National Geographic Traveller

BEST OF THE WORLD 2023 N AT U R E azores FA M I LY Mount Pico in the Azores, the highest mountain in IMAGE: AWL IMAGES Award-winning sustainability programmes the Portuguese territory conserve natural wonders of this archipelago wicklow This volcanic island chain in the middle of the Atlantic ireland is an autonomous region of Portugal, located about 1,000 miles off its coast. “The Azores is nine islands with different A new treetop walk is just part of the habits and accents that change from island to island,” Irish garden county’s new appeal says National Geographic Explorer Miriam Cuesta Garcia, a marine biologist studying the nocturnal behaviour of Wicklow is Ireland’s ‘garden county’ — similar seabird hatchlings on Pico Island. “But the Azores has in size to Britain’s Cotswolds and crammed a unified vision for sustainability. It needs to [protect] with mountain trails for hikers and bikers, its unique environment, to remain the same even when stately palladian mansions, wild waterfalls changes occur.” Recognised by the World Wildlife Fund as and an underrated coast. As of this year, it’s an oasis for 28 whale and dolphin species — and with four of also home to Ireland’s tallest slide and an its nine islands named as UNESCO biosphere reserves exhilarating new walkway that gently ramps — the Azores takes sustainable tourism seriously. It became up to immerse visitors in the tree canopy itself. the world’s first archipelago to be certified by EarthCheck, Beyond the Trees Avondale is a revamped an Australia-based international advisory board and experience at Avondale Forest Park. The fully green tourism leader that conferred the award in 2019. accessible canopy walk opens up bird’s-eye The Portuguese territory is now focusing on conservation views of an estate with over 100 tree species, and biodiversity protection, air and water quality, and while the swirling, 12-storey slide is the preservation of Indigenous heritage. For example, centrepiece of a wooden structure shaped like authorities are limiting the number of hikers to Mount Pico, giant pint of Guinness. Afterwards, walk the the highest peak in Portugal, to ensure visitors can enjoy revitalised Victorian promenade at Bray, travel Pico Island’s dramatic volcanic landscape for years to come. back to early Christian times at Glendalough or track down filming locations ranging from Netflix’s Valhalla to Disney’s Disenchanted. DECEMBER 2022 101

BEST OF THE WORLD 2023 Charleston’s beaches beckon C U LTU RE charleston travellers seeking sand and surf south carolina, usa Above: The skyline of Charleston, IMAGES: GETTY The city opens the International South Carolina’s largest city African American Museum next year 102 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL A new year shines a light on an old wrong in Charleston. Known for its Low Country cuisine, walkable urbanism and antebellum architecture, South Carolina’s largest city addresses a grimmer aspect of its history when the International African American Museum opens on 21 January. The building is located on Gadsden’s Wharf and faces Charleston Harbor, where ships brought 100,000 enslaved Africans in chains to North America in the 18th and 19th centuries. Nine galleries tell harrowing tales of the Middle Passage and the horrors of plantation life. But they also uncover stories of the triumph of the enslaved and their enduring cultural contributions, including a section devoted to the Gullah Geechee people, who live along the Atlantic coast from the Carolinas to Florida and continue some of the African traditions of their ancestors.

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Extending from a rugged escarpment into a valley carpeted in mopane and miombo woodlands, the Lower Zambezi National Park is only a 45-minute plane ride from Zambia’s busy capital city, Lusaka, but feels a world away. As elephant numbers rebound following a celebrated conservation scheme and new luxury camps take root, this lesser-visited corner of Africa is establishing itself as one of the continent’s most exciting safari destinations WORDS: SARAH MARSHALL 10 4 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL

IMAGE: : TIME + TIDE CHONGWE CAMP DECEMBER 2022 105

ZAMBIA D epending on the season, rivers National Park, one of Zambia’s most important Clockwise from left: IMAGES: TIME + TIDE CHONGWE CAMP; SARAH MARSHALL whirl and eddy in a variety of wildlife sanctuaries. Despite being several River safari on the colours, shrinking and swelling hundred miles away, the dam reshaped the Zambezi near Time and with the rains on a never-ending landscape we’re enjoying today. Areas further Tide Chongwe Camp; journey from source to sea. Shades of brackish along the river, like this one, drained, he impala on the plains of brown, pea green and milky grey are all explains to me. New islands emerged as the Lower Zambezi National common, but if the waters ever stain red, waters lowered, and forests of mahogany Park; Ian Stevenson, of Zambia’s Tonga people raise an alarm. and winter thorn trees started to grow. But Conservation Lower the impact of humans on the natural world Zambezi, with one of the According to ancient local legends, a fiery didn’t stop there. “There was a time when we NGO’s tracking dogs; a flow is a trail left by river god Nyami Nyami, a were being hammered by poachers,” Hastings pair of elephants, one humongous serpent-like creature who lives in whispers in a low voice, doing his best not of the species making a Lake Kariba. His last show of strength was a to disturb a black-winged stilt stealthily remarkable comeback mighty one: angered by the construction of a prowling for bugs on the bank. “Animals were dam on the Zambezi River in the 1950s, Nyami rapidly disappearing.” But a combination of Previous pages: Nyami is said to have summoned a series of conservation and community efforts have Canoeing on the unprecedented natural disasters. Storms and increased wildlife numbers in this fertile wildlife-rich waterways flash floods raised rivers over the rooftops of valley, generating more tourists, new investors near Time and Tide villages, causing a level of devastation rarely and lodges, and even applications for UNESCO Chongwe Camp seen in the Zambezi Valley. If superstitious to designate the national park as Zambia’s first locals feared this was Nyami Nyami’s revenge Biosphere Reserve. for separating him from his wife, Kitapo, upstream, it didn’t impede the infrastructure One of the area’s most charismatic residents project — the dam was restarted and finally is the elephant, a species never far from completed in 1958. Some say the leviathan Zambezi’s floodplains and riverbanks. As has been tamed by this feat of hydroelectric part of its daily ritual, a thirsty herd arrives engineering, but still, as I paddle through at the water’s edge to take a final drink before the calm waters of the Inkalange Channel, sunset, mere feet from us. Tossing back their a gently meandering offshoot of the mighty trunks in the fading light, the elephants spray Zambezi River, I can’t help but scan the waters the sky with a golden mist, as baboons scurry for the signature scarlet bloom of his wake. into the treetops seeking safe places to roost for the night. The captain of my canoe is Hastings Muhonga. Growing up in a community close Light-footed African jacanas hop across a by, the safari guide has witnessed the ebb leafy pontoon of water hyacinths, hippos yawn and flow of fortunes in the Lower Zambezi and chortle, and a sweet smell of caper flowers 106 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL

