My Travel CV: Tales and tips from travel writer an...
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IF BORDERS LIFTED WHERE WOULD YOU GO?
I’d have to choose between the Serengeti in Tanzania, the Okavango Delta in Botswana or Svalbard in Arctic Norway.
HOW MANY COUNTRIES HAVE YOU BEEN TO?
74. I’ve been to half the countries in Africa (27) and Europe (23), most of them in the Middle East (13), two in the Americas (US and Brazil) and the remainder are from Pakistan to New Zealand.
MY FAVOURITE PLACE IN AUSTRALIA IS …
The outback. I love the remote stretch of land in western Queensland that takes in Winton, Boulia and Windorah, and up to the Gulf Country. I feel at home in the Red Centre. Silence, big horizons, self-reliant people – my sort of country.
THE PLACE I’D LOVE TO VISIT IN AUSTRALIA IS …
Cape York, the Kimberley or anywhere I can drive down a sandy track and see more wildlife than other vehicles.
THE UPSIDE TO NOT BEING ABLE TO TRAVEL HAS BEEN …
I’m away for four to five months of any year. Being home has been a chance to reset and slow down. If I hadn’t been in lockdown, I would have travelled to the UK, Norway, Croatia, and possibly Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana before the end of this year. I’ll never take travelling for granted again.
Anthony Ham's latest book <i>The Last Lions of Africa </i>weaves together natural history, ancient lore and science to tell the story of the world’s lion populations. Picture: Anthony Ham
THE THING ABOUT TRAVEL I’VE MISSED DURING LOCKDOWN IS …
I’d like to say I miss the plane food, but I’d be lying. I miss the silence of camping out in the wilds of Africa. I miss wondering if a lion or a polar bear (depending where I am) might appear at any moment. And there are, of course, some things you can never get back. I’m writing a book about the Amazon in Brazil, and a good friend of mine who is at the heart of the story just died of cancer – we never got to make one last trip together.
THE PLACE I’VE VISITED MOST OFTEN IS …
Spain. The first time I visited, I loved it so much I decided to move there. A year later, I bought a one-way ticket to Madrid without knowing a soul in the city or speaking a word of Spanish. I ended up living there for 10 years, married a local, and my two kids were born there. Madrid is now as much home for me as is Australia.
THE PLACE THAT MOST SURPRISED ME WAS …
The USA. I was blown away the first time I visited. It’s an extraordinarily wild and beautiful place (I was in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho) and the people were consistently some of the nicest people I’ve met on my travels. It’s also big and brash and it’s like the whole world fighting to be heard, but in one country. Otherwise, the nicest people I’ve met have been in Iran and Syria.
Anthony’s USA travels include a trip to Grand Teton mountain, Wyoming.
MY HOLIDAYS ARE MOSTLY DEVOTED TO …
I’m usually travelling for work, but my favourite places are the same, whatever the reason – wilderness, wildlife and wild places.
THE WORST THING THAT’S HAPPENED TO ME TRAVELLING …
I’ve been arrested in Iran, held up at knifepoint in Cameroon, narrowly avoided an armed ambush in the Amazon. I once broke down in the Sahara, and I was nearly eaten by a lion in Botswana.
THE WEIRDEST THING I’VE EATEN WHILE TRAVELLING WAS …
Rat. On my first trip to West Africa, in 2000, I stayed at a hotel in Abidjan owned by the heavyweight boxing champion of Ivory Coast, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Mike Tyson. We went for a meal and it was only later I realised we had eaten rat stew. I was violently ill for a week.
Anthony’s favourite part of Australia is the outback.
THE BEST HOTEL I’VE STAYED IN …
I’ve stayed in some extraordinary tented safari camps and lodges across East and southern Africa as part of my work. It’s a difficult choice, but it has to be Oil Donyo Lodge in Kenya, within sight of Mount Kilimanjaro.
TRAVEL HAS TAUGHT ME …
To be very grateful. We travel because we can. Many people in the world don’t have that luxury – they either spend their lives living where they’re born without the means to travel for pleasure, or they’re forced to flee their homes because of war, persecution or natural disaster. They’re as much travellers as we are, only theirs is a far more courageous act of leaving home.
THE ADVICE I’D GIVE TO YOUNG TRAVELLERS IS …
Slow down – there’s no hurry. And talk to the locals.
My Travel CV is a weekly Q&A with celebrities, experts, and avid travellers, sharing their stories, memories, anecdotes, and advice.