April
APRIL
North Korea
Why now? April is a beautiful time in Korea, with mild temperatures and flowers blooming everywhere.
A political stalwart if nothing else, North Korea is a land where ancient myths bend to modern political reality, where the mysterious dictator Kim Jong Il is believed to control the weather, and his father, dead for a decade, remains head of state. North Korea is a place frozen in the Cold War. Visitors are escorted at all times outside their hotel by guides, mobile phones and the Internet are against the law and there are just a handful of international flights into the capital, Pyongyang, each week. These zealous measures to keep the country isolated make North Korea a magnet for those seeking a cultural adventure, and while travel here is neither easy nor cheap, the rewards for making the trip are abundant and will instantly make you the most interesting person you know. Once through all the North Korean red tape, trips here usually run like clockwork. Two guides will accompany you everywhere you go outside the hotel, controlling what you see and the spiel you hear while seeing it. Forward planning is a must - almost everything you want to see needs to be approved before your arrival, and ad hoc arrangements make the guides very nervous and thus less fun to be around. Being accompanied is non-negotiable, and if you are not prepared to be controlled throughout the duration of your stay, North Korea is not a destination you should consider. To add some adventure beyond that of simply visiting the most reclusive member of the ‘axis of evil’, plan a trip to Mt Paekdu, the highest peak in Korea and, according to official sources, the birthplace of Kim Jong Il - in fact, he was probably born in Khabarovsk, Russia, where his father was in exile at the time, but the necessity of maintaining the Kim myth supersedes such niggling facts. Visit the demilitarized zone (DMZ), rolling down a deserted six-lane highway to Panmunjeom, where you will face off against US troops across the DMZ in South Korea. Visas for North Korea will not be issued to US or South Korean citizens.
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Mountain Bike in Marin, USA
Why now? Spring provides ideal conditions.
Mountain biking is said to have had its beginnings in the 1970s in Marin County, out of San Francisco, where a group of riders would charge off Pine Mountain in races along Repack Rd. Today, it’s a pursuit of almost global reach, even gaining admission to the Olympic Games in 1996, but if you’re a sentimentalist, or just partial to a decent bit of riding, there’s still plenty of good mountain biking in ancestral Marin. The county has more than 300km of trails and fire roads - not all open to cyclists - offering hair-parting descents or off-road tours. Two of the legendary rides involve circuits of Pine Mountain (where you can pay homage to Repack Rd) and Mt Tamalpais. www.marintrails.com/biking
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Walk the 88 Temple Circuit, Japan
Why now? It’s a long walk and you want to be finished before summer fully kicks in.
Japan’s best-known pilgrimage is the 88 Temple Circuit on the island of Shikoku. Kobo Daishi, the most revered of Japan’s saints, is said to have personally selected the circuit route. Today, most pilgrims travel it by tour bus, but many still walk. Set aside two months if you want to join them over the 1500km route. Some temples are only a few hundred metres apart, but it can be more than 100km between others. Individually, none of the temples is exceptionally interesting; it’s the whole circuit that counts. The 88 temples represent the number of evil human passions defined by the Buddhist doctrine, and completing the circuit is said to rid you of these. The route begins in Tokushima and is generally walked clockwise. About half the temples have lodging facilities for pilgrims.
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Vanuatu
Why now? The land diving towers should be finished or nearly finished and ready for action.
One of the most remarkable customs you’re ever likely to see is the naghol (land diving) on the Vanuatu island of Pentecost. Every year in early April, as soon as the first yam crop emerges, the islanders in the south build tall wooden towers in the villages. A full-sized tower is vertical for 16m, then leans backwards. Each tower takes several weeks to erect. The soil in front of the tower is cleared of rocks, then loosened to reduce the chance of injury. Once completed, and until early June, men and boys dive from these rickety structures with only two springy vines to break their fall, a leap that is said to guarantee a bountiful yam harvest. Between 20 and 60 males per village will dive. As a diver raises his hands he tells the crowd his most intimate thoughts; the people below stop their singing and dancing, and stand quietly - these could be his last words. Finally the diver claps his hands, crosses his arms and leans forward. The vines abruptly stop his downward rush. Only his hair will touch the soil, to fertilise the yam crop. The crowd roars its appreciation, dancing, stomping and whistling in tribute. If it sounds vaguely familiar, it is; naghol was the inspiration for bungy jumping. South Pentecost has many land-diving sites. Two in the hills behind Bay Homo are mainly for tourists, with jumps each Saturday during the season. While you won’t be allowed to make a land dive, you don’t have to leave all the fun to the locals in Vanuatu. The country has several volcanoes, including the world’s most accessible (very) active one, Mt Yasur, on Tanna. A night visit is recommended for sound effects and fireworks displays. Walkers can enjoy Ambrym, where the Benbow and Marum volcanoes breathe smoke and ash over an unbelievably desolate landscape. Vanuatu is a snorkelling and diving paradise. In addition to countless coral reefs, there is terrific wreck diving: Espiritu Santo boasts the world’s largest diveable WWII shipwreck: the SS President Coolidge.
