Wanderlust - Travel Stories

By Bose Creative Publishers

'Wanderlust—Travel Stories' is our publishing house's first travel stories collection. We consider this project very special since we embarked on this project during the pandemic when borders were still closed, and travelling was highly restricted. It is during this time that many of us started recollecting our travel stories, talking about trips that we had undertaken just a few years before—as if it was a distant memory we dearly wanted to hold on to. That is how we conceptualised this book. We had an open call, one author contacted another author—an ardent traveller, or a blogger, and within a year, we had over fifteen authors penning down their travel memories and exceptional experiences for this book. This book attempts to give a sense of the wealth of these solo, family, or group journeys. It is rich with anecdotes from sea voyages, hiking and biking trips, fishing and safari trips, a getaway in a resort during the pandemic, a trip to the North Pole and the South Pole, and many more unique tales of wondering and wandering. We have tried to group these geographically. The range of writeups that we received surprised us. If one story dealt with painting on a cruise ship to Antarctica, then another talked about fishing in Alaska, or restoring the dead in Indonesia; an artist spoke about his experience of painting Graffiti on a wall bordering Mexico, and a travelling spouse spoke about her memories of visiting Nelson Mandela's prison in South Africa; from a metaphysical journey in the Amazon to trekking expeditions to Armenia; from Cinque Terre in Italy to a waterfalls in Argentina, from exploring ancient forts of India, to following Napoleon Bonaparte's route across Europe on a bike. Every story is unique, and it is precisely this nostalgic and spectacular travel tale we have tried to curate and collect in this book. We wish you an exciting journey ahead. Ship Ahoy!

Publisher, July 7, 2022

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bose Creative Publishers
• Release date: Jul 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9783907328293

Bose Creative Publishers

ACT India: Ms. Nilanjana Das, Director and Chairperson, who helped us structure this book, and came forward enthusiastically to discuss the book’s proposal at its initial stage, despite the lockdown challenges in India. Asha Zurich Foundation: Dr. Pratyush Das Kanungo, Project Lead and Coordinator for outreach activities, Dr. Rajdeep Deb, President of the organization; and Dr. Sampada Bodke, Project Lead, for supporting this project and coming forward to collaborate for this book. Humane Warriors: Dr. Naveen Shamsudhin and Dr. Rhythima Shinde, Founders, who were active during the Covid-19, with their Humane Warriors team supporting the daily wage workers across India. Despite a time-crunch they contributed to this book with their timely inputs. Protsaah – Handcrafted Peace: Ms. Saloni Duggal Sreshtha, Director, who was in India to meet her artisans and was unable to fly back to Zurich due to the lockdown for a long time, despite that she took the time to contribute to this book and raise awareness for the cause. Rice Mill Social Enterprise: Ms. Ruth Mumba, Director, and Abundance Foundation’s Co-Founder Dr. Deepa Pullanikkatil who came forward to contribute to this book with their newly found project in South Africa. Touching Heart: Ms. Helen Yi, Founder and Project Lead Ms. Sumona Das, who relentlessly worked on different projects and produced hundreds of facemasks herself to combat the pandemic in the USA; helped us get the Founder’s interview for this book. Ushthi Foundation: Ms. Olga Egli, PR and Fundraising Director, who contributed with her inputs, and contacted the Founder Mr. Kurt Bürki and the Executive Director Ms. Alessandra Grosse for the interview in this book; and Ms. Mirjam Hirzel, International Project Coordinator, for her valuable thoughts and inputs.

Book preview

‘Life is a journey, not a destination" – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Copyright © 2022 by Bose Creative Publishers.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission.

Bose Creative Publishers (BCP):

A collaborative publishing platform for writers, artists, poets, and changemakers. Profits from book sales support social causes. Books are available as e-books and hardcopies in various online stores. Read more about our books, in our website.

