To boldly go

After Dennis Tito, the world's first astro-tourist, dropped back to Earth, RAYMOND WHITAKER started thinking about challenges for travellers nearer to home.

When you come down to it, you have to ask if Dennis Tito's trip was worth the effort, let alone the $NZ45 million.

If Tito were being honest, he might admit that space is a bit boring for a holiday. The food is pretty awful, your fellow travellers can be a bit stand-offish if they're working for Nasa (which didn't want Tito aboard), and there's not much to do but float around and stare out of the window.

There are plenty of more challenging and exciting, not to say cheaper, destinations down here, many scarcely trodden by humankind, if at all. Here are 10 suggestions of places to boldly go on Earth:

* The world's highest unclimbed peak is the 7360m Gangkar Punsum in Bhutan. The latest expedition failed, and Bhutan's reclusive rulers, as wary of foreigners as they are of the mountain deities, have banned further attempts.

* Mountain high, ocean deep Challenger Deep, nearly 11km below the surface of the Pacific east of the Philippines, has been visited only once, all of 41 years ago, by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh. Emulating them would probably cost well over $45 million.

* A volcanic eruption off Iceland brought Surtsey, the world's newest island, out of the waves in 1963. Scientists have followed its progress minutely ever since, and access is kept to a minimum to prevent environmental disturbance. One visitor who defecated there was in big trouble.

* The "Cave of Swimmers", as seen in The English Patient, actually exists. More of an outcrop than a cave, it's at Gilf Kebir in the southern Egyptian desert. To get there, one guide warns, "one tempts the fates." You need to carry all the water, fuel and food necessary to survive three weeks.

* Visiting the North or South Poles, by contrast, is routine. Phone the Polar Travel Company in Yelverton, Devon, and they will read you a price list. Flying to the North Pole is a relative bargain at $20,000. Walking across Antarctica to the South Pole costs five times as much.

* To really get away from it all, the world's most isolated island is Bouvetoy, in the Southern Ocean. The nearest land is more than 1600km away. It's hard to get ashore: where there are no glaciers, the cliffs are over 300m high, but Norway has gone to the trouble of claiming it. A mysterious nuclear flash seen in 1979 was blamed on South Africa, possibly in cahoots with Israel.

* If you want to get as far away from the sea as possible, head for the Russian republic of Tuva. A monument near the capital, Kyzyl, marks the centre of Asia. The nearest salt water is at least 2400km away, but yaks and throat-singers abound.

* Adventure of a different kind is available in Colombia, a strong contender for the most dangerous place on Earth. "Your insurance company will tell you there are four kidnappings and 73 murders every day," says The World's Most Dangerous Places website.

* Fangataufa is a desert island with a difference. All right, the French used to carry out nuclear tests there, but there are palm trees, a lagoon and plenty of fish which are safe to eat. Less crowded than Mururoa, a few minutes' flying time away, where about 20 French personnel remain.

* Swindon. The top attraction mentioned by the Wiltshire town's tourist office is the railway museum. And don't forget the Oasis leisure centre. Famous alumni? Diana Dors, Melinda Messenger, Billie Piper. Enough said.

But you'd probably have to pay Tito $45 million to go there.

- INDEPENDENT