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Dive Blue Holes, Bahamas
Why now? Beat the summer hurricanes to the islands.
For enjoyable, enthralling diving, the Bahamas has no peer, due primarily to the unbeatable repertoire of diving adventures it offers. High on the list of wonders are its blue holes, the result of changing sea levels and chemical reactions (the limestone platforms are dissolved by the combination of fresh water and carbon dioxide). Their openings resemble large, deep-blue disks, with many blue holes leading into elaborate cavern systems. Andros Island, a mere 20-minute plane hop from Grand Bahama, has become the epitome of blue-hole diving. Consider the Big Blue Hole, which originated from a collapse of the sea wall. This magical site features an enormous cavern system endowed with huge tunnels, boulders and other massive geological structures. You’ll feel as though you’re floating in a lunar landscape. At Turtle Cove, on Long Island, you’ll find perhaps the world’s deepest blue hole leading to its eighth-largest underwater cavern. www.bahamasdiving.com
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Pantanal, Brazil
Why now? One of the area’s two dry seasons runs from April to May.
The Amazon may attract more fame and glory, but the vast Pantanal wetlands in the centre of South America are a better place to see wildlife. They contain the greatest concentration of fauna in the New World, and while the Amazon’s dense foliage hides its animals, the Pantanal’s open spaces make the wildlife visible to the most casual observer. The Pantanal is more than half the size of France - around 230,000 sq km - of which most is in Brazil (around 100,000 sq km is in Bolivia and Paraguay). It has few people and no towns. Distances are so great and ground transport so poor that people get around in small airplanes and motorboats. The only road that runs deep into the Pantanal is the Transpantaneira. This raised dirt road, sectioned by 118 small wooden bridges, was supposed to stretch to the Bolivian border but two-thirds of the intended route has been left incomplete for lack of funds and ecological concerns. April and May form one of the Pantanal’s two dry seasons, which are the best times to visit the World Heritage-listed wetlands. The area floods in the wet season from October to March, replenishing the soil’s nutrients, which would otherwise be very poor due to the excessive drainage. The waters teem with fish, and the ponds provide excellent niches for many animals and plants. Enormous flocks of wading birds gather in rookeries several square kilometres in area. Later in the dry season, the water recedes, the lagoons and marshes dry out and fresh grasses emerge on the savanna. Hawks and alligators compete for fish in the remaining ponds. Guides can be arranged in the towns of Cuiabá (in Mato Grosso), Corumbá or Campo Grande (Matto Grosso do Sul). There’s no obligation to use a guide, but a good one can enhance your Pantanal experience by spotting and identifying animal and bird species, especially rarer animals such as anteaters, anacondas, otters, iguanas and jaguars. A guide who’s familiar with the area will also know the location of nests of rare birds.
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Climb at Paklencia Park, Croatia
Why now? Spring is the best climbing season, with this week coinciding with the International Meeting of Alpinists.
Rising high above the Adriatic Sea, the stark peaks of the Velebit Massif stretch for 145km in a dramatic landscape of rock and sea. Paklenica National Park covers 37 sq km of the range, circling around two deep gorges, Velika Paklenica (Great Paklenica) and Mala Paklenica (Small Paklenica), which scar the mountain range like hatchet marks, with cliffs over 400m high. This karst landscape makes for one of Europe’s premier climbing venues, offering a tremendous variety of routes from beginners’ level to borderline suicidal. The firm, occasionally sharp limestone offers graded climbs, including 72 short sports routes and 250 longer routes. You’ll see the beginners’ routes at the beginning of the park near Marasovici, with cliffs reaching about 40m, but the best and most advanced climbing is on Anica Kuk, which offers more than 100 routes up to a height of 350m. Nearly all routes are well equipped with spits and pitons, except for the appropriately named Psycho Killer route. The most popular climbs here are Mosoraški (350m), Velebitaški (350m) and Klin (300m). The best base for exploring the park is Starigrad, the site of the national park office and the town with the most restaurants and accommodation options. It’s also near the entrance to Velika Paklenica, which offers the most varied climbs of the two gorges. Come this week and you’ll experience the added excitement of a big-wall speed climbing competition run in conjunction with the International Meeting of Alpinists, held at Paklenica. www.paklenica.hr
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Stromboli, Italy
Why now? Summers can be as hot as the lava, so come in comfortable spring.
In prim, proper and polite Western Europe, the Italian island of Stromboli is like the boy who sits belching at the back of the school room. The only European volcano with permanent eruptive activity, Stromboli is part of a chain of seven volcanic islands - the Aeolian Islands - off the north coast of Sicily. Recent eruptions have closed Stromboli’s cratered summit to trekkers, but it’s still possible to climb 400m to a point beside the remarkable Sciara del Fuoco - a lava trail cannibalising the island - to watch the volcano spit boulders into the Mediterranean Sea. In the evening, hook up with a local fisherman and take to the sea to watch the volcano’s natural fireworks display and, if lucky, lava seeping down the Sciara del Fuoco.
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