Wanderlust, Issue 234 Sampler, (August/September 2024)

Destination of the year

SOUTH KOREA

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Astrotourism in Peru Borneo’s wild side Get active in Olympic France Washington State Jersey Moldova Madagascar New South Wales

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20 August/September 2024

Northwest Arkansas, USA

Wanderlust’s Jacqui Agate reports back from the Natural State, where its north-west cultural scene now rivals even the wilds of the Ozarks for our attention

A work of art (left to right) The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has an impressive permanent collection that spans five centuries; one of the first fiveand-dime stores opened by Sam Walton, founder of the Walmart chain, is now the site of the Walmart Museum in Bentonville, a quirky attraction that looks at the chain’s impact on the region and beyond – though it is currently undergoing a huge renovation

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ver the past decade, I’ve returned year-on-year to the American South, relishing the cocktail of music, food and history that the region is famous for. But Arkansas, parcelled between Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri, had always been something of an enigma to me. I was determined to change that on a trip to the state’s Northwest Arkansas region: a bucolic enclave in the Ozark Mountains that I’d been told offered art and nature in spades.

I began in Bentonville, a creative city whose astonishing recent growth means it has more cranes per capita than anywhere else in the US. This is Walmart Country (the superstore was founded by Sam Walton just a few kilometres down the road), and the construction of a new 140-hectare campus is grabbing national attention and attracting newcomers, who are making their mark on the region. My final stop – reached via quaint small cities and state parks along the way – was Fayetteville, a funky college town with a liberal, artsy vibe. Happily, I found this under-the-radar pocket of the South to be every bit as rich in culture and outdoor adventure as I’d hoped.

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The region’s crown jewel is the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, an already mighty institution in the throes of a major expansion that should be completed by 2026. This Bentonville museum is just one marker of the Walton family’s defining impact on this area. It was opened back in 2011 by Sam Walton’s daughter, Alice, whose own glittering art reserve formed the foundations of the museum’s original collection.

Today the museum represents an incredibly diverse and comprehensive snapshot of American art through the ages. Highlights include Precious jewels by the sea by Amy Sherald (best known for her official portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama)

and Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed. On my visit, the galleries displayed a striking installation entitled We the People, in which rainbow-coloured shoe laces were arranged to spell out the opening three words of the US Constitution’s preamble. Traditional portraiture of the Founding Fathers shared space with poignant works by Indigenous artists. The most striking was The Cost of Removal by Titus Kaphar, in which an equestrian painting of seventh-president Andrew Jackson (who signed the Indian Removal Act into law in 1830) is partly hidden by strips of canvas pinned with rusted nails.

The museum building is a feast for the eyes too. Designed by architect Moshe Safdie to blend into the natural surroundings, it spreads out in a series of shell-like structures clad in glass and floating above glistening reflection pools. It’s purposefully low-rise, becoming almost lost in a lush tree canopy, which was an eye-popping green during my spring visit. Looming outside the entrance is Maman, one of artist Louise Bourgeois’ giant bronze spider sculptures; this one includes a nest of delicate marble eggs.

Be sure to book a free ticket to explore Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bachman-Wilson House (reservations are essential given the small space), which is on-site at the museum. It was acquired and reconstructed here due to flood risks at its original New Jersey location, and its nature-forward, mid-century Modern design – all mahogany ⊲

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Written in the

STARS While millions come to Peru’s Andean highlands for the Inca ruins and festivals, there are other stories here.

Time your visit for the solstice to explore an ancient region where even the streets are shaped by the heavens Words & photographs Mark Stratton

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winter solstice. During our time together, his energetic, inquisitive mind constantly challenged an Inca architectural orthodoxy that understates the prowess of earlier civilisations, and being in his company was a little like living inside a Dan Brown novel.

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On our first morning together, Andres and I stuck to the ancient stone streets of Cusco, a town I’d consistently read was founded by the Inca – a heritage it theatrically plays up to. Quechua women cuddling baby alpacas traded photographs for cash while street sellers sold knitted toy llamas and scarves with bright motifs. But Andres is convinced that Cusco’s lineage is far, far older than the Inca.