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ZAMBIA fills the crisp, evening air on land that, before View across the fertile valley IMAGE: : TIME + TIDE CHONGWE CAMP the dam, would’ve been underwater. Despite of the Lower Zambezi Nyami Nyami’s furious protestations, the dam has — according to Hastings — opened the floodgates to more life. “I know it’s strange to say, but these islands, trees, birds and animals are partly here because of that dam,” he says. Once the sun has set and the baboons have raced to their roosts, Hastings paddles us back to Time and Tide Chongwe House, an open-to-the elements private cottage located at a confluence of the Chongwe and Zambezi Rivers, just beyond the boundary of the park. I spend my first night here. Plaster pillars of vines and tree trunks appear to support the walls and, while reclining in an al fresco bathtub, it’s possible to watch buffalo scramble down the dusty, ochre riverbanks. After dark, snuffles and shifting shadows suggest plenty of animal movement, but I sleep soundly knowing a night watchmen will keep any bigger predators at bay. The exclusive use of a guide and vehicle is part of the package at Chonge House, so I have the luxury of setting off for an earlier- than-usual game drive the following morning. I’m keen to see the dawn. Hastings tells me we’ll reach the park in around 20 minutes, providing the water level of the channels we need to ford are low enough, but our adventure starts as soon as we leave the lodge. Giving me barely a nod of acknowledgement, two bleary- eyed male lions skulk from the bushes like a couple of hardy revellers stumbling home. There’s a gripping tension in the air as night becomes day, forcing some creatures to snatch at the cover of darkness while others eagerly grapple for the first rays of light. Running, roaring, honking, chirruping — the forest becomes a frenzy of activity until the sun finally lifts and the valley exhales a sigh of relief. But one urgent growl continues. Following the source of the sound, we drive to the riverbank, where tree roots cling to crumbling terracotta cliffs. Up top, a young male leopard is licking his bloody wounds, gazing right through us into the thicket beyond where more rumblings reveal a mating couple. Hastings suggests the female has cast this spurned suitor aside in favour of a new partner. Thick, impenetrable bushes make it impossible to glimpse the pair, but trying to unravel the story is nevertheless thrilling — even more so because we’ll never know for sure. Squatting below a cluster of spindly date palms, an olive baboon picks through elephant dung for pieces of fruit softened by digestion. As breakfasts go, it’s fairly unappealing — although not as putrid as the foul feast we find a hyena devouring a few minutes later. “I thought he’d be here,” says Hastings, screwing up his nose in disgust at the smell. 10 8 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL

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ZAMBIA IMAGES: TIME + TIDE CHONGWE CAMP; SARAH MARSHALL; LOLEBEZI Clockwise from top Tearing at a leathery piece of skin, the hyena operates from a base a short boat ride upriver left: Elevated walkways is chewing the two-month-old remains of from where I’m staying. When I arrive, the around Lolebezi an elephant. It wasn’t a victim of poachers, newly decorated offices are buzzing with offer views across the Hastings insists. “It died due to illness, but activity in preparation for meetings with Zambezi; a ranger and the hyenas have made sure nothing has gone community elders and educational outreach Lolebezi guide scan to waste.” classes with local schools. Stacked in one for lions on a walking corner are heavy khaki canvas backpacks safari in Lower Zambezi From the late 1970s up until as recently belonging to the Kufadza (meaning ‘unity’) National Park; an adult as 2016, an epidemic of ivory poaching saw — Zambia’s first all-female, anti-poaching lion spotted on a dawn elephant numbers plummet in the Lower community scout unit, who are preparing to safari in Lower Zambezi Zambezi. But the tide has turned: now head out on patrol. National Park; a herd of elephants can been seen everywhere. African buffalo “When I started flying down here 20 years I find them wading across the river, using ago, I’d take off and see 20 poachers’ bushmeat their trunks as a snorkel; or clambering on drying racks in a morning,” says Australian- their back legs to reach the tasty pods of a born Ian, recalling the early days of CLZ, when winter thorn tree; and even outside my tent a small team worked from a cluster of canvas back at the Time and Tide Chongwe Camp, the tents. “Lion prides were moving from one larger, multi-tent sister camp to the cottage, carcass to another. We were being hit hard. In where I move to spend the next couple of days. 2015 alone, which was the peak of the crisis, we lost 107 elephants. Now, it’s significantly less.” At midday, once temperatures have risen, herds come down from the forest to drink. Nominated in 2020 for a Tusk Conservation Looking up, I watch one bull glide almost Award — the conservation world’s equivalent silently past my A-frame. Only a thin layer of to the Oscars — Ian was personally thanked netting separates us; I can see every fold and by the charity’s royal patron, Prince William, wrinkle of his rugged skin and my cheeks for his innovative and effective efforts in bristle with the coolness of his breath. combatting poaching locally. It was largely due to the efforts of CLZ, which works closely with Conservation in action the Zambian government’s Department of National Parks & Wildlife, that only a handful A former tourist guide and lodge owner of elephants have been lost to poaching in turned professional conservationist, Ian recent years. While Ian isn’t at liberty to reveal Stevenson has played an instrumental role in the exact numbers for 2022 yet, they’re some of the protection and restoration of the Lower the lowest on record he assures me. Zambezi’s elephant population. As the CEO of NGO Conservation Lower Zambezi (CLZ), he DECEMBER 2022 111



ZAMBIA IMAGE: SARAH MARSHALL Above: Trainer Adamson Outside, beneath the beating sun, trainer “This is one of Africa’s biggest waterways, Phiri, of Conservation Adamson Phiri is running through anti- millions of people and animals rely on it,” Lower Zambezi, carries poaching exercises with his tracking dog. says Ian. He’s referring to the Zambezi, out anti-poaching Sniffing furiously, the nasally honed hound is Africa’s fourth-longest river, which flows exercises with his able to detect the tiniest shaving of a pangolin through six countries on its 1,700-mile tracking dog scale or rhino horn inside a collection of journey from northwest Zambia into sealed cardboard boxes. As we walk around the Indian Ocean — forming the mighty the gardens, Ian tells me about plans for a Victoria Falls along the way. “If it became community programme aimed at training contaminated, it would be a global disaster. local dogs to do this work. They would, he says, Communities downriver are supportive be better adapted to heat and disease than because they’re being offered jobs, but they the imported breeds currently used. He even don’t understand the risk. There are a million believes it would be possible to equip a hyena reasons why it shouldn’t go ahead.” with detection skills. Bulls and baboons There are also plans to repopulate the park with locally extinct species — the aim being A large portion of CLZ’s funding comes to benefit the ecosystem and, as a secondary from tourism partners in the park and in bonus, boost tourism. First up would be the neighbouring, community-owned game eland, a large, spiral-horned antelope, which management area. As part of a membership Ian hopes to introduce within the next year scheme, camps and lodges contribute up or two. Once sufficient security systems are in to $1,000 (£880) a month. The most recent place, black rhino — last seen here in the 1990s member is Lolebezi, which opened in June. — could be next. “Years ago, at the height of A 90-minute boat ride from Time and Tide the poaching crisis, several rhinos from Lower Chongwe Camp, it occupies one of the most Zambezi were moved to southern Zimbabwe beautiful and isolated spots in the park. in a bid to save the remaining gene pool, so the right genetics are still there,” insists Ian, who’s When I arrive, a bull elephant has settled confident the project will one day go ahead, outside my room, leaving a trail of chewed once the necessary groundwork has been done. winter thorn pods behind him. Baboons, unfazed by my presence, are scampering over Looming in the background of all Ian’s an assault course of fallen branches, and the projects, however, is the ongoing threat silhouettes of shy kudu dart through pools of of a large, open-cast copper mine that’s amber afternoon light. Beneath a cathedral of been proposed for the park. CLZ is part of a winter thorn, ebony, fig and mahogany trees, consortium of NGOs currently lobbying the there’s an air of serenity, broken only by the government to reject the plans. soothing coos of a cape turtle dove. DECEMBER 2022 113

