Ideas for Exotic / Out-of-the-Way Places

[Zednotzee]

I don't know about exotic, but you can't get much more out of the way than the North shore of Lake Superior, or Labrador. Pack your bug juice!

[Laidback]

The Mae Nam Klong River runs along the border with Burma north of the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai (pronounced Kwae : Water Buffalo from the call it makes)

[Laidback]

Originally Posted by dniello

Just for the hell of it, want to know what some cruisers favorite destinations are? Im looking ideas on out of the way places to go where there is still a sense of adventure to get there, out of the way and/or exotic. For example I have been to Rapa in the Australs, very out of the way and exotic. Would like to hear some of your stories.

So Dni ello apart from Rapa -- let's have your others!

[James S]

Originally Posted by dniello

Thanks! Anyone have any opinions on places in the Indian Ocean??

Socotra is very interesting...home of the Dragon Blood tree...Egyption Vultures (although its part of Yemen) Some places people still live in caves...and some of those caves are 7-8 KM long..Whale sharks migrate through.......Nov. to March is a good time to go..
Pirates can be a problem...theres a place on the beach where the brits put in a pipe that has fresh water flowing right into the sea.
The people are wonderful.

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

We have been to Gambier Islands.

wow I have seen these islands with google earth !! i'll never see them in person but I bet they were nice.

[barnakiel]

OK, Volta River could be good, just please get the place rid of the Voltians before I get there. (I do dig the pic though).

To me, if a place has a paradise beach but there is a risk of getting robbed or killed, then it is still more hell than paradise.

The paradise and out of way is probably easier to find in the fjords of Norway or Patagonia - vast spaces, countless anchorages, no sewage, few cruisers and even fewer locals.

b.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by gonesail

wow I have seen these islands with google earth !! i'll never see them in person but I bet they were nice.

You are 100% correct. On Google Earth everything looks nice. Up close and personal is when the vista changes.

The Gambiers were geographically of out of way, true, but otherwise the satellite discs and cars and sewage dumping were common.

Everybody has their own definition of paradise and mine includes clean water / undisturbed nature and few inhabitants.

But there are places for those who dare, to go and enjoy, even as close as the Pacific. Note that people will say Tuamotou but all they mean is maybe half a dozen of atols. Now have a look at the chart and count them, then go to the unvisited ones and you may just find your paradise out of the way destination.

b.

[S&S]

Originally Posted by Zednotzee

I don't know about exotic, but you can't get much more out of the way than the North shore of Lake Superior, or Labrador. Pack your bug juice!

That'd be my recommendation. I'd add Newfoundland and the Bras d'Or on CBI. Labrador has very nice scenery but it's wild, charting can be dubious and there can be horrendous mosquitoes/blackflies in certain spots.
Still, I'd like to go back.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Laidback

Well have you visited that above, beautiful, really out way place?
There are many more off the beaten rhumb line.

Well, I do not have that much voyaging experience, but I have not seen anything spectacular on the normal round the world route. There are a few nice, real nice spots, but they are very so far and very apart, and very few.

Probably my problem is I hardly ever sail the rhumb line, even the beaten one, as my GPS is set to show the great circle route and by this we mostly sail. The rhum(b) line is used on shorter passages and I do agree with you on this one that we are far more likely to find the out of the way places closer up to our home waters than we might ever expect. But sometimes it takes going far away to appreciate what we have up close.

b.

[Aussiesuede]

Few people ever seem to make a stop in Chagos during their Indian Ocean crossings, and that's a shame. Obviously Diego Garcia is off limits, but Peros Banos has to be one of the most beautiful spots on earth, made even more so by the complete lack of human inhabitance. Humans are inherently dirty creatures, and this becomes exceedingly apparent when you visit a place with no human inhabitants. The air, water, and land is absolutely pristine. The adjacent Maldives are wonderful, but the difference in the level of pristine is quite apparent almost immediately upon arrival in Chagos.

Nanumea, & Lakena in Tuvalu, is another place that seems to seldom get visited on Pacific crossings. Tuvalu is slated to be the first actual nation to disappear as a result of global warming. The water level is rising, and it's doubtful that the nation will remain above sea level by the time most of us die off - so there's not really much time left to go enjoy these atolls. Simply gorgeous...

[dniello]

My god people!!!! No personal accounts of great places!!!???? Step yo game up!!!

[James S]

Originally Posted by dniello

My god people!!!! No personal accounts of great places!!!???? Step yo game up!!!

I thought my Socotra report was pretty great...Tough crowd.

[dniello]

Socotra was a good one, thanks. Now im asking these questions to get ideas for myself.....and others. Anybody ever been to St. Helena or any other stops in the mid/south Atlantic?

[Laidback]

Dniello, Where have you been, and what did you do there ?

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Aussiesuede

Few people ever seem to make a stop in Chagos during their Indian Ocean crossings, (...),

Well, when we arrived in Richard's Bay we found that MOST cruisers present there have been to Chagos. So I would think it is pretty crowde in the normal season. But probably becomes very nice in the cyclone season.

When planning on Chagos make sure you follow the new permit regulations there.

b.