Wanderlust issue 128

Wanderlust Issue 128 (May/June 2012) 25 trips under £250 • Cycling the Camino de Santiago, Spain • Antarctica • Israel • Uganda’s gorillas • Pocket guides: Calcutta, Vilnius, Marlborough Sounds, NZ

travel I adventure I CULTURE The travel magazine that takes you further

May/June 2012 www.wanderlust.co.uk

£3.60

free

guid for e b o ok reaevery See der

25 trips under £250

page

5

Budget adventures by real travellers in: Turkey Morocco Italy Kosovo Sweden Spain Croatia Jordan Romania Poland Moldova & beyond…

Antarctica Your essential guide to the trip of a lifetime

Plus

Uganda’s gorillas | Israel | Helsinki | Calcutta | Vilnius

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Contents MAY/JUNE 2012 • ISSUE 128

From the road

6 | World in pictures Sumatra, the Himalaya and one very relaxed leopard... caught on lens 12 | Shortcuts A planet’s worth of travel news 14 | Go now! Four great spring breaks: from wolves in Poland to Russian all-nighters 16 | 10 things to do for free in... Helsinki – top tips to stretch your Finnish finances 18 | Hilary Bradt talks... on why cruises aren’t as cringey as you think...

29 | Snapshots Your views from around the world to turn us green with envy

30 | Letters etc... Emails, blogs, photos and

chat from readers around the world. This issue: going to Burma, gone to Burma and come back from Vietnam

34 | Just Back From… Artistic Latvia, glacial New Zealand, northern lights-free Iceland and the wild United States

114

Cover feature

25 TRIPS FOR UNDER £250

360°

©

Wales

76

Features 20 | Gorilla-watching, Uganda

TV presenter and naturalist Mark Carwardine has seen a lot of wildlife – here’s why meeting great apes is up there with the best

36 | Israel

20

Uganda

Last issue Matthew Teller explored Palestine; this issue he ventures the other side of the wall...

46 | Travel Icon: Antarctica

Dive under, camp on, ski across... as ever more adventurous options become available we help you plan your trip to the White Continent

76 | 25 trips for under £250 We threw down the year’s biggest travel challenge (and some money) and you accepted with aplomb. Find out how – and, more importantly, where – our 25 travel-hardened readers spent our cash

114 | British Escape: coastal Wales

The massive Wels h Coast Path – covering the whole of Wales – has just opened. David Atkinson tests out its most interesting corner

THE FUTURE Like this map?

MAPPING To buy a similar wall map, COMPANY visit www.futuremaps.co.uk 004-005_Contents_SO.indd 4

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©

Navigator

Arrivals

67 | How to... spot tigers, take a bath in Japan

(naked, naturally...) and eat pizza in Naples 69 | Gear Ten bits of great-value gear 70 | Health Too terrified to travel? Help is on hand for phobia-stricken adventurers 72 | Photo tips Get ready for your close-ups – expert tips on snapping details 74 | Q&A Trans-Siberian help, camera bag queries and what to do with just a week in NZ

122 | Books Get reacquainted with a lost classic 125 | World Music Cameroonian jazz-legend

Manu Dibango celebrates 60 years of inspiration 126 | World diary Wild, weird and wonderful happenings across the globe. Your wallet will weep 127 | What’s on: UK events Music, rock oysters and Michael Palin chatting to Dervla Murphy 128 | What’s on: screen The Masai Mara’s superstars hit the big screen in African Cats

POCKE T GUID ES The bits

of the guide book you

Pocket Guides

really need

133 CALCUTTA

133 | Calcutta, India How to survive West Bengal’s chaotic capital

P 133 First P 135 Short24 hours Calcu tta Gettin g down P 137 Trave break Vilnius and dirty Is the Lithua l Icon Marl in the thrivin nian capita borough g Benga l the perfec Sounds t city break li metropolis Discovering ?

New Zeala nd’s hidde n bays VILN

135

See31 p1

IUS

137 MARLBOR

OUGH

SOUNDS

135 | Vilnius, Lithuania History, architecture and some tasty treats: the perfect city break?

137 | Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand Hike, bike and boat around the South Island’s idyllic inlets

Finland p16

36 Israel

© ©

Vilnius p135

free

© © ©

Calcutta p133

©

guidebook for every reader

We’ve teamed up with Culture Smart!, the essential guides to etiquette and culture abroad, to offer a free guide (P&P only) to all our readers.

