Travel Briefs

On the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, you can spend AU$89 (near US$82) on a “Seafood & Beyond…” rewards card and get AU$100 (US$92) worth of discounts at participating hotels, attractions and tours along the “Seafood & Aquaculture Trail.”

When you present the card, not only do you receive a 10% discount, you also earn AU$1 reward point back for every AU$10 spent. The reward points can be spent at seafood restaurants along the trail.

A guide is included that lists businesses and the benefits offered. The discounts are available on trips like boat cruises in Port...

Devastating seasonal fires that raged from mid-September through October 2008 destroyed thousands of square kilometers of the Central Kalahari Game Preserve in Botswana. However, an initial report that the 2-million-year-old Gcwihaba Caves were destroyed in the fire has proved to be false.

Although the fire scorched the veldt around Gcwihaba, a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site for its natural beauty and value to Paleolithic studies, the interiors of the caves were undamaged.

The Tsodilo Hills, currently Botswana’s only World Heritage Site, also were threatened by the fire...

Panama City’s Metropolitan Park, the only protected rainforest in a city, is home to sloths, monkeys, 42 other mammal species, iguanas and more than 250 kinds of birds. London-based Cox & Kings now offers, either on a group tour or custom itinerary, the chance to get an up-close view of wildlife in the rainforest canopy by riding in a wire-screen-enclosed gondola manipulated by a construction crane.

During the 45-minute ride, passengers are lifted up to 112 feet. The accompanying naturalist guide directs the crane operator. The crane is quiet and the animals aren’t disturbed by...