Charitable Traveller Magazine - January/February 2021 - Issue 3 by Charitable Traveller Magazine

ISSUE 3 JAN/FEB 2021

50% travel, 50% charity, 100% meaningful

Wide blue yonder Help the homeless â&#x20AC;˘ Meet blind adventurer Amar Latif â&#x20AC;˘ Discover Belize's wild side... and more

BAIT REEF, THE WHITSUNDAYS AUSTRALIA

W H E R E YO U ’ L L F I N D A N OT H E R WO R L D Queensland, Australia. It’s where you can immerse yourself in World-Heritage wonders like the Daintree Rainforest or Great Barrier Reef. Where you can watch sunrise on the beach with our local wildlife, and discover an underwater world packed full of marine life. Where you’ll find experiences like nowhere else that are best experienced up close.

START DREAMING AT CHARITABLE.TRAVEL/QUEENSLAND

Fresh

START FROM THE EDITOR

Laura Gelder

I, like many of you I’m sure, am ready to see the back of 2020. But with a Covid-19

MEET THE TEAM

Ian

Dreaming of: New England and those fall colours 2021 resolution: To be healthier

vaccine already being rolled out and the shortest day done with, I really do feel that the days are becoming increasingly lighter – in every sense. But let’s not forget 2020. Because, despite the hardships, amazing things happened and lessons were learnt that shouldn’t be forgotten. It’s been a time to appreciate what we have and to find joy in the every day. I’ll always remember how much I savoured being outside for my daily walk! Emma Lindley from The Wilberforce Trust sums it up perfectly when she says: “small things make a big difference”. You can read about a day in her life, caring

Steve

Dreaming of: The Far East 2021 resolution: I want to carry that sense of community on into 2021

for people with sensory loss and other life-changing disabilities, on page 51. Some people made the best of a bad situation in 2020 - like founder of Edible London, Sunny Karagozlu. You can read his inspiring tale of fighting food poverty in the city and why Covid-19 pushed him to help even more people, on page 52.

Amazing things happened and lessons were learnt that shouldn’t be forgotten. It’s been a time to appreciate what we have

Rosie

Dreaming of: Cuba (Covid-permitting I’ll go in March) 2021 resolution: Cut out plastic

and to find joy in the every day. My year ended happily with the arrival of a new family member, a ginger cat called Jim from Tunisia. Jim didn’t have the best start in life, being born on the streets and losing his eyes, but thanks to the amazing charity Rescue Animals of North Africa, he’s now living his best life in the UK. Jim made writing a feature on how to spot and stop animal cruelty abroad all the more poignant (see page 38).

Kathryn

Dreaming of: Peru 2021 resolution: Embrace life and take time to enjoy the little things

But if you’re here for pure escapism, don’t worry, we have that too. Read about Lauren Jarvis’ rainforest-to-reef adventure in Belize (page 27) or Lynn Houghton’s tale of two mesmerising Moroccan cities (page 55,) plus so much more. Happy New Year and here’s to a 2021 of get togethers and get aways.

Louisa

Dreaming of: Barcelona 2021 resolution: Volunteer in the local community

©CHARITABLE TRAVEL 2020. CHARITABLE TRAVELLER is part of CHARITABLE TRAVEL, Fundraising Futures Community Interest Company, Contingent Works, Broadway Buildings, Elmfield Road, Bromley, BR1 1LW, UK. Putting our profit to work supporting the work of charitable causes. T: 020 3092 1288 E: bookings@charitable.travel W: charitable.travel Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy, CHARITABLE TRAVEL cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. FRONT COVER: Chefchaouen, Morocco. Credit - Pexels/Taryn Elliott. CEO: Melissa Tilling; MARKETING: Rosie Buddell; MAGAZINE EDITOR: Laura Gelder; MAGAZINE DESIGNER: Louisa Horton (louisacreative@outlook.com)

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My Majestic View

#visitczechrepublic visitczechrepublic.com

Prague

INSIDE

es, great h us

60 24

23 54

27 6 Get the picture 11 Armchair Travel 12 Global good news 16 Literary locations: How to explore the world via your book shelf 23 Five charities... helping the homeless 24 Talking travel with: Amar Latif 27 Belize: From rainforest to reef 34 Seychelles: Eco-friendly haven 38 Animal-friendly holidays: Ensure that your holiday fun isn’t enabling animal cruelty 43 Postcard from: Canberra, Australia

44 46 51 52 54 55 59 60 62

Get to know: Kefalonia, Greece Underwater adventures: Top spots to snorkel and dive A Day in the life of... Emma from the Wilberforce Trust Q&A with: Edible London Why I donated... to Rafiki Thabo Foundation Morocco: A tale of two cities - Tangier and Chefchaouen Five ways... to get fit on holiday Get to know: Cape Town, South Africa Postcard from: Cody, USA

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FROM THE CEO Thank you so much for reading Charitable Traveller and supporting our #TravelforGood mission. I hope you’ve found our unique blend of charity and travel and our always meaningful stories both an informative and absorbing read across our three editions so far. No doubt we will celebrate leaving 2020 behind us and I hope journey into 2021 with renewed positivity. Given the devastation wreaked by Covid-19 I am constantly amazed by the resilience of our community and proud of the tenacity of my fellow Brits. Let’s focus, if we can, on the good that I hope we will carry with us into the New Year. That sense of community embraced during Lockdown 1.0, how we helped others in need, how we applauded the key workers and ‘front liners’ for keeping our country going and how many stepped up to fundraise and highlight great causes: Captain Sir Tom for NHS Charities Together, Marcus Rashford for FareShare, five year old Tony for The Evelina and the countless others who have worked tirelessly to keep our charities, social enterprises and social services doing great work. Thank you and happy New Year!

Melissa Tilling CHARITABLE TRAVELLER

Get the picture

GET THE

picture

CHARITABLE TRAVELLER

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No business like snow business

All across the northern hemisphere, lifts were halted, gondolas ground to a halt and the slopes fell silent as ski areas shut prematurely in March. Those working in the winter tourism sector lost millions in revenue as the closing weeks of the season, including Easter, were cancelled, so hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hoping that the Covid-19 vaccination will be just in time to save the 2021 ski season and the mountains will be open again. charitable.travel/ski

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discover your story at croatia.hr

Full of islands to discover DonÂ´t fill your life with days, fill your days with life.

photo by boris kaÄ?an

Get the picture

Let there be light

Emily Hon/Unsplash

At a time when the world can seem very dark, the Aurora Borealis casts an otherworldly glow across the night – if you’re lucky enough to see it. Otherwise known as the Northern Lights, this ethereal phenomenon happens when a strong solar wind carries charged particles of energy from the sun to our earth’s magnetic field and it reacts with our atmosphere in a spectacular light show. Head towards the Arctic Circle between Christmas and March for your best chance to step into the dancing lights of nature’s disco. charitable.travel/activityadventure

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Get the picture

The only way is up

Amazing Thailand

As the demand for open-air spaces has skyrocketed in 2020, rooftop venues have become the ultimate place to hang out in cities across the globe. From the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest rooftop infinity pool, looking out over futuristic Singapore from the Marina Bay Sands hotel, to this romantic restaurant on top of the Banyan Tree Bangkok, rooftop spaces have the best views as well as the freshest air. Whether youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking for fine dining, a classy cocktail or just somewhere exclusive to relax and take in the sights of the city, head to the top and get some perspective. charitable.travel/city-short-breaks

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Following his last travel series on Cornwall, which aired this Autumn and is on BBC iPlayer, the presenter has put together a series looking back at some of the most amazing places he’s visited in his career: arctic glaciers and tropical reefs, the forests of Borneo and the deserts of central Asia. This series is billed as a personal one in which the viewer gets to discover what he’s learnt on his travels.

The Globetrotter’s Guide to Happiness Kate Morgan

This coffee table book is described as a chance to learn from a tapestry of the world’s best philosophies on how to achieve happiness. From searching for ikigai (the meaning of life) in Japan to taking a fika (coffee break) in Sweden or the art of gezellig (cosiness) in the Netherlands, each of the 20 chapters have an overview of the philosophy with illustrations, tips on how to implement it into your everyday life and information on where you can travel to to experience it.

Book

ARMCHAIR

travel

Travel around the world with a man and his cat, discover how to be happy in different languages, and more

Nala’s World: One Man, his Rescue Cat and a Bike Ride Around the Globe Dean Nicholson

Book

A heart-warming travelogue from a Scottish man who sets off on his bike from home to cycle around the world and picks up an unexpected feline companion somewhere between Bosnia and Montenegro, three months into his trip. The unlikely pair became an Instagram sensation who went on to raise tens of thousands of pounds for charity and the tale is about how a tabby cat opened his heart to the world and the people he met along the way.

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Black Narcissus BBC One, December

This period drama is adapted from Rumer Godden’s novel of the same title. It’s a vivid and at times erotic tale following Sister Clodagh (played by Gemma Arterton) and the nuns of St. Faiths, who travel to Nepal in the 1930s to set up a base in a remote Himalayan outpost. Expect cinematography showing off snowcapped mountains (actually filmed in Jomsom Nepal), colourful Indian costumes and themes of sexual repression and forbidden love.

CHARITABLE TRAVELLER

Anjali Mehta/Unsplash

Craig Hastings

Incredible Journeys with Simon Reeve BBC Two, Winter 2020/21

Global good news

est travel d lat

good news

EUROPE FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE G Adventures is challenging stereotypes around popular European holiday destinations with seven new tours. Shining a light on lesser-visited areas of destinations including Ibiza, Corfu, the Azores, Crete and Greenland, tours are themed

Get th e

NEW TOURS

ravel le.t ab

GLOBAL

ls at charit ea

GREEN RATING

NEW SUSTAINABLE HOTEL BRAND, BEYOND GREEN Beyond Green comes from the people behind Preferred Hotels & Resorts and Historic Hotels Worldwide and launches with 24 founding member hotels, resorts and lodges that exemplify sustainable tourism leadership. To be a Beyond Green member hotels have to have committed to delivering on the three key pillars: environmentally friendly practices that go beyond the basics, the protection of natural and cultural heritage and contributing to the social and economic wellbeing of local communities. Pictured is member Bisate Lodge in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. staybeyondgreen.com

around active travel like hiking and connecting with nature and communities. Planeterra, the non-profit arm of G Adventures, has recently completed ‘Project 100’ - its goal to partner with 100 global community tourism projects. charitable.travel/g-adventures

OVER £25,000 WAS DONATED AFTER HAYS TRAVEL FOUNDER, JOHN HAYS, DIED IN NOVEMBER. IT WILL GO THE HAYS TRAVEL FOUNDATION TO HELP YOUNG PEOPLE. 12

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Global good news

THEMED TRAVEL

Good to know... RECOGNITION

Astronomy hot spots

This December the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors National Parks were designated International Dark Sky Reserves, meaning a total of seven across Britain, including Snowdonia and the South Downs National Park. The title means a great chance of star gazers being able to see the Milky Way, meteors, and maybe the Northern Lights. visitengland.com NEW FLIGHT

Fly to Aruba this winter

SUSTAINABLE HOTEL

NEW, GREEN THAI RESORT The Pavilions Anana Krabi, a sustainablyminded resort on Thailand’s PhangNga Bay, will open this February. The 59-room resort is surrounded by limestone cliffs and has its own farm which employs composting and water conservation to supply produce for the farm-to-table restaurant, a farm café and vegan cooking school.

TUI UK launched its

Guests can take a solar-powered long-

first winter holiday

tail boat to discover local mangroves or

programme to the Dutch

enjoy the yoga and wellness centre.

Caribbean island of

charitable.travel/thailand

Aruba this December 16. Flights are from London

A new Malta and Gozo Winery Trail has been created to inspire wine enthusiasts heading to the Mediterranean islands. The trail highlights the islands’ vineyards for a wine tasting tour. The first Maltese vineyard was planted in 1907 and the island grows wellknown varieties like merlot and chenin blanc plus two indigenous grapes.

Gatwick and the island, which lies 15 miles north of South America, is famous for its pristine beaches and colonial Dutch architecture. charitable.travel/aruba

NEW HOTEL

THE LONDONER New West End hotel, The Londoner, has been billed as the world’s first ‘super boutique

AUSTRALIA

Trail Open The Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail reopened this December in South Australia’s Flinders Chase National Park, having been closed due to the island’s devastating bushfires. Visitors willl be able to better spot wildlife

hotel’. Located near Leicester Square, the five-star hotel has 350 guest rooms, including 35 suites and a tower penthouse on the 16th floor. Facilities include a subterranean gym and spa, two cinema rooms, six restaurants and a ballroom. It claims to be one of the greenest hotels in the world

due to less vegetation.

and will have a rooftop bar

southaustralia.com

serving Japanese. Contact Charitable Travel to book.

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Orbital Abseil You can’t get any more socially distanced than this!

SPA & WELLNESS

LUXURY spa brand Champneys has unveiled Mottram Hall, its first venue in the north of England. It has a championship golf course, a 20-metre pool with cabanas, a thermal suite, a gym, café and restaurant as well as the first Champneys barbershop in the UK. JR Kyushu

Global good news

JAPAN

NEW LUXURY TRAIN The 36+3 is a new sightseeing train in Kyushu, Japan, offering day trips with

Saturday 20 March In aid of Richard House Children’s Hospice, providing palliative care to children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions

gourmet lunch and dinner menus serving fine local produce like wagyu beef. In some cars travellers will find private compartments with Western-style couches and tables while others have tatami mat floors and follow Japanese etiquette. Stops include the hot springs town of Beppu and Nagasaki and views include coast and

*+£300 minimum fundraising target

mountains. Book a seat with Charitable Travel.