WWW.BOSECREATIVEPUBLISHERS.CH

Social media: @bosecreativepublishers

Disclaimer: The Publisher is not liable for any opinions or facts expressed in the book, which are entirely the author’s work of fiction/non-fiction/based on true events/as mentioned by the author. The photos were sent by the authors, and the publisher is not liable for any copyright infringement. The authors and the publisher hold non-exclusive rights for usage of the photos.

Book Layout © 2017 BookDesignTemplates.com

Cover Photocredits: (c) Kaustav Ghose, Photo from Antarctica

Dedication

To those who love to wander and wonder.

Contents

America

How I got into Fishing in Alaska, USA; M.G.Bruschi

Graffiti on the Border, Mexico; P.Breu

A Metaphysical Journey, Peru; A.Kumar

Fountain of Youth and Friendship, Argentina; C.Leuzzi

Africa

Maternal Instinct, South Africa; A.Kumar

From a Snow Blizzard to the Blazing Sun, Eritrea; M.G.Bruschi

The Accidental Art Collector, Egypt; S.Bhattacharya

In the Land of Nelson Mandela, S.Africa; T.Ghosh

Asia

The Great Wall of India; C.Parameswar

Memories of Thaneerhulla Bungalow, Coorg, India; A.Ghosh

No Goodbyes, Indonesia; P.Choudhury

Europe

Ciao Bella, bella ciao, Italy; S.Bose

The Trek to Dzoraget Canyon, Armenia; M.Kalita

A Couple, the Cops, and Como, Italy; I.Barua

Cote d’azur Trip on Two Wheels, France-Italy; F.Cicek

Advice from Strangers, Turkey; A.Kumar

The Poles

Reaching the South Pole, Antarctica; Y.Ankerman

To the Ends of the World; K. Ghose

Author Profiles

Foreword

'Wanderlust—Travel Stories' is our publishing house's first travel stories collection. We consider this project very special since we embarked on this project during the pandemic when borders were still closed, and travelling was highly restricted. It is during this time that many of us started recollecting our travel stories, talking about trips that we had undertaken just a few years before—as if it was a distant memory we dearly wanted to hold on to. That is how we conceptualised this book. We had an open call, one author contacted another author—an ardent traveller, or a blogger, and within a year, we had over fifteen authors penning down their travel memories and exceptional experiences for this book. This book attempts to give a sense of the wealth of these solo, family, or group journeys. It is rich with anecdotes from sea voyages, hiking and biking trips, fishing and safari trips, a getaway in a resort during the pandemic, a trip to the North Pole and the South Pole, and many more unique tales of wondering and wandering. We have tried to group these geographically. The range of writeups that we received surprised us. If one story dealt with painting on a cruise ship to Antarctica, then another talked about fishing in Alaska, or restoring the dead in Indonesia; an artist spoke about his experience of painting Graffiti on a wall bordering Mexico, and a travelling spouse spoke about her memories of visiting Nelson Mandela's prison in South Africa; from a metaphysical journey in the Amazon to trekking expeditions to Armenia; from Cinque Terre in Italy to a waterfalls in Argentina, from exploring ancient forts of India, to following Napoleon Bonaparte’s route across Europe on a bike. Every story is unique, and it is precisely this nostalgic and spectacular travel tale we have tried to curate and collect in this book. We wish you an exciting journey ahead. Ship Ahoy!

Publisher, July 7, 2022

How I got into Fishing

Alaska, US

Maria Grazia Bruschi, USA

This story begins many years ago on a spring weekend when my husband—an avid fly-fisherman- announced that he had found a great fishing trip in Alaska and was booking the vacation for himself for that Summer. The trip sounded terrific and the location exotic – I was hooked! The five-day guided trip would start on a remote lake, where eight fly-fishermen and four guides would get on inflatable rafts and float down a river for five days until reaching the Bering Sea. At night they would set up camp by the river, have dinner and get ready for another fantastic day of fishing. 