See page 91 for details

Madagascar p18 New Zealand p137

46 Antarctica

©

© 004-005_Contents_SO.indd 5

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sUMATRA

Riding high Photographer Nate Lawrence

“I was on a 15-day boat trip in Indonesia, exploring some outer islands, when I stumbled upon this wave. I had been here a long time ago: I surfed this wave just before the big tsunami. The force that day lifted the coral reef several feet above the water.

I hadn’t been back to that wave in seven years, but as I was in the vicinity I thought it was worth a check. I was amazed – the reef was even further out of the water than I had remembered. On my way back I noticed a wave breaking – I surfed for the last two hours of sunlight. It was at the top of my list for perfect waves. Not many waves break like this one.”

This shot is from Swell – A Year of Waves (Chronicle Books, £18.99),

by Evan Slater, a new photobook of waves from around the world

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World in pictures | News | Go now | Things to do for free | Opinion

360 1

I I I

Places jostling for our attention this month

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Uganda 1

1

I I I

‘pearl of Africa’, home to misty I Churchill’s 1 peaks, forests and the mighty Nile 1 I dense

I

Fly UK-Entebbe via an African/European hub ( from 11hrs). Bwindi is a day’s drive 1 1

©

Gorilla treks operate year-round

ONE PERFECT HOUR In an extract from his latest book, zoologist and TV presenter Mark Carwardine describes the unique frisson of meeting mountain gorillas

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Uganda Footnotes

Impenetrable? Certainly not – you’ll soon be on your way with our guide to gorilla-trekking essentials…

VITAL STATISTICS

Capital: Kampala; airport is in Entebbe, 35km away Population: 33 million Language: English, Luganda Time: GMT+3 International dialling code: +256 Visas: Required by UK nationals, obtainable in advance from the Uganda High Commission (£25; www.ugandahighcommission.co.uk) or on arrival ($50). You must have at least one year left on your passport.

Money: Ugandan shilling (UGX), currently UGX4,000 to the UK£

When to go Jan-Feb and Jun-Aug are the driest periods. Daytime temperatures average a pleasant 25-27°C, but it can get very cold at night. Some roads are impassable March-May; June and July are best for butterflies; many orchids flower in September and October.

Gorilla treks operate year-round. Jungle trails are easiest to hike during the drier seasons (though heavy downpours are possible at any time of year); however, gorillas love to sunbathe after showers, so they often spend more time in the open during the wet season.

Health & safety Take precautions against malaria, yellow fever, meningitis and insect bites (tsetse, tumbu and blackflies, ticks and sandfleas). The high-altitude treks can be tough; you must be relatively fit. You must be healthy – anyone with a cold, for instance, is banned from a close encounter with a gorilla.

Getting there & around Flights from the UK to Entebbe airport take from 11hrs including stopover. Bwindi is 515km away; roads are rough (best driven in a 4WD) so it’s a long day’s journey. Alternatively, charter a small plane to Kayonza airstrip (about 1.5hrs).

A variety of lodges, tented camps and campgrounds, from budget to luxury, are located in Buhona, near the park’s headquarters.

Gorilla-watching permits currently cost $500 per trek ($350 in low season) and need to be booked well in advance. Each gorilla family can be visited once a day, for a maximum of one hour. There are no guarantees of an encounter, but the success rate is close to 100%.

The best way to see the gorillas is with one of the numerous tour operators offering gorilla-watching packages: they include transport, permit and tour, and accommodation. For a list of certified operators see www.bwindiforestnationalpark.com.

While you’re in this part of the world, don’t miss Queen Elizabeth NP. Home to the world’s largest concentration of hippos, thousands of Uganda kob, tree-climbing lions and some 550 bird species, this is one of the loveliest parks in Africa. n

DR CONGO UGANDA Lake Edward

Lake George Entebbe Queen Elizabeth NP Lake Mburo

Bwindi Impenetrable NP

KAMPALA Lake Victoria

Virunga Mgahinga NP NP Volcanoes NP

RWANDA

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Snapshots | Letters etc | Experiences | Just Back From…

From The Road Letters, tips, photos & exploits from you, our endlessly adventurous readers

“Getting wet in Zambia. Victoria Falls was at its fullest – we could hardly see our hands in front of our faces!” Emma Young

“Sitting at Sillustani, Peru – a pre-Inca burial ground on the shores of Lake Umayo.” Brian Taylor

“Travelling to Abisko, Sweden with my daughter.