We headed to the main plaza, which was filled with musicians and dancers warming up for the forthcoming Inti Raymi festival of the sun. Here we saw a mid-17th-century basilica sat above a destroyed huaca (temple) that was once dedicated to the Andean creator god Viracocha. This name is also given to an ancient civilisation from around Lake Titicaca, Andres told me, who spread north into the Andes and likely founded Cusco long before the Inca.

We followed a processional route through the city from north-east to south-west, aligned with the winter solstice line (also known as the secondary axis). Six huacas once existed along this line, I was told, all subsequently demolished for churches.

The cathedral plaza also intersects with the south-east/north-west summer solstice axis (the primary), thus quartering the city into ⊲ the four corners of the Inca Empire.

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low down,” I chided during our seven days together he would my s e l f , s u c k i n g i n “squeeze knowledge from ancient stones” the rarefied Cusco air as we headed off the tourist routes to gain a and hurrying over the new perspective on just how ingenious and cobblestones of Peru’s mathematical these ancient cultures were.

However, even wannabe archaeoasQuechua-language capital. I needed to be on Calle Siete tronomers need to breath. After travelling Culebras (Seven Snakes Street) at 7.05am from Lima (161m) to Cusco (3,400m), to witness the southern hemisphere’s winter I descended into the lower-altitude Sacred solstice on 21 June, an eternal timestamp Valley to acclimatise. Down here, between on Peru’s pre-Columbian architecture. Pisac and Ollantaytambo, the flat-bottomed Thankfully, I had just about made it. farmland hid a breadbasket of maize and The street, both narrow and steep, still hundreds of potato varieties. But this was also glistened from the earlier rain and the solstice dry season, so the land was coloured a russetsunbeam arrowed in on a brown and the stubble south-west course with of cut maize resembled unerring timing, bathing brushed mohair.

“Six huacas once me in light. By design, the I reoxygenated in existed along this sun’s rays filter through a stone-built casita at the solstice line; they Cusco’s central plaza, the transcendentally calm beating heart of the city, were all demolished Hotel Sol y Luna. Each where they cut across the morning, I sank into my for churches” axis formed during the bath and watched gossasummer solstice. Nothing mer-green humminghere is by accident. birds levitate around I’d come to Peru’s Andes not to obsess flower-filled gardens. At night, the Milky about Machu Picchu, the citadel associated Way sparkled magnificently overhead. with the Inca whose 2 million-plus visitors Having acclimatised, I returned to Qusqu a year are taking a toll on its ruins, but to (in Quechuan), better known as Cusco – discover the cosmological secrets behind a name the invading conquistadors could the region’s fanciful archaeological herit- more easily wrap their tongues around – to age. Square in my gaze were the megaliths meet Andres. Fate had surely directed him of pre-Inca civilisations, which appeared to towards archaeoastronomy, which looks at my uneducated eye to be uncannily extra- how past civilisations used the sun and the terrestrial in appearance. My astral guide stars to design their temples and guide their was Andres Adasme, a 50-year-old Chilean lives. His ex-wife was born on the summer archaeoastronomer and a resident of the solstice, while their daughter, named after Andes for two decades. He promised that the constellation Lyra, arrived on the

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glitters

All that

Hit the road to explore Australia’s Sapphire Coast and beyond, and discover how its Aboriginal history and small communities put the sparkle into New South Wales Words Jessica Reid

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want to pay our respects to beaches, neighbourhoods and First Nations the land, the ocean and the history that not many visitors to New South river that we’ll be paddling Wales ever see, and I was taking them all in today,” said my guide on a sun-soaked 166km road trip.

It was the Indigenous history of the Nathan Lygon. His words hung in the orderly silence region that I was most interested in. Beowa that followed as I hunkered down in my kayak National Park (formerly Ben Boyd NP) in contemplation. I peered across the white- recently had its Indigenous name restored sand beach to where the turquoise waters of to recognise the land’s original custodians. the Pambula River empty into the Tasman It is part of an ongoing movement across Sea, then over to where moss-speckled rocks Australia to acknowledge the damage done stood camouflaged against a forest of euca- during the colonial years. It also reinforces lyptus. Everything was calm and serene. the idea that there are other ways of seeing Moments like this are what you long for these lands, and I was curious to explore the as a traveller: nature in all its nameless, area through Indigenous eyes. This was how unknowable mystery. Yet I had come here I came to be on a sheltered beach paying to learn a different way my respects to the land of seeing. For the people and the water, having “Evidence of First of the Yuin Nation, the joined Navigate Expedioriginal custodians of Nation Australians tions’ Cultural Kayaking these lands, this was all to learn more about in the South Coast tour part of an ancient story the people of the Yuin region dates back that continues to this Nation – the Aboriginal day. As I would soon some 20,000 years” community that inhabits discover, it was just one the southern coast. tale among many in As we took to the Australia’s South Coast region.

Pambula River, Nathan wished the group I’d arrived in New South Wales (NSW) as “Walawaani”, meaning safe journey, and one of the 38 million or so travellers who we followed the gentle wake of his kayak land in Sydney, the continent’s busiest hub, upstream. I stayed attuned to my surroundeach year. Many (about 10%) head to the ings, listening for the soft splashes of our Blue Mountains for their wilderness fix, but paddles hitting the water and the bird calls Australia is vast and empty, and there are so that filled the air. Nathan pointed to the sky many options. This state alone is more than just as a set of brilliant-white belly feathers twice the size of Germany, with plenty of flashed over our heads. corners hiding little-heard stories. Even after “We call this one myangah, meaning sea catching an hour’s flight south of Sydney to eagle,” he shared, highlighting how the Merimbula, 460km away, deep in the South species has featured in Indigenous storyCoast, I still hadn’t left NSW’s borders. telling for millennia. “It’s one of the most I was here to explore the small commu- important birds to our people.” nities that scatter an area known as the Evidence of First Nation Australians in the Sapphire Coast and beyond. This is a land- South Coast region dates back some 20,000 scape of river creeks, forests, oyster farms, years, and this long history has led to a ⊲

A tale of two waters (left–right) Tathra Wharf was first built in 1862 to accommodate the passenger steam ships that linked the South Coast to the rest of Australia during the late 1800s – now it’s a popular hub for gourmands; Navigate Expeditions run tours to learn about the Indigenous heritage of the area; (previous spread) Pambula River’s name derives from a Yuin Aboriginal word meaning ‘two waters’

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Borneo

up close Despite occupying just a fraction of Malaysian Borneo, tiny Sabah’s ancient rainforest and endemic wildlife make it a living nature documentary of epic proportions Words Lyn Hughes

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The land of the

Wild

While many explore the Pacific Northwest as part of one big road trip, it pays to slow down in Washington state, where the lush islands, windswept sea stacks and rainforest offer a wild hit of west-coast USA Words Jacqui Agate

TRAVELOGUES Washington State, USA

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The waters stayed calm as the town’s crayon-coloured buildings melted behind our boat. Ahead, the shadow of the Cascade mountains decorated the horizon. The odd house peered out from the tree-lined beaches, but civilisation was otherwise forgotten.

The Salish Sea is home to both whale species and different populations of orca (southern and northern residents, as well as the transient Bigg’s), explained our naturalist guide, Kelly, who examined the water’s surface through a pair of binoculars. But while this remote sea should be a safe haven for marine mammals, orca populations here have plummeted over the decades.

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The problem was previously down to a booming marine park industry that began in the 1960s: breeding mothers were plucked from Pacific Northwest waters in great numbers and trained to do tricks for paying crowds.These days, dams on the Snake River – which provide substantial hydropower to the Pacific Northwest – are the issue, making it harder for the large, fatty Chinook salmon that the southern residents feed on to reach their spawning grounds, leaving the orca hungry and critically endangered. It’s estimated that today’s southern resident population numbers between just 70 and 76 orca.

Salmon are also of great cultural importance to the Indigenous Coast Salish

peoples, the San Juan Islands’ original inhabitants. I’d previously spotted a sign bearing the words ‘Snake River Dams’ with red protest marks plastered across it. Now I began to understand why.

