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A week ago, I published a post on ‘My most magical travel experience‘. This was a compilation of posts written by seven of my facebook friends. Several readers asked what my most magical travel experiences were. It’s so hard to choose – there were so many. In that sense, I can absolutely relate to the predicament faced by the contributors to the post last week. After much thought, I’ve narrowed it down to three:

Summer flight from Vancouver to Amsterdam

The cabin was quiet. I couldn’t sleep so I checked the flight path – we were above Baffin island in northeastern Canada. I raised the shutter and watched the sun slowly dip its head below the horizon, casting an intense reddish, golden glow across the vast icy landscape. No sooner had the sun disappeared, it rose again. Within a few minutes, the sky was illuminated with fresh, warm hues of pink and orange. Pure magic!

Swimming with dolphins, Curaçao

I had my fins on and I was ready to go. We jumped into the water and looked around for the dolphins. Two dolphins broke the surface of the water a few yards to my left, whistling cheerfully. It was amazing to see these gorgeous creatures up close. I suddenly felt a nudge in my back. I turned around and a third dolphin looked at me. Her playful eyes sparkled with glee. She shoved her fin under my left arm as if to say, “Come on, let’s go for a ride”. I grabbed her fin and off we went, ‘hand in hand’.

Whitsunday sailingSailing trip around the Whitsunday islands, Australia

It was a warm night. I stretched out on my thin mattress on the deck. Waves gently rocked the boat and in the distance, I could see the twinkling lights of other boats anchored in the little harbour. I turned my gaze to the majestic star-studded sky above. The constellation of Scorpio, with its long curly tail, was unmistakable. A shooting star streaked across the velvety black sky. Then another and another. I didn’t make a wish. I’d never felt so blessed.

15 Responses

  • Hi Luciana,
    Thanks for your comment. Yes, looks like I’ll have to do another ‘magical experiences’ post to include ones from the past year! 🙂

    Cheers,
    Keith

  • Swimming with dolphins like that seems amazing! Wow! I was surprised you didn’t list the aurora borealis in Finland, I remember reading it here a while ago and I thought it was something magical!

    And on your flight: that’s one of the reasons I enjoy flying during the day, I can still remember flying over the Amazon back in 1998, it was amazing!

  • Great experiences, I have never been to Australia, but I’ve heard great things about Curacao.
    Nice pictures!!!

  • Hi Diana,
    Thank you for your lovely comment. It’s the small things or fleeting moments that indeed stay with us forever.
    Thanks for sharing your magical moment.

    Cheers,
    Keith

  • I think it’s interesting – the singular things that somehow imprint in our memories of travels. They are rarely grand, and they are almost always personal. When I read the entry about the flight from Vancouver to Amsterdam, I remembered one of my moments – flying from Philadelphia to Vancouver, my first transcontinental flight many years ago. Flying over the Cascades literally took my breath away, I had never seen mountain ranges from that perspective before. It still gets to me when I make the short jaunt over the Alps from Milan to Frankfurt.

    I love that you pay attention to these moments. In the end, they are really what make travel so important and valuable and life-changing.

  • Wow, thank you Beverly for your lovely comment. Really appreciate it… as it’s comments like yours that motivate me! Thank you!

    Warm regards,
    Keith

  • From reading your blogs I know you have had many magical travel moments, but every time you share one with such lovely prose, it is a motivation to those who have not had the pleasure, and stirs a memory for those who have. We thank you for sharing.

  • OMG, with experiences like these, it is indeed hard to pick one favourite travel moment! All 3 you mentioned above are truly, truly magical! You described it so well that I actually feel like I was there with you, experiencing the beauty!!

  • WOW, those seriously are magical experiences!!! Ahhh, I LOVE traveling! I have been to Oz so many times and each time I wanted to visit the Whitsundays, but I never could find the time. So sad!

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