Weekly travel reads: Running across Rapa Nui

[The Travel Wire #105] Faroe Islands, a visit to the most argued-about dam in the world, and more travel reads.

Travel reads

• Running across Rapa Nui, I expected to see ancient statues. But I also found an island fighting for its future [Adventure]
“During a running and hiking event across Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Lily Canter began to understand Rapa Nui not as an archaeological wonder or an open-air museum, but home to a living (and shrinking) Indigenous community determined to control its own future.”

• Faroe Islands: long sleeves in Summer [GlobeFoxing]
“James Bond filmed there. National Geographic keeps putting it on the cover. Most people still cannot find it on a map. Last month we sent clients to explore.”

• A visit to the most argued-about dam in the world [Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones]
“Off the beaten track, visiting the most famous hydroelectric facility in China.”

• Almelo: me versus the machine [Add This To Your Itinerary]
“Can AI describe my hometown better than I can? Oooh booooh, why on earth should you? Let’s give it a try with Almelo. Because everything is possible there.”

• Losing a friend to suicide inspired me to skateboard the world’s longest coastal route [Independent]
“Becky Gilmour has now tackled two monumental adventure challenges across Ireland in support of mental health charities – she tells Emma Henderson about how it has helped her to overcome grief.”

• The Tree and the Mandala, at Tabo [Sandra’s Substack]
“A fever, an apple tree and a 1,000-year-old Buddhist monastery. Somehow, they all came together in Tabo.”

• It’s the world’s largest city, but you won’t see many tourists (archive) [Traveller]

• Luxembourg [The Unplugged Traveler]
“Who knew infrastructure could be so sexy?”

• A glimpse into the archive: Yemen in pictures [Tariq Ali]
“A selection of photos from my trip to Yemen in 2010.”

• The myth of the great escape [Beyond the Ruins]
“There is a strange understanding of travel as a cure — a deliverance from our ordinary condition.”

• Slowing down on the way up [Steeped in Travel]
“The view at the top was beautiful. What happened along the way was better.”

• In search of South Africa’s last free-roaming elephants [Intrepid Times]
“A wildlife expert visits the Loziba Reserve in search of South Africa’s last herd of free-roaming elephants, uncovering a tragic history.”