to go to Africa to get a great shot of a lion. And Bilbo Baggins riffs on Alan Taylor's forum post by sharing photos of her favourite bridges. I'm loving Rhoda1's images from Indonesia, a vastly underrated destination in my opinion.

And SMJM's golden image from Africa is very evocative.

If I was pushed, I'd probably say it was my favourite pic of the week.

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