A new year begins and countless travel adventures and discoveries are already waiting for me. I always rely on a mix of old acquaintances, which I mix with new tours, trails and accommodations, and completely unknown destinations, which should consciously surprise me. Through this kind of planning, a lot of great trips have come together in the last years, which I would like to present to you in my Top 10 for the year 2020. Let’s get started!
„Whitehaven Beach is the ultimate experience. The drug everyone here in Airlie Beach is addicted to. If you only do one thing in Australia, go to this beach”. With these words Matt from Ocean Rafting lets me think things over. It’s about a trip in a rubber dinghy including snorkeling at the famous Hill Inlet of the Whitsunday Islands. Do I really have to think about it? With a broad grin I voluntarily let myself be relieved by 180 $ and I´m already looking forward to the drug for the following day. The restless trembling, the anticipation of the kick already starts now.
A castle on a hill, colorful shops and houses along the cobblestone streets, a fortress wall separating the old city from the new, situated on a river that connects the Great Lakes with the rushing Atlantic Ocean. All this could be suspected somewhere in northern France, but we are in Québec and closer to the Old World than anywhere else on the American continent. I meet Dagmar Lombard, who emigrated to Québec with her husband Guy and their four daughters from the Caribbean to take over the historic Auberge Saint-Antoine as manager.
It was time for a visit to the second largest city in the world, where French is spoken, because so far, my trips to Canada led me rather to the Rocky Mountains or the Niagara Falls. Now I went to Québec, right in the French heart of Canada and I was curious how Montréal, this mixture of European timbre and North American skyscrapers would feel.
The taxi is speeding at 100 km/h through the old town of St. Petersburg. A few night owls wander through the deserted alleys and defy the bitterly cold April night, which could not digest the last snowfall yet. „The Russians no good car driver“ says our taxi driver and speaks once more into the Google translator to deliver a halfway passable city tour at 2.30 a.m. One hand on the mobile phone, the other at the wheel, the foot a showpiece of pure lead, which chases us at breathtaking speed over the brightly lit Newskij Prospekt, as if we were followed by some kidnappers. Vladim needs about 30 minutes to drive from the airport to the DOM Boutique Hotel and leaves us behind with a friendly grin and the warmest congratulations. Triple market price! You can do it with tourists.
The ice crystals splash in wild circulation against the meter-high snow walls, while my skis plunge into the depths at breakneck speed through the narrow ice channel. The engine noise of the snowmobile is already so close that I can almost feel the breath of my followers. It won’t take much more for them to catch up with me. Just a little driving mistake, a slip, a tilting and I’m agent dust. The camera pulls up and looks at a semi-talented skier in a red signal jacket, who glides comfortably on a pull path along the glacier road and is overtaken by a snowmobile at a safe distance. Well, James Bond is always and everywhere noticeable up here, so why not me, too, who came to the Hotel Das Central in Sölden today for the personal season finale.
I´m sitting on a ranch in Utah, in the beautiful Castle Valley and let myself be spoiled by Scrambled Eggs and Bacon. The view reaches from the breakfast room of Red Cliffs Lodge directly to the Colorado River, which loses much of its lurid power in winter. Every now and then a falling snowflake sails through the picture, otherwise not much happens here in January, measured by the streams of tourists drifting through Canyonlands and Arches National Parks in summer.
How do you think the total detox to the players‘ metropolis Las Vegas looks like? Maybe like an overnight stay at the Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch near Escalante. The journey alone promises deceleration as it leads you through the loneliness of the Nevada desert, through the passionately beautiful Zion National Park, touches the Bryce Canyon and peels its way through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.
„I see you’re traveling with a larger travel group“. National’s rental car agent looks at me eagerly as if he’s expecting a delegation from the German Skiing Association. „No, not really,“ I answer with astonishment and a questioning facial expression. „Well, you booked our biggest SUV. There fit easily 8 persons in“ answers Mr. National. Okay, the eyes were probably bigger than the driver’s license, but less than 10 minutes later I steer the Star Destroyer into downtown Denver. Because before my stay in the brand new Limelight Hotel from Snowmass, the travel planning set the NHL game of the Colorado Avalanche against the New York Rangers.
A little boy standing alone at the Kalk Bay pier defying the storm. Again and again he renews the bait on his rod, pulls out in a high bow and tries to catch a fish in this windy night. The iron sea breaks against the quay wall, almost as if she wanted to pull the little boy down. But she won’t get him, that’s for sure.
My first day in St James Homestead Guesthouse couldn’t have started more promising, because before my arrival I decide for the short but exhausting hike to Lion´s Head, which is next to the Table Mountain Plateau, the second impressive elevation in Cape Town.
