Travel Writing « Rob McFarland

24 Hours in Miami

February 19, 2011

Miami's South Beach - photo by Rob McFarland

A contender for sexiest city in the US, Miami is a product of its location. As an American city with close ties to Central and South America, it is a melting pot for Latin-infused culture.

You’ll find Cuban, Mexican and even Brazilian influences in everything from the music to the food and fashion. The location delivers a hot, humid, tropical climate that, combined with some of the world’s best beaches, makes it a magnet for holidaymakers.

Miami is really two towns separated by Biscayne Bay. Downtown Miami is where the city goes to work; South Beach is where the city goes to play.

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Amish tour in Pennsylvania

January 23, 2011

Traditional buggy outside an Amish house - photo by Rob McFarland

Before visiting Pennsylvania, my limited knowledge of the Amish was based on a single viewing of Witness, the movie where Harrison Ford goes into hiding in an Amish community to protect a young murder witness.

I knew they dressed in quaint, old-fashioned clothes and used horse-drawn buggies to get around but I assumed they were a dwindling community numbering in the hundreds.

In fact, the number of Amish in North America is estimated to be about 250,000.

And far from dwindling, it’s one of the world’s fastest growing populations, with an average birth-rate of 6.8 children per family.

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Arctic adventure

January 9, 2011

Zodiac excursion in the Arctic - photo by Rob McFarland

An announcement comes over the public address system that there are two polar bears off the starboard bow.

It’s 7am. I stumble out of bed, bleary-eyed, and throw on some warm clothes. Up on deck, it’s a clear, crisp day and everyone is peering intently over the side, cameras and binoculars at the ready.

Suddenly, there’s a shout: “There they are!” All eyes focus on two white heads in the water a few hundred metres away. It’s a mother and her cub, clearly exhausted, desperately scanning the horizon for somewhere to rest.

The captain tells us we’re 190km from the nearest land. That’s a 60-hour swim.

We see other polar bears during our trip – lone males trundling over ice floes while sniffing the air – but I’ll never forget the heartbreaking sight of that mother and cub, struggling to survive in a rapidly changing environment.

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King of the road

December 26, 2010

RV parked by a beach in Florida - photo by Rob McFarland

As I inched our new home out of El Monte’s hire depot in Orlando, I felt that tingle of expectation that signifies the start of something special. We were about to embark on the quintessential American holiday: an RV trip.

We had two weeks to get from Florida to New York a journey that would take us through eight states and some of the country’s most historically significant towns and cities. It was both exciting and, for someone who hasn’t owned a car for 10 years, mildly terrifying.

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Venetian High Notes

November 14, 2010

Interpreti Veneziani in San Vidal Church - photo by Rob McFarland

Venice’s premier concert venue is the Teatro La Fenice, a spectacular theatre whose interior is a decadent ensemble of frescoed ceilings, plush red velvet and gilded artwork. Over its tumultuous 218-year history, it’s been the site of many famous operatic premieres as well as twice being burnt to the ground and completely rebuilt.

Unfortunately, even if you’re lucky enough to be in the city when something is playing here, tickets can be expensive and devilishly difficult to come by. It’s still worth taking a tour of the theatre but if you’d like to give your visit a musical accompaniment, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Thankfully, there are a good range of options. Tucked away among the city’s maze-like network of alleyways, bridges and canals are some delightful venues in which orchestras and opera singers perform on a regular basis. Here are some of the best:

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Safari magic at Singita Lebombo, South Africa

November 14, 2010

Pool at Singita Lebombo safari lodge - photo by Rob McFarland

Deidre in the driver’s seat turns around and whispers to me: “Did you hear that?”

I can’t hear anything apart from my heart pounding between my ears. I’m in an open-top Land Rover in an area teeming with lions and my nerves are jangling from a heady mixture of fear and excitement.

We move towards the source of the sound and, eventually, I catch it: a low, cough-like bark that I never would have imagined could have come from a lioness.

“That’s her calling her cubs.”

