Airship Safari

Ok, we're not talking hot air balloons for the day, drifting aimlessly around - I'm talking airships (a la Hindenburg - helium filled, obviously) for week long pleasure tours around places too hard to get to by land. Think of the golden age of airship travel, luxury cabins, viewing platforms, stopovers in remote spots for dinner, etc.

The BBC has done a new nature series in the UK and ventured over such remote places as African marshland, Arctic and Antarctic regions. You’d need a hovercraft to get around marshland and they’re so damn noisy you’d scare everything away. Think how cool it would be to waft over the landscape at treetop height watching the world go by. There’s no damage caused to the environment by heavy machines chewing up the land and a solar powered airship would be quiet and not need much fuel. You wouldn’t want them Hindenburg size for a nature cruise though, something smaller would be more intimate.

This could provide all sorts of holiday for the comfort-addicted. Travel over the Sahara and the Nile in one go; see the pyramids from the air. Fly around Everest and stop at the top for tea (OK, maybe not possible yet). Travel through the artic ice without worrying about icebergs or running over seals. See the Amazon rainforest without getting sweating and stung by insects. The more adventurous passenger could be lowered into the canopy to see wildlife close up. Basically, you can go anywhere that’s a hassle to see by land or sea, and is too far away to view by helicopter.

I realise the idea of short tours has been suggested by airship manufacturers to get more sales, but not for multi-day safaris (to my knowledge).