1. See the great migration
2. Track mountain gorillas
3. Amazon rainforest
4. Meet orang-utans
5. Go whale-watching
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Top five ocean ideas1: Learn to Scuba dive Learn to Scuba dive, and a whole new world opens up to you. Swim through vast shoals of colourful fish as they drift over rainbow jungles of coral. Meet spherical pufferfish, ornate leafy sea dragons, gentle, 12-metre-long whale sharks and hundreds of equally weird and wonderful creatures.If you're a beginner, it's possible to do a 'try dive' without any training. However, many travellers take the opportunity to get a qualification, the most popular being the PADI Open Water certificate. This involves a bit of theory and an exam, five pool dives and four open water dives. The qualification enables you to go diving with a buddy, independent of a professional. But where's the best place in the World to learn to dive? Here are our five top spots... - The Great Barrier Reef, Australia (A coral reef bigger than Britain and Ireland combined, loads of PADI courses and a great backpacker community) - Koh Tao, Thailand (Gorgous beaches, relaxed island lifestyle, loads of backpackers and very cheap) - Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia (Just a short swim from the beach in many places, with friendly giants such as whale sharks, dolphins, manta rays and turtles) - Caye Caulker, Belize (Cheap diving, great wildlife and the famous Blue Hole, the largest ocean sinkhole in the World) - The Red Sea, Egypt (Easy to get to from Britain, warm water and crystal visibility) Click here >> for more diving ideas and information Click here >> to get involved with an underwater conservation project 2: Learn to surf, Byron Bay Byron Bay is a backpacker’s paradise. Located on Australia’s East Coast, between Sydney and Brisbane, it has a seriously laid-back, hippy vibe, complete with yoga on the beach, pagan gatherings, live music festivals and more weed than you can shake a dreadlock at.It’s also a great place to learn to surf, with miles of golden sand and powerful waves. Surfing is a way of life here; so much so that Byron Bay High School has proposed introducing surfing as an approved subject which will count towards the High School Certificate. When the surf is good, the whole mood of the town is said to change. You’ll find lots of surf schools competing for your business, which keeps prices reasonable. A half-day surf lesson will set you back around £25, while a three-day course costs about £60. A day’s board hire alone is £8. Click here >> for backpacker bus tours with Oz Experience, which will take you to Byron Bay Click here >> for gapyear.com's recommended hostel in Byron Bay Click here >> for more Australia info Click here >> for longer-term surf courses and surf instructor jobs 3: Cage-dive with great white sharks Daa-dum, daa-dum, daa-dum, daa-dum...Yes folks, at number three is a face-to-face encounter with the most feared creature in the World. Travel by boat, 10km out from the coast of South Africa to Shark Alley, where great white sharks and other shark species are common. Here you’ll be lowered into the water inside a cage, where you can watch the enormous, sleek, powerful creatures as they swim around you. The more curious amongst them swim right up to the cage and look you straight in the eye. Certified Scuba divers can be lowered down in full diving gear. If you haven’t dived before, you can snorkel instead. If you find that you’ve developed a sudden allergy to water, you can watch from the boat... White Shark Ecoventures run cage-diving trips from Gansbaai, which is a two-hour drive or a short flight from Cape Town, and not far off the popular Garden Route. They offer one-day tours or multi-day packages. Prices start at £125, which includes transfers from central Cape Town, food and drink, wetsuits and diving gear. Click here >> for White Shark Ecoventures' website Click here >> for more info about travel in South Africa Click here >> for gap year placements on which you research shark behavior 4: Sail a tall ship across the Atlantic Cutting through the waves on a magnificent, 60-metre-long sailing ship, accompanied by schools of dolphins... Climbing the 45-metre mast to reach the crow’s nest... Getting up at 4am to take over the helm and seeing the sunrise over the Atlantic... if you enjoy a challenge, this is the trip of a lifetime.The Tall Ships Youth Trust invites volunteers to join its crew for a Trans-Atlantic voyage lasting 25 days. You’ll sail between Barbados and either the Azores or the Canary Islands, while playing an active role in all aspects of sailing the ship - setting the sails, taking the helm, standing watches and working in the galley. You don’t need any sailing experience, just plenty of energy and team spirit, a parrot and a big beard. OK, the last two aren’t strictly necessary... At £1,299 excluding flights, the trip doesn’t come cheap. But don’t hang up your eye-patch just yet. The Tall Ships Youth Trust has a number of volunteer support groups which may be able to help you with funding. They also have some great special offers, which it’s worth keeping an eye out for. And if you don’t fancy the Trans-Atlantic trip, they run loads of shorter voyages too. Click here >> for the Tall Ships Youth Trust Click here >> for the Jubilee Sailing Trust, a different organisation which runs tall ship voyages for disabled and able-bodied people Click here >> if you have sailing experience and fancy working on a tall ship off the coast of New Zealand 5: Swim with dolphins at Monkey Mia The beach at Monkey Mia, on Australia’s West Coast, is renowned for the wild bottle-nosed dolphins which visit daily, coming right into the shallows to play with humans and accept the odd fish. Monkey Mia is a day’s drive from Perth, with good roads all the way. You can get there by Greyhound bus, or fly from Perth to Shark Bay Airport. The only accommodation at Monkey Mia is the Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort. This has a range of accommodation styles, including a campsite and a backpackers’ lodge. Prices start at £4 per person. To hang out with the dolphins, turn up at the beach between 8am and 1pm. The beach is a nature reserve, and entry costs £2.50. Then simply chill on the white sands, swim in the aquamarine waters, and wait... Dolphin dos and don’ts - Rangers are employed in the reserve to protect the interests of the dolphins. Listen to their instructions. - Visitors are sometimes allowed to hand-feed the dolphins with fresh fish provided by the rangers; this is the only food they should be given. - Don’t hassle the dolphins by trying to touch them. Never touch their heads, especially their blowholes. - Don’t make loud noises in the water. - These are wild animals, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll feel like visiting on any particular day. Visits are less frequent in November - mating season - when they have other things on their minds. Click here >> for the Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort Click here >> for more Australia information Click here >> for gap year placements working with dolphins and researching their behaviour |
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