Category: Ports of Call
Nature, Travel, and Being Canadian
(This is the text from my presentation to the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Nature Talks series, which I delivered in Calgary on November 7, 2018 on behalf of Toque and Canoe. Text and images by Don Enright.) I’d like to thank the Nature Conservancy of Canada for inviting me to speak on behalf of Toque and…
The Louvre Abu Dhabi: A Review
I found myself in Abu Dhabi, UAE in January— the starting point of a contract I was doing. The place is fascinating, in all kinds of ways. I can’t give the city itself a sterling recommendation—there are more interesting places you could support with your tourist dollars, frankly. Maybe some places that don’t still do…
The West Coast Trail: An Adventure
In July of this year I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hike the West Coast Trail in style, with Irie Adventure Tours. I went as a correspondent for Toque and Canoe, Canada’s award-winning travel blog, and it was everything I’d hoped. Read on: Don Enright’s West Coast Trail Adventure
I’m on Miss 604: The Harlequin Ducks of Stanley Park
I had an opportunity this week to submit an article to Miss604.com, on behalf of Stanley Park Ecology Society. It’s always a pleasure to volunteer for SPES, and it’s exciting to appear on Rebecca’s (Miss604) blog; she has a huge following. I hope you enjoy it. Here’s the link: http://www.miss604.com/2016/11/the-harlequin-ducks-of-stanley-park.html
2015: A Year In Photographs
2015 was a cornucopia of photographic opportunities. I visited places I never thought I’d see (Myanmar, Mumbai) and revisited places I’ll never tire of photographing (Stanley Park.) I hope you enjoy a sampling of my favourite shots of 2015. Happy new year, everyone.
Sri Lanka: Nature In The City
When I see on my itinerary that I’ll be visiting a destination for one short day, I start to feel a bit of pressure to make the most of it. This week, I was to visit Colombo, Sri Lanka for my first time—my only taste of this storied island nation. What to do, what to…
Mumbai: Just Go!
The city of Mumbai, India has a bit of a public relations problem. Tell anyone you’re going to the former Bombay and their eyes widen. “Are you sure? Are you ready?” they ask, as if you were about to venture into the rainforests of Borneo unprepared. Mumbai has a certain reputation, and it’s not entirely…
Discovering Kochi
Welcome to Kochi, jewel of southern India and my gateway to this strange and sultry nation. Everything is a bit different when you’re traveling by yourself, and I’m currently going solo. My partner Tom went home a little early when it was looking like our visas had fallen through and we wouldn’t be able to…
Morning in Mangalore
It was 6:00 am and the temperature was 29C—and climbing—as we pulled into the smallish coastal city of Mangalore, India. I had been reading up on the city, planning my visit, and all indications were that this was a not-too-touristy working town, known for its spicy seafood and not much else. It sounded perfect to…
Singapore: Orchid Heaven
Singapore’s National Botanic Garden: An Orgy of Orchids I’m smitten with orchids. I’m not really sure why; I suspect it’s simply their exotic beauty, though my friend Dave insists that their sensual curves and lips appeal to the repressed heterosexual in me. Whatever the cause, I caught orchid fever about fifteen or twenty years ago,…
Lush, Lovely Langkawi
Backroads, sloughs and mudflats make for one happy naturalist. This week, I left the bustling, chaotic cities of Asia behind, and wandered through sloughs, alleys, back roads, mud flats and farms on the lush green island of Langkawi, Malaysia. It was a most welcome change. I’m finding the rich cityscapes of Asia absolutely fascinating, and just…
The Cheeky Monkeys of Bali
Behind that adorable exterior lie some potentially nasty surprises. This week, I left beautiful Australia behind and began my journey to southeast Asia. Our first port of call in the exotic East was Bali, and it was everything I imagined it might be. What a creative, expressive people the Balinese are. On every street corner is…
A Night In The Rainforest
Last night, I slept in a treehouse in the middle of the rainforest. It was pretty incredible. We were docked in Cairns, Australia and we had a rare night on shore. Having already explored the city and its environs a bit, we decided to head further afield. We rented a car and booked a place…
Cairns: Strange Birds in a Strange Land
Continents are like people, I suppose. Leave them alone for long enough and they start to go a little crazy. Witness Australia: this remarkable land, once part of a vast supercontinent called Gondwana, has been left to drift on its own for millions of years… and what a strange diversity of life has arisen on…
On the Trail of the Platypus: Burnie, Tasmania
Beautiful Burnie, Tasmania was an absolute smorgasbord of wildlife, and one that we weren’t really counting on. We had pulled into this small city without having made any plans, except for exploring. We walked along the shoreline enjoying the cool breezes for a while, then did what we always do when needing inspiration: found a coffee…
Three Beautiful Boobies
