Wanderlust issue 113 sampler

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Thailand’s hilltribes Top treks revealed

Go wild in Scotland

13-page guide to Highland adventures

63 perfect without the crowds

→ Back-routes into Petra,

Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat… → Bedouin trails in Egypt → Hidden corners of Mexico

August/September 2010 £3.99

Wanderlust Issue 113 (August/September 2010) • Thailand’s hilltribes • Sinai, Egypt • Wild Scotland • Sri Lanka • Tierra del Fuego, Chile • Mexico photos • High Atlas, Morocco • UK travel health • Sailing gear

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Contents AUG/SEPT 2010 • ISSUE 113

Wild Scotland p64 British Columbia p13

Mexico p92 & Mexico City p105

Features 26 Top 5 guide: Hill tribes, Thailand

Run to the Thai hills for the escape of a lifetime – discover hidden tribal villages, stunning treks and some interesting local cuisine...

36 Wildlife Tierra del Fuego, Chile

Journey to the edge of the world on a voyage around the wildest far south of South America

46 Culture Sinai, Egypt

As tourism threatens the tribes of South Sinai, we trek with the Bedouin making a difference

60 Accommodation Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Stay in the shadow of Mt Toubkal, at a green and gorgeous kasbah

Morocco p60 64 Active Wild Scotland

Adventure doesn’t have to mean a long-haul flight and a hefty price tag: discover your wild doorstep

78 Frontier Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s east coast has reopened its doors to travellers at last – but where are they?

92 Photographer of the Year The results: Mexico

Last year’s winners return from their trips to Mexico – with stunning results. Be inspired for next year’s competition (see p88).

105 First 24 hours in...

Mexico City

Landing in a new place can be bewildering – we help you through those initial hours

Tierra del Fuego p36

THE FUTURE Like this map? To buy MAPPING a similar wall map, visit COMPANY www.futuremaps.co.uk

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8/7/10 17:22:33

CheckIn

NEW TRIPS, PLACES & TRAVEL IDEAS

7 Your travels

18 People

8 Your letters

19 Opinion

Where have you been lately? Readers report from around the globe Jordan joy and Cambodia corruption

10 Places

Plan your BC ferry foray, see water in the Outback, Great Migration guide

17 Diary

August and September’s top events

First great travel experience? “Let loose in Tangier at the age of 14...”

Do mindless holiday snappers get your goat?

20 Departures

The ten top trips to get you away from the crowds at Machu Picchu, Kilimanjaro and eight more of the world’s most iconic destinations

CheckOut

TRAVEL ADVICE & REVIEWS

108 Books

Rediscover North Africa through the eyes of Paul Bowles, plus the best new guides and travel literature

112 What’s on

Toast festival, deadly nibbles and the return of the World Guide Awards

114 Photo tips

116 Health: UK

Killer Cornwall, deadly Dumfries... is the UK as safe as you think?

118 The knowledge

Your tips on rhinos, cemeteries and how to blag the best room

120 Gear

Kit yourself out for a sailing adventure

We head back to basics, with advice on how to get to grips with your camera. This issue: exposure

128 Serendipities

The pick of your travel tales

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→ CATEGORY COUNTRY

Wild Scotland The 25 greatest adventures in the Highlands & Islands From basking sharks to husky sledding, singing sands to breathtaking hikes, Jim Manthorpe guides you round Britain’s world-class wilderness

Views Wildlife Walking

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064-077_WildScotland_SO.indd 65

Active

7/7/10 16:30:37

Skye & Lochalsh

→ category country

This west coast highland-andisland combination offers mighty marine encounters and Munro-bagging opportunities

Floating basecamp The gaff cutter Eda Frandsen is a great way to reach remote trailheads – and a welcoming sight after a day’s hike Below (clockwise): Skipper Jamie Robinson; an unscheduled stroll on South Uist; semi-wild ponies on the ‘small isle’ of Rum; Eda under full sail off Skye (the ‘gaff’ is the wooden spar halfway up the mast, at the top of the red mainsail)

6 Explore Skye and the Small Isles by sail

R

For the perfect Hebridean walking trip, pack your oilskins, says Dan Linstead

Dan Linstead

F

or days we’d hoped for a glimpse of basking sharks, and suddenly we were about to run one over.

