My travels

Dreams of Faraway Places
When I was a child, I dreamed of faraway places with names that seemed almost magical to me — Bulawayo, Kathmandu, Machu Picchu, Hong Kong, Sarawak, and many others. They represented a world far beyond the one I knew. Looking back, those dreams were probably partly a form of escapism, but above all they awakened my curiosity about what lay beyond my familiar surroundings.

I grew up in a modest working-class family. Although I can now trace my family history back to around 1550, there was neither wealth nor fame in our background. My father worked throughout his life as a metalworker in a factory, and making ends meet was often a concern. I was their only child, and my parents had one great ambition for me: they wanted to give me the education and opportunities they themselves had never had. Their dream was that I would go to college and university and would not have to earn my living through hard manual labour as my father had done. They made considerable sacrifices to give me that opportunity. Fortunately, I was able to fulfil their dream and eventually became a doctor — something that would have seemed almost unimaginable in the world into which I was born.

But there was another side to those years. The constant pressure to study and succeed, combined with the rather closed social environment in which I grew up, could sometimes feel restrictive. Books became my escape route. I read about distant countries, history, exploration, time travel and science fiction. They opened doors to worlds far beyond Dordrecht and showed me that life could be much larger than the world immediately around me. Those books and dreams touched something deep inside me. They expanded my imagination, fed my curiosity and gave me a longing to discover the world for myself. Yet as a shy boy, I found it difficult to express myself and to move easily among other people. It took me many years to leave some of those inhibitions behind and find the confidence to follow my own path.

And somewhere along the way, something wonderful happened:
the names in the books became real places.

I travelled to Bulawayo. I stood in Kathmandu and Machu Picchu. I explored Hong Kong and Sarawak — and many other places that had once existed only in my childhood imagination. What had begun as a boy dreaming about a distant world gradually became part of my own life.

Perhaps that is why travelling has always meant more to me than simply visiting another country.
It is about curiosity, discovery and the freedom to go beyond the boundaries of the world you already know.

In the end, I was fortunate enough to make many of those childhood dreams come true.

Travelling the World
Together with my wife Hélène, I have been fortunate enough to travel through many parts of the world. We explored much of Europe, travelled regularly to California in the United States, visited the Middle East — including Egypt, Israel and Jordan — and journeyed through Asia to India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Sarawak, the hidden treasure of Borneo. Mauritius and many islands and coastlines around the world also became part of our travels.

In the mid-1990s we fell in love with Africa. One of our first great African journeys took us to Zimbabwe, where we made a canoe safari on the Upper Zambezi, close to the Zambian border. Canoeing there was an unforgettable experience. Above Victoria Falls, the river has a beauty and character entirely of its own, with picturesque islands, narrow channels, abundant wildlife and the occasional white-water rapid. In 1998 we made an extensive journey through Namibia, a country whose immense landscapes, brilliant light and almost limitless sense of space made a lasting impression on us. Starting in Windhoek, we travelled south to Fish River Canyon and then through the Namib Desert, along the Skeleton Coast and northwards to the Kunene River on the Angolan border, before continuing towards the Caprivi Strip. We also spent several memorable days in the remote Khaudum Game Reserve, close to the Botswana border. It was wild Africa in the truest sense. We encountered antelope, kudu, eland, lions and large numbers of elephants — but the greatest reward was seeing a pack of African wild dogs, one of the continent’s most remarkable and elusive predators.

In May 2000, our travels took us to Peru. From Lima we travelled south along the Pacific coast to Paracas, Nazca and Arequipa, before continuing to Puno on Lake Titicaca. From there we travelled by train to Cusco and, inevitably, to one of those places I had dreamed about since childhood: Machu Picchu. But Peru had another world waiting for us. We travelled to the rainforest on the southeastern slopes of the Andes and continued by boat upriver to Posada Amazonas. There, deep in the Amazon rainforest, we visited the famous clay licks and watched colourful flocks of macaws gather above the forest — one of those sights that stays with you forever.

In September 2002 we made another major journey, this time through China. We began in Shanghai and continued to Beijing and Chengde, travelled long distances by train across the country and flew to Xi’an to see the extraordinary Terracotta Army. From there we travelled south to Guilin and eventually Hong Kong. Two years later, in June 2004, we explored Vietnam, beginning in Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta and gradually travelling north through Dalat, Nha Trang, Da Nang and Hoi An, eventually reaching Haiphong and Hanoi. Travelling overland gave us the opportunity to see not only the famous sights but also something of everyday life and the enormous variety of landscapes along the way.

Closer to Home — but Still Exploring
Our journeys were not always great expeditions. Sometimes the pleasure was simply being somewhere beautiful together. In May 2006 we returned to Egypt, this time combining travelling with golf around Cairo, and in September of that year we celebrated my 57th birthday on the Atlantic coast of Portugal.In 2007 we visited friends in Paris, celebrated Hélène’s birthday in Germany — naturally with a round of golf — and spent the whole month of September in the United States with Hélène’s sister Marion, who lived in San Diego, California.

In September 2008 we travelled through Andalusia in southern Spain, where I celebrated my 59th birthday in a particularly memorable way at Hacienda Benazuza in Sanlúcar la Mayor, near Seville. The beautifully restored tenth-century farmhouse had been transformed into an intimate five-star luxury hotel, but for us the real attraction was its extraordinary cuisine. At the time, the gastronomy of the hotel was under the direction of Ferran Adrià, the legendary chef of El Bulli, whose revolutionary approach to cooking had made him world-famous. Dining there was far more than simply having dinner — it was a succession of surprising tastes, textures and ideas. For anyone with a passion for food, it was one of those rare gastronomic experiences you hope to have at least once in your lifetime. For me, it also made my 59th birthday one I would certainly never forget.

In May 2009 we travelled to Florence, Italy, for a cultural journey through one of Europe’s great centres of Renaissance art and history. That summer we combined another of our passions with travelling and played golf in Austria, while at Christmas we exchanged home for the beautiful Loire Valley in France.

In the spring of 2010 we travelled to Istanbul, Turkey — that fascinating meeting point between Europe and Asia — where we spent several days exploring the city before continuing south to enjoy the sun along the Turkish coast near Alanya. Later that year we crossed the Atlantic again and spent several weeks in San Diego, California, visiting Hélène’s sister Marion. From California we continued across the Pacific to visit friends on Hawaiʻi, the Big Island, adding yet another very different landscape to our travels. In 2011 visits to Italy and France.

The Call of Adventure Again
But at the end of 2012 however we were ready for another major adventure. In December 2012 and January 2013 we first travelled to California and then crossed the Mexican border at Tijuana. From there we drove south to Ensenada before flying from Tijuana to La Paz and continuing our journey along the coast of the Baja California Sur peninsula. It was another wonderful combination of travelling independently, discovering new landscapes and simply seeing where the road would take us.

In October 2013 we returned to Africa for a month-long journey through South Africa, combining spectacular scenery with two other great pleasures of ours: good food and wine. We spent time in Cape Town and travelled north through the Western Cape before turning east towards Addo and Port Elizabeth, eventually making our way back along the coast. South Africa offered almost everything we enjoyed about travelling — vast landscapes, wildlife, vineyards, excellent food and the freedom of the open road.

There we exchanged the relative comfort of the vineyards for something considerably more adventurous: a cage dive with great white sharks. Descending into the water with one of the ocean’s most formidable predators swimming only a short distance away was an experience neither of us was likely to forget.