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During this Globe Guide we criss-cross the globe
searching out the world's greatest experiences
to be had during July, taking in Mongolia,
the Maldives, Alaska, Spain, France, Italy, Turkey,
Finland and America along the way.
Navarra, part of Spain's Basque country,
is home to hundreds of locals and tourists who,
over a full week, attempt to drink the town dry
and outrun two tonnes of raging testosterone;
the  bull run of Pamplona in honour of San
Fermin.
With warm, clear waters and an amazing array
of natural reefs and sea life, the Maldives
is quite simply a divers paradise, as Megan
McCormick discovers. Meanwhile, KT Comer
catches up with 200 cyclists for the Tour de
France and Christina Chang goes to
Marseilles to celebrate the French Revolution,
marked on July 14th when the storming of the Bastille
took place in Paris.
July also marks the anniversary of Santiago,
the patron saint of Spain. Thousands of people
travel north to arrive on the 25th July; as evening
approaches an Islamic façade covering the
front of the cathedral is set on fire symbolising
the departure of the Moors from Spain
Similarly, the southern Italian fishing port
of Terracina has its own religious ceremony
during the month of July - La Madonna della
Carmine is a lively procession that peaks
with a statue  of the Virgin Mary taken by boat
past all the local fishing areas to bless the
waters for the coming year.
If you're looking for something unusual, you
could try watching grown men covered in olive
oil and dressed in tight leather wrestle with
each other. The towns of Erdine and Uluborlu
in Turkey host the Wrestling Festival every
June and July in honour of two soldiers, who died
of exhaustion while wrestling each other in the
14th Century.
Poor Neil Gibson buckles under the pressure
of the Wife Carrying Festival in Finland
which started as a gimmick a few years ago and
has since grown into a national institution. Run
in heats, the winner who manages not to drop his
wife receives a mobile phone and his wife's weight
in beer!
For something even more bizarre, why not head
to Gilroy, California, for the worlds famous
Garlic Festival? Justine Shapiro checks
out the garlic mania and opts for one of the world's
strangest ice creams.
Meanwhile, on the Italian island of Sardinia,
the town of Sedillo holds a crazy horse
race called La Sardia in honour of St Constantine.
From the dusty hills of Sardinia to the genteel
 surroundings of Sienna, Ian Wright takes
in a more glamorous race in the form of 'Il
Palio', a hectic horserace held between rival
towns in the city's main square.
Home to some of the toughest terrain known to
man, Bradley Cooper ventures to the Gates
of the Arctic National Park which covers
eight and a half million acres of northern Alaska.
Taking a floatplane from Bettles and flying 150
miles north into the park, Bradley goes in search
of caribou herds as they make their annual
migration south for the winter.
Finally, we join Ian Wright as he experiences
the Mongolian version of the Olympic games. The
Nadaam Festival at Ulaan Baatar
takes place every July and is a national holiday.
Highlights include archery, horseracing and wrestling
where 500 people grapple at once on the pitch. |
