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To design a map of the world is no easy task. Because maps represent the spherical Earth in 2D form, they cannot help but be distorted,
which is why Greenland and Antarctica usually look far more gigantic
than they really are, while Africa appears vastly smaller than its true
size. The AuthaGraph World Map tries to correct these issues, showing
the world closer to how it actually is in all its spherical glory.
Created by Hajime Narukawa at Keio University's Graduate
School of Media and Governance in Tokyo, the design just won the grand
prize from Japan’s Good Design Award as Spoon & Tamago reports. It beat out over 1000 entries in a variety of categories.
Unlike the Mercator projection, the 1569 mapping technique
that you'd probably recognize from the world maps you saw in school,
the continents on the AuthaGraph aren’t lined up straight across—they’re
angled in a way that provides a more accurate representation of the
distances between them. “AuthaGraph faithfully represents all oceans
[and] continents, including the neglected Antarctica,” according to the
Good Design Awards, and provides “an advanced precise perspective of our
planet.” No longer does Africa look the same size as North America, or
Antarctica look like one of the biggest continents (it’s smaller than
everything but Europe and Australia).
The map—which is used in Japanese textbooks—can be fit into different shapes without losing its accuracy, and AuthaGraph sells
paper assembly kits where you can fold it from a sphere to a cone to a
flat map, mimicking the way the projection itself is made.
Explorers in the Czech Republic have just completed an expedition to
the underwater cave Hranická Propast - also known as the Hranice Abyss -
verifying for the first time since its discovery in 1999 that it really
is the deepest underwater cave on Earth.
The team, led by Polish diver Krzysztof Starnawski, managed to reach a
depth of 404 metres (1,325 feet) using a remotely operated vehicle
(ROV), which means this limestone cavern is 12 metres (39 feet) deeper
than the second deepest underwater cave that we know of - Italy’s Pozzo
del Merro.
The most recent expedition, which was sponsored in part by National Geographic, is the result of over two years of diving. Back in 2014, Starnawski thought he had reached the bottom of the cave at a depth of 200 metres (656 feet).
As Kat Long reports for National Geographic, with
further investigation, Starnawski found an extremely narrow 'squeeze
passage' that gave way to a gigantic, pitch black, vertical tunnel,
which he tried to explore with a probe, but ran out of line at a depth
of 384 metres (1,260 feet).
In 2015,
Starnawski conducted another dive in the cave, revealing that the
passage he managed to stick a probe through last time had widened, which
allowed him to actually swim through.
While inside this black abyss, he managed to reach a depth of 265
metres (869 feet) where he unleashed another probe, finally managing to
reach somthing solid at a total depth of 370 metres (1,214 feet) -
possibly landing on top of fallen debris.
According to Long,
during the most recent expedition last week, the team managed to use an
ROV to fully explore the cave, verifying that it is, in fact, the
deepest known cave in the world, at a depth of 404 metres (1,325 feet).
"As the expedition leader for the last several years, I've prepared
the equipment and the route in and out for the ROV’s dive, so the ROV
could go beyond the limits of a human diver, and get through the
restricted passage and between the fallen logs and trees," Starnawski told National Geographic.
For this expedition,
he dived down to 200 metres (656 feet) to affix a guideline for the ROV
to follow. His team deployed the ROV, and he accompanied it down to 60
metres (197 feet). "From there, the team at the surface navigated it, via fibre-optic
cable, down along my new line to 200 metres deep. Then it went down to
explore the uncharted territory - to the record-breaking depth of 404
metres," he told National Geographic.
"The ROV that reached 404 metres has a depth gauge that was tested
and certified by our state commission, so we are 100 percent sure the
measurements were accurate."
While the team is sure that the cave is the deepest known in the
world, there are still many things to learn about it. It's thought that
the limestone cavern was created by bubbling hot mineral water
filled with carbon dioxide that slowly formed a tunnel over time, but
further research is needed to fully understand its formation.