Just off the bow of the Eda Frandsen, a dorsal fin lolled – and three metres behind it, a tailfin. A gaping, filter-feeding snout was surely about to encounter our steel hull. The engine cut. We craned forwards. And just in time, with an awkward shimmy, the world’s second-largest fish abandoned its planktonic breakfast and dove down into the dark blue Hebridean Sea. Such encounters aren’t uncommon aboard Eda (it’s pronounced Ada), a comely 73ft gaff cutter that first put to sea in Denmark in the 1930s.

Lovingly restored by skipper Jamie Robinson – an oily-handed mariner of the old school – she now plies the waters around Skye, and charging along, five sails hauling air, she’s a sight to make the nautically-inclined go all soggy-eyed. But even if you don’t know a half-hitch from a halyard, Eda’s a beauty for another reason: she’s surely the most civilised way to reach some of Scotland’s remotest hikes and wildlife areas.

Eight of us sail-walkers had embarked at Mallaig for a week exploring the Inner Hebrides. Although we had a rough itinerary, our real guide was the wind – every morning would begin with a huddle over the weather forecast and a map. As likely as not, the wind would then change, prompting an eye-roll from Jamie and a shift to plan B, or indeed C. So one day’s aim to explore the isle of Canna ended with us moored off Skye; another day we threw the trip dossier to the wind and sailed all the

way out to South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, accompanied by a pod of dolphins. Night one was straightforward, though: a short motor to Skye’s Sleat peninsula, where we moored by a sandy cove with a trio of seals for company. The nocturnal peace was broken only by the klaxonblast-grind-gurgle of the heads (for landlubbers, that’s the loos) as one by one we confronted the indelicacies of life afloat.

The next day we headed north, and got a better view of our surroundings. The island of Eigg rose from the sea mist like some Jurassic monster, and gannets dive-bombed mackerel in the glittering waves. The breeze was up: it was time for our first shot at sailing.

Eda is a heavy girl – 65 tons – and manoeuvring her is a matter of getting the sails where you want them and holding a course, rather than rapid-fire seamanship. Crewing is more brawn than brain. Under Jamie’s watchful eye, we learned to sweat the rust-red mainsail up, six of us hauling on the hemp halyards until he finally conceded, “Belay it there!”. Then came the jib, the staysail, the jib topsail and – after some surprisingly cat-like action from Jamie high up in the rigging – the topsail. We surged satisfyingly forward. “Bravo!” roared Jamie, “You’re no longer cargo – you’re sailors!”

To be honest, all we’d done was pull on a few ropes when he told us to, but still we grinned with pride. To celebrate, Jamie demonstrated his home-made potato cannon, a drainpipe-and-oven-lighter affair fuelled on pure oxygen that launched spuds impressive distances into the briny. >

68 Wanderlust August/September 2010

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Wanderlust Issue ��� (August/September ����) • Thailand’s hilltribes • Sinai, Egypt • Wild Scotland • Sri Lanka • Tierra del Fuego, Chile • Mexico photos • High Atlas, Morocco • UK travel health • Sailing gear

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9/7/10 08:51:08

→ culture sinai, EGYPT

Tribal gathering Egypt’s Sinai Desert may be close to the Red Sea’s big resorts, but in spirit it’s a world away. Gail Simmons trekked through Biblical mountains and secret gardens to join an annual meeting of the Bedouin tribes Photographs by Gary Latham

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8/7/10 17:35:31

‘The surrounding hills seemed almost alive, like crouching animals ready to pounce’ < “Without the Trust I would have had to leave this garden – my habibi (sweetheart),” he smiled. Instead, he now plans to hand his beloved on to the 29 children he and his siblings have produced between them, with trekkers camping overnight helping to provide valuable income for the family.

I’d have loved to have spent longer in these remote wadis and gardens – but I now had an appointment in the desert to discover how the tribes there are coping with the challenges of the modern world. Before the tribal gathering, we were to spend a couple of days trekking with Bedouin from the Muzeina tribe, one of those hit hardest by the loss of their ancient territories and culture.

