Travel Stories from Around the World
Twenty-three residents answered the call to share their favorite travel story with their fellow residents via the Carol Woods News. Six of the seven continents were covered — Australia is missing. Maybe next time.
Since Asia is the biggest continent, it shouldn’t be surprising that we had the most stories from there. The entries were in countries bordering the Pacific Ocean, to the Mediterranean Sea, to the land border with Europe and several points in between. Europe followed with six stories including two canal trips. Regardless of the continent, bicycle trips were a favorite way to travel.
We had over 20 submissions and are able to include 13 in the April issue. All the stories are entertaining, informative, and sometimes scary — even the ones that exceeded the 200-word limit. Therefore, we are going to have a travel column in the next several issues so we can include them all.
Note: There is no continental theme in this issue — we simply bounce from continent to continent. Enjoy! – Sindy Barker
A World of Penguins
My bucket-list trip to Antarctica was a dream that finally came true in late 2019. On December 26 we flew from hot Santiago to Punta Arenas, Chile to begin our journey. We sailed on the MS Roald Amundsen, one of the first hybrid-electric ships, through the Chilean Patagonian fjords, passing a stunning series of glaciers, some clearly losing their ice. It almost goes without saying that the scenery to follow would be spectacular, including blue-toned icebergs, ice floes, icy channels, and craggy mountains. Once we survived the rough Drake Passage, we reached the Antarctic Peninsula and made several expeditions ashore. At each stop, we rode Zodiacs to shore. We clambered into and onto the unpredictable: cold knee-high water, ice, snow, or big rocks. We were greeted by Gentoo penguins or a lounging fur seal, along with skuas or cormorants or stray Adelie penguins. We saw long-gone research stations, now penguin rookeries. We walked a black lava beach with yellow lichen bravely coming up on the edge of an active volcano’s caldera. A stop in the Falklands en route back to Chile added Magellanic and rock hopper penguins as well as an albatross nursery to our bird list. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was on the tip of our tongues. We traversed the Strait of Magellan to Punta Arenas, and flew home on January 13, 2020, just weeks before the pandemic cancelled everything. – Harriet Solomon
Bhutan
I have been on two birding trips to Bhutan, the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon, a Buddhist country high in the eastern Himalayas. Our small bus crept slowly up and down the mountains, going over passes higher than 11,000 feet above sea level and down to the Indian plain at 700 feet. We saw more than 300 species of birds, including some of the rarest on Earth. We woke up every morning to the singing of whistling thrushes and were taunted by the raucous calls of laughing thrushes. There were yaks at high elevations, barking deer in the valleys, and Malayan giant squirrels and golden langur monkeys (pictured) in the forests. There were also mammals whose names I had never heard before (goral, takin, serow, sambar). And imagine rhododendrons the size of trees and lavender orchids growing out of road banks. Bhutanese houses are homes for people (second floor) and for livestock (first floor). The architecture is distinctive—rectangular, with ornate wood carvings around doors and windows. There are festoons of prayer flags everywhere and prayer wheels powered by fastrunning streams. Bhutan is one of the truly enchanting places on this Earth. – Norm Budnitz
South Africa
Through a connection with the NC Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, Neal and I had the opportunity to join a group of 10 people on a trip to South Africa to see the unique birds in the areas around Cape Town and Durban. We visited landscapes where the charming African penguins clambered over the rocks and beach. Groot Constantia and the Strandfontein Sewage Works gave us a grand display of waterfowl and aerial feeders. As a turtle enthusiast, I was thrilled to see the Angulate Tortoise in the Westcoast National Park along with an assortment of spectacular birds. At Lamberts Bay we viewed the most accessible gannet colony in the world. We were invited to go into the bush with Gail, an Afrikaner who ran a farm where the button bird makes its home. Traveling over bumpy dusty roads, we arrived at a crèche (nursery school) where, after the children had enjoyed the special snacks provided by Gail, the schoolteacher clapped her hands and smiled. All the children immediately sat down and began to sing for us. It was a lovely and poignant impromptu concert. We saw an awe-inspiring variety of birds on this trip, but the image of the children and the sweet sound of their singing has remained foremost in my heart, making this trip one of my most memorable. – Nancy Cheek
Travels to Patagonia
