Upper Loch Torridon. Photograph by Joseph Bowman The Scottish Highlands - located in northern Scotland between the North Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east - are noted for cool, cloudy, rainy maritime weather; endless, grassy moorlands; brooks of clean, cold water; fresh air, beautiful lochs an

High up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there stands a rock. It is a hundred miles high and a hundred miles wide. Once every thousand years a little bird comes to this rock to sharpen its beak. When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day of eternity will have gone by. From, "The Story of Mankind," by Hendrick Van Loon, published by Boni & Liveright, Inc., 1921. Page 1. The Crusader Castle at Simena was constructed by the Knights of Rhodes, probably i

A view of Grand Canyon's north rim from Skeleton Point. Photographer: Joseph Bowman Grand Canyon, located in northwestern Arizona, is over a mile deep, 18 miles wide in places, and 277 miles long. The Colorado River snakes and crashes through the bottom of the Canyon, flowing from northeast to southwest, eventually emptying into the Gulf of California. In her review of Kevin Fedarko’s book, “A Walk In The Park,” outdoor adventure writer Blair Braverman described the Canyon

Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro stands 19,341 feet above sea level at its highest point, Uhuru Peak, which sits atop Kibo, the highest of the three volcanic peaks that form Kilimanjaro. The mountain is located only three degrees south of the Equator, but is nevertheless capped with snow and glaciers, and is battered by high winds and ice storms even during the austral summer from January to March. No one is exactly sure what "Kilimanjaro" means. People say the name has its roo

Lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, and the various animals they eat are a fascinating mix of action and beauty, like Serena Williams or...

Over two-thousand years ago, the Roman Empire colonized the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea and dubbed its new province "Dalmatia." ...

The ugly, February weather, pandemic, economic lockdown, even our house that we love, were getting to be a bore. Why not go someplace...

In June 1996, my husband and I took our two sons, then 8 and 10, on a family vacation to Turkey. We accepted the generous offer of my...

In late January 2020, my wife and I embarked on a five-day cruise aboard the Ventus Australis (https://www.australis.com/en/why-australis...

In early February, 2020, I had an opportunity to visit Santiago, Chile. My wife and I had just completed a tour of Patagonia, the southernmost region of South America, and were making our way home by way of the Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport, less than ten miles from downtown Santiago. We decided to spend two nights in the city and booked a room at the Luciano K Hotel. The Luciano K is a "boutique hotel" centrally located across the street from a tree shaded pa

Chiloe Island, home to a handful of rural villages, nature parks, penguins, and weekend cabanas where Santiagans can get away from...

Lombardy has everything that’s good about Switzerland, but at about a third the cost. Best of all, Lombardy is in Italy. I was drawn...

Our bicycle trip started in Lido di Jesolo, a beach town just north of Venice, Italy, and ended 1,423 miles later in Olympia, Greece. We...

Our boat, the Malouka, tied up overnight at Gebel el-Silsileh, the narrowest point of the Nile. I was the first passenger to venture outside but the crew was up, preparing breakfast and getting the boat ready for another day. My wife and I and our friends, Frank and Marcia, were sailing south - up the river - from Luxor to Aswan on a dahabeya, a type of shallow draft sailboat that has plied the Nile for thousands of years. As I made my way to the top deck, a crewman poked