A Govilon man with an interest in exotic destinations got quite a surprise when he invested £7.99 in a National Geographic magazine entitled '100 Secret Journeys - the world's best hidden adventures'.

Listed at No 65, in the section 'Roads Less Travelled', keen traveller Nicholas King spotted 'Castles nestled in verdant mountains - Hay-on-Wye to Abergavenny'.

"As you drive southward from Hay towards Abergavenny, the castle-dotted route brims with vistas of the easternmost range of the (Brecon Beacons National) park, immortalised by Bruce Chatwin in his novel On the Black Hill," enthused the glossy guide.

"Continue on to Abergavenny, a market town surrounded by the Blorenge, Skirrid Fawr and Sugar Loaf Mountains."

Abergavenny Castle is pictured and described as 'well worth a look' and there is also a full-page photograph opposite of 'a beautiful view over the fields around Sugar Loaf Mountain' - although the railway line in the foreground suggests an entirely different location and is probably the Sugar Loaf stop on the Heart of Wales railway line near Llandeilo!

Presumably one 'Sugar Loaf' in Wales looks much like another to a designer on the Washington DC based-magazine!

Other destinations in '100 Secret Journeys' range from South Georgia Island in Antarctica and Palawan in the Philippines (beloved by underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau) to The Great Rift Valley in South Africa, the roof of St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, Cape Leeuwin lighthouse in Australia, Mount Bromo volcano in Indonesia, Akan National Park in Japan, the ruins of Palmyra City in Syria and the Ban Gioc Waterfall in Vietnam.

Having already experienced the 'secret journey' from Hay to Abergavenny, Nicholas plans to visit another exotic destination featured in the magazine - the medieval town of Bonifacio in Corsica which, according to the guide, 'towers above limestone cliffs that have been sculpted by wind and waves into an extravagantly draped curtain that drops into the indigo sea'. Nice!