From St Katherine’s Village the road winds through hills and plains, glowing apricot in the setting sun, and drops down into the desert proper. I was entering the heartland of the Muzeina, occupied since the 14th century when the tribe migrated here from the Arabian Peninsula, and where they are working with the Makhad Trust to establish an ecotourism project that it hopes will allow the Muzeina to continue living in their desert home.

Before visiting this project at Nawamis I wanted to spend time with the tribe, travelling as they do, with only the possessions they can carry on the back of a camel, and feeling the rhythm of life in the desert, which they so desperately wish to protect.

Seemingly at random the jeep turned off the asphalt and followed a track deep into the sand. By the time we stopped the moon was high in the sky, and the desert aglow. Meeting me were my two Bedouin guides, Ahmed and Salem, and their camels. As we walked to our campsite, the surrounding gebels (hills) seemed almost alive, like crouching animals ready to pounce. Perhaps it was the reassuring presence of our guides, but this looming, luminous landscape didn’t feel threatening.

Our camp for the night was a small oasis, tucked away behind an escarpment, where a few date palms flourished beside a desert spring. As Ahmed and Salem lit a fire to cook supper I found a place to park my sleeping bag, in the shelter of an abandoned sheepfold. After a supper of barbecued chicken and vegetables I sipped endless glasses of sweet tea, listening to the deep silence broken only by soft Arabic conversation and the occasional snort of our camels.

I asked Salem about his life in Sinai, and how it had changed over the years. “My tribe, the Muzeina, came to Sinai over 600 years ago,” Salem told me. “Our way of staking claim to the land was by improving it – for example, by planting trees. But when the businessmen came to build the hotels at Sharm they asked us for documents to prove it was our land. Of course, we had none.”

Since the Makhad Trust started work with the Muzeina a decade ago their lives have improved. “We can now earn >

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8/7/10 17:41:39

→ FRONTIER TIERRA DEL FUEGO, CHILE

To the ends of the

EARTH The voyage to Cape Horn, the chill southern tip of South America, isn’t quite as risky an expedition as when Darwin sailed past – but as Chris Moss discovered, the sub-polar wonders and ghosts of Yamana natives make a potent cocktail for a cruise

036-043_Tierra del Fuego_SO.indd37 37

6/7/10 18:33:28

I Previous: The Via Australis is dwarfed by the tongue of the Pia Glacier Above: Sailing into the amphitheatre of Ainsworth Bay; Punta Arenas is the embarkation port for Tierra del Fuego

t wasn’t looking too good for Cape Horn. It was around 4am and the ship had been pitching violently for hours in the South Atlantic. The sky was by turns black and star-filled, then overcast and grisly. Horizontal rain and sleet battered the starboard – where my cabin was. Or was it squalls of spray cast upwards off the heaving waves? I couldn’t tell. As the Via Australis sailed all points for the southern cross, I resigned myself to not setting foot on the fabled cape at the foot of South America.

I’d come to Tierra del Fuego to fill in some gaps in my knowledge, to pay a quiet tribute to Darwin and his captain, Robert FitzRoy, and to see some extreme austral landscapes.

I knew Patagonia – indeed, I’d written a book about the region. But Tierra del Fuego was an enigma. It’s easy enough to fly to Ushuaia in Argentina or Punta Arenas in Chile – the two Fuegian ‘capitals’ – and I’d been to both cities on earlier trips. The interior, though, is rarely visited and the shattered, exposed coast of the islands can only really be seen from the deck of a ship. The Via Australis, a Chilean-owned, 120-berth cruise vessel, was my passage to the coasts, capes and wild seas of the far south.

I had begun the voyage in Punta Arenas, just across the strait from Chilean Tierra del Fuego; there I visited the small Palacio Braun-Menéndez museum, accompanied by local guide Matías Ballarini, who talked me through exhibits. In the preconquest period, the islands and fjords of southern Tierra del Fuego were the dominion of the Yamana people. One room in the museum is hung with tableaux of young women, clad in guanaco-hide bikinis, diving to collect molluscs from the seabed. Right up until the early 20th century, the Yamana travelled and hunted using canoes, ate raw shellfish and dwelled in rudimentary huts along the coast.

