Life after Blue Planet: 13 colourful destinations you must visit
Blue Planet II is over. You can return to the surface, remove your fins and disembark from the Zodiac. No more leaping mobula rays, breaching humpbacks or kaleidoscopic squid. It’s back to Sunday nights without Sir David’s dulcet tones.
But blue is not the planet’s only colour. As you steady yourself once more on terra firma, don’t forget the other palettes of the natural world. From the dripping greens of the rainforest to the sculpted red of the desert, every landscape offers a different stage and its own cast of extraordinary wildlife. Below are some exciting options for 2018. Make your own natural selection.
White planet
The frozen polar regions offer dramatic wildlife spectacles, while snow-capped summits shelter animals found nowhere else.
Svalbard (Arctic Norway)
The polar bear looks up from the seal carcass as your Zodiac nudges forward through the pack-ice. Gulls flap away in protest but the great predator is going nowhere. Behind him stretches a backdrop of fissured glaciers and jagged pinnacles. This is summer in Svalbard, Norway’s spectacular slice of Arctic. Wildlife is everywhere – puffing belugas, walruses, seabirds – and with the midnight sun, the viewing never stops.
Discover the World (01737 214 291; discover-the-world.co.uk) offers an 11-night Around Spitzbergen voyage, from £4,960pp full-board (two sharing) aboard the MS Expedition. Includes international flights, airport transfers, expert guides, shore landings and all activities.
Antarctica
At the bottom of the world, a different icescape assembles different players: adélie penguins in comic procession; a leopard seal patrolling the ice edge; orcas slicing across your bows. Crossing the Drake Passage may be rough but with cathedral-sized icebergs and whale spouts on the horizon, the rewards are spectacular.
Wildlife Worldwide (01962 302086; wildlifeworldwide.com) offers Crossing the Polar Circle, a 12 to 14-day trip travelling further south than most. From £7,085pp (two sharing), including full-board accommodation on-board and guided excursions. Return flights Heathrow-Ushuaia from £1,200pp.
Ladakh (India)
Ibex give the game away, scattering across the slopes as a snow leopard emerges from behind the boulders. At last. You’ve been following the tracks and combing the hillsides; wolves crest a ridge and golden eagles soar into the blue. Now, at last, the cat itself. It pads down the gully, luxuriant tail swinging behind: a near-mythical beast on the roof of the world. What were the chances?
Steppes Travel (01285 6010500; steppestravel.com) offer a 13-day trip to Ladakh, India, in search of snow leopards and other wildlife, plus cultural highlights. From £4,495 per person (two sharing), including international flights. Next departure Feb 3 2018.
Red Planet
Bare rock and burning sand may not be everybody’s idea of a natural paradise. But the world’s deserts have their own harsh beauty and harbour some extraordinary wildlife.
Namibia
Here, desert meets big game: in the sculpted wilds of Damaraland, elephants and black rhinos wander the dry river beds; across the arid salt pans of Etosha, lions stake out waterholes. Yet this is a land where ancient rock art and unique plant life are as gripping as big game; venture deep into the red dunes in search of weird desert-adapted creatures, from dancing lizards to cartwheeling spiders.
Expert Africa (020 3405 6666; expertafrica.com) has a 14-night Sand Frog Self-drive Safari, taking in the Namib Sand Sea, NamibRand Nature Reserve, Damaraland and Etosha. From £2,320pp (two sharing). Return SAA flights from £965pp.
American West
A Californian condor circles on 10ft wings above the Grand Canyon: a suitably huge bird for a panorama of jaw-dropping scale. On the ground you might find bighorn sheep, coyotes and bobcats. But against the monumental backdrops of the American West, much of the most fascinating wildlife is small and secretive, from roadrunners to rattlesnakes. With one stunning national park after another, self-drive is the way to seek it out.
American Sky (01342 886353; americansky.co.uk) offers a 10-night self-drive National Parks tour, including Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Bryce and Zion Canyon national parks. From £1,369 per person room-only, based on two sharing, including 11 days’ car hire and return flights Britain-Las Vegas.
Red Centre (Australia)
The vast sandstone slab of Uluru is a stunning emblem of Australia’s ancient landscape and culture. Few realise, however, that the dusty trails of the Red Centre also teem with wildlife, from red kangaroos and thorny devils to emus and budgerigars. And up at the Top End, where water carves an aquatic Eden into the arid outback, there are enormous crocodiles and a gallery of water birds.
Austravel (0808 250 4889; austravel.com) is offering a 16-night self-drive holiday to Australia’s Red Centre and Top End, which includes wildlife activities. From £3,549 per person, including international return flights with Etihad and Virgin Australia. Departures Sept 2018.
