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The Juan Fernandez Islands were used as the basis for Robinson Crusoe –Daniel Defoe’s classic novel. However, tourism has never really taken off here, despite the fact that it is much closer to the mainland than Easter Island. Named after the Portuguese sailor who found it in the 16th-century, the volcanic islands are valued most for their remoteness, by those who really want to get off the tourist track. Access is via a bumpy two to two and a half hour flight on a light aircraft, and only a determined couple hundred tourists make it here each year - an average of one or two per day....

Stand on the rim of the volcanic crater at Orongo, a thousand feet above the sea. Look around the endless Pacific Ocean visibly curving along the horizon. Ask yourself how those early Polynesian navigators ever found this isolated volcanic rock surrounded by thousands of square miles of empty sea. And then ask yourself what drove them here – and what happened to them? Easter Island (known locally as Rapa Nui) is the original mysterious island. The islanders developed the only written language in Oceania, but the meaning of the script has been lost. The island itself is best known, of cours...

Ask any surfer about the curls at Jeffreys Bay - J-Bay to anyone who ever waxed a board - and watch their eyes frost over with delight at the thought of that swell, those tubes and the most consistent wave formations in South Africa, a place that knows about surf. J-Bay is in Eastern Cape, an area with some of South Africa's wildest coastline, which is backed by some of Africa's most spectacular sub-tropical rainforest. Once a sleepy hollow, J-Bay is now a flashy town with rampant development: low-rise apartment blocks, beachside resorts and chrome-benched cafes are becoming the nor...