Ep 69: Extraordinary places

The PickMaster General is packing for his/her summer holiday and so was thinking about travel when selecting this week's topic for the Pick 3 panel. "Select the top 3 most extraordinary places that you have visited" was the instruction sent down from the PMG, so the panel convened to discuss their personal travel highlights.

Let us know your choices via our social portals on X,Instagram, BlueSky or via our dedicated e mail @thepick3show@gmail.com. Happy holidays to our listeners.

Transcript

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Three men with three decades of separation debate three tough choices every week. This is the Pick Three Show. Welcome to another episode of the Pick Three Show, where every week our expert panel discuss, deride, and frequently dismiss their colleagues' choices on any topic sent down from the Pickmaster General's office. However, as regular listeners already know, there are no wrong choices, but there are some pretty dodgy opinions. Today's topic takes us away in our travels again, as we have been challenged to select the top three most extraordinary places that we have ever visited. This is both a straightforward and highly complex topic, as selecting only three unique and outstanding places may seem simple, but narrowing the field is challenging. Martin has travelled the planet for the longest time, so probably has a bigger list to whittle down. Gareth is catching up for lost time by travelling as much as possible in his retirement years. And Andy has fewer opportunities as he navigates Disney's small world on his family holidays. I didn't think it was ironic. I thought it was just very factual. Anyway, to try and broaden Andy's horizons, we have come to the visitor centre at the Giants Causeway, a World Heritage Site on the North Antrim coast, where we will hopefully teach him a little about geology and then we hope to take him down to the world famous stones once we have finished this recording. Having told him that it's a bit of a walk, we've had to bribe him with a promise of an ice cream if he's a good boy and doesn't complain on the way down. Like a dog. Like a labrador. To be fair, if you were a dog, that's an interesting debate. If you were a dog breed, what would you be? Top three dog breeds. And he probably is a labrador. He is, yeah. He's quite loving. Energetic. Quite loving and eats too much food and will eventually be a chubber. Just be a chubber. I would say if you Google Labrador Athletic, Agile, these type of things. Whereas I would be a Doberman. No, you wouldn't. I'd be a Whippet. You would be A Whippet is probably so many levels. I'll have our listeners discuss what Martin would be able to throw that over there. Yes. What type of dog would each member of the Pink panel be? Feel free to send your answers in on our email address. What's our email, Gareth? Thepic3Show at gmail.com. There you go. Now widely used by some of our listeners to send in various uh suggestions for the show. I uh thought I was making my way to the airport. Because I thought he'd booked the airport to the money. So the Chance Causeway is it's not great, is it? It's very, as the kids would say today, mid. And we've seen it before. If you've done the Carakarid road bridge. Not sure Andy has seen it before because it's quite a long walk down from the visitor centre. Oh, I've unfortunately I have, but you know what? It's it's nice pickbox. To be honest, where else are you going to go quickly to see some hexagonal stones? And then there's a wishing chair right there. Do you like the root bridge? I love the root bridge. I love the root bridge. Now compared to what it used to be. Oh, yeah. Oh, in the old days. Do you not remember as a kid you had images of Indiana Jones and the temple and tomb pits falling? Totally clinging up. And it was wobbly. Oh yeah. When I first took my kids there, I made sure I took my machete with me, and I stood at the far end, come on across, come on across. Well, I waved the machete. I could actually see him making that joke on both sides. Ah, well, there you go. So today we've got to decide the three most extraordinary places we've ever visited. Sorry. Hang on, we're just pausing while Gareth hawks his guts up. What is it about the podcast that the minute we start you feel the need to cough? It must be a seer, I think. Do you know there were a number of our listeners said to me recently, Is Gareth a bit weak chested? He always seems to have a wee cough. Maybe have you got a wee bottle of Benelin or something that you can do. But I never mention it. Never never okay. Three most extraordinary places. Gareth, what is the most extraordinary place that you've ever been? Only it's your third best choice. This was easy. You know, two immediately coming to mind. My second choice, I have a number of options as I usually do. So number three for me, Vietnam. What's like all of it? Ho Chi Minh City. I'm gonna give is where I went to. The only place I'd seen Vietnam before I went in was in Platoon and all those war films, right? But that that that don't interrupt because I'll tell you how that becomes quite funny. Chuck Norris films, and just look what place it looked like in all the history of it. We went to Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon as it used to be, and down the Mekong Delta. And it was we pop over five days from Thailand because you those days you couldn't fly directly to Vietnam from even London or whatever. So we went over, went from Bangkok over to Vietnam, back again, whatever. Coochie tunnels, hints of war everywhere, helicopters on top of the buildings, etc. And it was just Ho Chi Minh City was full of motorbikes, just motorbikes and bicycles everywhere, like you know, crossing the road, there would be hundreds of mud bikes at the traffic lights, and it was like being in a French city because all the architecture was French. Okay, that's interesting. But the best about it was whenever you were there, you became obsessed with the war, and those are the days of the dodgy DVDs, right? Oh, right, and the hotel had a DVD player, and every day I'd do the old right. I'm just going out here to get a few DVDs and I'd get the I'd Chuck Norris film or platoon or hamburger hell because you all you wanted to do was watch yourself and have movies and immerse yourself in it, but wow, what a place down in Mekong Delta on boats, etc. It was just amazing. And it's one place now that was 21, 22 years ago, and it was excellent. Have you ever gone back? No, I'm gonna go back. It's a place I want to go, but I just haven't yet. I I have to get past the concept of the food, and once I get past the concept of the food and find that I can eat what I need to eat, uh I I will love the experience. I think one of the best experiences was when on one of