RAKXA IS A NEW MEDICAL WELLNESS RETREAT IN BANGKOK’S ‘GREEN LUNG’, A PROTECTED JUNGLE-CLAD ISLAND AT THE CITY’S HEART. Richard House Trust is a registered charity (1059029) and a company limited by guarantee (3232837 - England & Wales). Its registered office is Richard House Children’s Hospice, Richard House Drive, London E16 3RG. 14 CHARITABLE TRAVELLER

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Global good news

THE BRITISH BOBSLED TEAM HAVE

SUSTAINABILITY

UNESCO RECOGNISE TOBAGO

UNVEILED THEIR SPONSORS FOR

Northeast Tobago has been

THE WINTER SEASON - CHARITIES!

declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, chosen for its ecological

THANKS TO A GENEROUS DONOR,

and cultural significance. The area includes the world’s oldest

INSTEAD OF ADVERTS THE BOBSLED

tropical rainforest reserve, coral reefs and mangroves and is

WILL CARRY THE BRANDS OF THE

home to 83 threatened species and 41 endemic species.

TEAM’S SIX FAVOURITE CAUSES.

NEW CHARITY

CHARITABLE TRAVEL FUND LAUNCHES TO HELP TOURISM COMMUNITIES IN NEED AROUND THE WORLD The Charitable Travel Fund is a new charity dedicated to helping tourism dependent global communities and it launched this November, as the Covid-19 crisis deepened around the world. The Charitable Travel Fund aims to step in to support places in the world that do not have the support of a welfare state at a time when the pandemic has

visittobago.gov.tt

who depended on tourism, and United Purpose which supports 24 women’s groups of market gardeners in Guinea, West Africa, to protect and rebuild their livelihoods after Covid-19. The Charitable Travel Fund’s Chair of the Trustee, Chris Lee said: “Like most of us in the travel industry I have had the privilege to enjoy the incredible destinations and experiences that tourism enables worldwide - made possible by the people in those destinations - hotel workers, tour guides, waiters and chefs, transfer drivers and countless others. We

plunged many into hardship and suffering.

owe these communities so much for

The founding trustees include Melissa Tilling

enriching our lives and now we seek to

(founder of Charitable Travel) and between

help those who need it.”

them have over 175 years of travel industry through registered charity The Charitable Travel Foundation and funds will be raised through close engagement with the travel

CHARITABLE TRAVEL FUND supporting tourism communities

industry and donations from the travelling

Chastagner Thierry

charitabletravel.org

experience. The charity is administered

public. Charitable Travel customers can donate to it when they buy a holiday. The charity will be providing financial grant aids to communities through local and international nonprofit groups and charities. Key objectives include the prevention or relief of poverty or financial hardship; the relief of sickness, injury, disease, and other suffering and the advancement of education and training to aid recovery or diversification. The Charitable Travel Fund is kicking off by supporting two projects through leading partner non-profits: Tourism Cares in Cambodia, which has helped to provide 50,000 hot meals to communities

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Literary travel

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Literary travel

Turning the page

Maurier

In the haunting first page of Rebecca, the un-named narrator describes revisiting Mandalay – the mansion where the book is set – in a dream. The description of the house, which appears to have a life of its own, is as vivid as du Maurier’s depictions of Cornwall’s craggy coastline and unforgiving sea and the bleak and barren wastes of Bodmin Moor, which are as wild and hostile as the smugglers who live there in the novel Jamaica Inn.

Danilo D’Agostino/Un

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CORNISH COASTLIN

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eading about places is inspiration for Maycomb in To Kill the next best thing to a Mockingbird. The streets are no going there, whether longer dusty but the courthouse it’s a travelogue designed to on the crossroads is still filled with tempt you or a novel combining rows of shiny wooden benches vivid descriptions of locations and the judge’s pulpit backed by with page-turning narratives. an American flag. The courthouse I travelled to many of my favourite museum has an exhibition on the places on a page, long before I book and its importance in the civil set foot in them. A life-long love rights movement, as well as author affair with the Far East began Truman Capote, Lee’s childhood 20 years before I arrived there, friend and the inspiration after reading Arthur Ransome’s behind the character Dill. Missy Lee – a tale of children BOTSWANA kidnapped by Chinese Pirates. The No. 1 Ladies’ I loved the evocative names – Detective like Tiger Island and their captor Agency Taicoon Chang – and the tale of Alexander McCall daring escape, sailing through a Smith has published 21 novels in dangerous gorge aboard a Chinese this series about Mma Ramotswe junk called Shining Moon, made but the country is as much a me long to see the emerald waters character in the books as of the South China Sea. When its private investigator I finally touched down in protagonist. While the frenetic neon smog most visitors to of Shanghai in 2012 it Botswana go wasn’t quite the same The National Literacy Trust on safari, these vision that Ransome works to help disadvantaged books offer an had penned in the communities with low levels insight into 1930s, but I consider of literacy to improve their the culture, myself lucky to have skills and look foward to a sights and travelled to two very better future. smells of urban different Chinas. literacytrust.org. uk Botswana. Through Here’s my A to Z of solving cases like literary-inspired escapes… missing husbands, the ALABAMA novels explore important issues in To Kill a Southern Africa, like women’s roles Mockingbird in society and the clash between Some places look like urban and rural ways of life.. they’ve leapt straight CORNWALL out of the pages of a book – like Anything by Monroeville in Alabama. Harper Daphne du Lee’s home town was the

DORSET The Famous Five

EGYPT Death on the Nile

Enid Blyton’s most famous series, about a group of children – Julian, Dick, Anne and tomboy George plus Timmy the dog – is credited with introducing many generations of children to the joys of reading. No wonder, since the books are always set in the summer holidays and tasty picnics feature as heavily as Dorset’s bucolic scenery of rolling hills, cliffs and hidden coves. A recurring location is Kirrin Island and its derelict castle, which Blyton purportedly based on Corfe, a pretty inland village looked over by a ruined castle on a mount and reached by steam train from the seaside town of Swanage.

Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery is one of moustached hero Poirot’s most famous and as evocative of the exotic now, in the era of mass travel, as it was when it was published in the 1930s. Descriptions include Cairo and the ancient temples of Abu Simbel but Christie wrote the novel in the Old Cataract. A timeless scene still unfolds every day from this hotel’s terrace, framed by palm trees. Ice cubes

CHARITABLE TRAVELLER

Literary travel

Andy Newman

THE FLORIDA KEYS

chink above a low hum of G&T chatter and the distant warble of an imam and, as white-sailed feluccas slip silently through the water, the horizon turns rosegold and the bright blue-paint of the Nubian houses on the opposite bank fades to black.

FLORIDA Anything by Carl Hiaasen

Don’t expect Disney depictions of the Sunshine State in Hiaasen’s novels. The Miami Herald journalistturned novelist’s humorous crime

capers capture the grotesque behind the glitz, the iniquity behind the idyllic. The descriptions of sugary sand beaches, tangled mangroves and alligator-infested swamp land will have you longing to visit Florida but the stories of corrupt politicians, jaded policemen, conniving crooks and naïve tourists are hilarious. Hiassen’s novels have a strong environmental theme and are critical of the state’s natural beauty being sold out for golf courses and retirement condos.

GUERNSEY The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Like Dracula, this is a novel told via correspondence between characters, but that’s where the comparison ends. Mary Ann Shaffer’s charming romance is about a novelist woman from the mainland and a book-loving man from Guernsey, but tells the tale of the Nazi occupation

of Guernsey. The beauty of the island and the rustic simplicity of the time is juxtaposed against the cruelty of the Germans but it’s an uplifting story of human relationships and our ability to maintain spirit during adversity.

HIMALAYAS Seven Years in Tibet

This factual book is no less romantic than fiction in its narrative or descriptions. Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer escaped a prison camp in India and crossed the mighty mountains into Tibet, a country that was largely closed to foreigners. The book is set during the Second World War and up to just before the Chinese Communists invaded Tibet and its descriptions of the Forbidden City of Lhasa and of a secret and deeply spiritual culture, now sadly eroded, are enthralling; while the story of his tutoring of and close friendship with the 14th Dalai Lama is poignant.

The Anne Frank Trust UK The Anne Frank Trust is an education charity that empowers young people with the knowledge, skills and confidence to challenge all forms of prejudice and discrimination using Anne Frank’s inspirational life and diary. Last year we worked with 40,000 young people across England and Scotland. Our Vision is a society free from prejudice. With your help, we can build it: www.charitable.travel/annefranktrust Registered Charity no. 1003279

Literary travel

ITALY A Room With a View

E. M Forster’s 1908 novel about a young woman coming of age on a trip to Italy is full of symbolic contrast between the unashamed passion of Italian culture and the prudish sensiblilies of the English, at least in Edwardian times. As the novel’s hero, Lucy Honeychurch, explores the piazzas of Florence with her chaperone, she starts to fall for a young man - and not the one she is expected to fall for. Set against a backdrop of romantic Italian scenery, it will have you longing for the domed skyline of Florence.

Hugo Sentinelli/Pexels

FLORENCE

JAPAN Memoirs of a Geisha

The high-tech toilets and cat cafes of modern Japan are far removed from the sliding screen doors and tea ceremonies depicted in Memoirs of a Geisha, but Arthur Golden’s book is still a valuable insight into the formal rites of Japanese culture. The tale is of two sisters, sold by their father into the entertainment business and transplanted from a fishing village to the big city of Kyoto. The depictions of the Gion district are as captivating as the strong female characters in a world where a demure glance can be the start of a secret passion or a ruined reputation.

Another non-fiction that’s novel-like in its style, this is written by Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad, who entered Afghanistan two weeks after the September 11 attacks. She spent three months living with a bookseller and his family in Kabul, disguised under a burka, and describes every day life, strongly depicting the cruelty and unfairness of gender inequality in Afghan culture. The bookseller’s second wife accused the author of defamation and won the court case, but it remains fascinating.

LOS ANGELES Michael Connolly’s Bosch series

Connolly’s crime novels about detective Harry Bosch were inspired by and are compared to Raymond Chandler’s 1930s/40s private detective stories. The glamorous danger of Chandler’s California (based on LA) is replaced with gritty realism and the flamboyant lines (“he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake”) are absent, but the allure of the city, its neon landscapes, possibilities and pitfalls, is just as tangible in Connolly’s stories.

MUMBAI Shantaram

Author and ex-convict Gregory David Roberts claims his book is autobiographical but that has been contested and most of the events, such as him fighting with the mujahideen in Afghanistan, are impossible to substantiate. It doesn’t matter because the story, of an escaped prisoner from Australia hiding in the slums of Mumbai and being pulled into the city’s seedy criminal underbelly, is so vividly written. India and all its beguiling complexities jumps from the pages – from the bright colours and smiles of Bollywood to the stench of poverty.

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KABUL The Bookseller of Kabul

Best of British Head to these literary locations for your next staycation... A.A Milne’s Ashdown Forest You can find the setting for many of Winnie-the-Pooh’s adventures today, including Roo’s sandpit and the Poohsticks Bridge. A memorial to Milne and illustrator Shepard is near the ‘enchanted place’. pooh-country.co.uk Beatrix Potter’s Lake District Potter’s illustrated children’s books of Peter Rabbit and friends were born from many childhood holidays in the Lake District. Squirrel Nutkin sailed on Derwentwater and Hawkshead was the setting for The Tale of Johnny Townmouse. Or visit her home, Hilltop Farm. visitcumbria.com/ beatrix-potter The Bronte’s North Bronte Country consists of the Pennine hills of West Yorkshire, as well as Kirklees and Calderdale, where the craggy scenery has an air of bleakness and desolation, so famously captured in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. bronte-country.com Jane Austen’s Hampshire In 1809 Austen moved with her mother and sister to the Hampshire village of Chawton, where she spent the last eight years of her life. You can see the desk where she wrote her six novels and view personal items like letters and jewellery. visit-hampshire.co.uk ASHDOWN FOREST

Brian Hamill/Unsplash

CHARITABLE TRAVELLER

Darshak Pandya /Pexels

Literary travel

THE GATEWAY OF INDIA ,MUMBAI

NIGERIA Half of a Yellow Sun

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel documents the country’s brutal civil war and genocide in the 1960s. Following three characters swept up in the events, including a poor servant for a university lecturer and a young, middle-class woman who leaves Lagos for a small town, the book is a vivid recreation of a past Nigeria as well as a comment on issues like colonialism, class and race.

OXFORD His Dark Materials

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND Anne of Green Gables

While Philip Pullman’s trilogy makes you yearn for the frozen Arctic circle, polar bears and the dancing Aurora Borealis, much of the books are set in Oxford (the one we know and a different, fictional one in a world ruled by a malevolent religious order). Pullman writes a love letter to the city of dreaming spires where he was a student, describing not only the gargoyle-trimmed colleges but the botanical gardens, the canals and the dusty curiosities of the Pitt Rivers Museum.

L. M Montgomery writes about the trials and tribulations of a red-haired orphan with a gift for imagination living on this rural Atlantic island off Canada. The warm-hearted tale is still beloved by children more than a century later and although little girls in Prince Edward Island no longer wear straw bonnets, you’ll still find clapboard homesteads, red sand beaches and rolling green fields.

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THAILAN

Literary travel

RUSSIA Archangel

There are so many great Russian novels I could mention here but none that have captured my imagination as much as this thriller by Robert Harris. The story follows a burned out historian who, when in Moscow for a conference, meets an old man who claims to have been at Stalin’s deathbed and gives him what is apparently the dictator’s secret diary. From the streets of modern Moscow to the silent forests of Russia’s frozen north, the protagonist follows a trail to a cabin in the woods and a chilling finale.