An hour or so passed without any wildlife activity, though views of peaks and richly forested shores were rewarding enough.

Then Kelly lowered her binoculars and told everyone to turn their attention to the threeo’clock position. There, in the distance, the mighty fins of four orcas broke through the water. They travelled in unison, their bodies moving in graceful arcs as they ploughed through seafoam-green surf. I realised I was holding my breath.

“Sightings never become less magical,” said Kelly as she raised the boat’s whale-warning flag, featuring a giant tail set against a yellow-and-red background. Time seemed to stop with our boat as we watched these mammals surface for air again and again before eventually disappearing into the deep. Our final journey shoreward gifted us views of Steller sea lions, harbour porpoises and a bounty of birdlife. I was decanted back into Friday Harbor in a daze.

GLIMPSING A GIANT

It’s hard to believe that Seattle shoots skyward just a 50-minute seaplane ride away. It was ranked as the nation’s fastest growing city in 2021/2022, and the metropolitan area is the birthplace of commercial heavyweights ranging from Amazon and Starbucks to Microsoft. But the Emerald City also anchors some of the USA’s greatest wildernesses.

I first glimpsed Mount Rainier from my hotel room window. The peak is ⊲

Air, land and sea (left to right) Bald eagles are a common sight in the skies above San Juan Island; the southern resident orca of the Salish Sea have been hit hard by the depletion of their preferred prey, Chinook salmon, thanks to the damming of major rivers in the Pacific Northwest; you can sometimes spot humpback whales from the rocky shores next to Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse on San Juan Island, where they have been known to indulge in a spot of ‘kelping’, frolicking wildly among the seaweed and bull kelp; (previous spread) the bleached wood and sea stacks of Ruby Beach have been sculpted by the elements

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stood on a gnarled bluff above the Haro Strait and watched a bald eagle soar overhead. It hovered a moment, mighty wings turned out as if deciding whether to dive for dinner, then it disappeared behind a lighthouse guarding the coast. A few beats later, another emerged. It swirled above a huddle of Douglas fir trees before spiriting away behind the same beacon. I’d been promised a natural bounty, and here it was on a silver platter.

Plenty of travellers rush through Washington state, parcelling it into an itinerary that explores parts of Oregon and southwest Canada too. But I was slowing things down with a full week in the Evergreen State, beginning with the San Juan Islands, a wildlife-rich archipelago in the Salish Sea that butts up against the Canadian border.

It’s no wonder that nature is king here.

San Juan County – comprising 172 named islands carved by glacial erosion – has more marine shoreline than any other county in the US. The isles unfold in a bucolic jigsaw of wildflower-stitched meadows, bird-filled forests, wetlands and rugged coast. There are no fast-food chains, no traffic lights, no single-use plastic bags. The landscapes are unspoilt and the pace is slow.

What the islands do have is one of the highest densities of breeding bald eagles in the contiguous US. I even spied a third bird before tearing myself from a spot at Lime Kiln Point State Park on the eponymous San Juan Island. But now the water was calling.

Birdlife aside, this archipelago offers some of the finest orca watching on the planet.

I ventured out with San Juan Safaris, based in Friday Harbor, in hope of a sighting.

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Toasting to the future

Moldova might be the ‘least visited country in Europe’, but in its restored monasteries, millennia-old wine culture and revitalised capital, something special is happening…

Words & photographs George Kipouros

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s we drove, seemingly without direction, through a succession of dimly lit tunnels nearly 100m below ground, I became increasingly convinced that we were lost.

“Don’t worry, we know this place inside out,” assured resident guide Slavik. So on we ploughed, navigating a labyrinth of passageways totalling some 120km beneath a small town in central Moldova, pursued by the unmistakable woodsy scent of alcohol.

Reaching an intersection of sorts, I managed to catch a glimpse of a street sign written in Cyrillic: ‘Cabernet Street’. “Now you know what’s inside the casks all around us,” smiled Slavik. To the left and right of me were tens of thousands of barrels and bottles lining the tunnels of Cricova

Winery, the second largest wine cellar in the Around 80km of the tunnels are now world. This really was the underground city used for wine production and storage, while 40km are still actively mined for limestone.