ZAMBIA 20 miles Z A M B I A Chongwe River Lower Zambezi CHONGWE RIVER National Park CAMP AND HOUSE LOLEBEZI CONSERVATION LOWER ZAMBEZI Zambezi River Mana Pools National Park Lake ZAMBIA Kariba LUSAKA ZIMBABWE Lower Zambezi National Park Lolebezi’s interiors are inspired GETTING THERE & AROUND by Zambian culture and use There are no direct flights from the materials from local artisans UK to Zambia. Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways and Qatar Bowing to the hierarchy of the natural little superfluous for the bush. Instead, I prefer Airways fly from London or Manchester IMAGE: LOLEBEZI. ILLUSTRATION: JOHN PLUMER world, I take my pew on a tree trunk and wait to leave the glass doors open at night, allowing into Lusaka via their respective hubs. for my hungry elephant friend to finish his the sounds of bellowing hippos and wailing emirates.com ethiopianairlines.com meal and drift slowly back into the forest. ibis to serenade me to sleep. kenya-airways.com qatarairways.com Average flight time: 15h. “It’s like being in an oil painting,” enthuses Regardless of all the fancy trimmings, Proflight Zambia operates domestic Beks Ndlovu, founder and CEO of African though, it’s the animal stars that steal the flights to Royal Airstrip (for Time and Bush Camps (one of only a few Black African- show. On a morning walk, I follow the paw Tide Chongwe Camp) or Jeki Airstrip owned safari companies), which manages prints of a male lion; during a sunset cruise, I (for Lolebezi). proflight-zambia.com Lolebezi. “The different layers: the floodplain, watch industrious little bee-eaters pockmark the islands, the acacia forest.” the banks with their nesting burrows; and WHEN TO GO on a night drive, I trail a leopard as it skulks Most camps in and around Lower A former guide, Beks started his career in through long, concealing wisps of grass. Zambezi National Park only open from the Lower Zambezi. “I fell in love with this mid-March to November. The best time place because of the intensity of the wildlife Recently, Beks tells me, National for spotting wildlife is July (11C to 25C) and the diverse landscape,” he reminisces Geographic came to film the Lower Zambezi’s to October (19C to 34C), when the heat that evening, stoking the flames of a fire- pack of 40-plus wild dogs, which have pushes animals to the river. The rainy pit overlooking the water. “I really believe developed a rare skill for hunting adult season (late November to early April) the Zambezi is one of the world’s most buffaloes. Keen to see what had drawn the brings peak humidity (with highs of iconic rivers. From hippos and elephants to camera crew here, we spend two days in the 33C) and most roads are inaccessible, so communities living in the Zambezi basin, so same area, monitoring activity around a activities are done by boat. much is dependent on it.” wild dog carcass that’s attracting lions from across the park. With bated breath, we watch PLACES MENTIONED But it’s not only the natural setting that as a hungry mother hides her young cubs in Conservation Lower Zambezi. wows guests when they arrive at Lolebezi. the thicket and spurns the advances of an conservationlowerzambezi.org A far cry from the simple canvas set-ups of amorous male to steal a few mouthfuls of food. rustic safari camps, the polished property is WHERE TO STAY more akin to a boutique hotel. In the main But it’s not always the action that keeps Time and Tide Chongwe House. From area, a cocktail bar with a marble counter feels me hooked. Sometimes the subtle details are $815 (£735) per person, full board. straight out of Manhattan, as is a breakfast equally as thrilling: glistening spider webs timeandtideafrica.com smoothie station with more superfood clinging to bushes like freshly spun cotton Time and Tide Chongwe Camp. From ingredients than a Planet Organic health store. wool; the squeal of a hunting fish eagle; a full $730 (£658) per person, full board. My room, one of eight, opens onto a secluded moon setting as the sun begins to rise. timeandtideafrica.com stretch of the Zambezi riverfront; I can shower, Lolebezi. From £590 per person bathe in bubbles or dip in a plunge pool while Fast or slow, in the background, the Zambezi to £1,490 per person, full board, watching elephants wade across to grassy river is a constant fixture. And although I depending on the season. Open year- islands. A high-tech heating system and never detect any evidence of Nyami Nyami’s round. africanbushcamps.com sophisticated mood lighting are arguably a bloody trails, there’s still a sanguine quality to this water, an eternal source of life. MORE INFO Zambia Tourism. zambiatourism.com Bradt Guide to Zambia. RRP: £18.99 HOW TO DO IT Abercrombie & Kent has a five-night trip to Zambia, with three nights, full-board, at Time and Tide Chongwe Camp and two nights at Lolebezi, from £6,995 per person, based on two sharing. Includes flights, transfers and conservancy fees. abercrombiekent.co.uk 114 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL



IN THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS WORDS: ZOEY GOTO. PHOTOGRAPHS: SHELL ROYSTER RISING ALONG THE EASTERN FLANK OF TENNESSEE , THE GREAT SMOK Y MOUNTAINS ARE KNOWN FOR THEIR HIKING TRAILS, WATERFALLS AND WILD BEARS — THIS IS, A F TE R A LL , TH E MO ST N AT U R A LLY B I O D I V E R S E POCKET IN THE US. BUT A ROAD TRIP THROUGH ITS OLD-GROWTH FORESTS REVEALS A MORE HUM AN STORY. HERE , TIGHT-KNIT COMMUNITIES ARE PRESERVING ANCIENT APPALACHIAN CRAFTS AND TRADITIONS, FROM POTTERY AND BROOM CARVING TO FOLK DANCING, ALL ALONGSIDE SOME OF A MERICA’S MOST BOMBASTIC RESORT TOWNS 116 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL

