The 2016 Travel Highlights Competition is now closed to entries. We have had a tremendous response this year with 32 entries from 23 authors, writers and poets.

Voting is open until midnight UK time on Wednesday November 30th.

You can vote for as many of our favourites as you like, but can only do this ONCE a day. If you are using a mobile device you may need to scroll to the bottom of the Blog page and change the view from Mobile to Web to activate the voting buttons.

Read through all the entries on the Travel Highlights page and start voting for your favourite entries now.

Talk about cutting it fine! The following two entries arrived twenty minutes before the deadline of midnight UK last night. As I was fast asleep at that time, it is a great pleasure to be able to feature them today.

Voting for the 2016 Travel Highlights Competition will start later today. In the meantime I hope you enjoy Mark Boyter's entries as much as I have.

​ 

Everybody Goes
 
The Eagles Club, Oceanshores, Washington. Paint stick lotto Monday. My first visit.
“Gotta get there early,” Jewel says. “Everybody goes.”
I pay Marge my dollar and pull number 23. Jewel pays and pulls 77.
“We got 5 left,” Willie shouts. “Can we sellout?” and Marge lifts the sticks high to show. Hands shoot up, Marge sells the last stick “Ok!” and Willie shouts “Here we go.”
He spins the wheel and it clacks to a stop at “Number 57.”
John waves his stick, makes his way forward, tips his cowboy hat and chooses the Tequila.
“Ok,” Willie shouts. “Round two.”

Pentecostal Sunday
 
Sunday. I’ve been hitch-hiking for 4 days. 730 miles. Tenting. Tonight is Lethbridge. Southern Alberta. Bible belt Canada. A red Corolla stops. “I’m Leela,” she says. My age. Pretty. “Hop in.” I can pitch my tent in her parents’ backyard, she says. First, she’s heading to evening service. Pentecostal. “You wanna come? It’s at the Ramada Inn.” At coffee she introduces me to Mel, late 50s and full of vibrating voices. “Come with me,” and he walks to the front desk. He pulls out his credit card. “Get this fellow a room,” he says. “With a shower,” and he winks.
 

Mark Boyter

​Mark is a traveller who writes, a writer who runs, a runner who drinks, and a drinker who loves movies. On rare occasions, he is all five.
From Vancouver, Canada and a teacher by training, he's lived and taught in his native Canada, Japan and the UAE.
His first book, Crescent Moon Over Laos, was published in 2014. He is working on other ideas that may or may not evolve into a second book, as well as a collection of short stories.
He lives in Vancouver with his long time partner and their three cats.

Another wonderful surprise as our 2016 Travel Highlights Competition is coming to a close. Thank you so much to Beth Haslam for making our Monday evening with these wonderful last minute entries.
​
​

France in the Mist
 
Exploring a lane flanked by late sunflowers, all blanketed in thick rolling mist. Noises deadened, flower heads sodden, quiet, still, so still.
 
Ahead, an ancient hamlet enveloped in the grey, nestled between woods and open flatland.
 
Fragmented baying of hounds boom in the eerie distance.
 
I start in shock.
 
A terrified wild boar, prehistoric-like form, tusks, pelt, stink, breaks cover and claims sanctuary in the woods below.
 
The hounds, close now, indefinable in colour and shape, men with guns, whips and curses. The mist conceals all and they are gone.
 
France, still medieval, frozen in a preternatural moment in time. 

​

Shopping in France
 
I peek around the corner.
 
Nooo, wrong. Lost again! But time’s running out.
 
Wheeling around, I dash down another identical street, slipping on wet cobbles, skidding to a halt at the T-junction.
 
Which way now?
 
Frantically scanning, nothing but interminable cobbles and…stairs. Aha! I remember these.
 
Clattering up near-vertical steps I pause at the top – panting.
 
Surely it’s close now.
 
Two paces right – it’s there. Thank heavens! I gallop towards my goal, panic-stricken – seconds to go.
 
If I don’t reach it before midday I’ve failed, the pâtisserie will shut.
 
Grandma deprived of her favourite cupcakes is an inconceivable thought! 

​

​Beth Haslam was brought up on a country estate in Wales. Deep in the countryside, her childhood was spent either on horseback, helping the gamekeepers raise pheasants, or out sailing.

A serious car crash in 1991 ended Beth's full time career in Personnel management, so she set up her own Human Resources consultancy business. As semi-retirement beckoned, Beth and her husband, Jack, decided to buy a second home in France. This has become a life-changing event where computers and mobile phones have swapped places with understanding French customs, and wrestling with the local dialect.

Beth is now occupied as never before. Raising and saving animals, writing, and embracing everything that rural France has to offer.

She's loving it!
 
http://www.bethhaslam.com/Home.html
​

With only a few hours left in the 2016 Travel Highlights Competition, I am really pleased to be able to feature this latest entry from Helen Chambers. 
​

April in Venice 

April in Venice, evening, first-ever visit: as exciting as I’d imagined. Our attic room looked over red-tiled roofs, a bell-tower and home-built roof gardens. When I heard the screaming, I peered outside once more. Boomeranging silhouettes jack-knifed, avoiding collision, swerving amongst chimney pots, agile and graceful despite their raucous voices. Teen-aged gangs of swifts, long before they would arrive in England. Harbingers to summer, and my heart soared with them.

​

Helen Chambers usually writes short stories, flash fiction and radio drama, and recently completed her MA in Creative Writing at the University of Essex. She was intrigued to see if she could condense the essence of an entire holiday into fewer than 100 words!

