It's all about pilgrimages on myWanderlust this week. Travelling with a purpose. Following a particular path. Or delving into the past.
ROBJH kicked it all off on the forum, asking if anyone had ever wanted to visit something/somewhere so badly, it almost could be considered a pilgrimage. He'd just been to Geneva to visit the grave of Argentinian writer, Jorge Luis Borges. Jorge is his favourite writer, and he went specifically to pay homage at his resting place. Most other myWanderlusters, it seems, are drawn to buildings.
Hmoat01 picked up on the theme and asked if travelling with a purpose helps you get closer to the locals. She's off to Sri Lanka courtesy of the British Council, and if her other experiences are anything to go by, she'll get under the skin of the place. As to be expected, others have pitched in with their ideas for getting to know the locals.
Hmoat01 also coined a new phrase that I'm sure will become a myWanderlust staple: Getting up close and personal 'in the Tanya sense.' She is referring to Steve48's brilliant recollection of a time when he was young, bearded and polyestered and lusted after by beautiful blonde Russians called Tanya. Like all Steve's tales from his journey through the old USSR, this experience makes a great read, with an added frisson of 'Did she or didn't she?' thrown in for good measure. Read it now.
Actually, there's a lot of good stuff on Experiences this week. Markymark983 regales us with part one of his 84-mile pub crawl through the Peak District, nratty reports from pony-back in Lesotho and Nick78 recalls his adventures on the Blue Nile. Don't forget to check out the sinister goings on in Burma with Khaoyaiandbeyond and Keithruffles' encounter with Soviet ghosts in Estonia. Oh, and ROBJH gets hammered in Ho Chi Minh City – at the hands of a blind masseuse.
Ocelus is just back from the Falkland Islands and Ascension Island and has lots of advice and tips for these little-visited destinations. And Kathryn tells you how to visit Iceland and see the Northern Lights two nights out of four.
Over at Photography, a couple of old faces are back, and back with style. Jamie Furlong is on land again, taunting us with pictures of beaches with ridiculously blue water in Uligamu. And Peterj2002 posts another set of images of wildlife in Northern Pantanal.
My favourite set of pictures this week, however, was posted by nratty. Each image in 'A glimpse of the human kingdom … so far' is excellent and makes me want to head back to Africa.
So, if things are a bit quiet here next week, you know why.