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TENNESSEE DRIVING THROUGH PIGEON FORGE IS NOTHING SHORT OF EUPHORIC The small mountain city, deep in the beating I tackle backcountry roads, driving through Clockwise from top: heart of East Tennessee, boasts a main drag deep forest towards the neighbouring town, King Kong atop the like no other, all twinkling lights, curious Gatlinburg, until I spot Ogle’s Broom Shop, Hollywood Wax Museum characters, gaudy billboards and eye-popping a higgledy-piggledy wooden dwelling that’s in Pigeon Forge; a attractions. The kerbside carousel makes it tumbled straight from the pages of a Hans waitress at Pigeon hard to keep my eyes on the road. Christian Andersen tale. Inside, David Ogle, a Forge’s Frizzle Chicken third-generation broom maker, sweeps a pile Farmhouse Cafe; biscuits I pass a gaggle of sightseers, among them of corn from a chair and offers me a seat. He and gravy for breakfast Amish holidaymakers in bonnets and boaters, tells me how the relationship between tourism at Frizzle craning their heads back to admire a giant and the local mountain communities of King Kong clinging to the outside of a tall Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville has Previous pages: The building, his jaws frozen in an endless roar, long been a symbiotic one, existing even prior view from Newfound his clenched fist grasping a retro aeroplane. to the grand opening of the popular Great Gap, the lowest drivable This is perhaps the kitschiest monument Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934. pass through the Great in the city — which has marketed itself as a Smoky Mountains ‘family vacation hub’ since the 1980s — but Behind him, curling sepia photos show National Park it’s certainly not alone in vying for that title. David’s grandfather when he was starting There’s a replica of the doomed Titanic; a the family business from a roadside cabin souvenir shop claiming to sell live alligators; in the 1920s. “Back then, travellers would and a waffle house boasting no fewer than 100 drive these backroads on the lookout for singing animatronic chickens. handcrafted goods,” says David. “If a couple of visitors stopped by when lunch was ready, my Up ahead, a Bavarian-style mansion grandaddy would invite them into his home.” appears like a mirage. An actor dressed as He adds that curious visitors often bit off more Father Christmas stands out front, sweating than they could chew — sometimes literally. in the blazing midsummer sunshine next to a colossal, bauble-decked fir tree. This “Grandaddy was heavy into bear hunting, hotel, I gather from a painted sign, celebrates so that was the meat that often ended up on Christmas every single day of the year. It’s a the table!” The plaid-shirted artisan chuckles lot to take in. fondly, surrounded by his creations. Around the shop are brooms with knotted handles Yet, beyond this razzle-dazzle main drag of carved into the faces of wizardly old men artifice and entertainment, waterfalls cascade representing his forebears — plus the odd in hushed 300-million-year-old woodland and Father Christmas thrown in for good measure. hawks patrol the heavens. A road trip through the Great Smoky Mountains offers up almost Like a magician performing a well-practised impossible contradictions. trick, David takes meticulous care as he binds 118 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL

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TENNESSEE Clockwise from top the bristles of a broom. They’re considered A row of gurning ‘face pots’, all gargoyle left: David Ogle at collector’s items, he tells me. “People want expressions and dripping, mottled glaze, work in Ogle’s Broom me to sign and date them. I have a woman in catches my eye. It turns out they chronicle Shop, Gatlinburg; face Florida who has 48 of my brooms hanging the untold stories of these hills and hollows pots at Fowler’s Clay in her office. Every one is unique, because as succinctly as any textbook. “Before the Works, inspired by pre- Mother Nature don’t give you two pieces Civil War, enslaved people were involved emancipation African- of wood alike,” he says, peering over wire- in the pottery trade, making grain jars and American ceramics; rimmed spectacles at his handiwork. fermentation crocks,” says Mike. “But they Whaley’s Handcrafts, weren’t allowed grave markers to bury their also part of the Great It may have started life as one man and dead. Instead, they used African traditions to Smoky Arts & Crafts his lonesome cabin, but Ogle’s Broom Shop create effigy jars to ward off evil spirits.” The Community is now part of a far heftier collective. The custom lapsed after emancipation, but the Great Smoky Arts & Crafts Community in ceramic idols were resurrected in the 1960s as Gatlinburg’s Glades district is the largest part of the so-called ‘craft revival’ movement collective of its kind in the US — an eight- in Appalachia. Potters like Mike have since mile, snaking loop of studios, galleries and kept the heritage alive. “I nod back to where independent shops with the common goal they came from, but I also try to flow with the of keeping the home fires of traditional times and add my own flavour,” he says. Appalachian crafts burning. Lingering around Mike’s creations is an Having navigated hairpins that test my unmistakable undertone of Southern gothic, driving skills, it’s a relief to arrive at Fowler’s an artistic genre born in the American South Clay Works, also on the Gatlinburg craft trail, to in the early 19th century, often involving try my hand at its pottery wheel. A more idyllic grotesque characters, irrational desires studio space would be hard to imagine: out the and twisted humour, drawing from the back, a creek babbles as stacks of handcrafted grotesquery of slavery and the Civil War. It’s ceramics dry alongside it, mirroring the something I’ve frequently encountered over landscape in gentle hues of river rock green the two decades I’ve been visiting Tennessee’s and mountain honey. Ceramicist Mike Fowler Smokies, a place where the tales can be as has been known to plunge himself into this tall — and dark — as the mountains. “There’s stream during creative reveries to plug deeper always someone who’s seen a ghost in the into the natural landscape. swamp or the biggest bear in the woods,” says Mike, slowly turning a macabre-looking pot in Back inside the cool of the studio, under the his hands. “Around here, storytelling is a big watchful eye of Mike — a laid-back, ponytailed part of our creative culture.” Floridian who fell in love with Appalachian crafts while here on his honeymoon, and Weird and inexplicable sightings are part opened his own studio in 2015 — I attempt and parcel of life in these ancient mountains. to tease an oozing fist of clay into something Sasquatch, a mythical, ape-like creature vaguely resembling a vase, while Mike talks of also known as Bigfoot, is ‘spotted’ with the early European settlers who, in 18th and such regularity that its ragged silhouette 19th centuries, spread throughout the vast is celebrated in local merchandise with Appalachian region, a sweeping brushstroke an enthusiasm only otherwise reserved that covers sections of 13 states, from New for Appalachia’s most honoured daughter, York down to Mississippi in the Deep South. musician Dolly Parton. Having bid Mike farewell, I drive past countless Gatlinburg gift “They really came on a wing and a prayer, shops boasting racks of T-shirts and key rings hoping for a better life,” he says. “Everything branded with either Dolly or Bigfoot. they produced had to be pared back and utilitarian, including pottery. I still try to To honour the Queen of Country, I head to continue that tradition here, although I do her 160-acre Dollywood theme park, back in allow a fancy splash of colour.” DECEMBER 2022 121

