Rough Guides - Make the Most of Your Time on Earth 4 (Rough Guide Inspirational)

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This fourth edition published 2019 by Apa Publications Ltd

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2019 Apa Digital (CH) AG
License edition Apa Publications Ltd UK

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all the information in
Make the Most of Your Time on Earth, however, they can accept no responsibility
for any loss, injury, or inconvenience sustained by any traveller as a result of information or advice contained in the guide.

Credits and acknowledgements

Editor: Joanna Reeves

Assistant editors: Tom Fleming, Siobhan Warwicker, Aimee White
Commissioning editors: Rebecca Hallett, Georgia Stephens

Managing editor: Rachel Lawrence
Picture editor and cover photo research: Aude Vauconsant
Cartography: Katie Bennett
Proofreaders: Jan McCann, Stewart Wild
Head of DTP and Pre-Press: Dan May

Thanks to all our writers and photographers, credited at the back of
the book, for their great ideas, fine writing and beautiful pictures.

Contents

What makes the ultimate travel experience? Is it something as simple as stumbling across that perfect undiscovered restaurant where you can feast on traditional food among locals? Or is it that dream adventure that takes you outside your comfort zone and pushes you to new limits? We asked our Rough Guide writers to share their most inspirational experiences to inspire yours. Wildly different, the accounts all had one thing in common: authenticity. Each and every one pushed travel a bit further, either through opening a path to new territories, forging fresh routes across established ones or offering a new way of looking at the world.

It might be the all-encompassing awe of discovering an ancient city like Volubilis or defying gravity at Chinas Hanging Temple, or the sheer exhilaration of paragliding against a dramatic Matterhorn backdrop. It could be humbling wildlife encounters, from hippo-spotting in the Bijags Islands to glimpsing jaguars in the Paraguayan Pantanal, or it might be appreciating natural wonders in all their diverse glory: Pamukkales shallow staircase of thermal pools, the towering giants of Sequoia National Park, the churning waters of Devils Pool in Zambia.

A shift to conscious travel sees people make better-informed decisions, not only booking trips that are unique but those that benefit local people and places too. Travellers are heading off the beaten track in an attempt to prevent popular places being loved to death, whether that be wild camping in the Oman desert, going off-grid in northern Saskatchewan or exploring unchartered fjords in wild East Greenland.

Thats not to say travel always has to be pushing yourself to extremes you can have a life-changing experience from something as wonderfully unassuming as clawing for clams on le de Noirmoutier or getting lost in the golden streets of Valletta.

Some experiences in this book are easy to undertake, others require planning and expertise. Some are rare events that happen once every few years; many are daily occurrences. Every single one, though, is a personal recommendation. For this fourth edition, weve added more than one hundred and fifty new experiences from around the globe. We hope that they truly inspire you to make the most of your time on Earth.

Joanna Reeves, Editor

Which is the real Britain and Ireland? The tradition-rich home of Welsh choirs, Oxford colleges and Georgian spa towns? The open expanses of green Connemara hills, vast Norfolk beaches and rearing Scottish highlands? Or the culture-packed buzz of its fast-paced cities? The answer, happily, is all of them. Layered with centuries of history, peppered with iconic attractions and well stocked with regional delicacies, Britain and Ireland juggle old and new to thrilling and sometimes eccentric effect, whether youre staying in an off-grid treehouse in Wales, walking in Hockneys landscapes on the Yorkshire Wolds Way, admiring street art in Manchester and London or cycling the North Coast 500 in Scotland.

| In celebration of the oyster

ENGLAND Ive always loved Whitstable, the arty fishing town on Kents northern coast, with its shingle shore, its beach huts, its huge skies and its workaday bustle and its oysters, which have been harvested in these estuarine waters since Roman times. So here I am, the archetypal Down From Londoner as locals call us, come to celebrate these ancient, sea-salty delicacies at Whitstables annual Oyster Festival.

Heralding a week of ceilidhs and crabbing competitions, tug-o-wars and dog shows, the festival starts with the stately Landing of the Oysters, when fishermen carry baskets of freshly caught creatures from sea to shore to present them for blessing. Having witnessed this peculiarly moving scene, I follow the carnival parade of giant sea beasts and excited schoolkids through town before ducking off to the harbour. In the cool of the fish market I discover enormous prawns, silvery sardines and tiny tiger-striped clams shifting on their icy beds and, of course, the celebrated oysters, heaped on wooden carts. Natives being out of season, these are Rock oysters, their gnarled, algae-tinged shells as dark, cold and heavy as tombstones.

Nearby, at the seafront, serious-faced shuckers deftly gouge open shells and flip the meat, mermaid tattoos writhing on their arms as they prepare plates for the feeding frenzy. This is not refined food. Silt smears the cold marble slabs while grit-flecked brine swooshes out of primeval-looking shells. The oysters themselves are colossal, their flesh gleaming and smooth, laced with delicate black frills. I grab a plate, plus a lemon quarter, and tip them back, savouring that surprising hit, mineral and creamy, a slurp of the ocean.

Next I head to the Old Neptune, Whitstables pub on the beach, for a pint of oyster stout. Dark and cold, with a salty caramel bite, its the perfect drink for today. Just yards away, silvery waves klonk hard against the shingle, churning up speckled shells before retreating with a shimmery whisper. Even without its Oyster Festival, Whitstable has a lot to celebrate.