More
than 300 streams and rivers flow into Lake Baikal, but there is just one outlet,
the Angara.
The
water in the lake creates a mild microclimate around its shores.
More
than half the species found in Lake Baikal are unique to this place.
Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest
and deepest freshwater lake, curves for nearly 400 miles through south-eastern
Siberia, north of the Mongolian border.
It lies in a cleft where Asia is
literally splitting apart, the beginnings of a future ocean. Geologists say Baikal today shows
what the seaboards of North America, Africa and Europe looked like as they began
to separate millions of years ago.
More than 5,000 feet deep (1637m)
at its most profound, with another four-mile-thick layer of sediment further
down, the lake’s cold, oxygen-rich waters teem with bizarre
life-forms. One of those is the seals’
favourite food, the golomyanka, a pink, partly transparent fish which gives
birth to live young. Geologists estimate that Lake Baikal formed somewhere 20-25
million years ago, during the Mesozoic.
Surrounded by mile-high
snowcapped mountains, Lake Baikal still offers vistas of unmatched beauty. The
mountains are still a haven for wild animals, and the small villages are still
outposts of tranquillity and self-reliance in the remote Siberian taiga, as the
forest is called. Lake Baikal, formed 25 million
years ago, provides a haven for 1,200 animal species, 600 types of plants, and
the world’s only freshwater seals.
Of these plants and animals, 75
percent are found only in the Lake Baikal region, making its preservation
crucial.
Some of Baikal’s fish can survive
more than one mile beneath the surface, despite the incredible water pressure at
that depth.
They are so well-adapted to these
pressures that they will literally explode if brought to the surface, where the
pressure is dramatically different.
Out of all the animals living in
the Lake Baikal, the most interesting are the fresh water seals.
Scientists still have not
determined how the seals got to Lake Baikal, although it is supposed that they
travelled here in prehistoric times from the Arctic through a river.
The nerpas – how they are often
called – differ in many aspects from the Arctic seals as they have adapted to
the Baikal climate.
For example they have more blood,
which makes it possible to them to swim for more than 70 minutes. They can also
travel at great depths, sometimes reaching depths of 300 meters under the
surface.
One of the most bizarre fish that
lives in Lake Baikal is the golomyanka (oil-fish). The golomyanka has no scale
and a translucent body. It can swim at depths of more than 1000
metres.
The omul is the most popular fish
in Lake Baikal and you will find it in most tourist towns as it is the main food
supply of the locals.
Because it is situated in a
pretty remote location in Siberia, Lake Baikal is not frequented by many
tourists.
However, there are some places
where you could stay and visit the surroundings of the lake. By far the most popular
destination for tourists is the village of Listvyanka. It is located less than 2
hours away from Irkutsk, a city which is served by international
airlines.
Listvyanka has a number of good
hotels and it is also the preferred destination of locals. Much further from Irkutsk lies
the town of Severobaikalsk, on the northern shores of Lake Baikal.
There are also many islands on
Lake Baikal. Out of them, by far the most popular is the island of Olkhon, a big
island with several villages.
The traditional lifestyle of
locals around the Baikal endures, revolving around the lake and its
bounty.
Most local people live on a diet
that consists largely of fish.
Roads from the major city of
Irkutsk into the lake region are dotted with stands where elderly women bundled
up against the cold sell warm, freshly-smoked fish.
Visiting Baikal in the summer, it
is almost impossible to imagine that for five months of the year the lake is
covered by metres of ice.
The freeze begins in November and
ships head for the sanctuary of Irkutsk’s harbour.
During the Russo-Japanese War in
1904-05, the lake’s ice was so thick that the Russians were able to lay a
railway straight across it and transport supplies to the battle front throughout
the winter.
Half the water flowing into the
lake comes down the Selenga River in the southeast. The rest comes from more than 330
other rivers and streams, many of them flowing from the surrounding
mountains. Lake Baikal’s only outlet is the
Angara River, which flows westward from the lake’s southwestern end.