The scenery and activities were amazing.” Andria Palmer

Snapshots

Been somewhere nice?

Send us your snapshots: FromTheRoad@ wanderlust.co.uk “Celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary shovelling elephant poo in Chiang Mai, Thailand!”

John Hughes “Enjoying a super trip to the Marquesas Islands – more people should make the (very long) journey to these beautiful isles.”

Christina Bienkowska

“Visiting Riga, Latvia – with a very cool friend.” Paul Carter

“Being amazing by the scenery of Dead Vlei and Sossusvlei, Namibia.”

Wendy Ostgaard

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Letters etc

Online at www.wanderlust.co.uk/mywanderlust

8 Email letters & photos to fromtheroad@wanderlust.co.uk * Mail Wanderlust, 1 Leworth Place, Windsor SL4 1EB Twitter #wanderlustmag Facebook www.facebook.com/wanderlusttravelmagazine

Win KEEN gear!

We want you tales and letterr photos, s– fromtheroademail wanderlust.c @ o.

See page 33 fouk r prize details

“Gazing at the world’s longest teak footbridge (1.2km), Amarapura , Mandalay, Burma – very popular at sunset.” Peter Clarke

*

Visit Vietnam – now!

>

We have just returned from a wonderful month travelling in Vietnam to discover your excellent articles on the area.

We visited a number of places and ended up on Phu Quoc, the Vietnamese island off the coast of Cambodia. I want to encourage people to visit it now!

An international airport is being built, together with a road to run the length of the island. Local fishermen and their families are being rehoused – they’re being moved from their homes by the sea to an inland development to make room for tourist infrastructure.

The whole spirit of the island will change.

One place that probably won’t change is the unspoiled eco-resort of Mango Bay. You sleep cocooned in mosquito nets in wooden single-storey buildings. There is a mile of coastline, which includes sandy beaches and gentle seas. There are activities offered for when you feel you need something other than just the beach.

Winning letter Attention to detail

*

In October 2010 (issue 114) you printed a letter I sent, praising a company I had found who enabled me to travel into the deserts of Mauritania. I didn’t send a picture but when you printed it you showed a photo of a woman on a camel being led by a camelteer.

Imagine my surprise when this year, having taken a copy of the page to show my friends in Mauritania, they identified the man leading the camel as their friend Nafa’a. I never imagined that you had actually found a Mauritanian photo.

Thank you for your care and attention to detail.

You cannot imagine the pride that the local people felt knowing that one of their own had featured in such a renowned magazine.

I have just returned from my third visit to the country. As the people are feeling the effects of the recession, and as it is some years since you featured Mauritania, I wonder if now is the time to do another piece and hopefully draw attention to what the country has to offer?

Pam Towse, by email

To sit down with a cocktail watching the sun set as the lights of the squid boats bob on the horizon – heaven! This is a place where somehow the world, Vietnam and thoughts of home all disappear.

Clive & Valerie Whittington, Crete, Greece

*

Alaskan memories

I’ve just read about Alaska in the March 2012 edition of Wanderlust and it brought back memories of the road trip we took there a couple of years ago.

We too drove down the Sterling Highway to Homer.

En route we visited a couple of very Russian-looking villages; the churches, with onionshaped domed roofs and old graveyards were a strong reminder of the heritage of this remote area. From Homer, we

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Israel 1

1

I I I

biblical sites reverberating with I Discover 1 politics: confusing, never dull 1 I inspiring,

I

Fly UK-Tel Aviv (5 hours); explore by bus, hire car or local tour operator 1 1

Š

Spring & autumn

Tough on the

OUTSIDE

From Biblical Armageddon to modern political turmoil, Israel conjures up vivid images and strong emotions.

Matthew Teller peers behind a rugged exterior

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When to go Jan

Feb Mar Apr May Jun

Jul

Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

■ Spring and autumn are the high seasons: sunny, warm, mostly dry.

■ Summer: hot sunshine – avoid strenuous activity during the middle of the day.

■ Winter: some low-season bargains, but Christmas is busy. Often chilly and wet.

