What a wonderful world we live in! And how lucky I am to have seen so much of it - not just once but again and again, through the pages of my diaries.
Come with me as I struggle once more to the foot of Mount Everest:
"I am so dizzy I can hardly stand, my head throbs, my legs are weak, my lungs tight. Others pass me by, but I can go no faster. Should I give up? But ahead lies Everest, the culmination of all these weeks of walking."
Walk with me beneath the golden arcades of Syria's Palmyra, sadly now sacrificed to war. Scramble to the summit of Ayers Rock and discover tiny shrimps, miraculously brought to life by rain after years of waiting in the dust. Negotiate the steep ramps of China's Great Wall in the footsteps of ancient armies, ever watchful for sudden attack.
Giggle at the mating dance of Blue-foot Boobies in the Galapagos.
Thrill to the howl of wolves in Canadian forests:
"I am roused by the distant song of wolves, rising and falling in concert. The sound ceases, then recommences nearer to our campsite, ceases again, then at 3am swells to full volume - rising and falling in rhythms as complex as any opera chorus.
Sleep in a Thai headman's stilt home, a cool vaulted cavern in Cappadocia or a tent on an Omani beach, with scuttling ghost crabs as neighbours.
Come and join me in my travels!