Minutes later, we see her – a fully grown lioness – and for the next hour follow her as she meanders through the African bush. She is completely unfazed by our presence and at one stage walks so close to the jeep that I physically recoil when she glances up and looks me in the eye.

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Italy by Rail

October 3, 2010

Grand Canal in Venice - photo by Rob McFarland

Mention rail travel in Europe and most people think of France’s TGV.

What’s less well known is that Europe’s high-speed rail network extends north into Germany and south into Spain and Italy. Taking the train is not only kinder to the environment than flying, but you also get to see some of the scenery you’re hurtling through at 300km/h.

So, on a first trip to Italy with my girlfriend, we decided to let the train take the strain. We’d take the overnight train from London to Venice via Paris and then use the train to get between Venice, Florence and Rome.

We also chose to stay in properties from the same chain, in this case boutique hotel operator Baglioni. It turns out to be an inspired decision. The hotels all have access to the same reservation system, so they can easily make arrangements and check bookings.

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Fiji’s adventure playground

August 22, 2010

Canyon walls of Fiji's Navua River - photo by Rob McFarland

It’s Good Friday and I’m being guided by Moses. Ahead of us lies 24km of tumultuous white water, dozens of spectacular waterfalls and an impenetrable canvas of lush, dense jungle.

Moses is a guide with Rivers Fiji and I’m on their Upper Navua rafting trip, an all-day adventure that follows the river as it slices through a chasm of black volcanic rock in the remote highlands of Viti Levu. At times the sheer-sided walls of the canyon narrow to just 7m wide while waterfalls tumble down through a canopy of ferns and bamboo. All around is the unmistakable background music of the jungle.

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Fiji in style

August 22, 2010

Pool at Sofitel Resort & Spa in Fiji - photo by Rob McFarland

I could get used to this. I’ve got a mojito in one hand, a plate of freshly seared tuna in the other and I’m surrounded by an idyllic vista of azure water and sandy atolls. Attentive crew wait on my every whim, there’s a frighteningly fast jetski at my disposal, not to mention three luxuriously appointed cabins should I need to take a nap. This is how the other half live.

Sadly, I’m not in that half. I’m only on board for the afternoon but for the fortunate few, the 26m MV Bel Mare catamaran can be chartered for anything from a day to a month. Custom-built in New Zealand and one of only two of its type in the world, it’s a floating haven of polished wood, blinding white fibreglass and gleaming stainless steel. If you want to see Fiji in style, this is how.

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CityCenter, Las Vegas

July 4, 2010

Aria Resort & Casino - photo by Rob McFarland

It’s 11pm and I’ve just walked into the foyer of Aria, the 4004-room hotel centrepiece of the new CityCenter development in Las Vegas. Given there are several hundred people milling around, interspersed with a dozen security guards, I automatically presume there’s been a bomb scare or a fire alarm. When I question a nearby staff member, he just smiles wryly and says, “No sir, they’re all waiting to get into the club.”

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Adventure on the Murray River

June 27, 2010

Paddling the backwaters of Lake Mulwalla - photo by Rob McFarland

It was supposed to be a hypothetical question. When I ask Jack: “What would happen if the engine failed now?” I didn’t expect him to reply: “Let’s find out.”

I wouldn’t be so worried if we were in a car or a boat. But we’re in a two-seater plane – and we’re at 760m (2500ft). Jack powers back the engine of the Piper Tomahawk and then, with a grin, tells me we’re about to attempt a dead-stick landing.

I try to hide the look of sheer terror on my face. I don’t like the sound of the word “attempt” and I’m even less enthusiastic about a landing with the word “dead” in it. But I’m in safe hands. As an instructor, Jack has flown for 34 years and has racked up more than 12,000 hours in the air. After a couple of sharp, banking turns to lose height, he glides in and touches down smoothly.

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Mile high mystery in Denver

May 23, 2010

Getting clues from the ghost of Nicholas Trainor - photo by Rob McFarland

I’ve been recruited to help solve one of Denver’s most notorious crimes. On December 18, 1922, a Federal Reserve Bank delivery truck was being loaded with money outside the Denver Mint when three men pulled up in a black Buick and jumped out, firing sawn-off shotguns. Fifty guards returned fire but the robbers still managed to get away with $US200,000. One of them, Nicholas Trainor, was killed in the gunfight but the two others were never identified.