There was only one problem: my husband said I could not come, as the trip was only for people who fished, and I didn’t! At least I hadn’t until then, but this sounded like an opportunity that was too good to pass regardless of my absolute lack of interest in fishing.

‘But I will fish!’ I cried. I guess compellingly because a few days later, we went shopping for all the necessary gear: waders, fishing vest, flyfishing rod and reel, a box of flies, sleeping bag, and everything else from a long list that the outfitter had given him.

In August 1991, we flew from New York to Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. After spending the night there, we boarded a small plane to Dillingham, a small town 600 km west of Anchorage. We boarded a 1942 Grumman Goose, an amphibious flying boat/small seaplane, with the other six guests who would become our adventure partners, and we flew for about an hour over the tundra to a lake—the starting point of the fishing trip.

Alighting on the calm lake was a unique experience— after navigating a short stretch on the lake, the plane came to a complete stop right on the gravelly beach. There we met the guides. The sleeping tents had already been set up nearby, and the fishing guides gave us a first taste of the amazing dinners we would have each night.

The day had been busy, but long as it may have felt to us, it was no match for the daylight duration at those latitudes. After spending several hours exchanging fishing stories and getting to know everyone while drinking abundantly, we gave up on waiting for darkness. By 1 am, we went to sleep with still crepuscular skies. 

The following day, the time came to act on my promise, so while the guides expertly took down the tents and efficiently packed everything in the rafts, the guests spread out along the shore and practiced our cast.  The first part of the river was relatively shallow and the water completely clear - the ideal habitat of the arctic grayling. These slim silvery fish have a large, sail-like dorsal fin and a golden belly and like to stay close to the surface. 

The guide had suggested that I use a dry fly: a hook adorned with tiny feathers or deer fur hairs, which floats and imitates a bug on the water surface.

Very soon—much sooner than expected—there was a splash, and I saw a fish go for the fly a few meters in front of me and gently but steadily pull the line. Startled, I almost let the rod go but was able to set the hook and slowly reel in and land a nice little grayling that the guide quickly released back in the river.

I had proven myself!  Not much later, we were all aboard, two guests and a guide on each raft, and started floating down the crystalline waters of the river, continuously casting our lines in the water and catching fish here and there. The landscape became more barren and silent, except for the water running over the rocks, our laughs, and our chat. Lunchtime allowed us to gather and eat sandwiches sitting by the river, sunbathe, and relax while some die-hard fishermen teased the fish and often got the upper hand.

The float down the river offered a very nicely paced ride, with a slowly changing landscape and the sound of the birds and the water flapping against the raft. The weather was variable, sometimes sunny but often overcast, hot during the day, and much cooler in the evenings.

An interesting aspect of this river is that, as we proceeded from its start at the lake to its mouth at sea—the type and size of the fish changed.  After the relatively small artic graylings of the first two days, on the third day, and as the river grew broader and deeper, we started catching chum, sockeye salmon, and arctic char. These salmon species are born in rivers and streams and migrate to the ocean immediately. They return to the rivers where they were born to spawn and die at the end of their lives. 

During this particular trip in early August, we were expecting to encounter the larger and elusive king salmon closer to the mouth of the river.  While the local regulations allow fishermen to keep some of the catch, our outfitter was a strong proponent of catch-and-release to protect the health of the river ecosystem, so practically all fish caught was put back in the water.

As is common practice in catch-and-release fishing, all hooks are barbless, so removing them from the fish without hurting them makes the fishing more challenging as it’s easier for the fish to release itself before being landed. But, what a delight to see the salmon elegantly and swiftly swim away after release! First timidly, and then with suddenly regained strength, they swim away in the crystal-clear water and to the deeper parts of the river to rest and recover.

On the third day, the fishermen were excited about catching salmon, particularly the king salmon, the largest species. Since the larger fish tend to stay in deeper water, we used larger wet flies that remain below the water surface. When wet and expertly handled through the rod movement by the fisherman, they imitate small fish swimming in the water. This makes the catching more unpredictable, as it’s difficult to see the