We just came back from a 23-day trip to South America. The first part of the trip was a “cruise pre-extension” to Patagonia, where we went to Torres del Paine National Park in Chile and Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina (near El Calafate). The balance of the trip was a 17-day Viking Ocean cruise from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso, with a very memorable stop in the Falkland Islands. The goal of our trip was largely birding, since Viking offered birding-focused excursions at several of the stops. We added 113 species to our life lists, with Andean Condors, Flightless Steamer Ducks, three types of penguins (King, Gentoo, and Magellanic) topping the list of most coveted. In the Falklands we had a very exposed 3.5-mile hike (there are no trees because of the constant winds) where the highly variable weather included temperature around 40 F, 40+MPH winds, snow, hail, sleet, and rain. We congratulated ourselves for successful layering (3 layers of wool, rain pants, a down sweater, and a dense windbreaker, wool hat and gloves).– Holly and Ross McKinney
A Most Memorable Trip
The Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, Austria is owned by an American entity, The Salzburg Seminar, where my husband had been a professor. We accepted the invitation for past participants and their families to attend a Salzburg Winter Festival in 2007.The Schloss itself is an ornate palace with secret passages, a chapel where the Bishop's heart is buried, and a spectacular two-story dining hall where a team of chefs provided fabulous food. The Schloss was the site of the terrace and lake scenes in The Sound of Music. While there, our family party of 16 (ages 8–80) enjoyed nightly pre-dinner concerts, daily lectures, special children's programs — including gingerbread house building — and nightly family dancing. Christmas in Salzburg was extra special with music everywhere. While visiting the holiday street market, we were entertained by groups of choristers performing outside various churches. On Christmas Eve, we attended midnight mass in the cathedral and were thrilled to hear "Silent Night" sung a cappella from the back of the church. On Christmas morning we hiked up to the walls around the city and were awed by the continuous peal of church bells. Excursions were planned for us to the ski slopes and the salt mines beneath the city. The highlight was a horse-drawn sleigh ride up the snowy Alps, culminating in a Farmhouse lunch. The whole week was like living in a fairy tale — one our children and grandchildren will never forget. – Mary Howes
Around the World
In August 2006 I was hired by the Smithsonian and the National Geographic Society to give lectures about Russia on the Trans-Siberian Express, a chartered train, from Vladivostok to Moscow, with a side trip to Outer Mongolia. Pat accompanied me as we flew from RDU to LA to Seoul, South Korea, to Vladivostok, then rode through Siberia, saw millions of birch trees, and ate wonderful food for just over two weeks. We stopped at major cities like Khabarovsk (on the Chinese border), Ulan Ude, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Ekaterinburg, and Kazan, but also at Lake Baikal, and at several villages where Lenin, Stalin and other exiles were sent by the tsarist, Soviet, and current regimes. We had a huge feast with Old Believers, descendants of those who fled to Siberia in the 17th century and who retained many of the customs an earlier autocratic regime had tried to erase. Of course, we also stopped at the dividing line between Europe and Asia in the Ural Mountains so Pat and I could stand on two continents at once. From Moscow we flew to Stockholm, then Paris, and back to RDU—around the world in far less than 80 days. The photo of us on our train was taken as we were about to ride the engine through tunnels around Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world, even as we traversed the world’s longest rail line. – Pat and Will Brooks
Mongolia 2025
Last summer I traveled solo for a month in Mongolia. I wanted to see vast grasslands, ride and get a taste of the horse culture of the steppe, sleep in yurts, drink fermented mare’s milk, and at least glimpse the world’s only truly wild horse species. I spent the first two weeks visiting six different nomadic families, each for two-three nights, staying in a guest yurt and watching, learning, eating and hanging out with my friendly Mongolian hosts. One of my favorite homestays was with a yak-herding family settled in a vast, green valley with soft hills on either side, and a river in the middle. This family has five kids, including irresistibly photogenic four-year-old twin girls, and 30 yaks. I enjoyed the incredible versatility of yak milk; it is drunk, and made into cheese, yogurt, and dried curds. They also distill yak vodka . . . yes, I tried it. Then I volunteered for a week in a national park, observing wild horses and recording their activities. I loved the hours of walking across the hills following a stallion with his mares and their foals, noting their behaviors on my clipboard. Sometimes I couldn’t keep up with them and just sat on the ground and enjoyed the wide, treeless vista, so different from North Carolina! Mongolia was absolutely as stunning and fascinating as I’d hoped it would be, and I loved nearly every minute of my time there. – Peggy Schaeffer
Barge-for-four in France — No Crew!