The case remained unsolved for 12 years until the Denver police suddenly announced they’d worked out who was responsible. Conveniently, all the gang members had either since been killed or were already in prison.

No one was ever charged in relation to the crime and the case was officially closed on December 1, 1934.

Today, we’ve been instructed to be at the entrance to platform two in Denver’s impressive Union Station at 10am. Just as the clock ticks over the hour, an agitated-looking woman comes clattering down the underpass wearing a 1920s-style blue sequin dress and carrying a battered brown suitcase.

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Oman

May 23, 2010

Camel train in Wahiba Sands, Oman - photo by Rob McFarland

It’s 6am and I’ve just dragged myself out of a warm, comfortable bed and up a near-vertical 100-metre wall of sand to watch the sunrise. You’ll rarely find me awake at 6am, let alone up, but this seems an appropriately intrepid way to start a day in which I’ll be following in the footsteps of one of the 20th century’s greatest explorers, Sir Wilfred Thesiger.

The Oxford-educated Thesiger eschewed life in suburban England, spending much of his life exploring Africa and the Middle East instead. He is famous for two crossings, in the 1940s, of a vast expanse of desert known as the Empty Quarter. Notable as the world’s largest uninterrupted body of sand, this inhospitable wilderness dominates much of the Arabian Peninsula, extending from Saudi Arabia into the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Oman.

The journey I will undertake is not quite so ambitious. I will cross a much smaller desert in eastern Oman, called Wahiba Sands, which Thesiger visited in 1949. Despite the fact he did it by camel and I’ll be in an airconditioned four-wheel-drive, I can’t help but feel a certain comradeship with the explorer as I sit on the cool sand and watch the sunlight slowly flood the towering dunes. Thesiger endured unimaginable hardships on his travels and, as a tribute, I have decided to forgo my normal morning cup of tea.

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Great Barrier Island, New Zealand

May 16, 2010

View over Medlands Beach - photo by Rob McFarland

With our belongings wrapped tightly in plastic bags and lashed to three body boards, the three of us tentatively wade into the creek. Soon the water is too deep to stand so we use the boards for buoyancy and kick for the other side. Ten minutes later, we’re standing on Whangapoua Beach, a long stretch of blindingly white sand backed by grass-covered dunes. Apart from a handful of birds, there’s not another soul here.

It’s hard to believe we’re on New Zealand’s fourth-largest island in the middle of the busiest holiday of the year. But that’s the appeal of Great Barrier Island – no one seems to know about it. The term “best-kept secret” is overused in travel articles but I honestly don’t understand why more people don’t come here. It’s only a four-hour ferry ride or 30-minute flight from Auckland and awaiting you is a ruggedly beautiful wilderness.

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Blind massage in Shanghai

May 2, 2010

Lulu Massage Parlour in Shanghai - photo by Rob McFarland

It’s not a good start. After being shown to a treatment table by the receptionist at Lulu Massage, I instinctively start to strip off. I’m already down to my boxer shorts and am about to lie down when she comes running back out with a squeal and a flurry of hands. It would appear I’ve been a little overeager.

Apparently, the only items of clothing I need to remove are my shoes. I sheepishly put everything back on and quickly lie down to hide my glowing face.

During this kerfuffle my male masseur has been waiting patiently on the other side of the room. Why didn’t he say anything while I was stripping off? Because he’s blind. As are all the therapists employed at Lulu. It’s the parlour’s speciality and the reason I’m here.

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Paris by 2CV

April 18, 2010

2CV in front of the Louvre - photo by Rob McFarland

“Would it be possible to stop for a photo?” I ask, as we approach the impressive gold-tipped Luxor Obelisk in the centre of the Place de la Concorde. “Of course,” replies Marie, and promptly brings us to a halt in the middle of the roundabout.

“Here?” I gasp, as cars, trucks and motorbikes weave around us on both sides.