Lake Baikal has about 45 islands
and islets, of which the two biggest are Olkhon, about 270 square miles (700
square kilometers) in area, and Great Ushkany, which covers only about 3.6
square miles (9.4 square kilometers).
Olkhon is a region of forests and
grasslands that supports deer, brown bears, and a wide range of
birds.
Great Ushkany is rocky, the site
of the largest rookery of Baikal seals. Many of the other islands are little
more than rocks, used as roosts by water birds.
The tallest waterfall in the world is
Venezuela's Angel Falls, which plunges 3,212 feet (979 meters), according to the
National Geographic Society.
The falls descend over the edge of Auyán-Tepuí,
which means Devil's Mountain, a flat-topped elevated area of land with sheer
cliff sides located in Canaima National Park in the Bolivar State of
Venezuela.
Angel Falls is named after an
American explorer and bush pilot, Jimmy Angel, who crashed his plane on
Auyán-Tepuí in 1937.
The waterfall is fed by the Churún River, which spills over
the edge of the mountain, barely touching the cliff face. The height of the fall
is so great that the stream of water atomizes into a cloud of mist, then trickles back together at the bottom of the
plunge and continues on through a cascading run of
rapids.
Angel Falls' total height, which is
more than a half-mile (almost 1 kilometer), includes both the free-falling
plunge and a stretch of steep rapids at its base. But even discounting these
rapids, the falls' long uninterrupted drop of 2,648 feet (807 m) is still a
record breaker and is around 15 times the height of North America's Niagara
Falls, according to the World Waterfall Database, a website maintained
by waterfall enthusiasts. [See Stunning 360-Degree Views of Spectacular Victoria Falls.]
However, Angel Falls is only the tallest
waterfall on land. Technically, the largest known waterfall lies underwater,
between Greenland and Iceland.
The Denmark Strait cataract is more than three
times the height of Angel Falls, dropping water a whopping 11,500 feet (3,505
m).
The underwater waterfall is formed by the
temperature difference between the water on each side of the Denmark Strait.
When the colder, denser water from the east meets the warmer, lighter water from
the west, the cold water flows down and underneath the warm
water.
The Denmark Strait cataract is also
the the top waterfall in terms of volume, carrying 175 million cubic feet (5.0
million cubic meters) of water.
Back on land, pinpointing the largest waterfall
is a little trickier because there is no universal standard for designating what
counts as a waterfall, according to the World Waterfalls
Database.
Some waterfalls consist of a single, sheer
drop; others include a gentler cascade over rapids; and still others involve a
combination of the two (like Angel Falls).
The World Waterfalls Database lists Inga
Falls, an area of rapids on the Congo River, as the waterfall with the largest
volume. More than 11 million gallons (46 million liters) of water flow through
Inga Falls each second. However, without a significant vertical drop, Inga Falls
may not count as a waterfall under other classifications.
Of waterfalls that do include a vertical
drop, the waterfall with the greatest volume is the 45-foot-tall (14 meters)
Khone Falls, on the border between Laos and Cambodia. Spilling 2.5 million
gallons (9.5 million liters) of the Mekong River every second, Khone Falls' flow
is nearly double the volume of Niagara Falls.
This article was first published on Aug.
10, 2010. Live Science writer Kacey Deamer contributed to an update of this
article.
[....] National Geographic Travel photography captures the awe-inspiring
diversity of the world’s people, places and cultures. For the first time
ever, National Geographic will name the grand prize-winner the 2016
National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year and recognize the
most compelling travel photography taken in the past two years. “Our Travel Photographer of the Year
program is a way to show that our readers are among the world’s best
travelers and photographers,” said George Stone, editor in chief of
National Geographic Travel. “We are passionate about visual storytelling
and we hope that our contest will inspire our global audience to
explore the planet and use photography to tell amazing stories.” [....]
From the top:
Terraced Village in the Mist: Bornier captured
this image in the early morning. It took him one week to get “the right mood of
light and fog”. Location: Guizhou, China. Photo and caption by Thierry
Bornier.