It is a great honour to be able to welcome back Judian Cooney with her entry for this year's Travel Highlights competition. Enjoy her evocative highlight about Tuscany.

Sense and Scents of Tuscany
 
There is something special about reliving memories from back in time. The kind of place where the scents in the air are thick with smells of beautiful heirloom roses, aromas of honey making and wonderful wine. The vineyards and soil, the incredible Terroir that sneaks into your sense of smell, as if you had been there before..spend the day exploring the towns of Montepulciano, a Renaissance Village, where the sunsets are a special kind of Gold, in this tiny little place in the world. Toasting in front of a Smokey real fire from a stone fireplace. That's Tuscany in September!
 
​

Judian is Senior Luxury Villa and Resort Specialist at Cook Travel ..Enchanting Hideaways. She lives in Sag Harbor, New York and knows French, Italian and Swedish.

​Find out more on the Enchanting Hideaways website:
www.enchantinghideaways.com

As the 2016 Travel Highlights Competition draws to a close, it is a great pleasure to welcome back Elizabeth Moore with two brand new highlights. You may remember her earlier entry Apricot Sunshine, which is #7 on the Travel Highlights page.  

I hope you enjoy Elizabeth's latest entries as much as I have.
​ 

Niagara

​As we near the falls, the air is heavy with spray. I expect a salty taste but it is fresh. My face is sodden, my plastic attire barely able to withstand the watery assault, but I am oblivious. These are the Horseshoe Falls and they are mesmerising. Instantly I understand the foolhardy barrel riding and fateful canoe attempts. This watery Everest demands to be conquered, but success is denied to most comers. When the full thrust of our motors attains equilibrium with the oncoming torrent, we pause in silent salute to this moment and then turn back to the pier.

Notes from a Small Island

​I love Guam. I love the torrential warm rains that leave the earth steaming and impromptu waterfalls careening down cliffs. I love the diving in Apra Harbor where war machinery and wrecks skulk amid colourful sealife and coral. I love red rice and local fish steamed in coconut milk. I love the palms and breadfruit trees growing in profusion. I love the colourful painted statues of the carabao – the island’s huge water buffalo -scattered across the landscape. I even love the smell of jungle decay and leaf litter on the forest floor.

With a week to go in this year's Travel Highlights competition, it is fantastic to be able to feature a third poetic entry from Syd Blackwell. Many thanks for your entries Syd and for bringing something different to this year's competition.
​

​NIGHT WALK
 
The hunters of the night who stalk their prey
along the daylight trail we walked today
when we so arrogantly thought to claim
some kind of control over their domain
now have their sovereignty restored by night
which we minutely penetrate with light
so not to stumble over root or rock
or grab lianas or thick woody stalks
where poison spiders ants and snakes abound
not hindered by the blackness so profound
The jungle rings the jungle sings and brings
primordial fears to human beings
We pass through blackness all these nightly sounds
just thankful that no jaguars are around
 
somewhere on Rio Ibaré, Bolivia
22/07/15

​

Syd Blackwell

I lived in British Columbia, Canada´s western province, for most of my life. I was a teacher, and a college employee (various roles - instruction, recruitment, promotion, counselling, research), before re-inventing myself as an innkeeper. I designed and had built my B&B inn in Revelstoke, which I operated for nine years. 
 
At age 60, my wife and I retired to Uruguay, where we will soon have lived for a decade. Innside Stories is my first published book. I have extensive writing experience in Canada with other publications.  In Uruguay, I wrote 75 articles for a now defunct online magazine called Ola Uruguay.  We live in Villa Argentina, a suburb of Atlántida, on the coast of Uruguay.  We have five dogs.

Innside Stories: Anecdotes from Wintergreen Inn 1995-2004
​

It is a real honour to be able to feature this latest travel highlight entry from a long-time friend of mine, Phil Canning. Many thanks for getting involved Phil.
​

THIS IS THE ONE
​
We arrived in Santa Marta around noon and first impressions were promising but I was searching for more.... We saw a hill that led out of the village and went to investigate

As we reached the plateau I stopped and looked up at the biggest sky I'd ever seen .... deep blue with occasional wisps of white cloud..... I turned 360 degrees taking in the amazing unbroken views of the Campo..... I stood and listened .... turned to my partner and said ..."You hear that"?

She looked at me quizzically and said ... "hear what"?...... I grinned broadly and replied
"exactly"

It is a great pleasure to welcome back Jill Dobbe with her second entry in the 2016 Travel Highlights Competition. 

Don't forget that the competition ends at midnight (UK) on Monday November 14th. 

NO MORE CURRY!
 
After a month of eating only spicy Indian food, I couldn’t take it any longer. What I craved more than anything was just a normal cheese pizza. Overjoyed to find Dominos Pizza in Gurgaon, India, I picked up the phone and called in my order.

Dominos: “HellowelcometoDominoswillyoubewantingapizzatoday?” (Spoken with a very rapid and lilting Indian accent.)

Me:  “Yes  I  would   like   to  order   a  large   margherita    pizza.”

Dominos:  “Didyousayamediumspicydelightpizza,Madam?”

Me:  “NO!      I     said     a     large     MARGHERITA    pizza!”

Dominos:“Okay,Madam,thatwouldbeamediumpeppypaneerpizzawouldyoualsolike
​breadsticksordrinkswithyourorder?”

Me:  “Okay,       yes,      whatever!”

Dominos: “Wewillbeseeingyouinthirtyminuteswithyoursmallspicydelightpizzaand thecostwillbe*!@# (unintelligible) rupeesthankyouforcallingDominos,Madam.”

​I hung up ten minutes later completely baffled.
​