“It iz OK,” Marie shrugs, and calmly continues explaining the history of the monument while I stick my head out of the sunroof like a meerkat and quickly take some shots.

Driving in central Paris is not for the faint-hearted. Not only is there the small matter of being on the other side of the road, navigating the city’s chaotic web of backstreets can be a nightmare and Parisians tend to have a driving style that is best described as assertive.

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The Wilhelm Tell Express

March 14, 2010

Paddle steamer moored at Fluelen - photo by Rob McFarland

Part of me wants us to be late. After all I’m in Switzerland, home to the most frighteningly efficient public transport system in the world; a country that measures just 350 kilometres by 220 kilometres but which has 5000 kilometres of railways and 13,000 kilometres of bus routes; a nation where timetables are so well co-ordinated you never have to wait more than 10 minutes for a connection; a seemingly mythical land where if a train is more than three minutes late, it’s announced as delayed.

But we’re not. At precisely 9.12am, the Schiller paddle-steamer glides away from her dock and sets off across the still waters of Lake Lucerne. And if that wasn’t disappointing enough, the sun is shining, the water is twinkling and I’m surrounded by some of Europe’s most stunning scenery. Damn Swiss show-offs.

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Magritte Museum

February 25, 2010

'This is not a pipe' by Rene Magritte

It seems ironic to be looking around a museum devoted to an artist who believed people shouldn’t try to understand his work. As one of the founders of the surrealist movement, Rene Magritte famously said: “Insofar as my paintings are valid, they do not lend themselves to analysis.”

Not that this has dissuaded people from coming. Since opening in June last year, the Magritte Museum in Brussels has had more than 100,000 visitors and regularly sells out of its daily ticket allocation.

Before my visit I could have written what I knew about Magritte on the back of a stamp (and still had room for several other surrealist painters), so I was keen to learn more about such an influential figure.

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Cruising the Bay of Islands

February 14, 2010

Ipipiri cruising the Bay of Islands - photo by Rob McFarland

New Zealand is hardly short of picturesque holiday spots but the Bay of Islands, located three hours’ drive north of Auckland, is particularly idyllic. The natural bay provides a sheltered haven for boat lovers with dozens of islands to explore and plenty of coves and inlets in which to moor.

Looking at this tranquil picture today, it’s hard to believe it was once known as the “hell hole of the Pacific”. But if you’d visited the town of Russell in the early 1800s, you’d have found a lawless outpost famous for its drunkenness, gambling and prostitution. Sadly, I couldn’t find any evidence of this but I did stumble across a fascinating museum and several excellent cafes.

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A night in the Liwa Desert

January 24, 2010

View of Liwa Desert from Qasr Al Sarab - photo by Rob McFarland

I’m starting to think this might be an elaborate joke. Allegedly, I’m on my way to one of the most impressive new resorts in the Middle East but I’m now more than 200 kilometres from Abu Dhabi and for the past hour have been surrounded by nothing but a vast expanse of featureless desert.

Suddenly, we turn off the main highway on to a small unmarked road that snakes among towering sand dunes. I give the driver a look that has “are you sure you know where you’re going?” written all over it but he continues regardless. All I keep thinking is why on earth would anyone build a hotel out here. It’d be too hard, too complicated, too expensive. No, someone is definitely having me on.

And then I see it. A riot of towers, turrets and serrated roofs in the sandy vastness. It is enormous. It’s not a resort, it’s a city. It’s the sort of vision that should be accompanied by a fanfare of trumpets.

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Rob McFarland – Travel Writer

24 Hours in Miami

Amish tour in Pennsylvania

Arctic adventure

King of the road

Venetian High Notes

Safari magic at Singita Lebombo, South Africa

Italy by Rail

Fiji’s adventure playground

Fiji in style

CityCenter, Las Vegas

Adventure on the Murray River

Mile high mystery in Denver

Oman

Great Barrier Island, New Zealand

Blind massage in Shanghai

Paris by 2CV

The Wilhelm Tell Express

Magritte Museum

Cruising the Bay of Islands

A night in the Liwa Desert

Travel Writing

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