those tours was they they just plonked a big elephant fish in front of you, which is a big sort of wide-bodied on a spike and you eat off it, it was delicious. But that may not be the worst thing in the world. That that doesn't necessarily be the issue for me. It's anything that I regard as an accelerant, as I've said before, that I'm not a fan of. No, it's great. My mum has been many times, lots of friends have been. Twenty years ago, it would have been seen as quite a unique place to go. Yeah. I've seen a lot of people the last three or four years go Vietnam's that a cool area and also no one no one we knew at that stage had been. Uh and we just thought, let's give this a go. Uh now my mum also would recommend she like she used to travel all around Asia like myself, which one place hasn't been is Cambodia. She she keeps saying not done any of Asia. But Vietnam, you'd love Cambodia not where the Khmer Rouge was. Those are the killing fields. Yeah, yeah. Uh but the the thing about Vietnam is you could go down the tunnels and how those people lived in the tunnels, and you saw the traps that they had set and all that type of stuff. Oh no, it's why excellent. I've read the scariest book I ever read was a book called The Tunnel Rats. Uh-huh. And it was all about the American teams that were sent in to clear the tunnels. Oh wow. And basically, when you went in, you went in head first. Oh wow. With that gun, and you did not know what you were going to face. They only allow you to go in one wee part, right? Which is literally for you know two or three metres where you're under the ground, way deep under the ground, in a tunnel that you're clambering along on your knees, thinking this could collapse at any stage. Could Andy get through the tunnel? Like a Labrador or Agile as anything through? Yeah, but the size, Andy. Can you can you imagine? Can you imagine trying to clear the tunnel afterwards? Uh what in? You'd have three of the Viet Cong behind them pushing, and then somebody ahead of them offering a sausage or something. Come on, come on, come on, you can do it. I'd be putting putting olive oil on them together. Big bottle. No, so Vietnam recommended. And Ho Chi Meant City, especially. Oh yeah, fabulous. It was like being in a French city. Okay, that's good. Without the French. Without the French. Again. What's not the like then? You know. Good. It is, I would say that will be would be a fascinating place. There are a couple of things about that. I'm intrigued by your reference to French architecture. I'm presuming it's before the brutalism phase, um, pioneered by Corbusier. I think so, Mark. Right. Jumping in. I I love I love it when people bring up actual architectural terms. Oh, flipping heads. I have no idea. I just agree. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It must be. Yeah, it must have been that, yep. Number three for me. And Butland? No, close, actually. No, it's not. Um I find it's quite an interesting question. And uh from an extraordinary point of view, places you go or have been that you feel like it just challenges you, or something that's very different. For me, the one that I kept coming back to at my number three is the Moore Mountains. Yeah, absolutely. Like I was down in Newcastle recently, I'm sitting there going, There's just something about this. Same feelings I had when I was five years old, down the Moor Mountains, Clive and Donner or whatever. It's just incredible from an extraordinary point of view. I had a list of about 20, and the one I kept coming back to was More Mountains on this. I love it. I know. I was down there on Monday, weather was very clear with a guy, uh, and we went for a what was it, business meeting, went for a walk, and then we did some you know, so you were just out for a walk with a guy in the mountains? No, in Newcastle, and he tells me he does the fell running one hour, three minutes up and down Donard. I can beat that. Not personally, one hour, three minutes up and down. Client of mine used to be. He was second in the race, so a client of mine held held the record for years for that very thing. But the race is from the centre of Newcastle. It's like down the room. Where do you start? So in the middle of down Newcastle on the promenade. You start at the promenade and run to the top of Donard and come back down. And a client of mine, and I will name him, uh, is called Des Woods. And at a point in time Woodsy. Uh Woodsy, yeah. And uh to his mates, uh, you'd call him Mr. Woods. But he ran it and held the record at 54 minutes and 40 seconds. Yeah, come on. And he said that he had to be the fastest to the top because he wasn't the best descender. His best descent time was around 18 minutes. Yeah, 18 minutes from the top into the centre, Newcastle. You you know, he said the best descenders will do it in 16 minutes. And there's a route, Rory. His time was delayed because he went a wrong route because you come down the other side and it was just so steep. I love this. Yeah. So like can you imagine? Like, Sleve Donnard is a tough climb. What did we do a few years ago? Dawn? Down, yeah. That was fantastic. Yeah. Looking through, I've probably done a quarter of them over my last time. Not done. I've done a good lot. Well, you've put a good shift in, Andy. Yeah. You've got a quarter of them done in in how many years? Uh, I'm not gonna mention I've done most of them. I've done most of them over the years. In fact, as I told the story, I think I told the story once before in the podcast about doing the Moon Woolwalk in 76 and really hot day, and three quarters of the way around, we arrived at Hare's Gap, and we're only 10 minutes ahead of the cutoff time. Oh but I was walking with two guys who had worked out by the stage were army officers, and one of them suddenly turned just going through Hare's Gap, and they're saying, You you know, you've got to get a move on, sort of thing. And it was incredibly hot. And suddenly one of the boys he pulls a radio out of his backpack and he says, Uh, Colonel, do you will we call it in? And he said, Yes, call it in. I've I've had enough fun, sort of thing. And he looked at me and said, Would you like a lift back into Newcastle? And in came the Wessex, and me and the two other guys got in the helicopter, peeled off, and went down into Newcastle. I would have been called. The two people I was doing the moonwall walk with, who had got ahead of me by some margin, they were most miffed when they arrived back at the car. And I was sitting there having a cold drink and saying, What took you boys so long to do it? Where where on earth did you pass us? How on earth did you get here? I said, Do you remember you took a water break going up the last hill, going up the gallop? Said, yeah. I said, I was past in a group. You saw the group going past, I was one of