Health & safety No vaccinations required. Medical care is excellent. To enter hotels, malls, bus stations and other public buildings you have to pass through airport-style security, with metal detectors and bag checks. The chances of being caught up in terrorism or civil disorder are minuscule.

Further reading & info Israel (Bradt, 2011), the top choice for detailed coverage and local knowledge Israel (Footprint, 2010) Jerusalem (Rough Guides, 2009), great guide, also with coverage of Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea and more. www.thinkisrael.com – Israel Ministry of Tourism site www.972mag.com – Lively independent opinions and features. Their September Journey (is.gd/yuval) describes a month of quirky travel around Israel.

More online Visit www.wanderlust.co.uk/128 for links to more content: Archive articles

5 hikes in the Middle East– online, Jul 10 Walk to Petra, Jordan – online, Jul 10

Planning guides Middle East guide

Getting there & around Various carriers fly from the UK to Tel Aviv starting from £180 return (BA: 0844 493 0787, ba.com; www.easyjet.com; El Al: 020 7121 1400, www.elal.co.uk).

Jet2 flies from Manchester (www.jet2.com).

Flight time is around five hours.

Israel’s bus network, Egged (www.egged. co.il) covers the country affordably and frequently. Israel Railways (www.rail.co.il) runs trains along the coast; the train to Jerusalem is slow, but wonderfully scenic.

Self-drive is a viable way to get around, though most Israeli car rental firms expressly forbid entering the West Bank.

Cost of travel Israel is one of the priciest Middle East destinations, though cutting costs is easy. A falafel sandwich is £1.50 in big cities; expect to pay about £6 for a panini and coffee. A bus from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv (1hr) is £3; a train to Haifa (1hr) is £5.

Accommodation In West Jerusalem, the cheerful Abraham Hostel is well connected and runs its own city tours. Doubles from £46

Nazareth

6

Afula River Jordan

Umm el-Fahem

2 PALESTINE – WEST BANK

Tel Aviv Rishon le Zion

1

Rehovot Ashdod

Jerusalem

Ashqelon

ISRAEL

Bethlehem Hebron

DEAD SEA

Beer Sheva

4 EGYPT

3

e Lin e

PALESTINE – GAZA Gaza City

istic

The author travelled partly with On The Go Tours (www.onthegotours.com, 020 7371 1113) and partly through local tourism operators, including Kibbutz Lotan (www.kibbutzlotan.com), Jesus Trail (www.jesustrail.com) and the Israel Travel Company (www.israeltravelcompany.com).

On The Go has a six-day Israel Explorer tour (from £969pp) with trips to Nazareth, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Book desert guide Amir Gadnaor direct (gadnaor@zahav. net.il) or through Israel Travel Company, who charge £2,100 for a five-night tour for two, with transport and accommodation.

A five-night self-guided walk on the Jesus Trail (£1,070 for two), includes maps, guidebook and luggage transfer.

Green Olive Tours offers Bedouin homestays (£40pn) and a Bedouin Reality day (£67; www.greenolivetours.com).

GoEco links volunteers with projects around Israel, including Kibbutz Lotan, the Umm el-Fahem gallery and Fauzi Azar Inn (from £250 for 8-12 weeks; www.goeco.org).

Tel Megiddo

194 9 Arm

The trip

Zikhron Yaakov

e

VITAL STATISTICS Capital: Jerusalem – though the city’s final status has not been agreed and no other country recognises Israel’s claim; embassies are in Tel Aviv.

Population: 7.6 million Language: Hebrew and Arabic; English is widely spoken Time: GMT+2 (Apr-Sept GMT+3) International dialling code: +972 Visas: Not required by UK nationals; a passport stamp, issued on arrival, grants permission to stay for up to three months.

Money: Israeli shekel (ILS or NIS), currently around NIS6 to the UK£. ATMs are common.

5

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

1974 Ce

Make the most of the Middle East – advice on when, where and how to travel Israel

Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee)

Haifa

asefire Lin

Israel Footnotes

LEBANON

SYRIA

here’s how to plan night hikes, scenic flights, volcano climbs and more

JORDAN

Negev Desert

0

50km

Israel must-sees 1. Jerusalem Holy to Islam, Christianity Yotvata and Judaism, Jerusalem fascinates with history and bamboozles with commerce.