I’d been promised at the start of my tour.

As it happens, Moldova also boasts the Inside, it was a bracing 12 degrees Celsius, largest underground wine cellar too, Slavik a temperature that barely fluctuates yeartold me, though he was at great pains to round; it felt even cooler thanks to the high highlight the uniqueness humidity of 85%. of Cricova, host of the Cricova Winer y is “Around 80km of national wine collection. gover nment owned, We were navigating which is perhaps not Cricova’s tunnels tunnels dating back to the sur pr ising g iven its are used for 16th century, when the history and size. What is wine production site was a mine; the limemore remarkable is that stone extracted here was little Moldova (a counand storage” used for building Moldotry of barely 2.6 million va’s capital, Chișinău, people) is currently the a mere 15km to the south. Its conversion 14th largest wine producer in the world. into an underground wine emporium came “During the Soviet era, we produced even much later, in 1952, when the Soviet Union more, as it was all about quantity back then,” was in charge here (1940–91). explained Slavik. He quickly reassured ⊲

Scenes from the Nativity (this page) Chișinău’s Neoclassical Nativity Cathedral was built in 1830 and lies on the city’s main square, though like much of the capital it was badly damaged by the 1940 earthquake, and then again during the Second World War. Most of its interior and dome was rebuilt in the 1950s and later added to. It was also used as an exhibition hall during the Soviet era, and it was the site of the first-ever radio broadcast in Moldova; (opposite page) a mosaic at Cricova Winery of a Moldovan wine drinker dressed in national costume – there is proof of wine heritage in the country going back 7,000 years

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South Korea

From the painted eaves of mountain temples to the neon kaleidoscope of Seoul, we pick the best routes to sample all the regal history, culture and wilderness that South Korea has to offer Words Paul Stafford

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Ride the wave of Korean culture, from past traditions to modern-day music and film

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Best for: K-pop, TV and movie filming locations, traditional arts and cultural festivals Why go: Soak up Hallyu, the popular cultural phenomenon also known as the Korean Wave, at live K-pop shows and modern art collections, and embrace Korean traditions at annual festivals Route: Seoul; Yongin; Chuncheon; Busan; Yeosu

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uch of South Korea’s traditional culture was forcibly wiped out during Japanese colonisation, surviving only in remote villages and temples ensconced in the mountains.Today, those customs are embraced with a national fervour, particularly at modern annual festivals such as Seoul Lantern Festival in winter, as well as lunar calendar celebrations such as Chuseok, the mid-autumn harvest festival that involves ancestral memorial services and rituals, which you can witness at Seoul’s National Folk Museum of Korea.

A good place to catch traditional dance and music performances around Seoul are at folk villages such as Namsangol Hanok Village

on the lower slopes of Namsan, which is topped by a landmark tower. In the capital, performances of gugak (traditional Korean music) and various national dances are held throughout the year at Seoul Arts Center complex, which includes the National Gugak Center and Seoul Calligraphy Museum.

You can still find stores selling seoye (Korean calligraphy) supplies alongside handmade hanji paper amid the teahouses and restaurants of the city’s Insadong neighbourhood.

Next, visit Gangnam, the upscale district that inspired a different kind of dance (invented by superstar Psy), which opened the door for K-pop to gain greater global recognition. Major K-pop concerts often take place at Seoul’s KSPO Dome and Gocheok Sky Dome, as well as the Inspire Arena in Incheon.

Head south to Yongin, a satellite city of Seoul whose Korean Folk Village has appeared in many local TV dramas.Throughout the year at folk villages and palaces across South Korea, you’ll see people dressed in traditional hanbok (Korean clothing), typically a two-part ensemble decorated with elaborate patterns. In fact, don hanbok to visit Gyeongbokgung or Changdeokgung palaces and you’ll be allowed to enter for free. This style of dress has even become well known globally, thanks to the meteoric rise of K-dramas.