Mystic shed: A cold night on the top of this
hill in Lapland, near the Russian border waiting for the dancing lights in the
sky. All around, snow ghost are watching, standstill. Location: Lapland,
Finland. Photo and caption by Pierre Destribats
Fascination Cherry blossoms like a Japanese
painting:The smoke of the bonfire of old paper charms has brought a fantastic
effect. Location: Minobu, Yamanashi, Japan. Photo and caption by Katsuyoshi
Nakahara.
Moment of Impact: Two lions fighting in the
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa. I photographed the lions with
back-light to have the dust illuminated and show the action in this scene. The
lions were actually play-fighting and gave some opportunity to photograph
interaction. Location: the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa. Photo and
caption by Jaco Marx.
The Wave: Long drive and long hike but it was
truly worth to see this scenery. The shutter sound was echoing around. It was my
pleasure to frame this moment. Location: Utah. Photo and caption by Kenji
Yamamura.
On Guard: This picture was taken during Mt.
Bromo eruption. The horse seems a little agitated due to the sound of the
eruption. Location: Probolinggo, East Java, Indonesia. Photo and caption by
Reynold Dewantara.
Star Dune: This photo is shot shortly after
sunrise at mesquite dunes. George Lucas has chosen this location for some scenes
of Star Wars. The blue background is not the sky. These are mountains in the
distance. Location: Death Valley, California. Photo and caption by Johannes Öhl.
Sometimes science is a treasure hunt, and the only
clues you
have to guide you are a hand-drawn map and a brief, 40-year-old
scientific paper
that suggests something amazing might be found somewhere under the
ocean. And then you go look, and you actually find that something
amazing.
A recent paper
published in the journal Science Advances describes the discovery of a
600-mile-long (966-kilometer-long) coral reef
system in the Atlantic Ocean, under the muddy plume of the Amazon River. It
was overlooked for so long because corals reefs are generally known for preferring
shallow, clear water, and conditions at the mouth of the Amazon have more
commonly been described as "turbid" or even "goopy."
"You don't really look for things unless you think it's
possible they could be there," says oceanographer Patricia Yager of the
University of Georgia, one of the principal investigators on the study.
In 2012, Yager and her research team received funding to go
to the mouth of the Amazon to study how the nutrient-rich plume of the world's
largest river affects the ocean. In order to study the plume, she had to get
permission from the Brazilian Navy, who required that she bring on several
Brazilian scientists as collaborators. One of these was a reef ecologist named
Rodrigo Moura, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
"At the planning meeting for this cruise we were going
to take around the mouth of the Amazon, I sat next to Rodrigo," says
Yager. "When he told me what he did, I was a little confused. 'You're a
reef ecologist? What are you going to do on this cruise?' It's really muddy out
there, you know.' He smiled and handed me a paper from 1977. It's only about
four pages long with a hand-drawn map. It said they found reef fish and sponges
out there. The dot on the map where this stuff was found turned out to be about
20 miles across when I put it into Google Maps, but we decided to just take a
look around."
Moura spent the cruise reading
the conditions of the sea floor until he found a spot hard enough to
support a coral reef. There, the team put a dredge down in the water and pulled
up a sample of what was underneath the boat.
"When they pulled up the dredge and brought it on
board, I was flabbergasted," says Yager. "It wasn't anything you'd
imagine was down there. We pulled up some of the most amazing things I've ever
seen on an expedition: coral, colorful sponges, fish, brittle stars."
Spectacular viewing! The dwellings are called yurts. They look very cosy and inviting.People in the west are also making new versions. More about Mongolian yurts here.
Filmmaker Brandon Li captures life in western Mongolia in his film
Nomads of Mongolia. Watch the nomadic Kazakh people train eagles to
hunt, herd yaks, and race camels in this visually stunning short.