2. Tel Aviv The crisp lines of 1930s Eliat

Bauhaus architecture give this fun-loving beach city a whiff of elegance.

3. Dead Sea Super-salty inland lake offering the chance to float your cares away.

4. Negev Desert Whether you camp, hike, trek or ride, venture south to spend a night under clear desert skies.

5. Haifa A port city overlooked by the beautiful hillside Baha’i Gardens.

6. Nazareth Israel’s largest and most vibrant Palestinian city, gateway to the stunning Galilee countryside. (www.abrahamhostel.com). Eco-friendly desert guesthouse at Kibbutz Lotan (www.kibbutzlotan.com) has double rooms starting at £59. Splash out at the multiaward-winning Fauzi Azar Inn in Nazareth, which has beautiful double rooms arrayed around a tranquil courtyard (from £50, www.fauziazarinn.com). Alternatively show a passport stamp from Lebanon, Syria or Iraq for a free dorm bed!

Food & drink Israel has absorbed methods and ingredients from many of its native and immigrant communities. Cuisine ranges from Kurdish meatball soup to Lebanese salads, Asian seafood, Viennese pastries and everything in between. ■

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The travel magazine that takes you further

“There simply isn’t a better magazine for the serious traveller” Bill Bryson

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wise words the right outlook

“People are disturbed not by things but by the views which they take of them” Epictetus, philosopher, 55-135 AD

Terrified to travel?

T

ravel is a tonic – but it can be stressful too. The planning, the journey, even the trip itself: all can make you anxious. Also, any background concerns you may have can seem more significant when you’re in an unfamiliar environment, especially if you start out tired or down.

Many of the things that trigger stress when we travel (stressors) are to do with expectations, disappointments, blame and feeling out of control. Advertising – and

even travel magazines! – can have us unrealistically expecting perfection. Yet it is such expectations that contribute to our stress when things don’t quite match up.

But in addition to stressors that might make most of us feel fraught, some travellers have specific fears and phobias. Here’s some advice for coping with a few common travel terrors.

Facing phobias Phobias can be manifestations of halfforgotten traumatic experiences, or

they might suggest the sufferer has an underlying high level of anxiety.

In either situation a chat with a GP should start the process of accessing the right kind of therapy – be it counselling or particular management strategies. Often specific phobias will respond to self-help techniques (there are lots of books) or to formal cognitive behavioural therapy. Equally, talking to your GP might offer reassurance that symptoms are not so abnormal.

Indeed, given that one in four adults in Britain experiences mental health

Dreamstime; Simon Howarth; iStockphoto

Phobias aren’t just silly little fears. They can make you modify your travel plans – or cease travelling altogether. Dr Jane Wilson-Howarth helps sufferers of the most common concerns

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Give things a context This wall in Kochi, Kerala was a great detail. The combination of textures, posters, colour and signs with the bicycle made an interesting collage!

In order to give the image some context, I cropped part of the street in the picture as well, and waited for a porter to walk past with something on his head. Including the surroundings can tell the viewer where a picture is, giving a sense of place as well as an interesting dimension to an image.

Nikon D3x @ ISO 100, 31 mm lens, 1/160 second @ f7.1

Devil’s in the detail It’s great to see the big picture – but zooming in can create a more effective sense of place.

Steve Davey gets you ready for your close ups ometimes you get so blown away by the big picture, you completely overlook the details that sum up the atmosphere of a place.

For instance, the Taj Mahal is a mind-blowing building, but focusing on a single carving gives the best impression of the workmanship involved.

Textures can make pleasing detail shots, as can repeating patterns. Rather than snapping

S

a whole elephant, shoot a patch of its crumpled skin; instead of photographing a palm tree, focus on the shadows the fronds cast on the beach; a jumble of chillies can evoke India just as well as the Taj. To give such details a sense of place, compose your picture to include a recognisable object.

Shoot from the side, not straight on, placing the subject against a significant background.

Get closer than a metre or so from your subject and focus can

be an issue. The cameras best able to focus nearest are often simple compacts; many feature a close-up or macro mode. If using a DSLR, you’ll need a macro lens, which will allow you to get within a few centimetres of your subject.

You don’t need to get in close, though. Sometimes the flattened perspective given by shooting from a distance with a telephoto lens can accentuate patterns.

To get creative with detail, exploit your depth of field.

