No. 1: January 2004
OUT AND ABOUT
Paul Mansfield is just back from Lille, joint European Capital of Culture (with Genoa) in 2004. Expect surrealistic high jinks, and some solid social rejuvenation. Lille is now only 1 hour 40 minutes from London. If Eurostar could only find a way of preventing extinguished middle-management halfwits from booming into their mobiles in First Class, he'd happily travel there regularly
Likewise to St Kitts, one of the few old-style Caribbean islands left; and Berlin and Turin, both emergent tourist destinations (Berlin as a single entity at last) visited in the last few months. Languedoc-Roussillon, Shannon, Madeira, Crete, