Have you ever sat back and regretted some of the unique travel opportunities you've missed along the way? Fabulous destinations within easy striking distance bypassed? Wondrous sights postponed until another visit that never happened?

Perhaps a family reunion that seemed too distant, put off until another time when sadly people you wanted most to see were no longer alive?

Seizing the moment is an important element in all aspects of our lives, the travel world included. Some opportunities never occur again. And even if they do, often the historical character, culture and mood of a place can change so dramatically it's just not the same . . . Zimbabwe and Tibet stand out as perfect examples we've experienced.

Working on trying to bring more order to our vast photo file got this journalist to thinking how many of our most memorable, exciting and unique travels had happened that way.

Unplanned, often spur-of-the-moment decisions to detour to some off-trail place unexpectedly close enough to add on to the original itinerary. Undoubtedly my parents and generations of family members' inclination to turn off onto the road less travelled and explore the unknown inspired what involved into our incurable curiosity about the world.

Yes, we all do have a comfort zone, special places we like to return because they offer a combination of factors especially comfortable, refreshing to both our body and spirit.

Certainly there's nothing wrong with that. But does a too rigid, set-in-one's-way attitude tend to stifle a far more interesting and exciting life? This may be a good time to re-evaluate your travel horizons and perhaps become a bit more challenged.

So many of our most memorable trips occurred simply because of "seizing the moment" . . . being willing to plunge in and do something spontaneously, often to regions now no longer accessible.

Whether it was often adventuring behind the once forbidding Iron Curtain at the worst of times, flying off to some remote corner of New Guinea's jungles or braving a distant region of Zimbabwe, each such venture turned out to be extraordinary.

Admittedly, some have been a bit edgy, even foolhardy ¿ such as driving down from Slovenia in a rented Jeep Cherokee into Croatia with war dangerously close, the sound of gunfire within hearing distance. Or visiting Kosovo on the brink of disaster, awed by unrivalled mountain scenery and ancient monasteries. Attending a Dubrovnik conference in 1989, a journalist friend tried to talk me into driving into Albania, forbidden on my passport at that time.

So we compromised driving across mountain passes to Pec, Kosovo over narrow unpaved mountain roads with endless hairpin curves in a rented car where headlights pointed down and a horn that didn't work.

Perhaps you've begun to feel that usual vacation lacks excitement and you're ready to spread your wings. Don't leap in haphazardly, but stop to consider possibilities before missing a golden opportunity.

Some examples of my "seizing the moment" will never come again. A US public relations firm had been after us to include it on an itinerary. But it seemed a very long haul out there.

Finally, when an assignment in Germany offered the possibility of connecting to Harare on Air Zimbabwe, it seemed feasible. Arriving in November 1983 so soon after Robert Mugabe had taken power was an interesting experience in itself, so was having a member of government recently released from jail as a political prisoner for a guide.

It wasn't possible to visit Bulawayo for safety reasons. Several tourists had gone missing, later found murdered. But I covered a great deal of that very troubled country from Wanke National Park and Great Zimbabwe Ruins to Victoria Falls, which, incidentally, were suffering from such a dry spell, water was barely trickling over that famous attraction.

The site where a commercial plane had been shot down by Mugabe forces and innocent survivors rushing away from it shot dead was pointed out with pride. There were enough tense challenges on that trip to fill a series, starting with an Air Zimbabwe plane engine exploding before departing Frankfurt to a tense near arrest in the hotel lobby . . . but that's another story.

I'd never met a rabbi and Morocco seemed an unlikely place to encounter one. But there he was in Marrakech invited by no less than the king, now deceased, who was anxious to welcome Jewish travellers.

A kosher restaurant had already been opened in Casablanca and focus placed on restoring holy places sacred to both Moslems and Jews.

Travelling with a handful of overseas journalists, we'd been brought together by government officials. The American rabbi was travelling to a small nearby village to participate in a joint one-day ceremony at the burial tomb of such a holy man important to both faiths. It would be followed by a special traditional luncheon with local Moroccan village officials.

The rabbi invited our group to attend, but yours truly was the only one who accepted, finding it very story worthy. It resulted in my feature article in the New York Daily News and a most unusual multicultural experience.

We'd already booked a complicated around-the-world itinerary when a rare opportunity presented itself. Our trip was to start in Heidelberg meeting the President of Germany, continue to Turkey for a cruise to the Greek Islands via the masted sailing ship Star Flyer, with some time for an encore visit on Rhodes. Then onward to Thailand to attend a conference, finally linger in Hong Kong en route home via Tokyo.

Plans were all finalised, airline reservations made and paid for when word came it would be possible to add an encore to Nepal and a comprehensive visit to Tibet for those willing to pay the price (and not let it be known they were journalists.)

An immediate call to Lufthansa and Thai from whom we'd purchased our first class tickets resulted in the happy news that addition would cause no ticketing problems, surprisingly not even an added fare. Amazingly, only six of us signed up, four of them travel agents.

It was magic, and the five-part series resulting from it won the Mark Twain award for that year's best series on an international destination. It did not, however, please the Chinese who do not like writers to inform readers about the tragedy that's happened in that fabled country.

But that's one of many reasons we prefer to pay all our own expenses when travelling . . . plane, car, hotel, meals. There are no strings attached, we are beholden only to our readers who deserve to hear not only the good but all sides of an area's analysis.

As we've so often said, the world is not all moonlight and magnolias. Even the most gorgeous rose has some thorns. Certainly you want to be warned about them to avoid being seriously scratched!

One thing to learn early is not to be quick to take no for an answer. Before another trip that included the "Japanese Alps", Thailand, the Golden Triangle, Taiwan and Macau in 1981, I'd called a number of China specialist travel agencies to find out about independent travel in China.

Nothing was available, everything involved carefully organised groups. Determined, I finally walked into the Chinese Government Tourist Office in Hong Kong to pursue the subject, not too optimistic about the answer.

Would independent travel be possible? Could we go off travelling on our own, not in a group?

"Yes, of course," was the surprise answer. And off we went in unexpected freedom.

However, at our first stop, Canton, we came very close to trouble. Signing up for a local sightseeing tour that also included visiting some factories, the only other tourists turned out to be very unusual: a middle-aged man and three very clean-cut young men all of similar age.

For some reason, my intuition immediately labelled him a minister travelling with three young seminarians. He was based in Hong Kong. How to politely satisfy my curiosity?

I'd' recently read in my hometown paper that a local clergyman from the village had gone off to Hong Kong as head of Maryknoll missions.

"Is it possible you know him?" I asked. There was instant recognition of the name and he confided that he, too, was a missionary.

"We hold Sunday services in Chinese homes and you're welcome to come." Knowing the extent of religious persecution in China, it seemed prudent to bypass that invitation.

Arriving back in Hong Kong, newspaper headlines carried a scary story about the arrest of missionaries caught smuggling Bibles into China. It didn't sound like those we'd met there, but it certainly could have been.

Whether it was venturing up to troubled Kashmir from India, flying down to Tasmania out of Melbourne, or cruising over to Tallinn, Estonia from Finland on the so-called Vodka Express during hard-line communist times, each of those trips have been stand-outs. Unplanned possibilities that were impossible to resist.

Not everyone has a passion to fly up to Nain, Labrador; Point Barrow, Alaska, Fort Yukon, Prudhoe Bay . . . or take off in vintage B-17 and B-24 bombers.

But then again, if you're within striking distance, you may find it as mesmerising as this traveller did. I stopped counting when countries visited escalated to more than 120, but remember you don't have to go half way around the world to find adventure. It's waiting in many places.