Top 5 spring holiday spots

From Kerala to Kalgoorlie, Travel Editor Stephen Scourfield lists his favourite spots to visit in spring.

India

The monsoon ends in India in September - and that brings a wonderful time to travel on the subcontinent.

I'd either . . .

Head back to the Golden Triangle, the points of which are Delhi, Agra (and the Taj Mahal) and Jaipur (the pink city).

Or fly to Kochi (yes, I still think of it as Cochin, as many do) in Kerala, on the south-west coast, stay there and walk again the streets of Jew Town and watch life on the beach by the Chinese fishing nets, then get a driver to take me on south to the Kerala Backwaters and spend a couple of nights on a houseboat, and then travel to Thiruvananthapuram, again staying on the coast and dipping into the city. Fly back from there.

South Africa

It's the dry season from May to September in Kruger National Park, a 45-minute flight from Johannesburg. By now, the land is really dry and the animals gather around any water sources - great for wildlife viewing. And it's getting warmer for those early-morning game drives (earlier in the year, it can be freezing). The Big Five - African elephant, lion, buffalo, rhinoceros and lion - are there for the taking, photographically. With all the animals gathered together, photographically it's like shooting goldfish in a bowl (without the face distortion).

Kruger National Park was established in 1898 to protect the wildlife of the South African lowveld, and covers nearly 2 million hectares. It really is the flagship of South African national parks, with 147 mammal species, 507 bird species and 336 tree species.

There is accommodation in a number of different camps.

Mauritius

Mauritius sits out there, west of us, framed by the blue of the Indian Ocean - a direct, eight-hour flight from Perth. It's an exotic blend of African, Indian and French cultures, but totally creole. Africans and Indians have influenced the place but, culturally, Creoles still look to the French who developed the island. English is the official language, and is spoken by just about everyone, but people here tend to speak French among themselves out of preference, or the Creole dialect which is derived from it.

September and October are particularly good months to visit, as it should be in the high 20s and up to 30C, and humidity is generally lower than at other times of year.

Sitting under a palm tree in September. Nice.

And as the sun sets and the dusky evening starts to surround us, the beach murmurs with locals enjoying the warmth. People queue at food stalls, Creole flavours tinge the air and there is the sound of sega, the lilting musical style which was born here out of the African rhythms.

Kalgoorlie

Throughout September, the average daily temperature gradually climbs from 20C to 25C (the night-time low from 7C to 10C). In the woodlands around Kalgoorlie, the low sun glistens off the thick, waxy leaves of Goldfields gums and the land dries to rich, red dust.

Spring is the time to be here.

The Goldfields has some of the best woodlands in Australia - yet the majority around Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie is regrowth, generally less than 100 years old.

The area was clear-felled for fuel and mine purposes between the late 1890s and 1965. It is estimated that by 1904, half a million tonnes of wood was being felled every year.

In the early pioneer decades, massive quantities of wood were needed for boilers that powered mine sites - making electricity, pumping water, condensing salt water into fresh water. Other timber were used to line shafts and tunnels.

But the landscape now is forested and glinting in the spring sun.

The Goldfields wildflower season runs through September and October, with those woodlands and shrublands bursting into life. There are everlastings, paper daisies, orange grevillea, Sturt's desert pea, mulla mulla, yellow cassia, flowering eucalypts and mallees.

Kings Park

See the whole State in a day, just by strolling its carefully researched and themed botanical garden.

WA is a botanic hotspot, with some 12,000 species, and there's a strong representation in Kings Park, from the South West flora to the mallee and on to the Kimberley.

And Kings Park Festival runs this month, with many events such as Santos Live Sundays concerts and the Fantastic Faraway Festival on Saturday, September 20 - and, of course, spreads of wildflowers.

The WA Botanic Garden progresses from the Silver Princess, the red and green kangaroo paw that is WA's floral emblem, to South West species such as fuchsia grevillea, scarlet honey myrtle and grey cottonhead.

Then into the mallee region, with jingymia mallee and granite bottlebrush. On to the mulga zone, with currant bush and many acacias.

The desert flora includes spinifex, flame grevillea, saltbush and the small mallee trees. And then on to the Kimberley, with green birdflower and gandjandjal (Pandanus aquaticus).

Interpretive signs explain the progression. But it is surely the spread of spring wildflowers that most catch the eye.