TENNESSEE Pigeon Forge. Here, in the shadow of arching hiking poles, venturing past the trailhead and Clockwise from top roller coasters with folksy names such as ascending into the wilderness of the Great left: Candlemaking at Wild Eagle and Mystery Mine, a cast of Smoky Mountains National Park. Dollywood theme park; a blacksmiths, candlemakers and fast-picking scenic road cuts through banjo players perform their Appalachian Weaving through this lush tapestry of the mountains of East traditions before crowds of cheerful land is the legendary Appalachian Trail. Tennessee; picking the travellers (many licking fingers sticky with The granddaddy of long-distance hikes banjo at Dollywood; a the sweet, buttery residue of fresh cinnamon marches 2,200 miles from Maine to Georgia stream flows through the bread, a speciality of the traditional Grist Mill and requires up to seven months of gritty Alum Cave Trail bakery on site). commitment to complete. Today, however, we’re tackling its younger sibling, the Alum At Dollywood, these craftspeople share Cave Trail, which offers all the perks of equal billing with Dolly, the great matriarch the park — tumbling waterfalls, stunning of the Smokies. Her glittering image is panoramas and a haven of biodiversity sprinkled lavishly throughout the park, from — within a few moderate miles of terrain. her all-singing, all-dancing hologram greeting mesmerised fans, to a replica of her hard- We pass children playing in a clear-water scrabble childhood cabin where, according stream and, further along, poker-faced anglers to the lyrics of her hit song My Tennessee keeping their eye on the prize while reeling Mountain Home, life was once “as peaceful as in slippery trout. But we encounter only a a baby’s sigh”. few other walkers on our climb, which seems strange given that up to 14 million people Some visitors might feel uncomfortable visit the park annually, attendance boosted about the Disneyfication of Appalachia, but considerably by the lack of entrance fee. Mike sees it another way. “If we’re talking Perhaps would-be hikers got the memo about about cultural preservation and economic the incoming rain, which pitter-patters down growth for the Smokies, I see it as a positive as we walk through this temperate rainforest. thing for the region,” the ceramist had told Thankfully, we remain mostly shielded by a me earlier that day, as a pair of potential canopy of red spruce, beech and birch trees, customers entered his studio. “Dollywood as their tangled mess of roots wrap around attracts huge crowds and sparks curiosity to boulders to dip languidly into streams. keep exploring beyond the gates of the theme park.” After all, crafts in these parts have been The pandemic caused Dave to reassess entwined with travellers and commerce long his entire career, trading in a corporate job before Dolly was even born. to instead lead small group tours by day and starlit camping trips by night, sharing his Natural wonder affection and encyclopaedic knowledge of the park. Striding through the light-dappled Bedding down in a remote log cabin in forest, as an earthy musk radiates from the Sevierville, I read a welcome manual forest floor, he pauses briefly to point out that points out I’m now in bear territory, slithering salamanders and wildflowers subsequently ensuring a fairly restless night’s bearing curious monikers such as devil’s sleep. Tennessee’s Smokies are home to two walking stick and hearts-a-bustin’-with-love, black bears per square mile, making the odds the latter an outrageous peacock of a shrub of an encounter fair to middling. overflowing with bright orange seeds. The following morning, adventure guide Climbing higher still, we gain altitude Dave Harlow, from Smoky Mountains Guides, before finally reaching the trail’s peak to casually peppers our conversation with a inhale magnificent vistas as the mountains couple of anecdotes of close encounters before us break like shadowy waves on the with bears. It cranks up the anticipation as horizon. It was the Cherokee — who were we strap on walking boots and tightly clasp almost entirely removed by force from this 12 2 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL

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land by the US government during the Trail of A plate of fried frog’s legs at TENNESSEE Tears from 1831 to 1850 — who named these The Appalachian, Sevierville distinctive hills ‘Shaconage’, meaning ‘Land DECEMBER 2022 125 of Blue Smoke’. Looking out over the halos Above: Island Home Baptist of mist crowning the peaks, which is a result Church, Norris Dam State Park of moisture emitted by the dense vegetation below, I forget my disappointment that no bears crossed our path today. With views like this, it’s their loss. At sundown, I head to Sevierville and pull up a chair at The Appalachian, a hip new restaurant where the menu reads like a passionate love letter to rural cooking. I order frog’s legs covered in a tangy ranch sauce, topped with crumbling rocks of melting blue cheese. They arrive plump and juicy. Manager Dan Estes assures me the dish is an authentic Appalachian delicacy. “My daddy would take me frog gigging by the light of the moon,” recalls Dan. “The frogs would raise their heads above water to catch flies, and then — Bam! — I’d spike them with a three-pronged fork,” he continues, driving an invisible spear through the air with gusto, while over his shoulder the flames of a wood-fire cooker crackle invitingly. Folk revival For my final stop, I head 50 miles upstate to the foothills of Norris Dam State Park on crooked country roads hugging creeks and valleys. White clapperboard churches dot the route, while mountains capped with crosses loom large on the horizon. If I’d quietly hoped to unearth a preserved cove of rootsy, unspoiled mountain culture, arriving at the Museum of Appalachia feels like a welcome reward. Showing me around his family’s 65-acre living history museum is Will Meyer, whose grandfather, John Rice Irwin, the museum’s founder, dedicated his life to collecting artifacts and documenting the vanishing folkways of the southern Appalachian people, a melting pot of immigrants from the UK, Ireland and Germany, among other European nations. We wander through pastures dotted with historic cabins, including, much to my excitement, author Mark Twain’s childhood shack, which was moved to the museum in 1995. Multiple galleries overflow with colourful curiosities; it would require a lifetime to do all the exhibits justice. An intriguing section showcases items from local death rituals, alongside makeshift children’s toys with dried apples for heads. Elsewhere, there’s the home of a mountain settler who, inexplicably, decorated every surface in a riot of polka dots — like contemporary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, only a couple of hundred years prior. Over an unpretentious lunch of fried chicken, okra, pinto beans and cornbread in the museum’s restaurant, Will reveals he’s part of a growing flock of younger Appalachians returning from big cities to the rural setting of their childhood. “As adults, we’re garnering more of an appreciation of and curiosity for

