Category: Secret Places

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Every Pilgrimage is unique

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Travel writer Oliver Smith takes us to sacred travel made across time, from murmurs  of ritual journeys in the depth of Ice Age to new pilgrimages of the 21st century finding sanctity in remote peninsulas and holy islands. He embarks on an epic adventure across sacred British landscapes – climbing into remote sea caves, sleeping inside Neolithic tombs, scaling forgotten holy mountains and once marooning himself at sea, following holy roads to churches, cathedrals and standing stones, this evocative and enlightening travelogue explores places prehistoric, pagan and Christian, but also reveals how football stadiums and music festivals have become contemporary … Continue reading Every Pilgrimage is unique

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Baby Hippo endangered species

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Hippos are world’s most endangered animals. Illegal and unregulated trophy hunting for hippo skin, meat and especially ivory-bearing teeth is emerging as main factor for hippos the ancient species to the brink of extinction, if this is not controlled urgently. Hippos need our help. Hippo placing has intensified within some of Uganda’s national parks, As bans on elephant ivory are being tightened poachers are killing hippos for their teeth. The world’s biggest population of hippies has crashed by 95 per cent. Hippos which can grow to almost two tons, are found in the lakes and rivers of 38 African countries. Continue reading Baby Hippo endangered species

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Secret Places: Lungs of the Metropolis

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Hampstead Heath is one of the places where hunting was forbidden as early as 1543, to preserve game for then king, Henry VIII. But in late 1800s the Heath offered Londoners shelter from the noise and dirt of London and eventually was granted a protected status. Hampstead Heath popular with swimmers, nature lovers, nudists and authors like CS Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is said to have been inspired by a snowy walk on the heath, describing as the “lungs of the metropolis”. Overlooking West Heath is the Hampstead Pergola and Hill Garden, a private garden of … Continue reading Secret Places: Lungs of the Metropolis

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Lisbon: Secret places

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Lisbon, the capital of a rickety global empire, the first global city, home to the first start-ups in European exploration before the big shots  – England, Spain and France – moved in. John Masefield’s poem “cargoes”. A ship “dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores”, another with cargo of ivory, apes, peacocks, sandalwood, cedarwood and sweet white wine, when colonialism was in its infancy. In the Age of Discovery,  we remember these cargoes with layers of gold, shipped from the slave mines, come with side orders of agate, amethyst and yellow jade, were more likely to be slaves than … Continue reading Lisbon: Secret places