Lonely Planet
A fanged frog, a grunting fish and what may be the world's largest – and very friendly – species of rat: in their exploration of one of the remotest parts of one of the remotest regions on Earth, the team behind the BBC's current Lost Land of the Volcano series have found a wealth of bizarre creatures apparently new to science.
The group of naturalists, filmmakers and guides were exploring Mt Bosavi, a heavily forested extinct volcano on the island of New Guinea whose steep sides made it so difficult to explore it was barely known even to locals.
But what if, in the spirit of adventure, you wanted to reproduce their journey to this lost land – could you? Only with difficulty. New Guinea may not be as remote as when the industrial heir Michael Rockefeller disappeared on an expedition there in the early 1960s, possibly killed and eaten by headhunters, but the TV team still had to grow their own crops to keep themselves supplied.
What the programme does remind us of, however, is that not every part of the world contains a McDonald's branch and a sprinkling of branded cafes. Here's our rundown of some of the most enticingly remote destinations remaining on the planet – places which, moreover, with a little will and dedication, you could visit yourself.