TENNESSEE 20 miles UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Norris Dam State Park MUSEUM OF TENNESSEE APPALACHIA TENNESSEE Knoxville THE APPALACHIAN Sevierville Pigeon Forge DOLLYWOOD OGLE’S BROOM SHOP Gatlinburg FOWLER’S CLAY WORKS Great Smoky Mountains National Park N O R T H CAROLINA Guide Dave Harlow of GETTING THERE & AROUND Smoky Mountains Guides Aer Lingus, American Airlines, Finnair, Iberia and British Airways fly nonstop on the Alum Cave Trail from the UK to Nashville, a four-hour drive into the Great Smoky Mountains. our history and culture,” he says. “It feels good they wound up here from different areas at Several other airlines fly with one ILLUSTRATION: JOHN PLUMER to come home.” I can see why. different times. The mountain folk weren’t, stopover to Knoxville, an hour’s drive and still aren’t, just one kind of people.” to the mountains. aerlingus.com Well fed, we follow the sound of music aa.com finnair.com iberia.com ba.com wafting lazily on the breeze and find musician Now serenaded by a chorus of cicadas, I Average flight time: 10h. John Alvis sat on a wooden porch playing a join John on the porch, the very place where Car rental is advised, with airports and fiddle made from a dried gourd. His teenage he once learnt songs by ear from elders in the cities offering multiple hire companies. twin daughters, Kylee and Sadie, accompany community. I tell him his music feels deeply him with a spirited display of clogging reminiscent of that of my own Celtic heritage. WHEN TO GO — the high-kicking cousin of traditional Irish That’s to be expected, John insists. “The Spring is mild and sunny, while dancing. “We’re keeping our heritage alive ballads and jigs brought over by early settlers autumn brings richly coloured foliage; by teaching youngsters in the community to became trapped and reverberated around the seasons average 10C and 17C dance, but we also mix things up a little by these isolated, high mountain ridges. I’ve met respectively. Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg clogging to contemporary pop or ballet,” says a lot of people from the old countries — from and Sevierville light up as winter Sadie. Between performances, she checks her England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales — who wonderlands in the festive season, phone, making graduation party plans for that come here to study their ancestors’ songs when the mercury can easily dip below evening, flitting seamlessly between the old and stories. I guess the appeal is that without zero. Tennessee summers can feel ways and the new. outside influences they’ve been kept kind humid, with average highs of 28C. of pure,” he says, his rocking chair slowly “When I was growing up, there were creaking back and forth on the buckled slats. PLACES MENTIONED programmes like The Beverly Hillbillies, which Ogle’s Broom Shop. oglesbrooms.com poked fun at us,” John tells me, later, deep in As I stand up to leave, John offers a final, Fowler’s Clay Works. thought as he gazes out over the rolling fields, melodic farewell. “I wish I was in London, fowlersclayworks.com flecked with grazing sheep. He says his people or some other seaport town, I’ll set myself Dollywood. dollywood.com have been dogged by stereotypes, pretty much on a steamship and I’ll sail the ocean Smoky Mountain Guides. since the first Europeans set up homesteads round,” he sings from the porch, as I head smokymountainguides.com here. “Today, you switch on the TV and we’re off on my journey back home to the UK. As The Appalachian. all snake handlers or moonshiners.” These the storied old hills become just a smudge in theappalachianrestaurant.com caricatures miss the nuances of Appalachia, my rear-view mirror, I experience a wave of Museum of Appalachia. he adds, pushing the brim of his straw hat sadness and longing. It’s surprising how easy museumofappalachia.org forward as the sun beats down. “The people it is to put down deep roots in Tennessee’s of this region didn’t all get off the same boat, Smoky Mountains. WHERE TO STAY LeConte Lodge, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. From $162 (£145). lecontelodge.com Historic CCC Cabins, Norris Dam State Park. From $132 (£120). tnstateparks.com MORE INFO Tennessee Tourism. tnvacation.com HOW TO DO IT America As You Like It has a seven-night fly-drive to Tennessee from £1,295per person, including return flights from Heathrow, car hire and accommodation. americaasyoulikeit.com 126 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL

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PERCHED 5,0 0 0F T ABOVE SE A LE VEL IN GUATEM AL A’S CENTR AL HIGHL ANDS, L AKE ATITL ÁN I S ONE OF THE COUNTRY ’S MOST M AGNIFICENT NATUR AL WONDERS. IT’S A REGION OF DA Z ZLING VIEWS, WHERE BLUE WATERS ARE FLANKED BY STEEP HILLS AND THREE TOWERING VOLCANOES, THEIR SLOPES TH I C KLY FO RE S TED WITH PI N E TREE S . D OT TED ARO U N D TH E S H O RELI N E ARE A D OZEN TOWN S , H OME TO COM MU N ITIE S O F IN D I G EN O U S M AYA . H ERE, LOCAL S PR AC TI SE ANCIENT CR AF TS AND TR ADITION S THAT HAVE BEEN HANDED DOWN THROUGH FA MILIES FOR GENER ATION S WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS: BELLA FALK DECEMBER 2022 131

GUATEM AL A The best way to get around the lake is by lancha, small motorboats that ferry locals and visitors from one dock to the next. Each of Lake Atitlán’s colourful towns has its own character and style, but what unites them all are their richly creative communities, their skilled artisans producing a range of beautiful handicrafts. These crafts are often highly localised, with different villages specialising in one particular skill. San Antonio Palopó, at the eastern end of the lake, is famed for its ceramics; Diego Calabay works here as painter, decorating up to 20 objects a day. 132 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL

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GUATEM AL A Across Guatemala’s highland region, the most celebrated craft is the centuries-old art of backstrap loom weaving. Practised mainly by Maya women, it involves using a loom tied around the waist to create vividly patterned fabrics, which are then stitched together to make the colourful blouses and skirts worn by many Maya women. Each town has its own designs, making clothing a key indicator of a person’s ethnic and regional identity. Dressed in San Antonio Palopó’s traditional colours of blue and purple, Marta Perez Dias uses a spinning wheel to wind freshly dyed cotton onto a reel, ready for weaving. DECEMBER 2022 135

Larger pieces are woven on a foot loom, operated here by Marta’s daughter Verónica. This is a bigger machine, which uses a pedal to open and close the layers of threads and create a tighter weave in less time. Weaving in Guatemala isn’t just a job, but also an identity. During the brutal 36-year civil war in the second half of the 20th century, many Maya women lost husbands and fathers, forcing them to find ways to support their families. They set up cooperatives like Trama Textiles, which works with weavers around the lake and helps Marta and her family sell their products and preserve their cultural traditions. 136 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL

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GUATEM AL A Just along the lakeshore from San Antonio Palopó is Santa Catarina Palopó. The town was in severe economic decline until community leaders decided to paint all the local houses in vibrant colours. The makeover has given the community a new lease of life, and today, Brenda Sajvin’s candle-making business is booming. Power cuts are extremely common around the lake, especially during the rainy season, making candles essential in the region. Brenda, who was taught the craft by her father, now makes two types by hand: safety candles in glasses for when the power goes out, and decorative freestanding ones for celebrations and religious worship. DECEMBER 2022 139