them. And just left you behind. I didn't tell them for years afterwards that I'd gone left in a helicopter. But there you go. But the morns are are spectacular. And I although it's very easy to sort of maybe take a hand out of Andy for one of his most extraordinary places, he's 40 miles from home. Yeah. It's incredible. Like I there's nothing wrong with the selection. I actually think if I bring people over from university or people I've worked with, you take them into Newcastle, they're blown away by it. Yeah, yeah. I think we take it for granted because it's on our doorstep. But that's the point, and it's a bit like up here on the uh North Antrim coast when we are at the the the Jan'cause Causeway. You know, we've all seen it many times. I mean, I know you're going to see the stones later for the first time, Andy, but uh you know, we've seen it so many times, we do take it for granted. Yeah, yeah. But when we have visitors over and guests over, they think it's the most insanely stunning place. Yeah, yeah, lovely. Number two for you, Martin. Number three for me is the Grand Canyon. I went to the Grand Canyon in 1979 when I was going around the States on Greyhound bus, and uh we went to the Grand Canyon, and it I mean, it is just a sensational vista. I mean, you know, you sort of think, ah, the Grand Canyon, when I get there, it'll not impress me that much. It how big can it be? How grand can it be? Oh my goodness, it is huge and it is spectacular. But we did something back then you're no longer allowed to do because we went and uh booked a flight, a fixed-wing flight through the canyon. These days you're not allowed to fly below the canyon rim in a fixed-wing plane because of the thermals. Okay. But back then, no such regulations. 1979. It was a terrafand, yeah. Well, the story is slightly different to that. We we take off and we basically hair down this runway. We take off, we're ten feet in the air when we go over the edge of the canyon, and then he dives. So we went over the canyon and straight down, and he pulls up and he smiles at everybody. There's I'm sitting beside the pilot, there's three rows of two behind me, and one guy, the guy I was travelling with at the back, and we're going through, and the thermals are hitting us. And at one point he's flying towards these two rocks, and he said, Those rocks are a hundred metres apart, and he puts it through sideways through the thing. I mean, it was it was Comanche stuff back then, you know, that you you could just do this stuff. Ten minutes in, and I'd had a large breakfast. The thermals are starting to get to me. I look at the pilot and he points down, there's sick bags sitting there, and I'm going, No, I'm not gonna be sick. And two minutes later, vomited spectacularly, and I'm sitting there all embarrassed, holding this wee bag, and then enjoyed the rest of the flight. Flight was 40 minutes long, so we get off, we land, we get off the uh plane, and I'm walking out carrying my sick bag, and I'm going, This is gonna be embarrassing. And I turned around, the second guy gets out carrying a sick bag, the third guy gets out carrying a sick bag. Every single person in the plane vomited, and I was going, Oh, thank goodness it wasn't just me. And I said, Glad it wasn't just me. And he says, You, you triggered it. Every single person vomited after you. You know, they just it was your fault. But we had before we'd gone flying, we'd had to wait for an hour for the flight. We went and had a steak and eggs breakfast. Oh, couldn't have a worse thing, and it was sitting there, and but the Grand Canyon, good choice, unbelievable. And it is my number two choice. Oh, so it is. I went in 2015, did the helicopter ride. Uh did you land at the bottom? No, landed at must have been the top. Yeah, we definitely flew through it. Yes, you went down below the canyon rim. You can still do it in helicopters, but you can't do it. No, it's fixed wing. 2015, I was feeling sick uh another way because we had been partying partying in Las Vegas, put it that way. Like you, Martin, whenever you describe it to anybody or show anybody a picture of it, it looks like the Moorin Mountains, to tell you the truth, because you don't get the size, the stature of it, and you don't get it until you actually near enough land and you see helicopters coming in or people, etc. It the vastness of it is unbelievable. I think that was the thing that took a surprise. That's me as well. Uh and funny, I'd said to my my daughter's just come back from Las Vegas, but she went to the new skywalk. She said, which is terrifying. I have done a skywalk elsewhere in Canada. Me too, I've done that one. But I haven't done one actually in uh um no, and I think I would like to go back and do that because no matter if I sit and describe to you, Andy, who's never gone the Grand Canyon, you'll think, yeah, it's a big canyon and every that type of stuff. The scale of it is out of this world. I couldn't even take a photograph of it for you. My my daughter sent back photographs of Grand Canyon and go. But it never looks like much. It never looks like I flew LA to Vegas and flew over certain parts, and I remember arriving in Vegas going, Do I really want to do it? But it's one bit that people say all the time until you get there, it's very hard to do. And by helicopter or plane is amazing. Yes. And I mean it's the sort of thing you have to do if you're there. Why go there and not do something like this? I was, I mean, I we were on a budget and we were going around America. A budget with a private helicopter, too? No, it's a fixed wing. And uh I mean, I wish you'd listen. I was gonna say, yeah. You're only tasked with listening for four to five minutes at a time, and yet somehow the whole point was we'd gone to see the Grand Canyon. Yeah, damn it, spend some money and go through it. But but Martin, the thing is, I think people do see photographs of it or whatever, and that type of scope, nah, nah. You until you're there, it's the only place I've been that I think is indescribable compared to a picture. I'm trying to analyze the grammatic. You know, so what I'm trying to say is yeah, I could show you a picture of it to Andy and a lot get it and it looked boring. But any other place in the world I could show a picture and you could get it. Yes. You can't get it by a photograph. I think you're right. I have a a choice coming up that I think is similar to that. Yeah to that sort of description. I don't think you can understand it till you see it. Yeah. But I think the Grand Canyon, I saw that in 1979. I have never been back. And that memory is as fresh in my head right now as the day I saw it. Yeah. I'm with you on that. You know? Well, you weren't, I was on with another guy. You weren't with me. Right. Number three, Martin. Well, I've done my number three. That