Filmmaker John Duncan used drones, DJI Inspire 1 and DJI Phantom 3, to
capture Scotland's incredible wilderness in this aerial video. Taking
you across the country to sites like the Highlands and Islands on the
west coast and John O'Groats and North Berwick on the east, experience
some of the region's most beautiful scenery.
The
Short Film Showcase spotlights exceptional short videos created by
filmmakers from around the web and selected by National Geographic
editors. We look for work that affirms National Geographic's mission of
inspiring people to care about the planet. The filmmakers created the
content presented, and the opinions expressed are their own, not those
of the National Geographic Society.
You know the drill. Sharp suit, deadly
mission, chic companion. On Monday, SPECTRE – the 24th James Bond film, and
Daniel Craig’s fourth in the firing line – will be released. But whichever
actor has stared down the barrel in the past 53 years – and however high the
body count – 007 has long proved a compelling inspiration for travel, his duty
to queen and country flinging him from Arctic ice to tropical jungle and
everywhere in between. Indeed, each of the Bond films provides a reason to
reach for your passport and fly away – without any requirement to wrestle with
your foes over a giant shark tank.
1. Dr No
(1962)
Much of 007’s first escapade takes place
on the north coast of Jamaica. Scenes involving Ursula Andress as Honey Rider
were filmed at Dunn’s River Falls, near Ocho Rios, and at Laughing Waters
Beach, where her emergence from the sea in a white bikini would come to define
Bond-Girl glamour. Ian Fleming had links to the area. His home, Goldeneye,
where he wrote 14 of the books, still sits at Oracabessa, now reimagined as a
luxury hotel. Nights in the Fleming Villa start at $5,500 (£3,584) a night.
Other properties on site cost from $620 per night (goldeneye.com).
2. From
Russia with Love (1963)
Sean Connery’s second outing with the
Beretta makes use of Istanbul and Venice. But the story accelerates in the
moments set (though not shot) on the Orient Express – from the former city to
the latter. The scheduled train no longer exists, but its luxury successor, the
Venice Simplon-Orient-Express ( belmond.com), will run a rare
Istanbul-Bucharest-Budapest-Venice service next autumn (September 2-7). The
starting price of £8,559 per person includes hotels in the Romanian and
Hungarian capitals (but no flights).
3. Goldfinger
(1964)
One of the classics of the franchise,
the third Bond film is based around an assault on Fort Knox and its gold reserves,
and thus plays out in Kentucky. The real stronghold appears on camera in
exterior shots, while the US state’s biggest city Louisville (Auric Goldfinger
has a stud farm nearby) and its sibling Lexington (which markets itself as “The
Horse Capital of the World”) also grace the screen. America As You Like It (020
8742 8299; americaasyoulikeit.com)
offers a 14-night “Bourbon, Bluegrass and Blues” road trip which calls at both
as it charts the state in detail. From £1,260 a head including flights, car
hire and hotel accommodation.
4.
Thunderball (1965)
A plot by crime syndicate SPECTRE
involving stolen nuclear weapons drags Bond to the Bahamas for a film partly
shot on New Providence Island – in the capital Nassau (where the devices are
hidden on the seabed), and at Love Beach (a key scene with the siren Domino).
Thomas Cook Signature (thomascook.com)
offers breaks a short hop from the latter at Sandals Royal Bahamian Spa Resort.
A seven-night, all-inclusive holiday, flying from Heathrow on December 4, costs
from £2,553 per person, with transfers.
5. You Only
Live Twice (1967)
Japan provided the setting for Connery’s
penultimate hurrah – via a car chase through the Akasaka district of Tokyo and
007’s visit to a ninja training school that, in real life, is the fortress of
Himeji Castle, near Kobe. This 14th-century hilltop complex appears with the
capital in the “World Heritage” tour sold by Inside Japan Tours (insidejapantours.com), an 18-day
private trip which also visits Kyoto and Hiroshima. From £2,270 a head (two
sharing), including internal travel, but not international flights.
