Wilderness Experience

Major Treks

Ethnic Encounters

A special highlight of an Explore Worldwide adventure is the opportunity it offers to meet ethnic or tribal peoples. These could be the ‘Blue Men’ or Tuareg of the Central Sahara, the Maya of Mexico, or the colourful Huli of Papua New Guinea. Some, like the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, are nomadic wanderers. Others, like the pygmies of the Ituri Forest, are hunter-gatherers; or dry rice farmers like the friendly hilltribe peoples of Northern Thailand. Many are often part of an ‘Old World’ culture. Their societies are often under serious threat from unscrupulous exploiters. We travel in small groups only. Our aim is to help spread tolerance and understanding between different races and peoples, with the minimum of cultural and environmental disturbance.

Easy/Moderate Hiking

Many trips include a few days’ easy walking through open countryside, based on tented or hotel accommodation; also village-to-village hiking which involves some trail walking with the prospect of overnighting along the way in private houses or basic village huts. You’ll find such trips in Spain’s Sierra Nevada, in Provence, Tuscany, Crete, Corsica, Greece, Morocco, Turkey, Bulgaria, Thailand, Bhutan, Nepal, Venezuela, and many other Explore Worldwide destinations. On long distance walks involving more than one day, all your main luggage is transported by a separate vehicle, or carried by porters or pack animals. You simply bring a daypack for your personal gear.

A limited number of major treks are offered for strong mountain walkers. These sometimes involve walking at elevations over 10,000 feet, with substantial altitude gains and losses during a single day. We may lodge with the local people or rough-camp in the world’s great mountain ranges like the Atlas, Kackar, Himalayas and Andes. Or we use a mixture of well- appointed camp-sites and alpine chalets in more sophisticated mountain areas such as the Alps. Such trips usually involve support vehicles, porterage or pack animals. We rarely backpack or carry heavy gear.

Discovering one of the world’s remote wilderness areas is a thrilling and memorable experience — perhaps the ultimate travel adventure. Such places have a strong fascination for the intrepid traveller, holding out the prospect of exotic new horizons. We explore the haunting beauty of the Amazon Rainforest and experience the powerful mystique of the Sahara, Great Thar, Namib and Gobi Deserts. They offer a chance to participate in an adventure few people could ever dream of.

Sailtreks/Seatreks

These are among the most original and relaxing holidays in our brochure. We charter local boats and journey by traditional felucca sailboat through Upper Egypt; we utilise gulets (wooden motor yachts) in Turkey and island-to-island ferries in countries like Greece and Thailand. Our 2-masted schooner explores the islands of the Indonesian Archipelago, while a small motor yacht is chartered to cruise among the unique wildlife habitats of the Galapagos.

Raft & River Journeys

River journeys can last from a few hours to several days, and range from 2-person inflatables which participants paddle themselves (on the Dordogne River, for example) to all the fun, thrills and excitement of whitewater rafting navigated by skilled oarsmen (such as on Peru’s beautiful Urubamba River or the wild Trisuli River in Nepal). No previous experience is necessary and the appropriate safety skills are quickly learned. Our river trips in India, Africa and the Amazon offer us a unique insight into the fertile margins and exotic jungles.

Дата добавления: 2014-11-16