GUATEM AL A With such diversity concentrated in one place, Atitlán reveals different facets of the region’s rich culture. Whether it’s partying in buzzing San Pedro La Laguna, shopping for handmade wooden souvenirs in down-to-earth Santiago Atitlán, visiting artisanal workshops in San Juan La Laguna or getting off-grid at a yoga retreat in San Marcos, the lake is a rare example of a place that’s managed to adapt to the demands of tourism while still holding onto its nuances and traditional ways of life. 14 0 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL

LA BUTTE AUX BOIS WHERE NATURAL HISTORY MEETS HOSPITALITY EXPERIENCE FIVE-STAR SUPERIOR HOSPITALITY. Over 12 hectares of pure tranquillity. NATURAL HISTORY Our interior is curated by the leading gallery SHISEIDO INSTITUTE of natural history GRA NA DA . It offers a Offering a wide selection of massages and body journey through the finest collections of treatments. Includes a sun terrace, panoramic minerals, fossils, meteorites and gemstones. sauna, hammam, indoor pool, a gym and more! It offers education and inspiration. GASTRONOMIC DESTINATION You may also enjoy a private dinner in our The two-star restaurant stands for perfection. The amazing ‘Wunderkammer’, with a featured contemporary Bistrôt Le Ciel serves a French- gemologist, for a world-class experience. Belgian cuisine with worldwide influences. www.labutteauxbois.be BELGIUM’S HIDDEN GEM

| PAID CONTENT FOR VISIT MALDIVES MALDIVES A nation on a plate The rich culinary landscape of the Maldives is underpinned by a commitment to fresh seafood, restorative curries and wholesome dishes created using local produce. Words: Helen Warwick

| PAID CONTENT FOR VISIT MALDIVES G A R U D H I YA This fragrant fish soup is a favourite during winter, when it’s often poured into bowls from bubbling pots by street vendors. The base is a restorative clear broth, flavoured with ginger, garlic, black pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice, with fresh chunks of yellowfin tuna or skipjack, as well as chilli and grated coconut. It’s often fleshed out with steamed rice or mopped up with torn pieces of roshi — the Maldivian chapati that’s soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. To try this nourishing soup, visit one of the restaurants on the laid-back island of Kelaa in the north of the Haa Alif Atoll. KUKULHU RIHA A delicious curry isn’t hard to find in the Maldives. And although fish lays claim to most large plates, kukulhu riha arrives with gently braised chicken in a terrific coconut-based sauce, delicately spiced with curry leaves, cardamom and a handful of fiery scotch bonnets. Bulked out with steamed rice, it’s also eaten with a roshi and washed down with a glass of lime juice and soda. Head to the tiny isle of Omadhoo — a dozing fishing village — in the North Ari Atoll and nab a table at one of its local cafes for standout chicken curries. MASI HUNI Masi huni is a classic Maldivian breakfast of finely shredded smoked tuna, grated coconut, lemon and chilli, all scooped up with a roshi. It’ll keep you full all morning. The dish is commonly found in back-to-basic guesthouses on some of the smaller islands, such as Fuvahmulah in the deep south, and dished up with fervour across Malé. There’s also a veggie version, with chunks of caramelised butternut squash or roasted pumpkin, which will set you up for a day of adventure. IMAGES: GETTY; VISIT MALDIVES Maldivian snacks, including kulhi HANDULU BONDIBAI boakibaa, a spicy fish cake This Maldivian rice pudding is often served during Eid or a baby’s naming ceremony. Rice is cooked in coconut milk Clockwise from left: an aerial view of and water, with the addition of fragrant pods of cardamom, a resort in the Maldives; mashuni pandan leaves and sugar, before being taken off the heat, at and roshi, a traditional breakfast which point a few drops of rosewater are added. The result is sweet and sticky, pulled into balls by diners with a side of smoked fish. You’ll find them across the archipelago, though make a beeline for Maafushi Island, a short hop from Malé, and to its enclave of cheap and cheerful restaurants. KULHI BOAKIBAA The Maldives has its own take on tapas or ‘small eats’, and these fishcakes are representative of those bites. Cooks make them from ground cooked rice and tuna, adding plenty of grated coconut, turmeric powder, grated ginger and curry leaves, binding it all together into one large circular, pancake- style fishcake before baking until golden brown. Once turned out of the oven, these crisp-edged savoury fishcakes are cut into slices and washed down with black tea, known locally as kalhu sai. For a bona fide kulhi boakibaa, head to one of Malé’s tea shops, always bustling with an appreciative crowd. For more information, see visitmaldives.com SEE MORE ONLINE AT NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL

CITY LIFE I STANBUL For centuries, coffee has percolated through the veins of Turkey’s cultural powerhouse. Times have changed, but even in the face of fast-evolving trends, locals are holding on to the traditions that surround this humble, ancient drink WO RDS: CO NN O R MCG OVERN . PH OTO G R APH S: RIC HARD JA MES TAYLO R 14 4 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL

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There are worse places for a morning coffee Arabian Peninsula. There, in the mountains than Kahveci Mustafa Amca Jean’s. Sitting of Yemen, coffee was sipped day and night by on one of the stools in the quiet courtyard off Sufi mystics to induce spiritual states. By the İstiklal Avenue, I realise I’m not the only one end of the 1500s, it had taken on a more earthly to think so: a street cat has found a seat of his purpose as the drink du jour in Istanbul own, too, curled up on a cushion beside me in — then Constantinople — and coffeehouses the sun’s gentle rays. A quiet clattering of cups had opened everywhere. Reserved for men comes from the tiny kitchen in the corner. only, they became somewhere to socialise away from the ears and eyes of the mosque, “We have a saying in Turkish,” says Duygu promising gossip, games and good coffee. Not Doğuç, “‘Eat sweet, talk sweet.’ If you just that everyone was on board with the caffeine want to chat, we drink sweet tea. If you want craze: Sultan Murad IV felt so threatened a serious talk, then we have coffee.” by the popularity of coffee in the early 17th century that he prohibited it, along with I’m expecting, then, an earnest alcohol and tobacco, and even executed the conversation with my guide from Istanbul few who broke the ban. Tour Studio as we sip strong, bitter cups of Turkish coffee, but it never comes. In fact, as “Everything happened in Istanbul’s I reach the end of my drink, Duygu turns the coffeehouses,” says Duygu, finishing her cup upside down on the saucer with a wry drink. “Actors, storytellers, puppeteers smile. “Ok, let’s have a look.” She flips it back — they’d all come to perform, and tradesmen over and peers inside, trying to divine shapes would often stay there all day in case anyone from the formless brown sludge. No luck. “Ah, in the area needed their services. It was a bit I don’t know. Did you know there’s an app for like a job centre.” reading coffee grounds now, anyway?” As we walk along a busy İstiklal Avenue, This should hardly come as a surprise. As the city’s main shopping street, I’m drawn to Duygu explains, the digitisation of kahve Hacı Bekir. The windows of this historic sweet falı — fortune-telling with coffee grounds shop are stocked with blushing pink cubes — is just another chapter in the long, winding of Turkish delight, piled high on silver trays. tale of Turkish coffee culture. It’s a story that Looking at them, it’s suddenly very easy to goes back centuries: the first coffeehouse in forgive Edmund’s gluttony in C S Lewis’s The Istanbul was opened in 1555 by two merchants Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. from Damascus, who’d brought beans from the 14 6 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL

I S TA N B U L Fantasy stories aside, lokum, as the sweet is To make the coffee, Can insists on using From left: Boats moored on the Golden known here, is an integral part of the coffee hot water — not cold, as others maintain — to Horn, overlooked by 16th-century ritual, served with coffee alongside a glass of bring out the flavour, and he prefers a copper Süleymaniye Mosque; a coffeeshop water, to rinse the palate. “If I order a coffee cezve over brass or silver. It’s also about speed: in Balat; one of Istanbul’s many cats and it comes without water and something the whole process, he says, needs to be quick watches life tick by in Balat sweet, then it’s not a Turkish coffee for me,” to ensure a hot, velvety coffee. With that, says Duygu. he places the cezve over a high flame and Previous pages from left: Turkish coffee lets the liquid froth furiously for just a few served at Mandabatmaz; customers at Much to her pleasure, coffee is served as moments before quickly turning off the heat Primi, a cafe-restaurant in Balat it should be at Mandabatmaz, another small and decanting the thick, chestnut elixir into establishment hidden up an alleyway off a small cup. A layer of tiny bubbles gathers on İstiklal. It’s a modest place: there’s a tiny the surface. It’s all done in less than a minute. counter with a cooker and the tiled walls are decorated with framed newspaper snippets While that process has hardly changed, it’s and sepia portraits. “I like tradition,” says a different story for the city’s coffeehouses. Can Özmen, who’s preparing some coffee Not far away are branches of Starbucks, at the hob. He starts by spooning fine, dark Caffè Nero and Turkey’s own chain, Kahve grounds into a cezve, the long-handled pot Dünyası — all wildly different from the likes that’s used to brew the coffee. “Traditional of Mandabatmaz and Mustafa Amca. “When Yemeni beans are the best for making Turkish Starbucks opened in 2003, it was a game- coffee,” he says, “but we pursue flavours, not changer,” says Duygu. “Suddenly everyone destinations, so we might change producers was exposed to Western-style coffee and it depending on what we like.” became really popular.” DECEMBER 2022 147



I S TA N B U L But the arrival of global brands — Starbucks between an office and an artist’s studio, Q&A with Mehmet surpassed 500 stores in Turkey in 2020 cluttered with books and boxes of filter papers. Kurukahveci of — hasn’t spelt the end for Turkish coffee as Kurukahveci many purists feared. Realising the drink’s You could say coffee is in Aslı’s blood, in Mehmet Efendi value, the big names added their own versions all senses. Before Covid-19, she worked as a to the menu. “They use different beans and costume designer in New York and practically TE L L U S A L I T T L E A B O U T cups for their Turkish coffee, and serve it with ran on the stuff. “Coffee was what kept me THE BRAND. water and a sweet,” she says. “Even they know going during those long, sleepless nights,” The company was first how special it is.” she laughs, “sewing sequins onto outfits.” established in 1871 by my But when the pandemic suddenly put paid to grandfather Mehmet Efendi TO THE BITTER END her fashion work, she moved back to Istanbul — the first to sell freshly to work in the family business. Fortunately, roasted and ground coffee, It might be the coffee, but the waterfront though, she’s lost none of her creative spark. packed into small paper bags. district of Eminönü is frenetic with activity “I host some coffee workshops, where we make He became famous in the on this hot afternoon, its quays busy with ink from coffee grounds and experiment with city and earned the moniker ferry passengers. “Bosphorus tour! Bosphorus permaculture,” she says wistfully. “It’s all a ‘Kurukahveci’, or ‘coffee tour!” call ticket sellers, while men cast long work in progress.” roaster’, which later became fishing lines from the Galata Bridge and into the family’s surname. We the choppy water below. Wheeling seagulls We head down to the roasting room at the export around the world — white smudges on the bright, blue sky back of the shop, where the smells hit me like today, but still operate the — eye up the balık ekmek (grilled mackerel an ambush: caramel, vanilla, chocolate, anise, original shop just behind sandwiches) of people dawdling along the cherry — all united in one singular, heady Istanbul’s Spice Bazaar. promenade. Leaving the hubbub, Duygu and scent. Whole beans from at least a dozen I slip down a side street towards the Spice origins, from El Salvador to Ethiopia, are WHAT M AKES THE Bazaar, minarets looming above, and squeeze labelled up at the counter. It’s overwhelming. PERFECT CUP OF past customers as they browse heaps of sweet, I wonder how Aslı decides on which varieties TURKISH COFFEE? dried rosebuds, electronic gadgets and cut- to source. “It really depends on my mood,” she Turkish coffee is a medium price Fenerbahçe jerseys. says, “but we like to make our own blends, too, roast, ground very fine. It so it’s always changing.” She shows me the must be brewed in a Turkish But it’s caffeine we’ve come for. We arrive at century-old Probat roasting machine coffee pot or a Turkish İhsan Kurukahvecioğlu, a shop on the corner — a cast-iron beast that’s fired by wood and coffee machine, and served of a busy street that’s been roasting coffee manned by hand. “We’re the only place in the immediately in small cups and since 1871. Her eyes lavished with turquoise city to roast our beans this way,” she explains. with a thick head of foam. eyeshadow, Aslı Tapucu takes me to her “And we won’t change it. The machine gives ‘breathing space’ — a room that’s somewhere the coffee a unique sort of maple flavour.” HA S COFFEE C ULTURE CHANGED IN ISTANBUL? Global coffee chains are making their mark here, but coffeehouses were first made popular in Europe by entrepreneurs with connections to Ottoman Istanbul. So, one could say coffee culture has come back full circle. mehmetefendi.com Clockwise from top left: Can Özmen prepares Turkish coffee at Mandabatmaz; Turkish delight for sale at Hacı Bekir; Factory Karaköy coffeeshop; Galata Tower, overlooking the Beyoğlu district DECEMBER 2022 149

If one had but a single glance to give the world, one should gaze on Istanbul Alphonse de Lamartine, 19th-century poet 150 NATIONALGEOGR APHIC .CO.UK/ TR AVEL