6. On Her
Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
George Lazenby’s one crack at playing
007 involves one of the most famous skiing set pieces in the Bond canon, the
spy racing down from a snowbound bunker founded by SPECTRE supremo Ernst
Blofeld atop Switzerland’s Schilthorn peak. The location is meant to be St
Moritz, but is actually the Muerren ski zone in the Bernese Oberland, with the
Piz Gloria summit restaurant reimagined as the criminal genius’s lair. A
seven-night, half-board break at the four-star Hotel Eiger in Muerren, flying from
Gatwick to Geneva on January 9, including ski pass, costs from £1,115 a head
via Inghams (inghams.co.uk).
7. Diamonds
Are Forever (1971)
Another elaborate SPECTRE grand design
involving smuggled gemstones and atomic weaponry has Bond prowling Las Vegas,
staying at the Tropicana Hotel and searching for clues amid the glitter of the
Circus Circus casino. Unusually for a city where the past is bulldozed with
regularity, both properties still exist. Virgin Holidays (virginholidays.co.uk) offers escapes to
the latter – with a seven-night stay (room only), flying from Gatwick on
November 21, costing from £965 per person (two sharing).
8. Live and
Let Die (1973)
Roger Moore’s first shift in the lead
role pins its tale of Caribbean dictators and voodoo to the fictional island of
San Monique, but dips into the real world in Louisiana – not least New Orleans,
where Bourbon Street revels in its up-all-night image, and Chartres Street
hosts one of the dastardly Kananga’s heroin-dealing eateries. North America
Travel Service (northamericatravelservice.co.uk)
offers a 12-day “Louisiana Sampler” road trip, which starts in the Big Easy
before ticking off Baton Rouge and Lafayette. From £1,885 per person, with
flights, car and lodging.
9. The Man
with the Golden Gun (1974)
Christopher Lee steals the show as the
titular assassin, but is ably assisted by Thailand, where the limestone islets
of Phang Nga Bay – Khao Phing Kan (now commonly called “James Bond Island”) and
Ko Tapu – make a superb setting for his lair. Elegant Resorts (elegantresorts.co.uk) offers holidays
at the five-star Wanakarn Beach Resort & Spa, an easy, 40-mile drive from
the bay. Seven-night breaks cost from £2,115 a head (two sharing), with
flights, breakfast and transfers.
10. The Spy
Who Loved Me (1977)
The plotline may involve an implausible
baddy making mischief in an underwater “Atlantis”, but The Spy Who Loved Me
takes Roger Moore to two of Egypt’s greatest sites – the vast religious complex
of Abu Simbel on the bank of Lake Nasser, and its sibling, the Karnak temple at
Luxor (the latter staging a scene where 007 and KGB agent Anya Amasova track
metal-toothed rogue Jaws between ancient pillars). Both places crop up on “Gift
of the Nile”, a seven-night, full-board cruise by Voyages Jules Verne vjv.com). Three sailings are
due in December, from £845 per person, including flights.
11. Moonraker
(1979)
The main moments of this space-race yarn
have Bond journeying to Brazil to fight with the indestructible Jaws on the
cable-car to Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro before cutting a dash to the
breathless splash and crash of Iguazu Falls on the Argentine border. Journey
Latin America (020 3582 8958; journeylatinamerica.co.uk)
can arrange a “Luxury Brazil” tour that splices both fabled Latin locations
with time on the beach at Buzios, east of Rio. From £3,176 a head (two
sharing), not including flights.
12. For Your
Eyes Only (1981)
Two years after Moonraker, Bond was back
on terra firma, chasing an old-school villain through Greece on a hunt for a
submarine trigger system. Corfu featured heavily: the pretty village of
Bouas-Danilia; the Achilleion palace, built for Austrian royalty in the 19th
century; and the soaring bell tower of the Agios Spyridon church in Corfu Town.
All can be seen easily during a stint in the sun. Villa Select villaselect.com) offers Villa Sivilla,
which peers at Corfu Town from Nisaki, on the east coast. It sleeps eight in
four bedrooms and can be rented in April from £395 a week (without flights).