Tierra del Fuego, lacking in silver and gold, and too cold for conquistadors from Spain, was the last corner of the New World to be colonised. But the Yamana and other tribes were eventually forced out by a seemingly benign fluffy animal.

“In 1848 a British merchant introduced sheep from the Falkland Islands,” explained Matías. “It’s been the main economy ever since, and as the Indians saw no reason not to kill the flocks for food, the white settlers rounded them up – the Indians that is – and forced them into reservations.”

After lunch Matías drove me to the surprisingly grand cemetery. The names on the graves – many of them Yugoslav, Italian, Jewish and British – tell Punta Arenas’ story as a maritime hub (made obsolete when the Panama Canal opened in 1914) and a melting pot of cultures.

Then it was time to board. Matías waved me off with the promise that my ship would pass through remote, glacierwalled Seno Almirantazgo (Admiralty Sound), unique in harbouring species otherwise only found in Antarctica – including Weddell seals, leopard seals and albatross.

As we pushed away from the port, the sky was turning black.

I walked up three flights of stairs to the small observation deck. A single, Turneresque blast of sunlight was visible on the horizon, but as the swell rose and the cloud cover thickened, the sunlight dwindled and the night came.

It was time for king crab and Chilean merlot.

We woke with the snow-capped peaks of Alberto de Agostini National Park to starboard and, beyond that, a mountain range named after Charles Darwin, who visited the region several times in the 1820s during the Beagle voyage.

De Agostini, a mountain-climbing cleric from Italy who settled in Tierra del Fuego in 1910, was the first man to summit many of the local peaks and, as a member of the Salesian order, he’d campaigned to protect the native tribes. In his book Thirty Years on Tierra del Fuego, which I’d taken to read in my cosy cabin, he wrote: ‘It is an indisputable truth that Tierra del Fuego possesses such grandiose and imposing landscapes >

38 Wanderlust August/September 2010

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6/7/10 18:34:15

TOP 5 GUIDE

Hilltribe trekking Thailand In the second in our new series of handy highlights guides, Alex Robinson plunges into the jungle to meet the locals on the most colourful tribal treks

026-034_Hilltribes_SO.indd 27

6/7/10 17:11:49

Hainan

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Where to trek in Thailand

LAOS

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Chiang Mai

Ubon Ratchathani Nakhon Ratchasima

Nakhon Sawan Khao Yai NPu

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BANGKOK

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VIETNAM

Ko Samui Nakhon Si Thammarat

Phuket

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300km

Ko Tarutaoa

q Chiang Mai Busy hub with easy hikes, many involving eles and rafting w Mae Hong Son Remoter trails, tougher walking and spectacular scenery e Pai Rafting, caving and canyoning with a garnish of tribal village visits r Um Phang Few tourists, remote Karen villages, elephant trails and spectacular waterfalls t Nan Hilltribe and wildlife treks in the remote and vast Doi Phu Kha NP y Doi Inthanon NP Light walks off the paved road up to Thailand’s highest mountain (2,565m) or longer organised treks u Khao Yai NP Sweaty jungle treks in Thailand’s oldest reserve, and the best location for seeing wild elephants and tigers

i Khao Sok NP Mountain trails through rainforest dripping with waterfalls and many tourists o Khao Luang NP Steep treks in orchid-filled forests, home to tiger and wild elephant a Ko Tarutao Light trekking in the forested interior to remote beaches and waterfalls s Thap Lan NP Treks through lowland rainforest rich with a variety of wildlife species in Thailand’s secondlargest national park d Chiang Rai Chiang Mai’s more laidback sister, smaller Chiang Rai is quieter and cleaner, and offers faster access to key trekking areas. There are also more homestay options.

MALAYSIA Thailand’s hilltribes: a quick guide

Previous spread: Eye Ubiquitous/Hutchison; Alex Robinson. This spread: Alex Robinson; Dreamstime.com

Lisu Estimated population in Thailand: 30,000 Origin: China, near the Salween River, and Tibet Where: In the mountainous region north-west of Chiang Mai Who: Subsistence farmers and poppy planters, famous for their vibrantly coloured clothing: both men and women dress brightly.

