Niche travel has many special interests covered — food, wine, literature. I rarely see astronomy and science mixed in with those groups. This isn’t terribly surprising as these are highly specialized interests, and space people typically spend more time inside of offices than they do on the road. I am a traveler, and I also work in America’s human […]
I hadn’t heard such a silence as far back as I could remember, so thunderous that the pressure of it weighed upon my ears with the same tonnage as I imagine a scuba diver must feel diving at the bottom of a deep dark sea. It hurt my head. Three of us sat alone in […]
As a child, I favored field trips to lesson plans. As a high school graduate, instead of heading off to a dorm room, I put it all in a bag and moved to a city where I could explore anonymously. I worked hard through my twenties as a digital nomad and beyond that function, traveled […]
Sometimes, you accidentally hire a guide who turns out to be the best guide that you could possibly hire — the one with the inside scoop. He or she knows exactly where on the back roads to take you, and whom to take you to, as well. We hired that guide at midnight the night before our outing […]
One day on safari is better than 10 birthdays anywhere else. Imagine, instead of waking to an alarm clock being greeted by a ‘safari massage’ — the rumbling of bumpy roads untamed, even by the best ATV shock-absorbers. Imagine that instead of splashing cold water on your face in your own bathroom, your face being cleansed by […]
There was good reason that the 2013 Adventure Travel World Summit was held in Namibia this year — it is a prime off-beat destination for desert adventure travel and sport. But this African jewel is emerging as a progressive leader in many other areas as well, under larger umbrellas, balancing tourism opportunities, conservation efforts and community development. I loved […]
I fell asleep and missed my overnight flight to America… Off to the airport hotel I went for eight hours of sleep and eight hours to kill the next day before my flight. Not wanting to make the mistake twice, I dialed the eight hours to kill back to three to allow myself plenty of […]
Just as travelers have limits on how much they can bring onto planes on Earth, there is a weight limit imposed on what can travel with astronauts into space. Most large airlines allow 50 lbs., while smaller in-country flights might accommodate just 10 lbs. To travel to the International Space Station, you get only 3.5 […]
We passed through the Serengeti plains into the Maasai camps of northern Tanzania to meet Ole Durup — an elder with four wives, hoards of kids, and one very active cell phone. Always working, Durup brings money into the camps giving families currency to buy goats and cattle for milk (but not for meat)—stock that is vital […]
World on a Fork 