Using a small aperture will render all of your shot in focus; a wide aperture (shallow depth of field) means only the element you actually focus on is sharp.

Note, shooting up close inherently gives a shallow depth of field. To counter this, use a very small aperture. This results in a slower shutter speed, which can cause camera shake. Use a tripod for stability or a handheld flash to introduce more light; a small reflector can also improve lighting, filling in dark shadows.

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The rules were simple: come up with an exciting trip for under £250 all-in, and we’d pay for it. And off you went.

Over the next 40 pages, we present the tales and souvenirs of those trips, from Bulgarian wine-tasting to Turkish kebabs to Swedish kayak disasters…

For full rules & longer stories, see www.wanderlust.co.uk/128 Wanderlust May/June 2012 | 77

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Active

Hiking the High Tatras, Poland Who? Nathan Bates, 21, student Why? Nothing beats clean mountain water and fresh air How long? 4 nights Total spend: £220 < Southern Poland has much to attract

travellers, including two gems: one firmly on the tourist trail and one very much off.

The former is Kraków, which I explored on the first morning, wandering the elegant streets towards Wawel Hill, the ancient political centre of Poland, with its grand cathedral and Italian-style courtyard.

Then, travelling via the hugely thoughtprovoking Auschwitz concentration camp, its grim past in stark contrast to the warm autumnal sun, I arrived at the latter gem: the High Tatras mountains.

The odd mix of tradition and tourism in Zakopane was intriguing, but the mountains themselves were everything I could have hoped for: compact and spectacular; fresh and invigorating; utterly beautiful.

Going in early November was perhaps slightly too late for ideal hiking, as the high ground already had some snow.

The upside was that the white coating made the peaks look quite formidable.

Taking the cablecar up Kasprowy Wierch (1,987 m) gave me a fantastic (downhill) hike past alpine lakes. Murowaniec mountain hut was packed with Poles enjoying meals.

A longer hike took me through the forested Dolina Bystrej Valley, then up to the peak of Sarnia Skala (1,377m) for sweeping views back to the town on one side, to even larger peaks on the other. After a long lunch, I returned to Zakopane via the peaceful Strazyska Valley.

The trails were well marked and generally a pleasure. In fact, navigating the mountains was much easier than finding my way onto a Zakopane-bound bus in Kraków station!

I wish I’d known... A basic grasp of Polish would have helped considerably Souvenir: Handmade wooden keepsake box Getting there: See Kraków story, p98.

Kraków-Zakopane buses take 2hrs 15mins (£7.50 rtn) (szwagropol.pl).

Stay: Greg & Tom Hostel, Kraków; beds from £11.50 (www.gregtomhostel.com).

Guesthouse Benita, Zakopane; singles from £10 (www.benita.com.pl).

Kayaking to disaster, Sweden Who? Sam Shead, 22, journalist Why? To explore Stockholm’s thousands of islands on the cheap How long? 5 nights Spend: £478.98 OVER BUDGET Having secured a dirt-cheap seat with Ryanair, I was feeling optimistic about keeping under budget, despite what I had heard about Sweden’s extortionate prices.

We arrived on Utö, an island in the Stockholm archipelago, at 4pm and hired a single and a double kayak for three days, plus sleeping bags and mats. I’d picked up a tent on the way – from a local supermarket’s reduced aisle – so we were set.

The next day we loaded up our kayaks and launched, with difficulty, off a jetty. We were planning to kayak around Utö, via several uninhabited isles. However, as we paddled towards Ålö, the weather deteriorated.

My spirits briefly lifted when we emerged through reeds to find an inquisitive beaver, metres from our kayaks. But, with the sky darkening and sea roughening, we decided to stop on Ålö, to seek refuge from the storm in our supersaver tent...

Aaah, slight hiccup – I had been sold only half the tent. The inside mesh was there; the somewhat essential waterproof outer was not. We pitched what was essentially a mosquito net underneath a pine tree but it wasn’t enough. By midnight we were lying in an inch of water and shivering violently.

Stranded on a remote island in the midst of what we later found out was a Category 7 storm, I called the international emergency number. I was put through to the Swedish Coast Guard; they came to our rescue and

dropped us at the hostel where we’d spent the night before; embarrassed, I waved goodbye to the coastguard – and my budget...

I wish I’d known... I was buying half a tent Souvenir: A big bill...