13. Octopussy
(1983)
Bond goes to India for this bout of
cat-and-mouse with antique-dealing malefactor Kamal Khan – tailing his target
through Rajasthan. Udaipur shines on screen, particularly in the form of the
Monsoon Palace, a jewel of a building created for the ruling Mewar dynasty in
1884. Cox & Kings (coxandkings.co.uk)
serves up a 15-day “Classic Rajasthan” private tour, which spends two days in
Udaipur before crossing the state for time in Jodhpur and Jaipur (as well as
Delhi). From £1,695 per person, including flights.
14. A View to
a Kill (1985)
Moore’s final assignment was to battle
Christopher Walken’s enigmatic baddy Max Zorin – whose plans to destroy Silicon
Valley found much of their momentum in San Francisco. The film’s fire-engine
chase scene barged its way down 3rd Street Bridge and 3rd Street, and in the
grand finale Bond and Zorin fight to the death on the cables of the Golden Gate
Bridge. A seven-night, room-only break at the four-star Sheraton Fisherman’s
Wharf, close to the heart of this action, flying from Heathrow on April 23,
costs from £1,400 a head (two sharing) through British Airways Holidays (ba.com/holidays).
15. The
Living Daylights (1987)
Timothy Dalton’s first appearance as
Bond was a classic tussle with Russian spies that set much of its story in
Vienna during the fading hours of the Cold War. The Austrian capital showed its
face via the likes of the Schoenbrunn Palace (a 17th-century Baroque joy),
leafy Prater Park and the Volksoper opera house (pretending to be in
Bratislava, over the Iron Curtain). Kirker Holidays (kirkerholidays.com) is offering three
nights at Vienna’s four-star Altstadt hotel from £698 a head, with flights,
transfers and breakfast.
16. Licence
to Kill (1989)
Dalton’s second outing in the tuxedo
pitched its struggle with a Latin druglord in Mexico but also found spectacular
context in the Florida Keys, via the Ernest Hemingway Museum in Key West, and
the road-trip nirvana of the Overseas Highway (with an armoured car plunging
splendidly from the road’s most photogenic stretch, Seven Mile Bridge). Bon
Voyage (0800 316 3012; bon-voyage.co.uk)
offers “The Florida Keys and the Incredible Overseas Highway”, a nine-day,
fly-drive package that blazes south from Miami. From £1,795 a head, with
flights, hotels and hire of a convertible.
17. Goldeneye
(1995)
The Pierce Brosnan era arrived in style
with a bungee-jump down the Verzasca Dam, in southern Switzerland (trekking.ch; from 195 Swiss
Francs/£132). But Goldeneye asserted its post-Cold War credentials with scenes
shot in St Petersburg – taking in the Hermitage, the broad avenue of Nevsky
Prospekt, Dvortsovaya Square, and a tank chase that barrelled along the Moika
Canal. Regent Holidays (regent-holidays.co.uk)
offers three-night stays at the city’s gilded Hotel Astoria, from £745 a head,
with flights and breakfast.
18. Tomorrow
Never Dies (1997)
Brosnan’s battle with Jonathan Pryce’s
media mogul Elliot Carver blurred its Far Eastern coordinates (set in Vietnam,
filmed in Thailand), but created one of the best car chases of the series in
Europe, with Bond piloting a BMW around a multistorey car park in Hamburg by
hand-held device, then smashing it through a window on Moenckebergstrasse. The
Galeria Kaufhof department store appeared on screen, while Bond rested his head
at the Hotel Atlantic. A three-night, room-only break at this five-star dame,
flying from Gatwick on November 26, costs from £373 per head via Last Minute (lastminute.com).
