Travel

By Jack Souther "So sorry — only teachers on this trip. Maybe you go later." And so it was that my intrepid traveling companion waved goodbye at YVR and took off for China on her own.

By Mitchell Smyth Meridian Writers’ Group SINTRA, Portugal—The year is 1809.

By Mitchell Smyth Meridian Writers’ Group FOYNES, Ireland—As you walk down the main street — pretty well the only street — of this seaside village, it’s hard to believe that it once was as well known to air travellers as Heathrow is today.

Photo and story by Mitchell Smyth Meridian Writers’ Group COBH, Ireland—Annie Moore and her young brothers Anthony and Philip stand on the pier. Anthony points out to sea while Annie looks wistfully inland, toward the home she’ll never see again.

Story and photos by Alison Lapshinoff Pressing down on my shoulders were three litres of water, two litres of wine, a tent, sleeping bag and stove, a bag of food, my clothes and a small bottle of whiskey.

By Peter Neville-Hadley Meridian Writers’ Group CHELTENHAM, England—One of the last surviving sites of the ancient sport of deer coursing, Lodge Park, about 25 kilometres east of Cheltenham, has itself to be hunted down.

Betty Davenport and her son Bill continue to operate the world’s oldest family-owned magic shop, opened by Betty’s grandfather in 1898.

By Jack Souther With her blasphemous captain lashed to the helm and her ghostly crew battling a perpetual gale the Flying Dutchman is doomed to sail until judgment day into the teeth of a storm without ever rounding the Cape of Good Hope.

Story and photos by Allison Gagnon Tucked away, along the rolling hillsides and behind the vast, dark mountains of Croatia, I found an untouched piece of paradise.

Story and photos by Jack Souther I must have read these words a dozen times before I came to Africa.