Lahu Estimated population in Thailand: 60,000 Origin: Yunnan, in south-west China, and Tibet Where: Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces, mostly at high altitude Who: Farmers with hunter-warrior heritage, one-third Christianised.

Some women wear distinctive black cloaks with diagonal cream stripes.

Karen Estimated population in Thailand: 330,000-plus Origin: Burma (Myanmar) Where: Along the border with Burma, and elsewhere in the north, including in the valleys Who: Easily the largest hilltribe in Thailand, many are refugees fleeing a low-intensity war against the Burmese government. Four Karen subgroups have similar customs but distinct dress; all are prolific weavers; unmarried women across all four wear white dresses.

Shan Estimated population in Thailand: 30,000 Origin: Yunnan, south-west China Where: North-west Thailand

Who: Not always regarded as a hill tribe as such, the Shan – of Tai origin (like Thai and Lao people, migrants from China ) – are the dominant group in Mae Hong Son province; and also live in Burma’s Shan state.

They practise Buddhism, farm commercially, and have a thriving community in Chiang Mai.

Akha Estimated population in Thailand: 50,000 Origin: Tibet and

MIEN (YAO) Estimated population in Thailand: 34,000 Origin: Southern China Where: Chiang Rai and Nan districts Who: Identifiably Chinese, using Chinese script and practising Taoism. Recognisable by their black turbans and red-collared tunics.

Hmong

Yunnan, China Where: At high altitudes, principally in Chiang Rai province Who: Rice farmers with a highly ritualised lifestyle. Known for their distinctive black clothing, bead necklaces, jewel-bedecked headdresses, ceremonial village gateways and annual village festivals involving a giant swing.

Estimated population in Thailand: 100,000 Origin: Far northern China or beyond Where: In the north, at high altitude Who: Persecuted for poppygrowing; known for their intricate embroidery; wear silver for ceremonial occasions – they dress in black or indigo day to day.

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TRAVEL PHOTO OF THE YEAR

WIN a photo commission to

Australia’s Northern Territory or £3,000 Two great prizes, two great competitions! Enter the Amateur category of our Travel Photo of the Year competition for a chance to win a trip Down Under, and enter the Portfolio category to bag £3,000

Amateurs: win Australia!

Portfolios: win pounds!

The Portfolio competition is open to both amateur and professional photographers (and it’s often won by amateurs!).

Here, we’re after a set of five eye-catching images that work together as a set – they should be striking images in themselves that, when put together, create a cohesive and spectacular whole.

Similarly to the Amateur competition, the Portfolios must fit one of the same four categories: People, Wildlife, Landscape or Travel Icons – maybe five awesome wildlife shots, or five different perspectives on the world’s travel icons. The winner will walk away with a whopping £3,000.

There’s more...

The short-listed entrants in both competitions will see their images printed in Wanderlust and The Independent, and exhibited at Destinations 2011, the UK’s top holiday and travel show. There are also great Nikon cameras to be won. Sound good? Get snapping! >

All images: NT Tourism

Australia’s Northern Territory has an extraordinary palette. In the Red Centre you’ll find countless variations: blood-brown sand and stone, tangerine sunsets, rose-pink dawns. But there’s also the blue of the skies reflected in Kakadu’s lagoons; the green of lily pads stalked by jacana birds; the yellow ochre of paint on face and rock. It all adds up to a place crying out to be captured in photos.

Which is just what you could be doing – if you win one of the Amateur sections in our Travel Photo of the Year competition.

Tourism NT (www.australiasoutback.com) and Territory Discoveries (www.territorydiscoveries.com) will whisk the top photographer in each of the four amateur sections (and a friend) to the Northern Territory to capture its wonders on film.

This year photos must fit one of four categories: People, Wildlife, Landscape or Travel Icons – classic shots of places, events and people that have achieved an iconic visual status in the world of travel: an alternative view of the Taj or a Petra, perhaps.

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