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SCOTTISH MOORS

MOSCOW

THAILAND The Beach

A 1990s cult classic, Alex Garland’s Lord of the Flies-esque VIETNAM tale tells of a backpacker ShangriThe Quiet La gone very wrong but never American manages to make Thailand’s Graham Green’s emerald isles seem less appealing. novel about a cynical The descriptions of backpacker American journalist living culture, from the slum in Saigon and covering accommodation of the conflict between Bangkok’s hedonistic the French colonial farang (Thai forces, an idealistic for foreigner) Book Aid’s vision is a world CIA agent and hangout, the where everyone has access the Vietnamese Khao San Road to books that will enrich their woman they both to the turquoise imagination and improve love. A political waters of the their lives with knowledge. commentary as bookaid.org Andaman Sea, well as a musing are still spot-on. on morality, the UGANDA book is graphic in its The Last recollection of Vietnam at King of the cusp of huge change.

Good books

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Nikki Will

This page-turning adventure story is so short you could finish it over a large mug of tea, but the tea might go cold. Set in 1914, the novel’s hero, Richard Hannay, is on the run after discovering a ring of spies who are after Britain’s First World War plans. Framed for murder and pursued by the police as well as the spies, the book follows this stiff-upper-lipped Brit across the wilds of Scotland as he dons multiple disguises and manages to pull himself out of many sticky situations.

Scotland

This novel by journalist Giles Foden, follows the rise of Ugandan President Idi Amin and his terrifying reign as dictator in the 1970s from the point of view of a Scottish doctor working for him. Drawn by the dictator’s magnetic charisma, the protagonist is pulled into his world of corruption and eventually terror. It’s not a great representation of this beautiful country but it gives a fascinating, if fictional, insight into a real figure who looms large in its history.

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SCOTLAND The Thirty-Nine Steps

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A historical fiction about the South American leader Simón Bolívar from the Nobel Laureate and master of magical realism, Gabriel García Márquez, this is about the revolutionary leader retracing his steps down the Magdalena River through present day Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. Consumed by his memories, the man who liberated six countries from Spanish rule relives his life as he travels. For anyone visiting Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama or Venezuela, it’s worth knowing more about this man, who is a hero to the people, even if it’s a fictional interpretation.

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QUITO The General in his Labyrinth

Nikolay Vo

WYOMING C. J Box’s Joe Picket series

Following a game ranger whose jurisdiction covers vast swathes of Wyoming’s wild mountains and forest and a few towns in between, this series is over 21 books long now so the reader has the chance to grow up with Joe, his wife and daughters as well as getting a page-turning good story. The hunting and farming culture of the rural west is lovingly brought to

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Literary travel

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ZURICH

most-wanted man, a shipping magnate who was accused of fraud by the Communist Party. Its descriptions of the skyscrapers and nightclubs of boomtown Xiamen is a window into a China stuck between communism and capitalism; both free and oppressive, anarchic and authoritarian.

Y life and issues ranging from endangered species to federal land rights are explored through exciting crime-driven plots.

XIAMEN Inside the Red Mansion

Another non-fiction entry, written by The Times’ China correspondent, Oliver August, this is his story trailing the rise and fall of China’s

Registered charity number 1100051

YUKON The Call of the Wild

This adventure novel by Jack London was published in 1903 but is set in Canada’s Klondike Gold Rush in the 1890s. The central character is a dog called Buck who is stolen from a ranch in California and sold into service as a sled dog up north and the book is the tale of his sometimes brutal working life, the dogs and humans he meets and his gradual return to a wolf-like status responding to primordial instincts. The author spent a year living the

Canadian territory, like many other prospectors, and whilst he didn’t find his fortune in gold, he found it in the vivid stories he wrote about this frozen wilderness of spruce forests and glacial mountains and the tough people who inhabited it.

ZURICH The Night Manager

The hero of John Le Carre’s classic spy novel is not a spy but a former British soldier-turned hotel night manager who is on duty in a grand Zurich hotel when ‘the worst man in the world’ checks in. Richard Roper is a ruthless arms dealer disguised as a businessman and philanthropist and the protagonist, Jonathan Pine, knows he is the reason a woman he knew is dead. The novel jumps from a frozen and opulent Zurich to the past in Egypt and eventually to the Bahamas where Pine trys to bring Roper to justice in a nail-biting undercover operation after being recruited by MI6.

five charities

HELPING THE HOMELESS Nobody should ever be without a home but especially not during a pandemic. Here are five charities stepping in

Jon Tyson/Unsplash

CRISIS One in four homeless people spend Christmas alone but last Christmas Crisis helped over 4,500 homeless people experience a special day at what can be a difficult time of year - isolating, dangerous and cold. For £28.22 Crisis can provide a homeless person with somewhere safe to stay, companionship and support, essential food, festive treats and a Christmas activity pack plus access to health and wellbeing programmes, year-round support with training and education and advice on housing, work and benefits. crisis.org.uk

ST. MUNGO’S Every night, St Mungo’s 17 outreach teams in the UK go out to meet homeless people and to help them off the streets. The charity offers a bed and support to more than 2,850 people across the south and south west of England and prides itself on accommodating pets too. As well as helping people to deal with issues like mental health and addiction it also aids recovery with its learning, training and employment service, covering everything from personal development to IT skills. Its Recovery College even continued online during the pandemic. mungos.org

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EMMAUS This charity prides itself not just on offering homeless people a bed for the night, but a home, meaningful work and a sense of belonging and self-esteem. The first Emmaus community opened in Cambridge in 1991 and now there are 29 across the UK, from Glasgow to Dover, each with at least one shop or social enterprise and many running successful cafés, shops, gardening projects and removal companies which offer training as well as employment. Emmaus currently has 800 rooms and hopes to have 1,200 by 2021. emmaus.org.uk

RAILWAY CHILDREN Every five minutes a child runs away from home in the UK and Railway Children, which also works in India and East Africa, aims to prevent them from coming to harm. Thousands of vulnerable young people pass through railway stations every day – to hang out or hide, to escape or to meet someone. The charity’s project workers take referrals from British Transport Police and intervene before kids become entrenched in street life, where the risk of being exposed to sexual exploitation, violence or drugs increases and it’s harder to help. railwaychildren.org.uk

SHELTER Need some stocking fillers? Buy some of Shelter’s emergency chocolate. Purchasing these Fair Trade bars, or its Christmas cards or crackers, helps the charity help the homeless. Donations to Shelter go towards providing its free emergency helpline, which is often the first port of call for people facing a housing crisis and aims to stop people becoming homeless in the first place. Shelter is also campaigning for systemic change - like halting discrimination in the lettings industry against people receiving benefits. shelter.org.uk

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BLIND

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We chat to Amar Latif, a blind traveller, entrepreneur and TV personality who lost 95% of his sight by the age of 18 and went on to found Traveleyes, the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first tour operator to specialise in holidays for both blind and sighted travellers

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I would never travel how I wanted to, or make it happen myself. I set up Traveleyes in 2004 to enable blind people to experience travel with independence and 16 years later, we’re still going strong!

Your tours pair blinded and sighted travellers, but how does it work? What’s your earliest travel memory?

Visiting Blackpool with my parents, brothers and sisters, which was our regular family holiday destination. All seven of us would pile into a little car (at least, it felt little) to drive down from Glasgow. It took ages to get there and when we did it seemed like a different country - everyone had such strange accents that is sounded like a different language to us! I can still remember how exotic it seemed. That was before I lost my sight though, so I often say that my first experience of travel was as a student on exchange at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. It was the first time I’d been away from home by myself since losing my sight and I learned so much about myself, the world and the people in it - it was incredible!

When did you get the travel bug?

Canada showed me that I was able to get out there and experience the beauty in everything, even if I couldn’t ‘see’ it – but Nicaragua changed my life. Not long after I founded Traveleyes the BBC asked me to take part in a new television programme, Beyond Boundaries, and to trek 220 miles across Nicaragua. I crossed shark-infested lakes, cut through dense jungles and even climbed a 5,000-foot active volcano. I achieved something I honestly never thought

possible - after all, the journey would have challenged anyone, never mind a blind man. When I returned, my passion for life and travel was greater than ever. Whenever we meet crisis in our lives there is a danger of falling into the mindset that things are (and always will be) worse than they were before. For me, the crisis was losing my sight, but Canada and Nicaragua showed me that the world was still open.

How did you get the idea for Traveleyes?

Travelling to Canada was the ultimate freedom for me; to be able to go somewhere, immerse myself in a new culture, try new things and embrace a new way of life. Imagine my

What is it like travelling as a blind person?

People don’t realise that blind and vision-impaired (VI) travellers can often get more out of travel than their sighted counterparts. When you’re

Blind and vision-impaired travellers often get more out of travel than their sighted counterparts... we really engage with the smells, sounds and tastes disappointment when I discovered later that travel companies wouldn’t let me join their tours without a carer. It’s hard to explain how frustrating it is to be told you can’t do something that you love, simply because companies are ignorant to what it is to be blind. I had two choices: accept

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A common misconception is that only the blind travellers get something from our holidays but our sighted travellers often tell us that the experience is incomparable to any other. Our holidays work so differently that everyone gets something special from it. The relationship between blind and sighted traveller enriches a destination because the sighted person has to think about what they’re looking at in order to describe it to the blind person, and in doing so they get much more from the place.

sighted you feel like ‘sightseeing’ should be taken literally. I lost my sight well before social media, but I like to call it the ‘Instagram effect’ – you get so distracted by the visuals that you end up glancing around, never delving below the surface. But us VI folk get to really engage

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with all the sounds, smells, tastes – everything that gets buried under the visual experience. As a blind person my travel experience is much more threedimensional. I’m also much more curious about the world and I can’t just go on Google and look up pictures of places - to learn about the world I have to get out there!

How do you describe a scene to someone who has never seen before?

It’s quite rare for a blind person to be 100% blind and/or have never experienced any kind of sight so usually there is something to build from. All our tours have tactile and sensory elements which help VI people build a vivid mental image of a place. We are fortunate that many museums and tours give us special access to objects that the public normally can’t touch. When accompanied with a sighted person’s description, an image starts to build. Whether it’s smelling the salts used at a Roman Baths or tasting freshly-picked herbs from a garden, there’s always a way to bring a destination to life without sight.

have to look beyond what a place is known for to what it offers to make a truly immersive trip. Ecuador and Galapagos are famous for their wildlife, which features in our itinerary but can’t be our ‘selling point’ because it’s a visual thing. We speak to our local contacts and work out what else the area offers for a more rounded trip - chocolate making, a percussion workshop, and zip-lining through a rainforest. Other examples include a samba workshop in Brazil and tandem cycling in Thailand. All destinations can be brought to life through elements other than sight, it’s just about being open to how.

Have you ever had a travel disaster?

While in Canada I needed to pay for my health insurance in cash. When I got to the office I got chatting to a woman and, like all the Canadians I’d met, she seemed lovely. She asked lots of questions and I got the impression that she was genuinely concerned about me. I was really touched, so when I said I had somewhere else to be and she offered to deposit my cash, I said ok What do Traveleyes look and went on my merry way. Obviously she kept the money, but for in a destination? I didn’t realise until the day I walked There’s the logistical side – for into a door and had to get stitches. instance, on walking holidays I was surprised to be handed we ensure there is no a bill and when I told scrambling and that them about the nice routes are wide lady who’d set up the enough for sideinsurance for me I by-side walking. Every day 250 people begin heard an uneasy But we also

The big picture

Daniel Sessler/Unsplash

to lose their sight but the Royal National Institute of Blind People offers the support and tools they need to realise their aspirations rnib.org.uk

HAVANA

cough before they told me that she must have seen me coming. I only wish I could have said the same!

Is there anywhere which has surprised you? The level of accessibility you encounter in various countries can be surprising. Dubai is one of the wealthiest places in the world but some of the lifts are so high-tech, with touch-screen controls, that they’re useless to blind people. But in some of the furthest-flung parts of Africa you not only get lifts that still have buttons, but ones labelled in braille! There are other things that aren’t perfect there, but it goes to show that it’s not just about money and technology – sometimes it’s about having the right mindset.

What’s your favourite place to holiday?

I absolutely love Cuba. There’s so much about it that’s incredible for a blind person - the music, the dancing, the warmth of the sun, the taste of a fresh pineapple – I can’t get enough of it! It also gives me a way into the past. Most people get to see photographs or paintings of what things looked like before but that’s not accessible to me. In Cuba everything is frozen in time so I can get my hands on things and get a sense of the history.

Where would you like to go next?

Cornwall. The thing about travelling the world is that you don’t get to experience much of home. There’s actually quite a few places in the UK that I’ve never been to, but I love the sun, so Cornwall is next on my list.

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Belize

Belize Honduras

Guatemala

Nicaragua

Costa Rica

Panama

Surf and turf

Central America

With thrilling jungle adventures, ancient Mayan ruins, stylish lodges and spectacular coral reefs, Belize is the perfect post-lockdown escape, says Lauren Jarvis

RIO ON POOLS WATERFALL

tread lightly along a root-tangled trail, deeper into the Central American jungle. Towering mahogany, cedar and ceiba trees, embraced by liana vines, stand sentinel along the path, their branches weaving a net in the canopy above, filtering the moonlight and allowing flashes of silver starlight to slip through. Ahead, my guide Mario waves his torch from side-to-side, scouring the dense rainforest for signs of life. Vast webs illuminate, and orb-weaver spiders hang in suspended animation, while giant mantises eye us curiously, and leaf-cutter ants march at our feet, working industriously beyond bedtime. But here in the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary of South-Central Belize, it’s a far bigger beast that we seek. Established in 1986 and managed by the Belize Audubon

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Society, Cockscomb is the world’s first dedicated sanctuary for the jaguar, one of the world’s largest – and most elusive – big cats. Spanning 130,000 acres, the reserve protects precious rainforest habitat, waterfalls and a staggering diversity of life, including Belize’s four other wild cat species – pumas, ocelots, margays and jaguarundis – along with Baird’s tapirs (the national animal of Belize), howler monkeys, armadillos, otters, kinkajous (nocturnal, golden-furred tree-dwellers), and about 300 species of birds, including hummingbirds, toucans and scarlet macaws. “The sanctuary is known for having one of the highest jaguar densities in the world,” whispers Mario. “But they rarely allow themselves to be seen.” I first visited Cockscomb 14 years ago, spending hours walking the forest trails at night in search of the mighty jaguar.

