If you had to guess: where and what do you think is the US’ second oldest tourist attraction after the Niagara Falls?

Answer, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. It is not only a world heritage site, but the longest cave in the world with more than 360 miles (580 kilometres) of connected tunnels.

Guided tours have run here since 1816 and 4,000 year old mummies have been found in the cave, and you can still see petroglyphs of snakes and humans on the walls.

The cave was discovered at the end of the 18th century when a man shot and wounded a bear then followed it into the entrance that is still used today. The mummies became travelling shows. Today, you can take a Violet City Lantern Tour, a three-hour, 3-mile (4.8-kilometre) hike without electric lights. Hikers use kerosene lamps to light the cave’s steep, dark paths, just as visitors did 150 years ago.

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Take a look at Globetrotter Tom Freemantle’s website. He is a regular speaker at the London Globetrotters Club and has been on British TV talking about his recent exploits crossing the US to Mexico by mule.

His latest book, The Moonshine Mule, focuses on the 2,700 mile walk from Mexico to New York with Browny, a cynical but heroic pack-mule. He lives in Oxford, where he still rides a bicycle, but never a mule.

This site outlines Tom Fremantle’s’ extensive journey though West Africa, through bleak, pale deserts with scrub to lush, meandering swampland where monkeys screech from behind mangroves: from bustling, urban casbahs to tiny, mud-brick villages on the banks of the River Niger.

Tom hopes the expedition will raise £30,000 for Hope and Homes for Children, a charity which provides homes for orphans and abandoned children, particularly in war torn areas, including parts of West Africa. The journey will also raise money for The Ark Charity in Milton Keynes, which helps homeless teenagers to find lodgings and employment.

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