A most memorable trip was on a barge-for-four (no crew!) that we took with Debbie’s sister and her husband on the Petite Saone River in France. We found a one-week tour with only (!) nine locks between Port-sur-Saone and Auxonne and set out in May of 1992. Fortunately, the outside of the barge was covered with old truck and car tires so that as we navigated the locks and bumped into the walls, nothing bad happened. As spectacular as the countryside and food and people were, the locks may have been our most important stops, because it was there that we bought wine from the lock operators (at about $1.00 a bottle). Since we drank about one bottle per person per day (before dinner), no further explanation of either our enjoyment or of our navigability should be necessary. The boat, though a bit, uh, austere, had two “staterooms,” two baths with showers, four bicycles, and an ample deck for relaxing. Our otherwise perfect vacation was marred only by a fall Debbie’s sister took during a short walk, which resulted in a bloody lip that led to a visit with a wonderful physician in the tiny village of Audet. It was just another experience to cherish. – Arthur Finn
A Trip of a Lifetime
In the summer of 2023, the Rosemond family of seven cruised the Canal du Midi in Southern France, on a small barge owned and operated by the captain. It was complete and comfortable with bicycles and hot tub, our own French chef, a hostess, and interesting and funny stories told by the captain. Each day there was an "outing," cruising through the locks, to an area attraction. Some of these included trips to the open markets where we could select our lunch food and have it cooked and eaten right there. Another highlight took us to the famous medieval fortress, Carcassonne, for a day tour and dinner. We drove "Citroens" (old French cars) with the tops down, through the forest and mountain roads, and welcomed a visit to one of the world’s largest caves, which offered huge relief from the 102-degree heat wave that day! Bike rides along the paths close to the barge were a daily event before our wine, cheese, and wonderful French cuisine were served. We all agreed it was a trip of a lifetime, filled with the joys of family togetherness and the experience of an adventure. – Sally Rosemond
A Little Wilderness Is Good for the Soul
My partner Cathy and I needed a manageable adventure — say, a canoe trip with wilderness camping — but safe enough for just the two of us to do alone. What about Utah’s Green River through Canyonlands National Park? There are no designated campsites and no cellphone signal deep in the canyons. But the water is calm in spring before mountain snowmelt, and low water exposes good sandbars for camping. We stepped into our canoe on Cathy’s 73rd birthday, April 9, 2024, at Mineral Bottom and started our 57-mile six-night journey. The end would be just past the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers at Spanish Bottom, where a jetboat would pick us up for the run back to Moab. A couple of other canoes launched when we did that first morning, but we were soon all alone on the river with the cloudless sky and endless rock: buttes, spires, sheer sandstone cliffs. Yes, we were a little nervous. But once we found our first good sandbar and made camp, we relaxed into the trip: easy paddling, perfect weather, and beauty all around us. With map and compass we checked our position regularly to make sure we’d get to our pickup point on time (with snow and wind forecast to move in right after). Reader, we made it, with style. Two prouder old paddlers you never saw! – Cathy Packer and Ginger Travis
An Extraordinary Traveling Companion
In 1996, my husband, Bob, and I went to an Elderhostel focused on the geology of Southern Utah, and stayed an extra week to explore on our own. We spent our first night in a small motel across the road from an area that looked like a good place to hike. A brief exploration after dinner revealed it was much larger than anticipated and contained remnants of cave dwellings and rock carvings. On our return to the motel we noticed animals fenced in behind it. The manager explained that they were llamas that he rented out to people who used them to carry their supplies when they camped in the area. The next thing I knew, we were having an hour’s instruction on llama behavior, and how to pack one (the weight has to be distributed equally) and had met Louie Louie, who would be “our” llama for 24–36 hours. The next morning, we hiked into what would be part of the Bears Ears National Monument, established by President Obama. We slept under a star-studded sky in a silence so profound that each of us woke up several times in the night to confirm that Louie Louie was still with us. – Nancy Martin
Family Trip to Egypt
What a treat! We were invited to join our daughter Anne, son-in-law Doug, and grandchildren Emma and Beatrice for a nine-day trip to Egypt. The first night we stayed in an Airbnb located on the Giza plateau. From our balcony we could see in the distance the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx! This was the beginning of an amazing adventure to visit many, many pyramids, temples and museums. In Cairo we stayed in the heart of the city in an apartment that overlooked the cluttered rooftops and nightlife in the streets below. We visited the Egyptian Museum, Kan al-Khali bazaar, Ibn Tulum mosque, and unusual sites such as ”Garbage City” and the Cave church of Zabbaleen. Next was a flight to Luxor, where we began our cruise on the Nile. As we cruised we viewed farmers, boaters, and beautiful banks covered with plants and trees. We left the ship each day to visit incredible sites—Karnak, Luxor, Valley of the Kings, Kom Ombo. After a visit to Aswan Dam we traveled through the desert by car to Abu Simbel and then back to Cairo for our flight to Abu Dhabi, where Anne’s family lived. – Shirley Geissinger
Adventure in Zambia
During a Road Scholar program, October 2014, I was able to choose an afternoon off from regular activities and do an elephant ride. What I assumed would be a short ride similar to a circus ring turned out to be nearly two hours wandering through branches of the Zambezi River! One driver and two guests rode on each of four elephants. One of the other riders took this photo of me and my elephant-riding partner. We were belted in and had a footrest to brace against, but the two of us, facing in opposite directions, locked elbows to help keep us from sliding off our elephant, the tallest of the four. I took no pictures, knowing a camera was beyond my control. Just looking around, gawking, and being overwhelmingly happy took all of my brain and heart power. You can see the depth of some of the water we had been in by the color of our elephant’s skin. When we returned to the compound, the guides lined up and sat our elephants on the ground, and each of us had time to sit on the front legs of our elephant and feed her (or him) some treats. An elephant’s trunk tip is pliable beyond description. – Mary LeMay