Italy: Cinque Terre – 2021

The Cinque Terre are famous for their amazing natural landscape and colourful fishing villages perched on dramatic cliffs. UNESCO added the Cinque Terre to its list of World Heritage Sites because of their cultural landscape of great scenic and cultural value. The five towns that make up the Cinque Terre - Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso - began life as medieval fortified settlements, each protected by a castle overlooking the sea guarding against Saracen raiders. You can walk the entire route in about six hours, if you take short breaks—although many hikers prefer to spread the route out over a few days at a strolling pace, stopping to enjoy the towns along the way. You can start from either direction (Monterosso, heading south, or Riomaggiore, heading north).

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Italy: Rome – 2021

1. Cinque Terre is a string of centuries-old seaside villages on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline. In each of the 5 towns, colorful houses and vineyards cling to steep terraces, harbours are filled with fishing boats and trattorias turn out seafood specialties along with the Liguria region’s famous sauce, pesto. The Sentiero Azzurro cliffside hiking trail links the villages and offers sweeping sea vistas. 2. Pisa is a city in Italy's Tuscany region best known for its iconic Leaning Tower. Already tilting when it was completed in 1372, the 56m white-marble cylinder is the bell tower of the Romanesque, striped-marble cathedral that rises next to it in the Piazza dei Miracoli. 3. Florence, capital of Italy’s Tuscany region, is home to many masterpieces of Renaissance art and architecture. One of its most iconic sights is the Duomo, a cathedral with a terracotta-tiled dome engineered by Brunelleschi and a bell tower by Giotto. The Galleria dell'Accademia displays Michelangelo’s “David” sculpture. The Uffizi Gallery exhibits Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” and da Vinci’s “Annunciation.” 4. Rome, the “Eternal City,” brims with ancient history, from the Colosseum to the port of Ostia Antica to majestic Vatican City and the Sistine Chapel. History, art, architecture, and beauty plus gelato and pasta! 5. The Amalfi Coast is famous for its picturesque seaside towns, cliffs, and beaches. It's known for its stunning coastline and colorful villages with steep and narrow streets. Many towns along the Amalfi Coast have a rich historical legacy with important sights of historical and artistic value.

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Namibia: 2021 – Etosha Pan: Onkoshi to Okonjima

Okonjima - from the Herero word meaning place of the baboons, lies nestled in the unspoilt beauty of the Omboroko Mountains, part of the well-known Waterberg Plateau, halfway between Windhoek and Etosha. Okonjima offers a variety of different accommodation facilities and is also home to the AfriCat Foundation, a non-profit organisation committed to the long-term conservation of Namibia’s large carnivores and other endangered species.

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Namibia: 2021 – Etosha Pan – Namutoni to Onkoshi

Onkoshi Camp is on the rim of the Etosha Pan on a secluded peninsula. Onkoshi is a low impact, environmentally friendly establishment. Since the lodge offers only 15 units with 30 beds, it guarantees a genuinely personal and exclusive experience. Significantly, the location is entirely out of view of current tourist routes and all other developments in the area.

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Namibia: 2021 – Etosha Pan – Olifantsrus – Okaukuejo

Okaukuejo is the administrative center for the Etosha National Park in Namibia. The rest camp was formerly a military outpost founded in 1901. Okaukuejo is home to one of the most popular waterholes in the Etosha National Park. It is instrumental in the dry seasons when the animals have no natural water elsewhere in the region. A highlight is observing the endangered black rhino who gather after dark.

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Namibia: 2021 – Epupa Falls to Etosha Pan – Olifantsrus

The Etosha pan ("Land of Dry Water") is a large endorheic salt pan, forming part of the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin in the north of Namibia. It is a hollow in the ground in which water may collect or in which a deposit of salt remains after water has evaporated. At 130 km's long and up to 50km's wide in places, it is comfortably the largest salt pan in Africa and is the park's most distinctive and dramatic feature, visible even from space. The large mammals in Etosha National Park include lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, giraffe, wildebeest, cheetah, hyena, mountain and plains zebra, springbok, kudu, gemsbok and eland. Among the smaller species you will find jackal, bat-eared fox, warthog, honey badger and ground squirrel. Olifantsrus is Etosha’s newest camp and the first accommodation option in the park to offer a camping only experience, allowing you to feel that little bit closer to the incredible African bush all around you. Situated in the wilder, more remote and previously less-utilised western section of the park, Olifantsrus is approximately 60kms from Galton Gate, 130kms from Okaukuejo and 50kms from Dolomite Camp. Rare and shy species such as black rhino and black-faced impala are well-established in this quieter part of the park.

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Namibia: 2021 – Epupa Falls & Himba Tribe

The Himba are a semi-nomadic tribe whose existence centres on herding and breeding sheep, cattle and goats. The women are known for covering their bodies with otjize, a mixture of butter fat and ochre which gives their skin and plaited hair a reddish tinge. Traditionally both men and women go topless and wear skirts or loincloths made of animal skins.

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