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Belize

For a second it turned to face us, before slinking back into the otherworldly dimension from whence it came, the

JAGUAR ART

image forever burned on my brain The Mesoamerican Mayan civilisation held the iconic cat sacred, its diurnal nature elevating the animal to a deity, able to cross between both the living world (day) and ‘Xibalbá’ or the underworld (night), while its power, ferocity and bravery were revered by hunters, warriors, priests and kings. With its global population in decline due to issues like habitat loss, human-animal conflict and poaching, the jaguar is classified as ‘near threatened’ on the IUCN Red List, and even here in this dedicated reserve, between just 80 and 100 cats roam. On my first visit I got lucky, though sadly not while on foot with my guide in the forest. Driving out of the park, a burst of lightning lit up the road and flash-gunned a solitary jaguar padding across our path. For a second it turned to face us, before slinking back into the otherworldly dimension from whence it came, the image forever burned on my brain in negative. This time the big cats elude me, but no matter: I don’t see them,

but perhaps somewhere, shrouded in the darkness, they see me. Bordered by Mexico to the northwest, Guatemala to the west and south, and the Caribbean Sea to the east, the former British colony of Belize has a lush, forested interior and miles of tropical coastline, with beautiful islands (or ‘cayes’), atolls, lagoons and the world’s second-longest barrier reef system lying offshore. A perfect adventure destination, the only English-speaking country in Central America has plenty to excite and inspire.

foothills of the Maya Mountains, I immerse myself in the jungle. At night, I eat amazing Mayaninspired Belizean food on the terrace of The Grove House (voted Rainforest to reef Belize’s Restaurant of the Year My stay with the Belize Collection, 2019), drink margaritas in my which has stylish resorts creekside casita’s open-air bath across the country, offers the accompanied by a live forest opportunity to explore both the soundtrack, and swing in my rainforest and reef. hammock under a dazzling Travelling first to sky, as frogs and geckos Sleeping Giant come out to play. Rainforest Lodge, By day, there’s the official base kayaking on the Fauna & Flora International camp for National calm waters of the helps to safeguard a natural Geographic Sibun River, horse corridor connecting the forests Expeditions in the riding and bird of Belize’s Maya Mountains and

Highway to heaven

the lowland forests of the Caribbean coastal plains. fauna-flora.org

THE BLUE HOLE

XUNANTUNICH

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Belize

THE LODGE AT JAGUAR REEF

SLEEPING GIANT RAINFOREST LODGE

watching in the lodge’s fragrant orange groves and nature reserve, dawn hikes in the mountains and caving to discover ancient Mayan skulls, ceremonial tools and pottery in the labyrinths and caverns that lie, incredibly, right behind the lodge. More Mayan treasures await at the archaeological site of Xunantunich. Reached on a hand-cranked ferry across the emerald Mopan River, the excavated city’s palaces and plazas offer a chance to learn more about the Mesoamerican civilisation, while spider monkeys

swing through the trees and bats hang from the walls of the 40-metre pyramid, El Castillo.

You glow, girl

“Come on, jump!” says an encouraging voice from the water below. I gingerly position my legs over the side of the boat and look down. Beneath my feet, shimmering stars illuminate the water like a marine Milky Way, but these aren’t reflections of the night sky above: this is one of the world’s rare bioluminescent lagoons, and the neon nebulae are shining from within. A short drive from The Lodge at Jaguar Reef – a lovely, laidback resort on the sweeping, palm-fringed sands of Hopkins

Beach – Belize’s Anderson Lagoon is one of just a handful of magical locations where bioluminescence lights up the ocean. Best seen between October and March on a moonless night, this natural phenomenon occurs when the perfect combination of fresh and salt water, temperature and depth align. Tiny plankton called dinoflagellates gather, and a chemical reaction produces quick-fire flashes of blue-green light when they’re disturbed. With millions of these microorganisms in the lagoon, and no nearby light pollution to

I drink margaritas in my creekside casita’s open-air bath accompanied by a live forest soundtrack, and swing in my

LAUREN IN THE RAINFOREST

hammock under a dazzling sky .

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Belize

detract, the aquatic fireworks display is a spectacular sight. Still, my trepidation to dive into the sparkling soup has good grounds: the dinoflagellates have some prehistoric, predatory neighbours lurking not too far away… We board the boat in the late afternoon sun at the Green Iguana Jetty and head out along the Sittee River, guided by Mario, who points

out crested great curassow birds roosting among the mangroves, while royal palms soar up to 50 feet into the sky above. The ‘footprints’ of manatees – surface bubble rings on the river – reveal the presence of the giant, gentle sea cows grazing on grasses below, while lemur-like kinkajous come out to play as the sun sinks and distant lightning flashes in the sky. As darkness descends, Mario seeks out tougher and toothier

JAGUAR REEF’S BIG DOCK CEVICHE BAR

animals from the boat: American crocodiles, up to 10 feet long, their eyes glowing red in his spotlight. “The crocodiles here aren’t aggressive,” Mario reassures us, as we watch them cruising the river banks. “They usually swim away from humans, not towards them.” I hold on to these words when we motor though a narrow, mangrove-lined channel and emerge into this vast lagoon, the trees silhouetted against the night. Somewhere near the middle the boat stops so everyone can excitedly prepare for the show.

Leading lights

My travel companion, Ellen, is first in, jumping over the side and into the inky water, which instantly lights up with a gas-blue glow. Encouraging me to follow, I lower myself in to join her, hoping that someone remembered to lock the gate. Thankfully, Mario knows his crocs: no gnashers crash our party, and after safely swimming and splashing around in the

SPIDER MONKEY

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Book your next holiday with Charitable travel and donate for free to Rafiki Thabo – it really is that simple.

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Belize

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bottom, between clusters of corals and shoals of tropical fish, while giant stingrays glide through turquoise waters magical melange, we clamber back on to the boat, toes intact. After dinner at The Paddle House restaurant at Jaguar Reef and a few too many mojitos (this is the Caribbean after all), a dawn alarm call drags me out of bed in my cavernous deluxe suite and back on to a boat – a very bumpy boat that wave-jumps its way 14 RAINFOREST ROUTES

coral planting initiatives, no-fish zones and seven marine protected areas are helping to reverse the damage caused by hurricanes, coastal development and past oil exploration, and the country’s regeneration programme is now a model for other nations.

A drop in the ocean

Our captain, Nick, drops anchor miles out to sea, while I cling on near a dazzling white slither of to my much-needed coffee. Heralded as “the most remarkable an island called Saltwater Caye. As the boat rocks, we pull on our reef in the West Indies” by snorkelling gear and enter naturalist Charles Darwin, the the sea, the colourful Belize Barrier Reef System landscape beneath is legendary. Stretching the waves instantly 180 miles along the calmer than the Caribbean coast, windy world this marine mosaic The World Land Trust protects above. Spotted encompasses and sustainably manages global eco systems with the help of eagle rays swoop hundreds of communities. Belize’s Rio Bravo over the sandy mangroves and Conservation & Management bottom, between sandy cayes, Area was its first project. clusters of corals offshore atolls and worldlandtrust.org and shoals of tropical coastal lagoons, fish, while giant along with the worldstingrays glide through renowned dive site, the crystal, turquoise waters below. Great Blue Hole. Known for its In a world where we’re losing diversity, the reef is home to 65 natural habitats and biodiversity species of coral, over 500 kinds of to over-exploitation and fish and three species of turtle: greed, Belize’s magical realms green, hawksbill and loggerhead. offer wild adventures today Declared a UNESCO World and hope for tomorrow. Heritage Site in 1996, like all reefs charitable.travel/belize it faces major challenges, but

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Boo

Spotted eagle rays swoop over the sandy

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TRADITIONAL DANCERS

Down to earth

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CHARITY & TRAVEL

£41.7bn

in numbers If your New Year’s resolution is to give more to charity or perhaps get involved with volunteering, these statistics will show you how valuable you can be.

168,000

Approx. number of UK charities that support good causes

827,000

AMOUNT SPENT PER YEAR HELPING MILLIONS IN THE UK AND GLOBALLY

The money comes from a range of sources, including donations, trading and selling services 44% OF THE UK PUBLIC DONATE TO CHARITY IN A TYPICAL MONTH

£12.2bn

HOW MUCH CHARITIES HAVE ADDED TO THE UK ECONOMY

NUMBER OF PEOPLE EMPLOYED BY UK CHARITIES, 2.7% OF THE UK WORK FORCE

91% Percentage of charities relying on work of volunteers

More than 21 million volunteers help UK charities. The estimated value of their work per year is 23.9bn

SOURCE: NCVO.ORG.UK

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Our partner charity, Charitable Travel Fund, has been created to help tourism communities in need and thanks to Covid-19, that need is greater than ever…

More than half of all jobs in the UK’s travel and tourism sector could be lost, as many as 2.4 million, if travel restrictions continue

US$8.9 TRILLION THE AMOUNT THAT TRAVEL AND TOURISM CONTRIBUTED TO THE WORLD’S GDP IN 2019 (10.3%) IN TOTAL

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Tourism expenditure this year may be this much lower than preCovid-19 predictions

$8.1 trillion

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NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD WHO RELY ON TRAVEL AND TOURISM FOR THEIR LIVELIHOODS

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3.5% THE AMOUNT TOURISM GREW IN 2019, OUTPACING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY GROWTH OF 2.5% FOR THE NINTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR

Tourism’s recovery to 2019 levels may be as late as 2024

SOURCE: WTTC, MCKINSEY & COMPANY AND CHARITABLE TRAVEL FUND

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Exploring EDEN

If you’re looking to get back to nature without harming its precious balance, head to the Seychelles and enjoy island hopping with a positive impact

trewn across the Indian Ocean, nearly a thousand miles off the coast of East Africa, the 115 islands of the Seychelles archipelago were uninhabited until 1770 and even today they offer the chance to live out your Robinson Crusoe fantasy in an unspoilt tropical paradise where Mother Nature still reigns. Despite having a reputation as a luxury location and the preserve of honeymooners, the Seychelles offers affordable options for families and friends too – with charming local guesthouses as well as exclusive five-star resorts. With its gaze firmly on a green future and around 50% of its land officially protected from development, the Seychelles is the perfect place for eco-conscious travellers who want to leave no permanent footprints.

NEED TO KNOW…

While these scattered gems offer the chance to get away from it all in splendid isolation, direct flights from London to the Seychelles’ capital Mahé mean the islands are easily accessed and you’ll find a diverse culture fused between those who once arrived there from

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Europe, Africa and Asia. While the Inner Islands, including the main island of Mahé, are the oldest mid-oceanic granite islands on earth, low-lying coral atolls and reef islets make up the Seychelles’ Outer Islands. A regular network of transport operates out of Mahé, ranging from ferries to domestic flights and helicopter transfers. The archipelago is blessed with year-round warm weather, between 24°C and 32°C. It’s the trade winds that define the climate, with the warm north-westerly winds blowing from October to March and brisker south-easterlies moving in from May to September,

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RED SKIES ON LA DIGUE

GENTLE GIANTS

The Seychelles’ most famous residents are its giant tortoises, which are endemic to the Aldabra Atoll, the furthest island from Mahé of all and a UNESCO World Heritage Site where over 150,000 of these dome-shelled reptiles ramble. Visitors can also see wild tortoises on North Island, Cousin Island and Curieuse Island and in enclosures on many others. They typically live between 80 and 120 years but the world’s oldest, Jonathan, is 188.

Black Paradise Flycatcher, a delicate fork-tailed bird. The island is also home to the Seychelles’ most iconic beach, Anse Source d’Argent, with its dreamy white sand and unique granite boulders giving refuge to nesting white terns. Aride Island is known as the ‘seabird citadel’ of the Indian Ocean and had been protected for decades, since being purchased by the Cadbury family. The island is home to the world’s only hilltop colony of sooty terns, breeding sites for the red-tailed tropic bird and roseate tern and the world’s largest colony of lesser noddies. There is even a Bird Island, a paradise for ornithologists less than a mile long, wafer-thin and fringed with casuarina trees but home to around three million birds! Numbers swell between May and September, when hundreds of thousands of terns arrive to build their nests and offer a spectacular display of whirring wings and windborn cries.

ARIDE ISLAND

UNIQUE FLORA

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BIRDS OF PARADISE

An avian haven, the Seychelles offers the chance to see many birds seen nowhere else. Veuve Reserve on La Digue Island was set up in 1982 to protect the rare Seychelles

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The world’s largest nut is found in the Seychelles, the Coco de Mer, which weighs up to 20kg. The nut’s botanical name is Lodoicea c Callipyge and the latter word is Greek for ‘beautiful rump’ which describes its rather risqué shape! The palm trees it grows on are found in the UNESCO-protected pristine rainforest of Vallée de Mai on Praslin Island, also home to the rare Black Parrot and other indigenous species.