back to my number three, side number two, sorry. The way this works is yeah, you can't do it. So I'm gonna give Andy another go. Number two for me, from extraordinary, and ironically, it's a place I don't like, but the first time I was there, I was just in awe. Was mid-90s New York skyline. Skyscrapers coming from the big city of Bangor, which was technically a toy back then. Yeah, correct. And then it still really is going into and then you go into obviously Belfast, and there wasn't really many buildings or anything of note. And then you go to somewhere like New York, and I was I remember the first day I was there just being in complete awe, walking with my neck creaked up, looking at things. Incredible. I still look back at that and just I complete amazement of that city, especially the skyline. Honestly, and this sounds quite of a bit of a juxtaposition. I could take or leave New York now. But at the time, me too, I loved that. I was like, this is so far removed from anything I'd ever seen before. But now I tick a book. Ticket box, but it was incr at the time unbelievable. I was last in New York, I've flown through New York a few times, but I was last in New York staying in 1995 for my tenth wedding anniversary. I know it's in the sort of weird dates and all the rest of it, and having a walk around the Manhattan skyline and we did the Empire State Building at the time. Yeah. When you get up to the top of that and you look at the Chrysler building and you look at various other things, and then Central Park right in the middle. Yeah. Well, Central Park, we we got there on the weekend we were there. They had their first murder in Central Park for something like fifteen years. And we're going, Oh, that's lovely. Wait, our hotel's like two blocks away now. But New York is a very special place, but like you, my two experiences of actually being in it. Yeah Yeah, I've been a I've been four or five times and actually Nicole gets quite annoyed because we went on honeymoon for a few days there as well and come back from the other west coast. And I sort of go, could take her leaving. Yeah. She now gets annoyed by that by going, I was our honeymoon, and uh, but you can you can have a different feeling. No, I would I do think we would like to go back at some point because there's certain things we would like to do. There's that elevated walkway you can. Oh yeah. I did that. Have you done the uh the big warship? Uh no, it wasn't there when we were last there. Joe, it was really good. It it it was excellent. But we did one of those done in Carolina. But this this had stealth bomber and the space shuttle. And then you got to do the old lift up. Oh, yeah. Oh, they took you up. Oh, yeah. Oh, it was very good. I absolutely enjoyed that. So this and that was probably I was 2015 probably then as well. And oh, it was excellent. Just that that was sort of you're still really big into Top Gun and that type of stuff. But then I was looking You're still into Top Gun. We did an episode where that's your dream job, but you know, you posted a picture of US Maverick. The stealth bomber as well. Oh, yeah, that sounds like they're tricky to fly. But when you look, but you look back, like you're you guys reminiscent about the Grand Canyon and stuff like that. That first impression when you go, incredible. And I look back now and think it's that little sort of feeling when you get somewhere, it's very hard to describe. One of my favourite memories of being in New York in '95 was the first day we ate in the hotel for breakfast. Complete ripoff rubbish. Horrible. Second day, walked out and went and found a diner. Yeah, I love that. Unbelievable experience. I never had any good food in New York anytime I've been there. Never. No, I think that's why not wide, but we we were there and we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art and we're standing looking at the Rodan statue at one point, and Debbie's looking at it from one side, I'm looking at it from the other. And I looked at her and I said, Um, does this not make you feel about think about man's inhumanity to man and how we would be far better as a society doing all these various things to that we could all live together in peace and harmony? And she looked at me and she goes, I never thought you you thought about this stuff as deeply as this, and I'm reading it all off of the papers. It's on my side of the statue and selling it as if I'm having an epiphany. What a remarkable thing. And then that afternoon we went and saw the New York Jets play the Jacksonville Jaguars. Uh not too elite team. Well, back then this was 95. Oh, yeah, Jets better. The Jets were better and the uh the Jags were an expansion team. Yeah. Mark Brunel is quarterback at the time. Anyway, it was worth doing. Anyway, yep, no, good. New York number two for you, Martin. Number two for me is Doubtful Sound in the southwest corner of South Island, New Zealand. One of the most remote places I've ever been because we went out on an overnight cruise on uh Doubtful Sound on a small ship that takes about forty, fifty passengers out, and you stay overnight in one of the fjords out there, the darkest, most silent, strangest place I've I've ever been, and it was just magical seeing it in doubtful sound. Doubtful sign to create the empire. There's Milford Sound, which is the one that's more commonly known, but Doubtful Sound, because you can't reach Doubtful Sound by road, you can only reach it by boat, and then you uh they take you on a bus on a road across, and then Doubtful Sound, there's just like a small settlement, and these ships go out of it, and you stay down in Doubtful Sound. We saw dolphins, we saw seals, we saw um, you know, they they talk about the various types of shark that are around, but it was just stunning. And then we came back, we got off the boat and we came in, and that was the moment at which the world decided that they needed to close down for COVID. And we were, if you put a pin in the map where we were, and a pin in the map where my house is, we could not have been physically further away. You know, it's always good to hear that story again as well. Yes. Do you know what? Yes! Yes, I'm crying on the end. So what was the episode that was on? Oh, but four. There's four episodes, probably. Yeah. Four different ones that you told that sort of. I probably have told that story, but well, the good news is I enjoyed it. But the whole point is doubtful sound is the extraordinary place. The sound is the bridge between islands. No. The doubtful sound is the fjord that takes you right out to the sea, to the Tasman Sea. So what's the definition of a sound? It's like Well, a sound is like a major inlet. Yeah, it's like water, like you would have between an island. Well, making it an island. Um they're not really islands um around