19. The World
Is Not Enough (1999)
The final Bond film of the 20th century
followed From Russia with Love back to Istanbul, flickering on both sides of
the Bosporus via the Maiden’s Tower (a striking structure on an islet in the
river), and the 19th-century wonder of the Kucuksu Palace, in the Beykoz
district. Martin Randall Travel (martinrandall.com)
is offering “Istanbul – Byzantine and Ottoman Metropolis”, a seven-day group
trip which will analyse the heritage of Turkey’s greatest city next autumn
(September 27-October 3 2016), including visits to the Topkapi Palace and the
Blue Mosque, from £2,620 per person with flights.
20. Die
Another Day (2002)
Brosnan’s last stand planted its
narrative flag in North Korea and Iceland. However, it looked at its best in
Cadiz, which did an excellent impression of Havana, with Halle Berry striding
out of the sea in homage to Ursula Andress at Playa de la Caleta; the
17th-century Castillo de Santa Catalina ably impersonated the harbour walls of
the Cuban capital. This tiny sliver of a city is Spain at its most historic and
is well worth exploring. A three-night stay at the four-star Hotel Monte
Puertatierra (room only), flying from Heathrow to Jerez on November 19, starts
at £269 a head via Expedia (expedia.co.uk).
21. Casino
Royale (2006)
Enter Daniel Craig for a grittier
version of Bond which haunted Venice and Madagascar (the Bahamas doubling as
the latter), but shone brightest at Lake Como – 007 recovering from torture
amid the 18th-century majesty of Villa del Balbianello (fondoambiente.it; entry €15/£11), and
apprehending the elusive Mr White at Villa Gaeta, on the west side of the
water, near Menaggio. The latter, a one-bedroom pile, can be rented through
Lake Como Homes (020 7099 0868; lakecomohomes.com).
Four-night stays start at €1,350/£977 (without flights).
22. Quantum
of Solace (2008)
The uninspiring sequel to Casino Royale
meandered complicatedly through Italy, Austria and Haiti, but found a
widescreen arena for its denouement, with eco-villain Dominic Greene being left
to die in the Bolivian portion of the Atacama Desert, although the sequence was
filmed across the Chilean border. Explore ( explore.co.uk) will provide snapshots
of this arid realm on both sides of the frontier via “Atacama to Machu Picchu”
– a 19-day, three-country group odyssey that will also venture into Peru when
it starts its journey on March 19. From £4,290 per person (based on two
sharing), including flights.
23. Skyfall
(2012)
This Oscar winner revisited Bond staple
Istanbul and flirted with Shanghai. But its showpiece location, even if only
for exterior shots, was the island of Hashima, off Nagasaki in south-western
Japan, whose abandoned mine and empty buildings made a ghostly base for Javier
Bardem’s bad guy Raoul Silva. It can be visited from Nagasaki via Gunkanjima
Concierge (0081 95 895 9300; gunkanjima-concierge.com; £21. Audley Travel
(audleytravel.com)
offers a 17-day “Ultimate Kyushu” private tour which spends three days in the
city, from £3,165 per person, including flights.
24. SPECTRE
(2015)
This autumn’s most anticipated movie
begins with a bang, turning the camera on Day of the Dead, Mexico’s tribute to
its dearly departed (October 31-November 2). Those seeking to learn more about
this extravaganza may be attracted to the “Day of the Dead Culture and History
Tour” slated for next year (October 28-November 5) by Rainbow Tours (rainbowtours.co.uk). This
nine-day group trip will travel to Oaxaca and guests will stay in a family home
for a closer glimpse of the rituals involved. From £2,795 per person, with
flights.
And back in
London…
While his lethal wanderings have taken
him across the planet, every film, at some point, finds Bond touching base in
London. Dukes Bar, at the Dukes Hotel in Mayfair, is one place to sample the
spirit of 007. Ian Fleming used to drink here, and the bar is believed to have
been the inspiration for the line “shaken, not stirred”. Unsurprisingly, it
makes a fine fist of vodka martinis – and is serving a white truffle martini
until the end of this month. Double rooms cost from £281, accommodation only (dukeshotel.com).