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SUNSET OVER PORT GLAUD

GARDENS GALORE

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The century-old Botanical Gardens on the outskirts of capital Victoria, on Mahé, houses a huge collection of mature, exotic and endemic plants within five landscaped acres, plus an orchid house, tortoises and a fruit bat colony which can be seen roosting in the trees. Also on Mahé is Le Jardin du Roi, a fragrant spice garden set in a 35-hectare plantation where you can wander rows of vanilla vines, citronelle, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper and other spices and medicinal plants.

DRAMATIC AQUATICS

There are five national marine parks in the Seychelles, meaning abundant populations of aquatic creatures and perfect conditions for snorkelling and scuba diving. Habitats including coral reefs, sea grass and mangroves protect a kaleidoscopic array of fish and larger creatures like sharks and rays – including the whale shark

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which is the world’s biggest fish. There are dive operators on all the most visited islands and liveaboards are a great way to access outer and uninhabited islands. The empty beaches and pristine waters of the Seychelles are home to several different species of turtles, many returning to the same beaches where they were born to lay their own eggs. Curieuse Island National Park protects both green and hawksbill turtles and Baie Ternay Marine Park on Mahé has sea-grass beds which are vital turtle feeding grounds. A female turtle can lay up to a 1,000 eggs a season and across the Seychelles many resorts offer guests the chance to see turtles nesting and hatching and sometimes the chance to help with tagging and releasing them.

KARI ZOURIT (OCTOPUS CURRY) VALLE DE MAI

ECO-TOURISM ICON

Cousin Island is a land and sea Special Reserve which extends 400 metres offshore to protect the fringing reefs too, where a coral restoration project has been underway since 2010. Bought by a bird charity in 1968, to protect the last tiny population of the Seychelles warbler, it’s been transformed from an ecologically impoverished plantation into a thriving indigenous forest that benefits other species including the Seychelles magpie robin. The island also has a freshwater wetland area that attracts insects like dragonflies and moorhens; its hill has nesting sites for seabirds

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and its shores are home to crabs and birds. Also inland are tortoises, five endemic lizards, giant millipedes and hermit crabs.

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MORNE BLANC NATURE TRAI

CURIEUSE ISLAND NATURE TRAIL

PEOPLE-POWERED TRAVEL

You needn’t step in a gas-guzzling car the whole time you’re in the Seychelles. The islands are a hiking and cycling paradise and in La Digue you’ll find still locals getting around by ox-drawn cart, although these are increasingly being replaced by bicycles. Top hiking trails include Morne Seychellois, the highest point on Mahé at a spectacular 900m above sea level; Eagle’s Nest Mountain, which is the highest point on La Digue and has a restaurant serving delicious creole food, and the Fond Ferdinand Nature Reserve on Praslin, where the viewpoint looks over ten islands. There are also plenty of flat trails for a more leisurely ramble. You can easily cycle on flat parts of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, with some of the island’s most iconic sights are easily reached on wheels – like the creamy sands of Anse Source D’Argent on La Digue. As an island nation, the Seychelles is a great place to harness the power of the wind and waves on a sailing trip, or try kayaking, paddle boarding or wind surfing.

the sea-faring Phoenicians and the Chinese before being settled by the French in 1770 and then passed to the English. Subsequently, the culture is a fascinating fusion and there’s plenty of chances to make meaningful connections with the Seychellois people and support their economy, including staying in locally-run guesthouses or villas. Shop for locally-made souvenirs at the Seychelles Craft Village in Mahé, the site of the historic Grann Kaz Plantation House but now an area dedicated to preserving and sharing Seychelles’ history, culture and traditions. You can buy local paintings, handmade jewellery, batik clothing and ornaments made from coconut. On Praslin, the Black Pearl boutique offers the chance to purchase unique jewellery and see over forty thousand giant clams and learn about their feeding and reproduction habitats. For foodies, the local market in the capital, Victoria, sells lots of produce from local farms, like chutneys, chilli and spices; La Digue’s L’Union Estate and Copra Factory produces coconut oil and at Mahe’s Takamaka Rum Distillery you can taste everything from aged rum to tropical fruit-infused rum and see how it’s made too. Or book one of the many local tours where you can visit authentic homes, cook typical creole dishes, learn the language and dance and even make local crafts. Find out more about the Seychelles and plan a truly ‘good’ holiday which supports the environment and the community: seychelles.travel

SUPPORT COMMUNITIES The islands of the Seychelles were discovered by Arab mariners in the 9th century BC and later visited by

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Animal-friendly holidays

Anim eth

Clockwise from top right: Vineet Nangia; Camylla Battani; Edin Hopic; Owlie Harrington; David Clode; William Phipps; Mark Basarab; Kenneth Schipper; Sian Cooper; Shaun Meintjes; Cong/Unsplash

Animal tourism can h but it can also be harm unwittingly be on the w make sure you’re part problem, asks

t used to be easy to spot animal cruelty – big cats in tiny cages, skinny and overloaded donkeys or chained bears being forced to dance. Those awful situations still occur but today it’s not uncommon for cruelty or unethical animal practises to be disguised as kindness, conservation or a ‘mustdo’ cultural experience. I’ve always loved animals, so as a naïve backpacker in my early 20s, I was drawn to animal-related experiences. Mostly this involved ethical activities like safaris and I studiously avoided performing and captive animals, but I did engage in one activity that I’m now ashamed of, which was elephant riding.

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I remember wondering if it was ‘OK’ but the elephants didn’t seem in distress or have any injuries. I felt uneasy when I saw that the elephant handlers had sticks but they didn’t use them and I was convinced to go ahead, by a combination of peer pressure, my desire for an exotic and novel experience and my eagerness to be culturally sensitive. After all, wasn’t it just the Indian equivalent of riding a horse, and who was I to say that our way was alright but theirs was inappropriate? I now know that what I did was wrong and that those sticks were indeed, sinister. The elephant had almost certainly been subjected to a traumatic training method known as ‘the crush’. This, says charity

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Animal-friendly holidays

mal hics

help to protect wildlife mful to it and it’s easy to wrong side. How do you of the solution, not the s Laura Gelder

I was convinced to go elephant riding by peer pressure, my desire for an exotic and novel experience and my eagerness to be culturally sensitive Animal Asia, involves separating young elephant calves from their mother, tying them up in a small space and beating them into fearful submission. As elephants have good memories, this is usually sufficient to gain control over them but a stick would have been a visceral reminder. Thailand is home to three quarters of Asia’s captive elephants but many

tourists are now wise to the issues around elephant riding. Instead, they visit sanctuaries where you can bathe and feed elephants, some of whom have been rescued from the tourism or logging industries. However, despite this consumer shift, World Animal Protection’s latest report – ‘Elephants. Not Commodities’ – notes a 70%

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Animal-friendly holidays

increase in the number of Thailand’s captive elephants in the last 10 years, showing that ethical venues could be part of the problem.

keep them in bad conditions. World Animal Protection’s study shows a rising scale for elephant welfare which is poorest for those in shows and being ridden, higher for Look, don’t touch those at bathing attractions but best Animal-focused charities in observation-only venues. recommend that if a It has worked with two tourist attraction is elephant venues in offering the chance Thailand (ChangChill to touch, feed or in Chiang Mai and interact with nonFollowing Giants Adopt an animal with domesticated in Koh Lanta) International Animal Rescue – an animals, the to support their Indonesian slow loris or maybe an Armenian bear – and help easiest way to transition into contribute to its rescue and ensure you’re not higher-welfare rehabilitation programme. contributing to venues where internationalanimal animal cruelty is to visitors observe rescue.org avoid it. elephants foraging, They take this hard socialising and grazing. stance in the view that even “By showing demand for centres which are genuinely caring observation-only elephant venues for orphaned or rescued animals we are hoping that others will are fuelling a demand for animal transition away from hands-on interactions and therefore growth in interactions like riding and bathing other venues who use unscrupulous which require cruel training to keep tactics to obtain pliant animals and the animal under control,” says the

This page: Chris Curry; Ilona Froehlich. Opposite page clockwise: Aadya Singh; Chris Charles; Maelia Faust/Unsplash

Adopt to help

WE MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE TO BIRDS OF PREY Please share our mission to conserve them We work to conserve birds of prey and their habitats with projects in the UK and overseas Since we started in 1965, we’ve returned thousands of birds back to the wild Our National Bird of Prey Hospital™ can receive and care for 200 birds each year We’re striving to save thousands of vultures from being poisoned in Africa We are a leader in the field of Kestrel population research Why not spend a day with us, watch our beautiful birds fly and find out more about what we do.

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Animal-friendly holidays

Looking for help Help these charities raise money for animal causes... Four Paws Help to stop the dog and cat meat trade in Southeast Asia which leads to family pets as well as stray cats and dogs being subjected to brutal deaths and risks humans being infected with rabies. four-paws.org charity’s UK Campaigns Manager – Animals in the Wild, Katheryn Wise. From sloth selfies to cuddling orangutans, swimming with dolphins to walking with lions, there are unethical animal attractions all over the world which exist because of tourist demand.. Wise says travellers are in a powerful position to stop unethical operations by making informed choices about how to see animals on holiday, but she admits that as most venues say animal welfare is their priority, it’s not always easy.

Be animal welfare aware

Stick to the following rules and you can ensure, not only that your holiday isn’t contributing to animal cruelty, but that you’re doing something to call it out. • Do your research: Investigate animal attractions you intend to visit beforehand. Read reviews, ask your tour operator or tour guide if the venue has an animal welfare policy and make it clear what is unacceptable. • Wild means wild: Don’t support any shows or attractions which use animals for entertainment. Animal welfare charity Four Paws says

that if you can hug, ride, touch or take a photo with a wild animal it has probably suffered some kind of cruelty to make that possible. If animals are doing anything they wouldn’t be doing in the wild it’s probably not an ethical place. • Assess the living conditions: Is there adequate space for the animals to move, climb, bathe, swim or fly? Do they have shade or shelter and water to drink? Is the enclosure clean and well-maintained or does it contain litter, a build-up of faeces or rotting food? Visitors should not be able to touch or torment animals. • Look for signs of ill treatment: Signs of cruelty or negligent care include animals being de-clawed or having missing teeth, being overly thin or fat, having sores or wounds or displaying repetitive behaviours. Born Free asks: “Are animals displaying strange, unnatural behaviours, such as constant pacing and circling, bobbing of heads, necktwisting and swaying?” • Check domesticated animals too: The Brooke, a charity dedicated to helping working horses and donkeys, advises to check places where equipment could rub such as the mouth, shoulders, spine and

Animals Asia The charity has secured an historic agreement with the government of Vietnam to end bear bile farming by 2022 but needs help to build more sanctuary space for 500 bears who are currently living in bad conditions. animalsasia.org The Brooke Demand for ejiao – a gelatin produced from donkey skins and used in Chinese medicine and beauty products – is fuelling donkey slaughter in Africa and Asia, causing a serious decline in populations. Sign Brooke’s petition to stop global trade in donkey skin. thebrooke.org SPANA Each year, SPANA provides free care for hundreds of thousands of working animals in need. SPANA vaccinates to prevent disease, treats injuries to relieve pain, and replaces homemade and ill-fitting equipment that cause wounds. spana.org

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if you can hug, ride, touch or take a photo with a wild animal it has probably suffered to make that possible .

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belly and as wounds might be hidden under a saddle or harness, ask to see if you’re concerned. It says: “A healthy animal will have a high head position, with eyes open and ears forward. It will also stand evenly, so look at all four legs for signs of pain or injury and check for cracked or misshapen hooves.” • Keep a safe distance: On a safari or wildlife watching trip guides should keep a distance from wildlife, vehicles should never circle or surround animals; noise and bright light should be kept to a minimum and the environment should be left alone - for example, a dive guide shouldn’t poke or pick up coral. There should be no attempt to lure animals with food or false sounds which could confuse them, cause stress or disrupt natural behaviours.

Animal-friendly holidays

• Speak up: Don’t be afraid to calmly point out bad practises, at the time if you feel comfortable, to the venue, your tour guide, hotel or tour operator, or afer you leave, on a review site or social media. Born Free’s Raise the Red Flag initiative asks people to report any unethical venues and it has an interactive map on its website which shows what places have already been flagged and/or investigated. You can also write to the tourist board. • Eat ethically: When you’re trying exotic local foods, check if the animal is rare or endangered. Think before you buy and research if you can. A local delicacy may be rooted in cruelty or drive demand for illegal trade in wildlife. • Demonstrate your economic power: If you see shark fin soup on the menu, politely tell the owner that you are leaving and why. If a shop is selling products which you know are associated with animal cruelty, calmly tell the owner why

EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, CONSCIENCE AND RELIGION (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, #18)

People everywhere should be able to practice their faith, to change their faith if they wish, and live together in peace. We remember Christians around the world who are oppressed and persecuted in many ways. They are denied access to education, employment and civil liberties. Their homes and churches are destroyed. They are imprisoned under false charges, are assaulted and even murdered!

‘God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them’. (1 John 4:16)

Registered Charity 280577 (SC040456)

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you wont be buying anything from them before you leave. • Use the carrot as well as the stick: International working animal charity, SPANA. Says its important to praise a tour provider if they are treating their animals well and explain why you have given them your trade, as well as paying a fair price. Money will help the owner to earn a living, allow them to care for their animal and show that good practise pays off. And don’t forget to spread the word about the good experiences!

The weird...

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GIBRALTAR FALLS

It’s not a great start that Australia’s capital, an exsheep station, was born out of compromise, chosen to end a row between Sydney and Melbourne for the seat of power. “Canberra: Why wait for death?” said travel writer Bill Bryson once. A bit harsh, maybe, but driving around its circular centre I felt as if I was stuck in a fake utopia – like The Truman Show, where the sky’s always blue but it’s all a bit… off. The roads are ridiculously wide, the vast verges are spotless, but where are all the people? The lack of them makes the leafy streets of neat modernist bungalows somehow disquieting.