it, but it's just in higher. I have gullet because is there there's Ackle Island has a sound as well, doesn't it? It's quite an American concept. That's a very good point. Listeners, if you'd like to uh send in your concept of what a sound is, you will have to be a little bit more. Like a fjord, a sound is a valley that has been filled with seawater. Okay. However, a sound is usually formed by the filling of a river valley, not a glacial. This means that the topography is usually less narrow and more gently slipping than a fjord, but it is no less spectacular. Well, there you go. Let's just say on the pick three show, you get some facts as researched on Gareth's phone during all of that. Fortunately, I fortunately by telling him an old story, I was able to give him time to research the side. And just so that there, my daughter texted to say that she's just finished her last university exam. That was the beep beep that went there. Oh, is it? And does that mean she's off the payroll? She's off the payroll forever. Oh, I tell you. Martin could do your. And did it in the old I said, right? That's you, you're off the payroll. She goes, Will you still play my mobile phone? And I went, okay. If you get away with only paying the mobile phone, that is a result. Exactly. Martin could edit this very favourably. Well, you could say, we could say, What is a sign? And he could cut to you going, Well, a sign is uh interesting. So the wonder what the Ackle Island sound is. Well, that'll that'll be a weak topic of research for us all. Our favourite sounds, yeah. It would probably be a gulf. Oh, right, anyway. Right. No, that's a good one. So uh okay. It's a good location, but the story was dull as definitely. It was only because you repeated the same story. Every time you mention New Zealand to me, my mind goes to Lord of the Rings country. Oh, oh yes, well that that is fairly spectacular. And I wonder is is it as spectacular to us? But he was like he was in heaven, like you know, bluntly orcs run around. I would challenge either of you to drive around South Island, New Zealand and not be impressed. I okay, that's good. Although there is a slight element that it is a little bit the land that time forgot, and that everybody there is much more self-sufficient than we are. I mean what's the major city that's close to it? Oh, close to Doubtful Sound? Yeah. There is no city close. The closest city is probably um I don't think Queenstown counts as a city. So you're probably talking Invercargo. Okay. Never heard of it. Well have you heard of Invercargill? I have from Rugby Union. All blacks play Derek. Very good. But I I couldn't tell anything about it. Okay. Dunedin as well, is right down in the south as well, there, isn't it? Just my number one or your number one? Your number one. Well, it was definitely Gareth. Oh, me? Yeah. Okay. Oh, you really am. I'm not telling you that all the time. You know, you're too busy trying to score a point off me. It's only because I number one place or my number two got out of uh I'm worried about the story now that associated with my number one, because I'm I'm pretty sure you're gonna blaze and doze off. Um may have our editing while I'm doing mine there, just in case. So I and my number two choice decided I was gonna bring in Thailand or Port Silur in New York. This is one of the choice. But I'm gonna go with my number one choice, which is somewhere that I believe that Jews have never heard of. Okay. And that is the Alagash River in Maine, USA. I've heard of it. Have I heard of it? I canoeed on it. Have you? Yeah. I did a four-day trip up the Alagash. You're joking. Completely, but I mean this is the scout trip isn't it? You're gonna tell the scout strip story all over again. This is where you canoeed to America. And I went, no, no, no, you canoeed in America. In 1986, I went on a canoeing expedition. As a scout, not as a scout. It was in the Alagash River by any chance. Let me finish the sentence. It was in a group by 30, uh, 15 Canadian canoes, open canoes, 150 miles in the wilderness of America. All types of animals that were there, moose, you know, bees, no tigers. And it was a river joining lots of lakes. And whenever we say lakes, they were literally seas, uh, not like Castlevan Forest Park here, whenever you say lake. And it was the most spectacular place I've ever been in the world. And to this day, if someone said, Gareth, do you want to do a canoe expedition, do that 150 mile scan? I'd be straight there. Really? Yeah. Now you had to rough it. Yeah, you know. That wouldn't really suit you these days. No, no, I agree. I I totally agree, but literally, that bird grills is still in me, Martin. I can do it. Our listeners point so my memories of Maine. We spent a few days there when we were mid-90s, we're in Cape Cod for a while, went up to Maine for a few days. And my lasting memory is going to this town called Rockport. Uh, my dad goes into the bar, say, Oh, can I have a beer? And the guy behind the the bar, I was sitting beside him, and he the guy looks at Sir, this is a dry town. And he went, Are you any wine then? No, no, sir. A dry town. We don't have any. No booze. We can't serve alcohol in the town. You have to go over county lines. And my dad was like, it's probably just a walk over there, ten miles away. And I remember as a kid, Maein for us like four or five days, lovely little place, very quaint little village. No booze. Well, do we I was staying beside? I was staying in a town called Old Town, which was right beside Bangor. Oh, yeah. The infamous Bangor Maine. Yeah. Nowhere near the big city. No. Where the streets are paved for gold. The metropolis doesn't snow. I didn't send them up there, Mark. You did, but again, you know, in America it's banger main, and in Northern Ireland it's banger minor. Yeah. But that's a good choice. Yeah, it's really interesting. No, well, I mean, I've been looking forward to that story reappearing. It's because you better watch the update. The Alangash River story. There we go. You with your wogalon, handling up the Alangash with bare grills behind you. Brilliant. Right. Number one, and actually I'm sitting here. I'm waiting to get him back here. He definitely knows he's in trouble. I don't know. I'm in trouble here. I'm setting myself up for one of my favourite places. San Francisco. Waterfront, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Muirwoods, Sauceledo. Stunning. Totally agree. Totally agree. Unbelievable. You'd be uncomfortable in San Francisco as you walk down the street. Why? It's just a little step along there, people would go. It's a very progressive city. Yeah. But yeah, Fisherman's Wharf. Incredible view. Oh, dude. Go to Gate Bridge. I'm talking over the shooting. But yeah, it's just it's for me, it's a it's number one by my. Did you go walking by