Stay in the right place and you may find you don’t have to stray far from your accommodation to see beautiful birds. Such a spot is Mandina Lodge in Gambia, a few miles inland and a million miles away in spirit from the coastal resorts.
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I live in a busy London suburb and even though we have a nearby park which I love, it can’t really be described as peaceful. So when asked where I find peace and calm in nature, my answer has to be, that I find it most easily when I travel.
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In recent years I’ve been fortunate to celebrate my birthday in a number of different places. A memorable day in Ecuador visiting Cotopaxi, which was somewhat spoiled by an attack of altitude sickness! An even more memorable one in Ranthambore National Park in India, where a guide promised to find me a birthday tiger – and did! A day spent travelling to the Atacama in Chile, one of my dream destinations. A number of birthdays in Paris, including my 40th when my husband surprised me with a weekend visit. And a lovely birthday weekend three years ago in Lucca, Italy.
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When we travel to Africa we do so in the hope that we will see wildlife, and we have never yet been disappointed. We also accept that on occasion one of the smaller local creatures might find its way into our accommodation, a natural hazard in many parts of the world.
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What makes a place to stay special? Is it the location? The people? The building itself? Maybe in the best places it is all of these things, plus a small helping of ‘je ne sais quoi’.
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Top ten lists are somewhat invidious things. No sooner have you published one than you realise you have omitted something you should have included, or included something that on second thoughts might have been better omitted. So it is with some hesitation that I offer my top ten list of places we have stayed.