But Canberra is often voted the best place to live in the world – it’s affordable, green, commuting is a dream and all those fussy politicians mean the coffee is top-notch. Yet people don’t like that

Bus Depot Market

Unscriptedme/Unsplash

nsplash

in Kingston, packed with

Visit Australia’s Parliament House to see the debate chambers, admire the view from the roof and browse the art collection .

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the capital doesn’t have a beach, unless you count the yellow sands hugging the Murrumbidgee River. But I didn’t miss it. I sat on the hot, smoothed-out ancient rock at the top of Gibraltar Falls in the blistering sunshine, feet dangling in a cool natural pool and looking over uninhabited forested hills.

Every Sunday is the Old

Meg Jerrard/U

The wonderful...

CANBERRA

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Postcard from

artisan food, fashion, art, homeware and more

LAKE BURLEY GRIFFIN

On Mount Taylor I saw cockatoos strutting in the grass, spied the red flash of a lorikeet in the silvery gum trees and, after trekking through wild flowers, reached the top and a reception party of strapping grey kangaroos. I also cycled around Lake Burley-Griffin, a pleasant 30km bimble through rolling hills, woods and wetlands, and past grandiose buildings like the National Library. That’s the beauty of Canberra: one minute you’re in the bush spotting wombats, the next you’re sipping a flat white recommended by a terrifyingly informed barista brandishing a bean menu.

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Get to know... KEFALONIA

Greece

MOUNT AINOS

What is it all about?

Kefalonia is the largest of the Ionian Islands and lies off the west coast of Greece, opposite the toe of Italy’s boot. Probably most famous for being the setting for Louis de Berniere’s 90s mustread romantic novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, it’s visited for its beaches but there’s lots to see beyond them.

Kefalonia

The best beaches

The island has sand and stone beaches but unusually it’s the pebble ones that are the most lauded, probably because the stones are a perfect cream colour and the sea that laps them is crystal clear, reflecting vivid turquoise when the sun shines. Most photographed is Myrtos Beach (above), a solar-bleached stoney smile tucked into a wide bay with dramatic cliffs plunging down to it. Anti-Samos draws big crowds for its stunning crescent of pale pebbles backed by green foliage. If you like beers bought to your lounger this is the place to go. On the other side of the island there is a long sandy stretch at Lourdas and on the Paliki peninsula is the unique orange sand beach of Xi, backed by white cliffs.

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Joia De Jong/Unsplash

Mount Ainos is the only Greek national park located on an island and Kefalonia’s highest point. Driving through tiny villages, past white-washed chapels and loose herds of shaggy goats, you’ll eventually wind to the top up switch-back roads lined with thick fir trees. The temperature at the summit is about ten degrees cooler than sea level and hiking trails wind through forest and boulders for panoramic views. You may see the herd of semi-wild horses who live there.

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Head to the top

ASSOS BEACH

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And another thing Head to a neighbouring isle for a change of scene…

King of the castle

The pretty mountain-top village of Kastro is named for its castle, the ruined Venetian fortress of St. George. The site is free to explore, with few barriers to stop you stealing into the dark recesses of long forgotten cellars. The battlements offer beautiful views inland and out to sea.

Ithaca This steep, green isle is tantalisingly close to Fiskardo but reached from Sami by car ferry. The former home of Greek king Odysseus, top spots include the fishing village of Kioni, where redtiled houses dot hills smothered in olive and cypress trees and the hidden beach of Gidaki, reached by boat or hike. Zakynthos Boat trips leave from Skala to Zakynthos’s Shipwreck Beach, hugged by white cliffs and azure waters and home to a rusted smuggler’s vessel. Next is the Blue Caves for more vivid seas and swimming through natural arches and caves.

Sightseeing spots

The capital of Argostoli is modern because of the 1953 earthquake which flattened it, but packed with bars and restaurants. It’s a pleasant place to stroll, along the harbour promenade where fishing boats and yachts moor up; around the huge town square, filled with café bars, and across the harbour on the De Bosset Bridge, built in 1813 and the longest stone sea bridge in the world. The only part of the island unscathed by the earthquake is Fiskardo, the fishing village at its northern tip. The shuttered houses retain their warm terracotta tiles and are painted bright, contrasting colours and dripping with hot pink bougainvillea. Fish restaurants line the tightly packed quayside where yachts moor up next to the dining tables. A little further south is the less crowded Assos, another rainbow village tumbling down to a sheltered harbour and looked over by another Venetian castle that’s surrounded by shady olive groves. There’s a small beach and plenty of tavernas, perfect for people watching.

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Take a boat trip into Melissani Cave at midday when the cavern is lit by the rays of sunlight from above

Eat your heart out

Just outside the castle of St George is one of the top-rated restaurant on the island, Café Kastro. Run by a Greek/British couple it cooks up home-cooked dishes like prawn saganaki, baked feta, meatballs, kebabs and aubergine pie on a terrace bursting with blooms. The village is also home to Il Borgo, a great dinner spot serving fancier fare like roasted lamb and deconstructed calamari on a vinecovered terrace looking across to neighbouring Zakynthos.

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FISKARDO

MELISSANI CAVE ASSOS

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Underwater adventures

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Underwater adventures

Ducking & diving

iving and breathing structures, coral reefs only cover a tiny part of the planet (0.1% of the ocean), but support a quarter of all marine species, making them one of our most valuable ecosystems. Reefs are vital habitats for thousands of species of fish, invertebrates, mammals and other organisms who depend upon them for food, shelter and protection as well as nursery and spawning grounds. Without reefs, many marine animals wouldn’t be able to survive and our own survival would be threatened. The United Nations estimates that around one billion people globally depend on coral reefs for their food and livelihoods and if you take away reefs, coastal communities would be more at risk during extreme weather events. Since coral reefs are some of the most vibrant and visually stunning places on earth, it’s not surprising that an estimated one million new scuba divers are certified each year, with millions more opting to snorkel on holiday. All around the world, reefs both natural and artificial (like wrecks) provide the perfect setting for an underwater safari.

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The rainforests of the sea, coral reefs are vital for life on this planet and making them part of your next holiday could be the best way to ensure they are protected, says Laura Gelder

Australia Stretching 1,400 miles from south of Papua New Guinea almost to Brisbane, this is the world’s largest coral reef system, comprising 2,500 individual reefs and over 900 islands which can be seen from space. Here you can see 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish and sought-after species like the dugong (sea cow) and green turtle. Some of the stand-out spots include Agincourt Reef, where minke whales are often spotted between June and September; the Whitsunday Islands, for their colourful shallow coral gardens and the chance to see the bumpheaded Napoleon wrasse fish; and

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Underwater adventures

Be careful Don’t step on or touch coral, which can injure you and kill the reef; don’t touch or chase marine life – sharks, in particular, should be left alone because we can disrupt their natural behaviour – and don’t stir the sandy bottom, it can smother coral animals and spread disease on reefs. Shop responsibly Don’t buy souvenirs of shells, coral or other marine life, or take your own mementos from the beach. It encourages people to take them from the sea, removing them from the ocean life cycle – even dead things break down and are recycled back into the sea to give other animals nutrients.

Egypt The warm waters of the Red Sea are packed with dives so colourful, it’s like being in the animated world of Finding Nemo. Resorts like Sharm el Sheikh, Dahab and Hurghada have coral gardens just off their beaches for snorkellers while further out lie buried treasured for divers. The strong currents of the Straits of Tiran, the gap between the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas is home to four reefs and several shipwrecks and attracts stealthy hammerhead sharks. There’s also a vibrant forest of gorgonian fans, a delicate branching coral shaped like a fan.

Don’t be rubbish Throwing trash in the ocean kills marine life, poisons seafood and can cause injury. Minimise use of single-use plastics and recycle or dispose of litter responsibly.

Don’t feed the fish This can make them sick and species like sharks aggressive, causing them to attack humans. Fed fish leave their nests empty and vulnerable to predators. Find out more: charitable.travel/ sustainable-marine-tourism

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Wear reef-safe sunscreen Some chemicals in sunscreen – like Oxybenzone and Octinoxate – have a bad impact on coral.

snorkellers who can drift gently over reefs and kaleidoscopic fish, while steep drop offs and passes swept by strong currents provide thrilling challenges for advanced divers. Tiputa Pass in Rangiora is a shark fanatics’ paradise, where fast currents sweep divers along with hoards of grey reef sharks. Tuheiva Pass in Tikehau is home to vast schools of barracuda, tuna, manta rays and sharks.

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The Reef-World Foundation says: “Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but bubbles.” Follow their advice for seeing reefs responsibly...

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Coral guardians

Heron Island which has a manta ray cleaning station, where the huge winged fish come to be nibbled clean by other fish.

Galapagos The incredible biodiversity of these Ecuadorian Pacific islands extends to beneath the waves too. Snorkellers have the opportunity to frolic with playful fur seals, green turtles are a frequent sight and harmless blacktip reef sharks tour the shallow coastal waters. Tagus Cove on Isabela Island offers the chance to spot rare sea horses, marine iguanas (pictured), penguins and flightless cormorants. Famous dive sites include Darwin’s Arch where manta rays, dolphins, eagle rays and schools of sharks congregate and Bartholomew Point where huge bait balls of fish sometimes attract penguins, sea lions, sharks and rays.

French Polynesia This collection of five archipelagos covers an area of the Pacific the size of Europe and has an astounding choice of dive and snorkel sites. The abundance of lagoons make ideal areas for novice divers and

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Underwater adventures

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with huge schools of fish and see everything from pygmy seahorses to the bizarre Papua walking shark which walks across reefs and wiggle across tide pools.

Malta

The Maldives

Sutirta Budiman/Unsplash

Some of the most nutrient-rich waters on the planet swirl around the dreamy atolls of the Maldives and their luxurious over-water villas. Deep channels cut between the atolls and are teeming with plankton, attracting larger species like sharks and manta rays and offering exciting and challenging dives. Inside the atolls, reefs, sandbars, islands and lagoons are colourful nurseries for smaller fish. Ari Atoll is the most renowned for diving and one the best places on earth to see whale sharks, the world largest fish at Indonesia up to 18 metres long. Green fins is an initiative from Reef-World Foundation The coral December to April is to conserve reefs by creating triangle is the driest time and and implementing eco-friendly an area of when seas are calm guidelines for diving and exceptionally and visibility on the snorkelling operators. rich marine life eastern sides of the reef-world.org/ and Indonesia runs atolls is best. However, green-fins along its base. the best time to see manta Sulawesi Island has rays is August to November. more varieties of coral than anywhere in the world and in the north its volcanic sub-aqua landscape is home to dugongs. Komodo Island, famous for its dragons on land, is a great place to spot the bizarre sunfish, which looks like a full moon. The Raja Ampat archipelago off West Papua is a dreamy landscape of karst islands surrounded by emerald water where divers can swim

Malta and its sister islands Gozo and Comino are renowned for their clear seas and craggy coast full of caves and underwater archways where lobsters, crabs and eels lurk. Reefs and wrecks – including a sunken British World War Two aircraft – are packed with colourful fish and finger sponges. The Blue Hole is a famous dive on Gozo, a large limestone sinkhole about ten by five metres and fringed by rock like a natural swimming pool. Divers sink down past walls of vibrant coral tubeworms, sponges and other marine life and pop through a rock window into the open sea.

Nazarizal Mohammad/ Unsplash

This Caribbean island’s most unique underwater attraction has to be the The Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park. Created by famous sculptor, Jason DeCaires Taylor, the signature piece is a life-size circle of ghostly-looking children holding hands but others include a man on a bike and a lone figure poised over a desk. The man-made figures have been subsumed by the sea and are covered in living coral. The island’s most famous dive is also an artificial reef - the MV Bianca C, a 600-foot former passenger liner now home to eels, sharks and clouds of fish. Grenada is an important site for the endangered leatherback turtle and visitors can help efforts by taking a tour with the St. Patrick’s Environmental and Community Tourism Organization.

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Grenada

Jakob Boman/Unsplash

Dive better

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Malaysia The islands off the east coast of Malaysia have lots of enchanting snorkelling spots. The Perhentian Islands are blessed with beautiful beaches and the chance to spot sea turtles and sharks, while Pulau Redang and six other islands form the Pulau Redang Marine Park and a protected area of coral reefs plus a shipwreck swarming with fish. Further east, off the wildlife paradise of Borneo, Sipadan Island is built on a volcanic seamount and famous diver Jacques Cousteau called it an ‘untouched piece of art’. Awe-inspiring coral walls drop

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Underwater adventures

Philippines The world’s second-largest archipelago – 7,000 islands no less – means a diverse and exciting marine environment. Hot spots include the wreck-dense Coron

region and dramatic limestone cliffs of El Nido, both around the island of Palawan; Puerto Galera, which is a designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserve at the heart of the Coral Triangle region; and the Visaya Islands, including Apo Island which is a marine sanctuary teaming with everything from schools of jack fish numbering 2,000 to tiny neon-coloured nudibranchs (pictured left).

Tor Bandidwongpaisan/Unsplash

Kris Mikael Kriste/Unsplash

600 metres and are smothered in hanging coral gardens. The area is famous for huge numbers of turtles, swirling masses of sharpnosed barracuda and schooling sharks as well as the chameleonlike flamboyant cuttlefish.

