Travelogue - Venture Magazine Issue #1 Pages 18-19

Season’s Greetings! What will you be doing this festive season? As these testimonials prove, a holiday abroad with friends could result in one of the most memorable Christmas' you'll experience...

Christmas is traditionally a time to spend with family, but what happens if you're on the other side of the world, far from your loved ones? Or perhaps you want to break with tradition and treat yourself to a long-wanted holiday over the festive season? Either way, at Kumuka we've hosted loads of Christmas and New Year parties in all corners of the globe and we can tell you that a year-end tour will be especially memorable, not least because you'll be among a group of friends all sharing the same experience!

If you've been away with Kumuka over Christmas, we'd love to hear from you. Where were you? What did you do and how did you celebrate? Please email us your festive memories to venturemag@kumuka.com and we'll ensure that you are on the mailing list to receive future copies of Venture magazine.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
For me and my daughter, Europe 2005 with Kumuka was winter magic. All the iconic sights, great guides, good hotels and time to go exploring on our own.

A white Christmas to treasure. We will never forget the Christmas markets in Munich, Paris and Venice, with their twinkling lights and Christmas delicacies; the hot mulled wines; the cities decked out in their Christmas lights; tasting chianti in Tuscany; sampling schnapps in Vienna on Christmas Eve; trudging through the snow in the red light district in Amsterdam on New Year’s Eve to see in the New Year with fireworks and music; shopping for a watch in Interlaken and a leather jacket in Florence; sipping hot chocolate in the crisp alpine air amongst the Swiss chalets in Murren, then plunging down the mountainside in the cable car that James Bond “died another day" in; attending the puppet opera in Prague; snow fights on Bremen Pass; being the only tourists in the Basilica; seeing more pigeons than people in St Marks' Square; our bus decked out in tinsel; good travelling companions; no queues; long-johns and woolly hats to ward off the cold... all this and so much more!

Christmas in Europe, in winter – simply stunning. Thanks Kumuka.

Linda Reed,
New Zealand

Working Wonders
Christmas on board the trucks was always amazing for me as a driver. As crew, we would stress, pull our hair out and dig deep, making plans for that very special trip and for all those lucky enough to be on board. We would try to tag up with other trucks to make the day’s festivities even better and of course there was always our great overland Christmas breakfast. Ah yes, every year we had a champagne brekky followed closely by the unwrapping of our Secret Santa presents. Most of these were as “tacky as hell”, but I guarantee that every one of us still has that present from the other side of the world. Of course lunch and dinner were just as exciting, usually BBQs with plenty of entertainment, food and drink.

We were somewhat limited in our choice of destinations because “the show must go on”, Christmas or not, but we always managed to bend the rules a bit to make it happen.
Who knows what this Christmas will have in store this year? But I do know this: if you happen to be one of the lucky ones aboard a Kumuka overland trip, your destiny is sealed. You’ll be having a great one! Have a beer for me!

Adam Jones,
Kumuka Driver Africa (Retired)

Cheered by Cheops
We went to Giza on Christmas morning. I have to say my first view of the pyramids was something of a breath-taker... we were driving down a city street and then someone said, "there’s a pyramid" and, guess what, this monster (Cheops) loomed large over us, towering over the crumbling buildings of Giza! I was speechless – and that’s not something that often happens to me!

On Christmas afternoon we drove out into the Western Desert to cook our Christmas dinner of chicken and spuds in the dark... we drank some beer under a blanket of stars and went to sleep. Arriving at night, we didn’t really have any idea of our surroundings, but when we woke up on Boxing Day... wow! We were in the middle of wonderful desert scenery...

Simon Fitzpatrick

Guiding Light
I won’t be lying if I tell you that the Christmas I spent on board my truck WAMM was the most memorable ever. When two trucks do a trip in parallel, an inevitable rivalry is struck up and this was the case as we approached Christmas and New Year on our most popular of trips, Pure Patagonia. Combined, we had 48 passengers and five crew, so there was little doubt it would be a festive affair. Each group tried to out-festive the other as we drove further south towards the 25th, arriving at last in the Bariloche in southern Argentina’s mountains. We couldn’t have asked for a better setting, camping beside a beautiful Alpine lake in mid-summer, but still below snow-capped peaks.

By the time we arrived our trucks boasted a Christmas tree, a set of lights stuck to the roof and decorations hanging everywhere. You could hardly take a step without falling over a Santa hat.

Each of our passengers had drawn the name of another traveller out of a hat, and had to buy that person a “Secret Santa" present. On Christmas morning, we gathered around our large pile of presents and our elected “Santa” arrived to hand them out. Everybody got a turn to sit on Santa’s lap as he handed out presents that ranged from the silly, the embarrasing and rude, to useful and memorable. Some provided onboard entertainment for drive days but it's strange how much they meant to everyone: even the really silly and useless gifts get kept for years.

Straight on to lunch, a huge Argentinian-style “assado” or barbeque. There was no shortage of food or local wine, and after lunch the only thing many people could do was drag themselves down to the beach on the lake for an afternoon snooze in the sun.

Christmas is usually associated with quality time spent with family, and after weeks on tour the group becomes the closest family for the day. Some even became closer still and the spirit of the occasion saw romance blossom.

Several days later, in another pretty Argentinian town, we shared one of the craziest New Year’s parties I can remember. With its excellent food and wine, Argentina is always a great place to celebrate anything, but at New Year they go really crazy: we took over a local restaurant for a themed dinner and dance. It certainly beat staying home.

Andrew Lange,
Tour Guide, Latin America

KUMUKA’S CHRISTMAS
Where do you want to be for Christmas this year? Given that our tours reach six continents, you could celebrate somewhere really exotic. Punch a departure date range into the search fields on www.kumuka.com and you'll see a wide range of options. Here's a small glimpse of the choice of christmas tours available