yourself? No, it's well, actually, the first couple of days I I went on my own a few times. She was a bit jet lagged. Various areas that I frequented quite a lot. Sorry, you were on your honeymoon and Nicole was jet lagged. A little bit jet lagged, yeah. Yeah. Okay. But yeah, it's these things happen. It's a great city, but just so you you think San Francisco is well, Martin? San Francisco is a very interesting city to visit. It is, I mean, Fisherman's Wharf all around that area is fascinating. Weird weather patterns in San Francisco. I mean, you can be in the middle of summer, you get up, and suddenly the mist will roll in, and it'll be Baltic. Yeah. Very, very fast. The thing I didn't understand, we were there with the kids in what 2002 or so, and we were walking around, and we couldn't understand as we were going down. We went out to Alcatraz one day. Beautiful morning, fantastic. We came back in, we were walking back to the hotel, and we suddenly realized there's so many people selling fleeces along water. And we're going, but it's the middle of summer, why would they do that? The next morning we got up and there was like a mist had rolled in and the temperature dropped like 25 or 30 degrees. And I think we bought two fleeces because Debbie's going, I'm actually freezing, it's so cold here. Especially Alcatraz, whenever you do the tour and you're looking back on the San Francisco skyline. A couple of people have mentioned it as their extraordinary place. And was Alcatraz a great tour? Yes. It was fantastic. You had the headphones in the room. Oh, you won't be able to see it from there. No, I know that. But people say, should you don't do Robin Island? It depends how much you know of the story and all. Have you done Robin Island? Uh no, when we were in Cape Town, we chose not to because there was uh golf and I then went diving with great white sharks. But this Robin Island Island would be much safer for you. No, so Alcatraz, you recommend I was a crap. It was just it was as you as Marginal. There's a lot more of the story at Alcatraz. I don't know how much of the story there is on Robin Island, and I don't know how good a tour it is. I just don't know. There was an example where there tour guys are saying two people escaped in the early 1900s, and this if you look at the current, it was either the current got them or the sharks, and you're sitting there watching, you're going, this is incredible. There's a great bit of film from Fisherman's Wharf a few years ago of a seal in there, and suddenly out of nowhere, a great white shark takes the seal in the middle of the wharf. I mean, it was nobody was expecting a shark to be there. And I think there's that documentary, The Jumpers from the Golden Gate Bridge, which is incredible, won so many awards because guys who've jumped and were saved or whatever, and the stories that they tell. Right, okay. That that's on Netflix, that's worth watching. I have been to San Francisco, I think, four times. I have been there, stayed two days, I've been there and stayed four days, and I think I've only ever seen the bridge in sunlight twice. Right. And all of the rest of the time it's been shrouded in mist, to the extent I have a fantastic photograph of us overlooking the bridge in a beautiful sunny day from one of the viewing points on the far side of the Sosolito side. Oh, Sosito's land. And way up on the top of the hill, and we're in glorious sunshine, and you look down, and the only thing you can see are two of the bridge, the sort of orange bridge parapets peering above a fog that just literally sits for about a hundred foot, 150 foot in height, right up the waterline. It's a very there is a weird current that goes up through there. But it is, I agree with you. Sau Salito's a lovely area as well. Fantastic diner breakfast in Sausalito. Yeah, and it looks back. What you know you've done that for three or four. Where is the you know, if you're going on a trip to America, say two or three weeks, you'd do San Francisco. Oh, you could do you could do the California coast and on up as far as what well you could go from San Diego all the way up through San Francisco if you're prepared to drive through and stuff like that. You could do the Monterey Peninsula and stuff like that. Okay. Stunning. But I think yeah, and then go on up, you know, the the coast of the coast. I wish we were when we were booking it, I wanted to do Seattle, and the travel agent went, ah, it's a it's a long hike for Seattle, and I wish I had it done Seattle now because I've got friends who've done Seattle and train up that coast all the time. And a lot of the cities on the west coast, including now Vancouver up in Canada, have a major problem with fentanyl. And it you know, there is a major Seattle, it's not the city it was 20 years ago. Right, okay. Cool. You know, so uh but there you go. No, great, great choice, Andy. Good. Excellent. Number one is uh Uluru. So where's that, Gareth? Where's Uluru? It is Air's Rock. It is indeed Air's Rock. The most stunning place I think I've ever been, totally magical. But do they have only three, four channels? They do have four channels. And one of them is the Aboriginal channel. Did you see Antix Road Show there? I did. Do you know there's a beautiful part? This one comes out before the other one. However, that's not the story I'm going to tell about. Okay, right. When we were taking the family to Australia in 2008, we were sitting down trying to plan the trip, and we were sitting over tea one night, and I said, I'll tell you where we're gonna go, we're going to go to Air's Rock. And the rest of the family looked at me and went, Well, we're gonna fly to the middle of no world and look at a look at a rock. And I went, Yeah, because I really want to see it, and let's call this old fashioned. I'm penned for the trip. So I mean I was waiting on that. I'd like to add this one in because I'd like to do it. I'd like to do something so we did it. We flew from uh Cairns to Ayers Rock, and nobody but me was looking forward to it. And if you ask my family now, all four of us will say it was the best bit of the entire trip. Oh, really? Why? Yeah, the remoteness, the vistas. We went out on a breakfast tour at dawn tour to have breakfast overlooking sunrise at Ayres Rock, Uluru. Then we had a tour around, went to the visitor center. You're actually walking round, touching Ayers Rock. It's just mystical. It's a bit like what we talked about there, seriously, about the Grand Canyon. You can't believe you're actually looking at it. The thing about it is it's this enormous rock that has come up out of the earth. There's nothing around it. Why is it there? Yeah, why there? Why did it appear? The colour of it's weird. They you you used to be able to climb it, but now because of respect to the Aboriginal peoples, you're