Green planet
The world’s tropical forests are its most biodiverse environment. Each has its own unique array of wildlife.
Madagascar
The haunting call of the indri, Madagascar’s largest lemur, drifts like whale song through the dawn forests of Andasibe-Mantadia. Deeper in, you track down diademed sifakas, while at ground level your guide reveals a menagerie of the bizarre, from leaf-tailed geckos to giraffe-necked weevils. And where the forest reaches the beach, there are teeming reefs and real humpback whales.
Rainbow Tours (020 3733 9751; rainbowtours.co.uk) offers a 14-day Reef and Rainforest tour, combining Andasibe-Mantadia National Park with Ile St Marie, for whale watching. From £3,650 per person, including return international and domestic flights, accommodation, meals and an expert driver/guide.
Uganda
Nothing prepares you for the intensity of sitting among mountain gorillas in their forest. With chimpanzees, it’s different: whoops, shrieks and sometimes a breakneck scramble along the trail. Uganda is a haven for both, with thrilling encounters.
Extraordinary Africa (020 7097 1801; extraordinary-africa.com) offers a 10-day guided trip to Uganda, from £3,455 per person sharing. The price includes gorilla trekking (Bwindi) and chimp habituation (Kibale), full-board accommodation, game activities and international flights from London.
India
The alarm calls crescendo as langur monkeys and spotted deer ramp up the tension. Your guide reverses slowly – and there she is: a tigress padding into the clearing, oblivious. Central India’s tropical deciduous forests are the best place to see this most magnificent of predators. And a safari in tiger reserves such as Kanha promises leopards, sloth bears, peacocks and pythons too.
Naturetrek (01962 733051; naturetrek.co.uk) offers a nine-day Tiger Direct safari that combines Pench and Kanha Tiger Reserves. From £2,495pp (two sharing) including flights, accommodation, all meals and an expert naturalist. Optional extensions to Tadoba and Satpura National Parks.
Pantanal
Your boat nudges forward through the water hyacinth, sending caimans sliding off the bank. From the canopy above comes the roar of howler monkeys. Brazil’s Pantanal is the world’s largest wetland and stages one of the greatest wildlife experiences. A-listers abound: river otters, tapirs and, best of all, jaguars. Nowhere offers better sightings of South America’s greatest predator.
Natural World Safaris (01273 691642; naturalworldsafaris.com) offers a seven-day Jaguar Photography Safari in Aug 2018, led by photographer and big cat expert Steve Winter. From £5,495 per person (excluding international flights), including accommodation, English-speaking guides, excursions and photography expeditions.
Golden planet
The dry season turns the world’s great grasslands into a sea of gold. Steppe, savannah, pampas or prairie, their spacious horizons host some of the world’s grandest wildlife spectacles.
Serengeti
Dust billows and the water churns as wildebeest thunder into the Mara River and strike out for the opposite shore. The Serengeti migration is routinely described as the greatest natural show on earth, with its vast herds of antelope and zebra trekking towards the distant rains across a seemingly limitless savannah. The action moves with the seasons. Whenever you go, however, you’re guaranteed a pageant of wildlife, with lions, leopards and cheetahs.
Kuoni (01306 747008; kuoni.co.uk) offers a six-night Under Serengeti Skies tour, including return flights from Heathrow, all food, accommodation, guiding and transfers. From £3,650 per person sharing. April 2018 departure.
Patagonia
The great grasslands of Patagonia stretch from the Andes to the coast of Tierra del Fuego. This is a land of long-legged guanacos and rheas, where burrowing owls stare from ant hills and pumas prowl the pampas. Further south, the wild ranges of Torres del Paine National Park offer rugged hiking, with Andean condors soaring over the peaks, while penguins and sea lions cluster along the Strait of Magellan.
Wildfoot Travel (0800 195 3385; wildfoottravel.com) offers a 14-night Patagonia with Pumas itinerary, including Tierra del Fuego and Torres del Paine. From £6,781 per person sharing, includes B&B accommodation, domestic flights, all activities with an English-speaking guide, and return flights London-Santiago.
Mongolia
The great steppes of Mongolia, stretching between the Altai Mountains and Gobi Desert, are the terrain of nomads – from the people to the herds of saiga antelope, gazelles, wild Takhi horses and other wandering grazers. Wolves, ibex and argali sheep roam the hills, while the arid Great Lakes region attracts a wealth of seasonal bird life. Time it right, and you can also witness the world’s only golden eagle festival.
Steppes Travel (01285 6010500; steppestravel.com) offers an eight-day itinerary to explore the wildlife of western Mongolia, including the Naadam Golden Eagle Festival and the Great Lakes of the Altai. From £3,935 per person, including flights, accommodation in private camps and expert guiding.