Traveling by cruise ship is one of the best ways on earth to see some pretty cool wildlife. There’s a whole range of animals that you can only see at sea, and pelagic birds, in particular, are a real treat. Pelagic just means ocean-going; there’s a variety of birds that are practically never seen from…
Kissed by the Goanna Gods
A visit to Airlie Beach, Australia. I didn’t have high hopes for a visit to Airlie Beach, Australia. I wasn’t expecting to hate it; by all reports, this town on the Queensland coast was a beautiful spot. But most of the guidebooks describe it as a party town, a “drinking village with a sailing problem.”…
Isle of Pines
…as close to perfection as I have seen in a very long time It’s early morning on the cruise ship. We’ve had two days at sea from Sydney, and people are starting to climb the walls. Our destination: Île des pins, part of New Caledonia, a small tropical territory that happens to have the highest biodiversity…
Into the Mallee: South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula
Starting From Scratch In a Wondrous New Land Long ago, when I used to write educational theatre programs, we often placed a stock character in our plays that we called the wide-eyed learner. This was a naive newcomer who acted as foil to the more experienced types in the show: a wise local bird, say,…
Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden
We went for the trees, we stayed for the birds. Arriving in Sydney, Australia by cruise ship is unforgettable. The journey takes you between the rugged cliffs of the outer harbour (“The Heads”) and into beautiful Sydney Harbour where you sidle up alongside the exquisite Sydney Opera House, to dock right at the Circular Quays…
The Parrotfish of Mystery Island
Parrotfish: Not just another pretty face on the reef. We’re visiting beautiful Mystery Island, in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. It’s a tiny spit of land just adjacent to the bigger island of Aneityum. The Aneityum people say that Mystery Island is inhabited by spirits, and nobody is allowed to live here, though it’s ok…
The Lemon-Yellow Fiddlers of Fiji
The cutest fiddle section this side of the international date line When you think of Fiji, you don’t think of fiddlers. Drummers, perhaps. But the last thing I was expecting to see as I wandered around the town of Lautoka, on the Fijian island of Viti Levu, was a tiny yellow fiddle section, all playing…
The Boundless Beauty of Bora Bora
Bora Bora, in French Polynesia, is impossibly beautiful. It is Fantasy Island come to life; it is every tropical postcard you’ve ever seen, but in three dimensions. Craggy, jungle-covered volcanic slopes jut dramatically out of the South Pacific, surrounded by azure lagoons filled with the clearest waters I’ve ever seen. A halo of coral reefs…
Dublin: Unpretentious and Magical
Dublin, the capital of the Irish Republic, is not a big city. I don’t know why I thought it would be, but it has about four hundred thousand people. Dublin, in fact, was nothing like I expected. It isn’t grand; it isn’t fabulous; it isn’t stately nor venerable nor regal. Dublin, I have to say,…
Prague: Still Hip, Still Beautiful
… just not the way you expect it. Once upon a time, Prague was the hippest travel destination on the planet. It was the early 1990s, and the Eastern Bloc was reawakening. Kafka’s gorgeous city was coming to life, and any would-be Bohemian worth his salt was making his way there to be part of it.…
Busy in Berlin
I have just spent a luxurious eight days in Berlin, in a bright and modern little apartment on Grosse Hamburgerstrasse. Not long ago, I wrote of my first trip to this remarkable town. It was 1988, the year before the wall came down, and I was thunderstruck by both the raw creative power of West Berlin,…
On The Trail of the Enrights
My family name, Enright, is Irish. And this week I have been exploring the spectacular countryside of the Emerald Isle, in search of deceased ancestors and spectacular photo opportunities, not necessarily in that order. (We also spent several days in the wonderful city of Dublin, which I will attempt to chronicle in a future story.) The…
Shetland: How do you get a pony on a cruise ship?
It must be hard to be a citizen of Shetland. I’m not talking about the isolation, the harsh North Atlantic storms, the long dark winter. It must be infuriating to have your whole cultural identity associated with adorable ponies and wee sheep dogs, particularly when you have a long, proud and very interesting history to present to the…
Losing My Travel Mojo In London
In retrospect, I was setting myself up for a bit of a letdown. I first visited London when I was fresh out of school. At that time, I was only planning to spend a few days there, and then hop on a bus to take a drunken camping tour to Morocco. As it happened, the…
Welcome to Tórshavn and The Faroe Islands
Tórshavn and the Could-I-Live-Here Index Every so often I find myself in a place I never dreamt I’d visit. These unpremeditated travels are among the most interesting in my life: it’s one thing to travel to a storied place like Berlin with high expectations; it’s quite another to wash up on the shores of the…