no longer allowed to climb it. The number of people who died climbing it because there literally were some footholds and a chain that went up, and people used to be coming down, slip fall. That's it, you're gone. And but as a place to go, as a mi as a mystical place to go, where you just feel insignificant on the planet, that would be one of the ones that I my mum and dad went and they said it was great, but my dad's one crux was it was a pain in the ass to get to. Yes, the nearest place you can drive to it from is Alice Springs, and it's just over a five and a half hour drive. Oh, wow. And it you drive down, I think there's you know, you drive for three hours and then you the road bends lightly left, and you drive for another two and a half hours. I mean, it's it's one of those daft things. I mean, it's but it is inaccessible, but it's also interesting. How long did you stay there, Martin? A couple of days? We stayed, it was a three-day trip there, so we stayed two nights. Okay. Uh and was that enough? Stunning, yes, it was. And we we did a helicopter trip actually in the afternoon after we've been out in the tour in the morning. We took a helicopter trip and flew over Ayers Rock in the afternoon. It is funny how the other half waving down at all. A private plane to it, and then a helicopter trip around it. To be fair, it the plane was only that took us there was only private to the tune it took about 250 of us to it. But apart from that, in the Northern Territories in which this actually sits, it is the third largest city stroke town, because it is actually only a town, in the Northern Territories. And in the middle of summer, or in the middle of its tourist season, it has a capacity for about five and a half thousand people. And that makes it the third. Only Alice Springs and Darwin are bigger than the settlement at Uluru Airs Rock. Which but when you fly over it, you go, This is weird because there's this settlement in the middle of nowhere, and then you fly out and you go out and how big is it? Which I don't know the exact dimensions. Gareth will probably look it up and be able to tell you. But and then we took another trip out to uh another rock formation further away called Kamachatka. Underwhelming? No, great hike out to go to a vantage point there, and then we came back. I made a mistake. No, we came back and we had a barbecue there where they were and they were going to show us the stars. So after a while they turn out all the lights, tell you to close your eyes, turn off all the lights, and then you open up the stars, unbelievable bonkers, yeah, just insane. And you could see it, and I then made a huge mistake. And somebody said, Damn, see the really bright star up there? Anyone know what that is? And I went, The North Star? And there was a sort of chuckle and they went, You're in the Southern Hemisphere. You can't see the North Star. I went, Oh yeah. Oh Brads are like Do you ever see the film Wolf Creek? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, well we talked about that in a previous episode. It was wild, wasn't it? But it is because you're in that sort of environment out there in the boondocks, and it is a very, very unique experience. So for me, that is my number one. Good, good, good, good, good. Well, our listeners go jump on. And a new story you weren't expecting. You thought it was going to be the Imparja TV story. Okay, from BJ Cheaver's Spectacular Place. The rock formations, bird life, colour of the water, all breathtaking. Number two, Seville. Surely the most beautiful city in Europe. Is it not Sevilla? If you're Spanish? So interestingly, I've never been to Seville. No, neither have I. And then number three, Whispering Gallery in St. Paul's Cathedral, an engineering feat worth climbing the 250 odd steps to. And it's I've been looking many a times. I've never done that. We did St. Paul's catalyst. Oh, you not? No. With school many years ago. Oh, I did, yeah. Yeah. I heard a rumour that I started in there. What? Where we'll come back. Because it goes all the way around the gallery. So if you whisper it, it'll come all the way back to you. Oh nice. So I heard a rumour I started. You see what it did there? Yeah, I see what you did. It's too complicated for the complicated. Any others? Go ahead there. So is that you? No, I've got no more. Everything that's coming on to the book. Serengeti, number one. Rodney, Maxwell, sorry. Number two, Grand Canyon. Sarangeti, they said Sarangeti. Sarangeti. No, the Serengeti. Number two, Grand Canyon, like Osmorton. And number three, West Canada. Well, Western Canada, which is in fact the Rockies, etc. I remember he went there maybe last year and he said and the photographs he posted for did look funny. Absolutely love. I have spent a lot of time in the Canadian Rockies. It is one of the places that if I was leaving to go live somewhere else, I could very happily go and live. And did you do the Rocky Mountaineer, did you? No, that's for tourists. But I'd like to see Almorton. But do you know it's more for you? It's more for the likes of you who really just want to put your bag on and say you've had an adventure rather than actually go and have one. Oh wow. I have a go. Right. Um Ron. It's no Argash Alangash River or whatever it is. Allegash. Number three for Ron is Castillo de Sale in Lisbon. Oh, it's stunning. It is a Moorish castle that sits on top of Lisbon. I was thinking of No Lisbon. Lisbon, I love Lisbon. There's no castle of that size in Lisburn. The way this is written with uh broken grammar. I love thinking of Vasaka de Gamma rolling in La Bay and people watching for incoming ships during times of war. Oh, good. Number two, the Las Vegas strip. If you remove all your feelings about what it is and why it's there, and look at it from a pure experience of what man can do with unlimited resource. The strip is an incredible feat of man-made engineering and technology, which is a good point, actually. As number one, uh Oddley is actually Alcatraz. I found an extraordinary place to have a prison and the history of the prisoners and the escapes as a museum that I believe is the best tourist attraction I've ever visited. No, it is, it's well worth a visit. Interesting. I've got a few more here. Pete McQuillan, Coulomb in Hong Kong. Yeah. Kyloon. Our pronunciation for certain things is Catherine's Gorge across the Northern North Gorge. Northern Territories, Australia, Martin. Tree Bridge, Zipline, Kosamui. Ooh, that sounds good. Right, I've been to Kosamui a few times, never heard of that. Johnny sent in Siam Reap. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That's Cambodia. That's Cambodia, yeah. Is that one of the wonders of the world? It's one of the one of the wonders of the world, isn't it? Yes. No, I think the other it's the other one, Anger What? Yesawa Islands. The where? Yes? Yesawa Islands. And then I wish they'd given us a bit more of a clue because your pronunciation ain't doing it for me. Franz Joseph. Yes, sir. Go ahead, Martin, jump in. Well, uh Janet Williamson said Anger What, which is awesome in the true meaning and totally breathtaking. Uh Chichon Itza, the setting for the Mel Gibson film Apocalypto. Right. Okay. I'm presuming that's South America then. And then the Rat Temple in Rajasthan, the most disgusting, unbelievable experience in the world. I've heard some great stories about that. Just a temple where rats inhabit. Oh no, my word. There's a guy on Instagram who says, I've got a choice today. I can go and see or the Taj Mahal, or I can see the rat temple. What should I do? And then it just cuts to the rat temple where he's covered with rats. Oh I'll send you the video. Apparently the Taj Mahal, which is stunning, is quite small. People that get there and walk up to it go, hang on, I kind of expected it. It'll in the pictures, it always looks magnificently huge. Rat Temple. Yeah, the rat temple. Uh Paul McMahon said the Hoover Dam in Nevada. Okay. Water feet of engineering. What water feet? Water? No, no, just water feet, not water feet. Um Alcatraz, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Also, it was freezing cold even in July. Oh, yeah. Which is what we were talking about. And the Coliseum, spectacular, thankfully, without the Lions, but loads of history. I did that tour of the Coliseum in the summer. Good. I have to say, brilliant. Now it is helped with the Gladiator film, to tell you the truth. Oh, really? We uh loved it. I I loved Rome. I've never been in Rome until 2025, and I was there twice, and I'd go back tomorrow. Okay, it's fair pleasure. You're going back tomorrow. I would go back tomorrow. Okay. We uh Thomas sent the last a late one in a couple of minutes ago. Bahamas, Cape Town, and New York City. Cape Town is fascinating, but it is one of the places in the world that I've been where I've was most aware of my personal safety and the safety of the group that I was had out there playing golf. We were very conscious of being extraordinarily careful. It's not a comfortable place if you're not used to it. We're going to use it as a base. We're going to the Kruger first of all, then down to Cape Town. We're going to use it as a base to go to see. It's fascinating, it's lovely, but yeah, you you're going to you will know what I mean when you get back. Okay. And you you know, I again as well. Well, my mum loves South Africa. We've done a golf tour tour out there, and we frequently talk about it's one of the best golf tours we ever did, the most spectacular, the most fun we ever had. People were lovely, but you were very, very aware that you're from a privileged elite. And that is Well my brothers love it as well. So I'm the only one who hasn't gone or the only golf course I've ever played was in a place called Clavelli, just outside Cape Town, where we played one day and we were amazed that there were two security guards riding around in motorcycles. Oh, really? Wow. Fully armed to keep an eye on the thing, and the course was completely surrounded with both razor wire and an electric fill. So anyway, Ashley Parks said the Coliseum in Rome, as Juba says in Gladiator, I didn't know men could build such things. Then the Golden Circle in Iceland, which is waterfalls, geysers, and the northern lights, and then he lists and the north coast of Ireland, no explanation needed. Really? Yeah. Stephen McMullen said Runkery Beach at Port Ballantre, stunning. RBAI, that's the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and Old Trafford. The thing about that, Stephen, I'm going to talk directly to Stephen. Stephen headed up a World Challenge expedition to South America, which my son was on. And the places they saw out there in the photographs I've seen, I can't believe you're listing Old Trafford and even RBAI, magnificent it is, ahead of some of the There's a type, isn't there? Anyway, Johnny Kerr. Oh, Johnny, that's an interesting uh Mount Aruna in Costa Rica, the first active volcano I ever saw. Dubrovnik, it feels like a city from another world. Dubrovnik's lovely. And the Souks in Morocco, a frightening, overwhelming, but stimulating experience so different from anything we experience. I thought Johnny would have Grand Canary in there. He spends a lot of time there at the moment. No, well, it's it's the most you know extraordinary places. Extraordinary places. Victoria De Nun. Now she started off by saying these are only the ones I can tell you about, because as you know, we're convinced that's by. Anyway, uh Kravica Waterfall in Bosnia-Herzegovina, presumably she was there on an undercover mission of some sort. Luxor and the surrounding area in Egypt, probably prepping for a Middle East situation, and South Lunga National Park in Zambia. Not sure what conflict she was there resolving, but anyway. Some some great content in there that you know you want to see the world and you realise how you haven't seen so many. You're going to Cape Town soon, aren't you? Yeah, in November. Excellent. Some of our listeners can send you some of their favourite things in Cape Town. And finally, Big Keithy. Oh, Big Keith. He sent in the Grand Canyon, Mount Vesuvius, and the Pyramids. And then he wrote, Do you know why going to the pyramids was so cool? I went with my mummy. Oh. Oh, right. I got the joke. Yeah, it took me a while. It took me a while to get there as well. Listeners. I was doing the sympathetic one as well. I went with my mummy. Okay. There you go. The most extraordinary places we have been, but listeners, I am sure many of you have many other extraordinary places. I know certainly that uh our friend and regular listener, Colonel Lou in America, has been to some very extraordinary places. Um, but he probably can't talk about a lot of them. So anyway, we will be back shortly doing another pick three show. And thank you all for your contributions. But until then, on behalf of the podcast, my name is Martin. My name is Garth. And my name's Andy. Now, Andy, it's a several hundred meter walk down. Do you want your ice cream before we start? No, no, we'll get it. And what would your choice be? What, by the way, do we have to go and buy? Because he'll not buy it. Mr. Whitby. It has to be Mr. Whitby. But it would be an Did you just did you just ping? Did you just ping? My daughter, it just breaks. So I didn't think you'd have such a long clothes again. Oh, would you turn your sound back on because you thought we were finished? Yeah. Well, uh, okay. Well, look, I'll go get the ice cream. You put the walking reins on Andy and we'll get him down to the stones here. Anyway, listeners, thank you very much for joining us. We'll see you all again very soon.