Known as Hallyu (aka the Korean Wave), Korea’s prodigious output of Western-influenced K-pop and K-dramas over the past decades has placed it in the global cultural zeitgeist. This phenomenon began in the early 2000s with series such as Winter Sonata (2002), filmed on Nami Island, near Chuncheon, which gained widespread popularity across Asia. Filming locations have put many areas on the tourism map, particularly in Busan, South Korea’s second city.

Thanks to its beach lifestyle, Busan is decidedly laid-back compared to Seoul, with trendy restaurants and a lively nightlife scene.This is especially true of the white sands of Haeundae Beach, which have featured in everything from The King: Eternal Monarch to Hollywood’s Black Panther.

Around three hours east of Busan, Yeosu is the latest city to attract visitors on K-drama pilgrimages. Top cultural attractions include Arte MuseumYeosu, the street art of Angel Mural Village and Admiral Yi Sun-Shin Square. At the latter, you’ll find a statue of the Korean seafaring hero, subject of numerous period dramas, including The Admiral: Roaring Currents, plus a replica of one of his revered turtle ships (Joseon-era battleships).

Off screen (this page; clockwise from top) The TV series Squid Game is one of South Korea’s most popular cultural exports; one of the traditional buildings in Namsangol Hanok Village; a monument to the breakout success of the song Gangnam Style in Seoul; (opposite page; clockwise from top) a GangnamDol of BTS on Seoul’s K-Star Road; Jogyesa Temple’s Lantern Festival; the view from N Seoul Tower; K-Star Road is home to many of Korea’s biggest entertainment companies

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From Hanbok to Hallyu

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Take in the view from N Seoul Tower

N Seoul Tower is a national landmark that has featured in many Korean dramas and movies.

The mountain it crowns, Namsan (meaning South Mountain; 243m), lies at the core of the capital, and its parkland is covered in forest and bisected by parts of the old city wall. Cable cars run to the summit from Myeongdong, the commercial district synonymous with Hallyu and home to the Star Avenue tunnel, a local take on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame with walls boasting signed celebrity handprints.

The tower practically doubles the mountain’s elevation, giving you panoramic views of Seoul from the viewing platform. From here it’s possible to see the mountains cradling the city to the north and the broad sweep of the Han River to the south. If you’re feeling peckish after all that walking, pay a visit to Korea House, a traditional Korean restaurant in a heritage building just outside Namsangol Hanok Village. nseoultower.co.kr ⊲

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Active

FRANCE

With the Olympics taking over Paris and beyond this summer, we pick 20 ways to get outdoors in France – from riding a vintage moped through the vineyards of the Loire to sailing the gulf off southern Brittany Compiled by Nicola Williams

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Wander contemporary art and historical sites in Nantes, Pays de la Loire

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Explore the history and culture of the handsome city of Nantes, the Breton capital until 1532, by taking a 19km urban walk, following a pea-green line painted underfoot.

Known as Le Voyage à Nantes, this whimsical trail (levoyageanantes.fr) zips up staircases and alongside the Loire river, crossing café terraces and squares, wandering courtyards and the walls of Nantes’ mighty Château des Ducs de Bretagne (pictured below), and even pays a visit to a heritage biscuit factory.

Join the dots to explore 120 outdoor art works and dozens more ephemeral installations while dipping a toe in local history. To get started, pick up trail maps at the tourist office, go online or just look for the green line.

Also try… Keep an eye out for urban walks in Lille, Grenoble and Clermont-Ferrand.

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Purring past vines on the back of an old Solex is exhilarating. At the Domaine de Pied Flond winery (piedflond.fr), near Angers, seventh-generation winegrowers Franck and Catherine Gourdon run moped tours of their estate.With no licence required to join, they’re open to anyone.

Solex bikes were built between 1946 and 1988 in Normandy, and gained a certain cinematic cool in the ’70s when they were ridden by the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Steve McQueen.

It’s a stylish way to explore the vineyard, with stops explaining how overripened chenin blanc grapes are made into naturally fermented AOC Coteaux du Layon wines, culminating in an all-important tasting session at the end.

Also try… Head to the hilly Lubéron area of Provence for vineyard tours by Citroën 2CV or hot air balloon.

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Cruise through the vineyards of the Loire Valley on a vintage moped