Five Wild Travel Ideas for 2018.

Putting the risk back into travel for 2018 isn’t as crazy as it sounds. It’s the swing of fashion, like the hem on your trousers, the inevitable counterpoint when every luxury resort stars to look and feel like nothing more than an eye-watering price tag. Make this the year to throw off the anchor, and leave Ibiza in your wake. Only with risk does serendipity find its way back into your downtime. Only by travelling the holes in the map will you drink with shamans in the Mongolian steppe, or camp on the edge of a lava lake in Africa’s Great Rift. We need wilderness like we need the air to breathe – to remind us of the size and power of a magical planet called Earth.

Deep into Siberia you will find the oldest, deepest freshwater lake in the world where a relic species of seal, round as a football, got locked in during the great continental shifts. Frozen over in winter, Baikal’s surface thickens to a metre or more of cobalt ice, which you can traverse by fat-bike, dog sled, or foot. For those who are a little nervous of a split in the ice, take a hovercraft, relying on the skills of hardened, life-loving Siberians who will not only see you safe, but will provide barbecues in the snow and vodka shots when the temperature tips to -30ºC.

**baigaltravel.ru **

On the eastern edge of the Democratic Republic of the Congo lies a bubbling giant, Nyiragongo volcano. This extraordinary peak sequesters within its crater rim the largest lava lake in the world. You can trek up to it, through Virunga National Park, bringing sleeping bags and food. Shelter is provided by a row of simple A-frame huts the park authorities have built on the edge of this bubbling cauldron. At night, the light show begins: a gloopy glow of red, the shifting lava a spectral experience that brings you closer to the heart of this planet than anywhere else.

naturalworldsafaris.com

Papua New Guinea is the ultimate terra incognita. This was where a Rockefeller disappeared, and only this winter, the British explorer, Mr Benedict Allen, was reported lost in the jungle (he reappeared a few days later). The realities can be uncomfortable: few roads, mosquitoes with the appetite of triffids, and on occasion, some none-too-friendly tribes. But there is one very easy way to counter these challenges, and see more of Papua than all those adventurers put together: take a luxury boat with a chopper on the back.

truenorth.com.au

Mongolia’s ratios are its greatest strength: a tiny population versus a wilderness larger than the surface of the full moon. You can drive off-road for days and encounter nothing but a nomad, his cashmere goats, herd of horses, and children in silken dels (a wraparound coat switched to felt and fur in winter). Among the most beautiful places to stay: the Olkhon Valley, a day’s travel from the capital, Ulaanbaatur. In a fold of steppe traversed by a silver river lies a private camp open to groups of hard-riding adventurers and regular guests, including the crème de le crème of fashion’s front row.

**genghiskhanridingadventure.com **

Too many people travel to Africa to tick off a safari wish-list of animals. At Liuwa Plains in Zambia, the experience is a whole lot more interesting: the national park shares its territory with a compelling community of Lozi people. Once a year, their king takes a ride down the Liuwa waterways in a giant canoe paddled by his subjects. It’s a hard event to catch (moon phases dictate the royal diary), but no matter. In this remotest of parks butted up to the Angolan border, there is a princely alternative: the newly opened King Lewanika Lodge with spectacular views of Liuwa’s endless plains and the world’s second largest wildebeest migration.

roarafrica.com