Thailand Both coasts of Thailand have outstanding snorkelling and diving but the Andaman Sea on the west is the best, especially from October to April. Off the Similan Islands’ white sand beaches are gin-clear water where snorkellers can fly over meadows of soft corals and sea fans with prolific fish. Further north, the My Ko Surin National Park is home to Richelieu Rock, a huge pinnacle which just breaks the surface but sinks to 30 metres below, covered in pink and purple coral and unusual small creatures like the ghost pipefish, which look like waving seaweed.

about ore m

Learn

the life of

Wilberfo

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A DAY IN

Emma Lindley, a Support Worker at the Wilberforce Trust. She helps people with sensory loss and other life-changing disabilities live their best lives and be as independent as possible “I’m studying for a psychology degree but I wanted to do something to help with the Covid-19 situation so now I’m working 1620 hours a week for the Wilberforce Trust. It’s been a huge learning curve as I had no experience in the field. At first I was daunted by tasks like personal care but we gets lots of training - I have about 20 certificates now, in everything from safeguarding to mental health. All you need to start with is empathy, patience and a gentle and caring nature. We provide supported housing and I started in a house with fairly independent residents where my job was helping them to do their washing or make a cup of tea. I now work in a house where the residents need 24-hour, one-on-one care,

A typical day...

… starts with a handover before I check that the resident’s medication is up to date, when their last drink and meal was, when their pad was changed, if they need a bath. I make sure their laundry is up to date, that their room is clean and they are comfortable. It’s quite a responsible job and if they can’t communicate I need to be able monitor things like when they are thirsty. But we don’t just care for the residents, we get to know all their likes and dislikes. Though we often don’t know how much they can understand, we never presume and act as if it’s everything.

wonder if the masks are daunting for those who can see them. I worry about passing on the virus and I try to limit my activities outside work. We’re their first point of contact and their lifeline, so it’s important to abide by the rules. You get so attached to the residents and we treat them as if they are our own family.

The best bit...

Making sense of sensory loss

The Wilberforce Trust has been supporting people with visual & hearing impairments since 1833 and offers supported housing, sensory services and community activities for adults and children in York and the surrounding area. wilberforcetrust.org.uk

The hardest thing...

… is not being able to do things because of Covid-19 – although I’ve never known the job without it. The residents don’t really understand about the virus and I

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…is how rewarding the job is and the sense of teamwork. It feels like an extended family and we support each other through the job and anything that’s going on outside it. I’m quite an arty person and I enjoy bringing that into the job. I found a basket weaving kit that the tenants really enjoyed - they felt really good to be producing something themselves - and I did cheese making with one tenant and made bunting with another for his 50th birthday.

I've learnt...

…that small things make a big difference. I once took a packet of crayons in for a resident who loves colouring – she was so pleased – and the man with the 50th birthday rang me recently to tell me the bunting is still up in his room. I can’t describe the feeling you get but it’s something that money can’t buy. The job has built my confidence, helped me through the pandemic and changed my outlook on life. I want to continue working with people who have disabilities, perhaps in art therapy. For now, I’m just looking forward to working on Christmas Day, I think it will be a joyous occasion!

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FULL OF

beans

Sunny Karagozlu is the founder of Edible London, a community interest company (CIC) that’s fighting food poverty in London in his own homegrown style Why did you start Edible London?

It started five years ago when I got really ill. I realised I needed to change my life and the way I ate so I turned to veganism, simplified my life by moving back in with my mum and dad and dug up their garden to turn it into an edible paradise. After that I started volunteering for a community growing site and it grew from there.

What do you do?

Edible London is about tackling food poverty, not with tinned food but with nutritious, fresh food. We are plant-based because it’s healthy and it’s inclusive – all religions can enjoy our food. As well as using food we grow ourselves, I use my contacts to partner with local businesses who have surplus food or want to donate. In the borough of Haringey alone we now work with 36 organisations to get food to those in need – from

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homeless shelters to youth centres. We have a waiting list and sign-up form to understand each person’s need – how many people need to be fed in each household, if they have access to a kitchen, etc. We supply hot meals and hampers which we can give to a household and provides three to five days of meals.

alcoholic if you’re homeless but it’s not true. I had friends and family and a car so I was lucky. I have slept rough – I woke up soaked through after a night in a greenhouse – but my experience helped me to understand the struggles of life, pushed me into the community and helped me understand diversity.

Do you have a background in food?

How do you grow food in the city?

I was brought up in a Turkish Cypriot family and worked with my dad in the family business which was commercial farming, growing vegetables to sell to grocers and supermarkets. But I was lost in this cultural warfare between my traditional background and my adopted western culture, always battling with my dad and his way of doing business. I moved out to get away from it all and fell into homelessness. People assume you must be a junkie or an

We take over derelict growing spaces, in Hackney, Haringey and Enfield, where we grow organic food. We even have a rooftop garden. We also use our spaces to do educational workshops with schools and corporates around food production, sustainability and ecology.

How has Covid-19 affected you?

In March we shut down the workshops and committed all our vegetables to the community.

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one

partne r a ch

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freedom to empower communities and help local entrepreneurs.

What’s next?

Haringey council approached us to help them source produce and provide food to the vulnerable at the start of the lockdown. They were sending things like tea bags, sugar and cereal but no fresh food. With their help we ran an operation out of Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium and Alexandra Palace, sourcing vegetables, packing them and helping the council to deliver them to 70,000 people on a shielding list. We went out to the community and I networked like crazy and started procuring tonnes of donations and surplus food from places like Spitalfields Market, Lidl and Marks and Spencer. A small grocer I know baked us 150 loaves of bread every day during the lockdown.

What’s your biggest achievement?

Feeding a million people on a shoestring. Before Covid-19 hit we were feeding 200 homeless people a week and working with a few local suppliers, suddenly we were working out of a football stadium and in two weeks we’d scaled up our operation to reach 50,000 people a week. It consumed every part of my life and I was working 18 hours a day – I barely saw my son, who was born two months pre-Covid – but we smashed it.

The goal is to maintain exponential growth and roll out workshops of security at Alexandra Palace around healthy eating, food happened to be the head of the production and sustainable and Kaotic Angels, a division of a biker regenerative farming, always club made up of ex army, police and keeping people and planet in mind. emergency services people and We’ve scaled back down to serving through him we procured some of around 25,000 people a week but our drivers. We had this crew of big, we’re doing it independently and butch bikers with beards delivering sustainably. There are other charities vegetables around North London! which provide over ten million meals a year but they also get millions in funding - we managed to provide Why did you choose to nearly a million hot, nutritious meals be a CIC? on £115,000 and have since hit our I only ever wanted to grow food and million meal milestone. work with my community but so We’re doing a crowd funder many people were inspired for Christmas and beyond, by what we did and aiming to raise £200k wanted us to be to help us achieve official so two and another million half years ago we meals as well as our became a CIC. Help Edible London to provide biggest single day There’s a lot of their next one million meals of food distribution bureaucracy in and work towards eradicating food poverty in the capital, ever - 50,000 extra charities but being give what you can to their meals! a CIC gives us the

Feed London

crowd-funder. ediblelondon.org

How did you do it?

Teamwork makes the dream work! We went from having 20 volunteers to 350, in a week. It was an armada of people with so many skillsets. The head

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WHY I

Adam Dickens

donated... ...to Rafiki Thabo Foundation. Mike Gershon supports this educational charity working in Africa because their important work resonates with his own career and values I first came to know about the Rafiki Thabo Foundation aid but not creating dependency. You are simply enabling because it was set up by friend of mine and his brother but in determined and capable individuals to focus on their studies. recent years I’ve become much more involved as a supporter. Rafiki Thabo has also built a secondary school in Lesotho and As a former teacher and now an educational consultant, continues to support it, as well as providing hot school meals for author and trainer, the most important thing I’ve learnt in my kids in Uganda who would otherwise go hungry. career is the influence of the environment on every learner and I believe that every learner has the potential to develop how it affects their perceived potential. significantly, no matter what their starting point. But having a Rafiki Thabo empowers young people in Kenya, Uganda, and school available instantly broadens a child’s horizons. This filters Lesotho to fulfil their potential and initiate positive change in down into the community too. If you see your older sibling their communities by enabling access to education. going to school, that becomes something you aspire to and In any country you have to make a sacrifice when you go into eventually it becomes the norm, which is a great thing! education – such as time and effort for your studies – but in There are bigger charities that do fantastic work too but they developing countries that sacrifice is greater.We take so much have to pay overheads and lots of staff. What’s great about for granted in the UK, where we have a universal education Rafiki Thabo is that it’s a small charity so almost everything it system, but you can imagine what difficult choices young spends is directly related to its purpose. people have to make in other countries. A death in the family, Over the years I’ve raised money for Rafiki Thabo by running a for instance, can lead to financial demands that make it difficult half marathon and climbing the UK’s three highest mountains to continue a course. One of the most powerful things that in 24 hours. Most recently, I launched a course to give parents Rafiki Thabo does is take away that burden. the tools they need to help their child to learn from home The charity gives grants to promising students who (helpyourchildtolearn.com) – and for every one I sell, 5% of the have a place at secondary or higher education but profits go to Rafiki Thabo. are unable to afford the fees and without help I’d love to go out to Lesotho and see the school. It would remain at home, working to help put would be fascinating and humbling to see the food on the table or in the case of girls, be impact on the ground, meet the community Donate to Rafiki Thabo and you married off at a tender age for a dowry. and hear people’s stories. In the mean time. I’ll could be supporting a Rafiki Scholar Education gives individuals significant continue to support Rafiki Thabo because I to stay in education, feeding a hungry life-long benefits – in terms of work, their know I’m helping young people to build skills student or educating girls on how to financial position and position in society. and knowledge that will stand them in good manage their periods and not miss By donating to Rafiki Thabo you are giving stead for the rest of their lives. out on school because of them.

Knowledge is power

rafiki-foundation.org.uk

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Morocco

Tangier Chefchaouen

Morocco Marrakesh

A tale of two cities Tangier’s bohemian history and eclectic shopping can be twinned with the Blue Pearl of Chefchaouen to create the perfect Moroccan city break, says Lynn Houghton

elow a searing blue sky the air is suffused with the sweet and intoxicating odour of animals as well as the cacophony of haggling and shouting. Each building – some cream coloured, some brightly painted – is tucked in a higgledy-piggledy fashion next to the other along the narrow streets. Many are adorned with deftly-designed stone arches or filigreed doors. I’m somewhere in Tangier’s medina and the smell of freshlybaked pastries and breads hangs in the air. I squeeze past the tiny wooden carts they’re piled on and navigate around stacks of colourful spices, fruits and vegetables.

The Moroccan port teeters on the cusp between Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Separated from Spain’s Andalucía by only 100 km of water, there’s one main cultural difference between them (one which has created an intense conflict over the centuries) and that’s religion, though much of Spain was ruled by Islamic North Africa for over 500 years. Much like seeing my name in Arabic for the first time (the undulating scroll is so much more romantic than Times New Roman), entering the Medina offers an almost quixotic buzz. Our group starts the tour outside the old city in a small grassy square lined with bohemian cafes and dotted with

benches where locals smoke or sip coffee. Steps away, the exotic and ancient Medina is like another world. Nearly everyone – men and women, old and young – is dressed in the traditional Djellaba, a loose, flowing robe with a pointed hood, much cooler than close-fitting Western clothes.

Into the labyrinth

Moving deeper into this warren of tiny streets, a wider variety of shops and stands appear, all of which have neatly displayed wares covered with awnings to protect them from the heat. There’s an incredible selection of leather: wallets, shoes, bags, babouche (soft slippers) notebooks and more.

Xxxxxxx CHEFCHAOUEN

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Morocco

Jaida Stewart/Unsplash

MOROCCAN MINT TEA

Also piled high are lanterns, rugs carpets, olive oil, organic soaps and ceramics. Haggling is the norm here but there are some price tags to gauge the starting bid. I can’t help noticing little alleys every so often, leading to temptingly shady courtyards with tiny gardens. Oh to wander into them and have a nose around! Often called the gateway to North Africa, Tangier had a succession

of rulers, starting with the Phoenicians in the 10th century B.C. and followed by the Romans, Portuguese, Spanish, French and British. By the time France granted Morocco independence in 1955, it was known for its free-wheeling and liberal attitude. Boozesoaked and hash-fuelled creative sessions at hotels and cafes drew the Beat generation of the 1950s here, including Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. As a travel writer, I can’t pass up the chance to pay a visit to the tomb of Ibn Battuta, a famous Moroccan itinerant who travelled most of the world in the 14th century before returning to his hometown. He’s now tucked away forever in the tiny back streets of Tangier, where a small dome with a plaque honours his adventurous spirit. I stumble across the Légation Américaine de Tanger; the oldest U.S. diplomatic property in the world. Morocco was the first country to recognise the U.S. as being

independent from Great Britain and the ruling Sultan of that time gave this tranquil property to the Americans in 1821. Though it’s no longer used for diplomatic purposes, the enormous dining room is still decorated as it would have been for formal events and the art and 19th century photographs adorning the walls give a time warp feel.