Getting there: Ryanair flies to Stockholm Skavsta (from £32; 2hrs 10mins; www. ryanair.com). Ferries to Uto cost £12.20 one way (www.waxholmsbolaget.se).

Stay: Vandrarhemmet Skärgården hostel, Uto; beds from £33 (www.utovardshus.se). <

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Islands

Voyaging to Fair Isle, Scotland Who? Sandra Moody, 60, retired Why? To take an unusual journey to a remote place, in the UK How long?

4 nights Total spend: £239.41 Perhaps most famous for shipping forecasts and specialised knitting, tiny Fair Isle – the UK’s remotest inhabited island – is a mere dot on the map between Orkney and Shetland. Access is by mailboat or eightseater plane from Lerwick (right), on Shetland – but the weather regularly disrupts both. This unpredictability makes the journey as much of an experience as the arrival. Which was part of the attraction.

I arrived in Lerwick to find the mailboat had sailed early to avoid bad weather; my earliest means of getting to Fair Isle would be by air the next morning. Could I fly within budget? It turned out I could. However, again the weather muscled in: strong winds grounded all flights. I was so near yet so far!

Fortunately, after several hours, the winds eased and my patience was rewarded with fine aerial views of Fair Isle before we landed on the airstrip, freshly cleared of sheep.

On hearing about my £250 challenge, my hosts at the South Lighthouse B&B helped me plan how to pack everything into one night now rather than two.

I climbed Malcolm’s Head for a magnificent 360° view and walked round the island’s south, where the majority of the 70-odd residents live.

My hosts had invited friends from the Bird Observatory for dinner, so as well as a great meal there was a night of lively conversation followed by an observatory tour.

After an early breakfast by torchlight (Fair Isle’s electricity is turned off overnight),

my host drove me to the harbour to catch the 6am mailboat. It pitched and rolled all the way back to Lerwick – just another part of this great journey.

I wish I’d known... To research internet access points for when plans had to be altered Souvenir: Fair Isle mug Getting there: Lerwick-Fair Isle ferries: £2.60 single (www.fairisle.org.uk).

Lerwick-Fair Isle flights cost £62.50 rtn (dev.directflight.co.uk).

Stay: South Lighthouse B&B; full board from £45 pp (www.southlightfairisle.co.uk).

Divided-isle adventuring, Cyprus Who? Lu-Hai Liang, 22, student Why? I wanted strong sunshine and fresh air to beat the January blues How long? 7 days Spend: £267.68 OVER BUDGET Right off the plane I could feel the stronger sun. The air was fresh and yellow rock-roses bloomed like spring. Though nights were cold, Cyprus hit 18°C during my winter stay.

I stayed in Paphos, in the south-west (a good base for exploration), and saved

money by couchsurfing with a young English/Lithuanian couple. Food and drink temptations account for my overspend!

Paphos’s ancient sights include Unescolisted Roman mosaics and the engrossing Tombs of the Kings, where I poked around underground chambers and secret rooms.

The capital, Nicosia, is divided between Turkey and Greece by a barrier, sometimes called ‘Berlin Wall Two’. It was a lively place, with a hint of danger – I saw bullet holes and scarred pillboxes. However, an

elegant Byzantine church seemed to pop up on every corner. And Ledra Street, the main thoroughfare, offered gorgeous kebabs and frappés. Going into the Turkish part of the city, where shops and dress became Arabic, was like walking into a different world.

One day I joined a tour of the Troodos Mountains. We wandered sunny villages, tasted local wines, viewed vibrant frescoes at Kykkos Monastery and took in the views from 1,952m Mt Olympus, Cyprus’s highest point.

In Akamas, a wilderness area with quiet beaches and a loggerhead turtle sanctuary, I bounced over rocks, roots and cliff roads on a mountain bike.

Finally, I walked along the Paphos coast.

To my right were Roman ruins, to my left the sea. Storm clouds rolled in, but then the sun burst through. I felt utterly alive.

I wish I’d known... That inter-city travel was so easy: I would love to visit Famagusta Souvenir: A bottle of Ouzo Getting there: easyJet flies from various UK airports to Paphos (from £97 rtn; 4hrs 20mins; www.easyjet.co.uk).

Stay: Check out www.couchsurfing.org. > Wanderlust May/June 2012 | 97

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