Rock the Kasbah

I have a cup of mint tea at a small café before approaching the fortified section of the city – the Kasbah. Built during medieval times, it’s perched at the top of the old medina with an enormous entrance gate, a portal into yet another world. Here there are fewer people about and the atmosphere is more exclusive. Yes, the Kasbah has become quite upmarket these days - replete with bars, chichi boutiques, and restaurants. Alongside its famous Porte Verte, or green door, is a bohemian night club and designer Laure

Morocco

THE LOBBY, HILTON TANGIER AL HOUARA RESORT & SPA

TANGIER NIGHTS

Standing up for Morocco

Oxfam has worked in Morocco

Alexander Schimmeck/Unsplash

Welfing’s boutique. After walking down a long corridor with a high ceiling, I emerge into dazzling daylight and spectacular views out to the sparkling Strait of Gibraltar. The Salon Bleu is an upmarket restaurant with a terrace unashamedly capitalising on the sea views. On exiting the old town, a woman dressed in djellaba throws me a disconcerting glare. I realise my camera is causing offence and tuck it away. As photogenic as every person in this city is, you must ask permission before snapping. As the haunting call to prayer breaks like a gentle wave over the rooftops, it’s time to return to the hotel. The new Hilton Tangier Al Houara Resort and Spa lies on the coast about 20km from Tangier’s city centre and has the appearance of Grenada’s Alhambra. The building

since 1994, promoting women’s is a cool marble efforts, an organic rights, defending democracy haven, punctuated garden has been and civil rights, helping small with pools created, a joint producers and supporting and fountains project between sustainable tourism. throughout. Once the engineering and oxfam.org.uk indoors, high ceilings kitchen teams which encourage air to flow and allows the hotel to grow I find it impossible to pass the the ingredients for its impressive enormous lobby’s bar. It’s a welcome menu. This includes everything place to flop after a long day. from traditional Moroccan tagine to The next morning I explore the European-style fine dining. sprawling 330-hectare property, Into the blue which has just 304 rooms. Outside, the views are even more captivating. My last day is dedicated to the mountain village of Chefchaouen, More marble landscaping tumbles known for being painted entirely down towards the sea – where in shades of blue. This Instagramthere’s an al fresco restaurant, pool friendly gem is located in the and lounge area, finally arriving at Rif Mountains at an altitude of the white sand beach. As well as a 564 metres - cool and suave in golf course there are stables with comparison with the heat and chaos stunning Arabian horses waiting to of other Moroccan cities. be ridden on the beach. I ask our guide the obvious My favourite part of the hotel is the question: “Why is everything blue?” spa. The traditional Hamam offers Allegedly, he tells me, it is a reference the usual steam and rub-down as to the sky and heaven, a reminder well as massages. There’s also a to lead a spiritual life. Another beauty salon and yoga on request. theory is that it was painted blue As part of the hotel’s sustainability

I can’t help noticing little alleys, leading to temptingly shady courtyards with tiny gardens. Oh to wander into them and MOROCCAN SLIPPERS

have a nose around!

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a 15th-century fortress and dungeon which was constructed to ward off the Portuguese invasions and later became a prison. But the highlight of Chefchaouen is the lunch I enjoy in Lala Mesouda, a lamp-lit, stone-walled restaurant hidden off the main shopping street. I tuck into tagine – slowcooked meat, chicken or vegetables – accompanied by the ubiquitous round loaves of bread, washed down with mint tea and topped off with M’hanncha, a snake shaped pastry. Pastries are loved all over Morocco – sweet, savoury or both, like Basteeya.This triple-layered pastry combines shredded chicken, eggs, a lemony onion sauce and sweetened almonds enclosed in tissue-thin pastry and sprinkled with a layer of sugar and cinnamon. It’s a snack as multi-layered as Morocco itself and as eclectic as the souks which are at the heart of all its cities. For an insight into Morocco’s colourful culture, melding a bohemian atmosphere with

PAINT FOR SA

Mika/Unsplas h

by the Jewish community who arrived between the 15th and 17th centuries after being expelled from Spain. Many people today think it is kept like this for the tourists but I’m OK with that. Every alleyway and apartment, each restaurant and shop as well as walls and fences are painted different shades of blue – exotic turquoise, dazzling cobalt or calming indigo. In the souk are the ubiquitous leather goods, cotton clothing, candles and pastries but also enormous bags of dried paint in a variety of bright colours - perhaps for artists or for locals to keep the town freshly bathed in cerulean tones. I’m reminded of the Greek islands, thanks to the colours but also to the feral cats which seem to be curled up in every corner, stalking every wall. The downside of being an animal lover is the desire to rescue all these straggly strays. In the shady and popular main square of Place Outa el Hammam is the refreshingly red-walled Kasbah,

Islamic hospitality, Tangier and Chefchaouen make for an intriguing twin break. Come for the culture and shopping but you might find yourself returning for the deserted beaches and the warm welcome.

Did you know? Without any new treatments and preventions, one in three people born in the UK this year will develop dementia in their lifetime. But you can help! When booking your next dream getaway, please consider choosing Alzheimer’s Research UK at the checkout and help fund vital dementia research. Alzheimer’s Research UK is the leading dementia research charity dedicated to making life-changing breakthroughs in diagnosis, prevention, treatment and cure. Visit Charitable Travel’s website to find out more: https://charitable.travel/alzheimers-research-uk/

Registered charity numbers - 1077089 & SCO42474

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Morocco

Grant Ritchie/Unsplash

c ok an a Bo

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ell Cross & Patrick W. Farr VISIT FLORIDA/ Pete

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lash dl/Unsp Kay Lie

Well fit

WALK THIS WAY There’s no simpler way to get fit than putting one foot in front of the other and walking offers access to some of the earth’s most beautiful and isolated spots – the snowcapped peaks and pure blue skies of the Himalayas, the lonely lochs and misty glens of Scotland or the icy glaciers and fiery geysers of Iceland. You can also follow in the footsteps of history on trails like Turkey’s Lycian Way, which passes the ancient city of Olympos, trek the Great Wall of China or follow the jungle trail to Peru’s lost city of Machu Picchu.

Erik Brolin/Unspl

ash

CHECK INTO A FULLY FITFOCUSED HOTEL Some resorts are made for overeating and catching up on sleep, others are geared up to getting you in shape. All-inclusive resort The BodyHoliday, in Saint Lucia, offers unlimited activities as well as rum punch – book in for wakeboarding, kayaking, fencing, tai chi or tennis, or take the Quadrathlon challenge which combines a 13km mountain bike ride, 4km run to a cliff, a 100-foot abseil down the rock face to the beach and a 2.5km kayak back to the resort - phew! Alternatively, Canyon Ranch has fitness-focused resorts in the forests of California or the Arizona desert.

The Mintridge Foundation helps young people of all abilities develop confidence and resilience through sport and promotes the importance of mental and physical wellbeing through sports role models. mintridgefoundation.org.uk

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TIME FOR YOGA An exercise for the mind as much as the body, yoga originated in India but you can enjoy it anywhere. Purists who love luxury can head to Ananda, a spa resort in a 100-acre Maharaja’s Palace Estate in the forested foothills of the Himalayas, overlooking the spiritual town of Rishikesh and the Ganges. Yoga packages incorporate meditation, breathing techniques and hydrotherapy. Or check into LaLuna on the Caribbean island of Grenada, a hippie chic boutique resort with a beachfront yoga pavilion, organic garden and Asian spa.

e holiday tiv

GET ON YOUR BIKE A cycling holiday could mean peddling from place to place or staying put and using a bike to explore (the Netherlands and Nordic countries are very bikefriendly, even in cities). If you’re an adrenaline junkie then head to a resort in the European Alps or the Rockies. Perfect cycling destinations include Cambodia, where you can peddle past temples, rice paddies and along the Mekong, and Cuba, where quiet roads pass the tropical forest and limestone hills of the Vinales Valley and the sparkling Caribbean coast.

TAKE SOME VITAMIN SEA It is possible to get fit on a beach holiday – you just have to leave your sunlounger! Try windsurfing off the rolling dunes of Fuerteventura or the white sands of colourful DutchCaribbean island Bonaire. If you prefer surfing without the sail, head to foodie heaven and surf city San Sebastian, in Spain, or the spiritual island of Bali. Stand-up paddle boarding looks gentle but it works your core like a pro; do it in Hawaii where it was invented or Florida where it’s rude not to thanks to calm seas and the chance to spot manatees in the mangroves.

five ways to get

FIT ON HOLIDAY If lockdown left you feeling sluggish but you still want to get away from it all, choose a trip which combines sightseeing and getting fit CHARITABLE TRAVELLER

Captureson Photography

Get to know...

CAPE TOWN

Namibia

Johannesburg

South Africa

Table Mountain can be reached by cable car but walking up gives you the chance to soak in the views, smell the fynbos (keep reading) and spot birds of pray soaring in the thermals and maybe dassies (small, furry mammals) hopping along the rocks. There are many routes up, with varying degrees of difficulty, but all end with stunning views of the city, coast and other natural landmarks like Devil’s Peak and Lion’s Head – both of which can also be hiked.

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Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is a tribute to fynbos, the unique heathland habitat around Cape Town, admired for its biodiversity and resilience. You can see colourful heathers, irises, daisies, orchids and the spiky national flower, protea – which has a garden dedicated to it. There’s also a fragrance garden, medicinal garden and glass houses of desert plants. The Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway, named the boomslang (tree snake) for the way it winds through the Arboretum, gives panoramic views of the trees and Table Mountain. VIEW TO LIONS HEAD

KIRSTENBOSCH NATIONAL BOTANICAL GARD EN

da/Unsplash

Top of the world

Cape Town

Simon Camina

This cultural melting pot at the bottom of Africa simmers under the watchful eye of Table Mountain, a monolith of nature that makes Cape Town one of the most beautiful cities on earth. While the gap between rich and poor is laid bare, sightseeing in this city is good fun as well as rewarding.

Natural beauty

South African Tourism

What is it all about?

Durban

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Sightseeing spots

Great wildlife At Boulders Beach see tiny African penguins snuggling in the rocks or arriving from the sea like ungainly commuters. Take a boat tour from pretty fishing port Hout Bay to see its colony of lolling seals.

GROOT CONSTANTIA

A dark history

You’ll need to pre-book to get onto Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his 27-year prison sentence during apartheid. The bleak island is described as a symbol of ‘the triumph of the human spirit over adversity, suffering and injustice’. Tours involve an ex-inmate sharing their experience and a look into Mandela’s cramped cell.

Amazing views Chapman’s Peak Drive is a nine-mile road wedged between bronze cliffs and blue ocean from Hout Bay to Noordhoek and the windswept Long Beach. At the tip of the finger, New Cape Point Lighthouse has sweeping views of the dramatic coast and secluded Diaz Beach.

The Victoria & Albert Waterfront is a working harbour-turned-bustling hub with reams of shops, pubs and restaurants as well as an aquarium, a big wheel and museums dedicated to rugby, diamonds and maritime history. The striking Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa is housed in 116 concrete tubes in an old grain silo and topped with the five-star glass and steel Silo Hotel which has a rooftop bar offering great views. Long Street in City Bowl buzzes day and night. Its Victorian buildings with wrought iron balconies are home to eateries, bars and shops selling African arts and crafts like wood-carved animals and drums. Bo Kaap is loved for its distinctive brightly-coloured houses and cobblestone streets, backed by Signal Hill and looking over the city. It was known as the Malay Quarter but is rooted in Malaysian, African, Indian and Sri Lankan culture, and a great place to eat for that reason. Hipster Woodstock is a creative suburb full of street art, galleries, cool restaurants and breweries. On Saturdays, the Old Biscuit Mill holds the Neighbourgoods Market, full of artisanal foods, craft beer and local arts.

If you’re an adrenaline junkie,

CHAPMAN’S PEAK DRIVE

book in an abseil from the South African Tourism

top of Table Mountain

Beach heaven

Camps Bay is an affluent suburb and possibly the world’s most spectacular city beach. It’s backed by jagged mountain peaks, melting into greenery and then a swathe of prime real estate – white mansions and luxury resorts – all sloping down to a palm tree-lined white-sand beach. The suburb has an array of bars, restaurants serving every kind of cuisine and a theatre. North of here are other pretty beach suburbs like Clifton and Sea Point. Further afield is the surf beach of Muizenberg, famous for its gaudy beach huts.

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South African Tourism

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The Cape Peninsula is a finger pointing south of Cape Town and brimming with natural wonder

South African Tourism

k a city & s oo

South Africa’s oldest producing wine farm is just the other side of Table Mountain. Groot Constantia dates back to 1685 and is a peaceful, leafy estate of pretty white houses with curved Dutch-style gables and green shutters. Explore the manor house with its historically-preserved rooms, take a cellar tour to learn about wine making, enjoy a tasting, wander among the vines and finish with a meal in Jonkerhuis, which serves Cape Malay-inspired dishes as well as classic bistro fare.

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Dance-off

Spirited away

There’s no need to stand on ceremony in the Irma Hotel in Cody, Wyoming. You’d raise more eyebrows asking for the vegan menu than keeping your hat on while you eat. Built by the legendary showman Buffalo Bill and named after his daughter, the hotel sports stag heads on the wall, a bullet-pocked tin ceiling, clashing flower print walls and carpets and a shiny cherrywood bar, which was apparently donated to Bill by Queen Victoria. My slab of the famous prime rib came with a side of fries, garlic bread and ghost stories, from owner Mike Derby. A former supernatural sceptic, he told me about waitresses being grabbed by thin air, half a soldier floating through the room and a lady hovering above someone’s bed. “So yeah, I believe there is something here,” he said. Later I met a cowboy, Carey, who assured me his room wasn’t haunted. Then again, he wasn’t in room 17, where a lady was killed in her bed by a bullet from the bar below.

One block on and across the street, built as wide as a dual carriageway to accommodate turning wagons, was the Silver Dollar, a so-called dive bar stuffed full of cowboys and cowgirls who were in town for the famous Cody Horse Sale the next day.

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West has five museums covering Bill, the culture of the local Plains Indians, natural history, firearms and western art We got chatting to Jerome from Montana who was set on a chesnut gelding named Tucker’s Disco Red (lot 79), a charming newly-wed couple who met through Future Farmers of America and lots of other fine folk. There was a band playing country classics and, despite the sticky floors, a lot of dancing with polite strangers in jeans, boots and hats, who called the girls m’am and spun us expertly around. I left for Yellowstone at 6am the next day, very hungover, but I did get a text from Jerome – he was outbid on his horse but he’ll be back next year.

See wrangler-clad cowboys show off their horsemanship at the Cody Nite Rodeo every July 1-4, the only nightly rodeo in the world 62

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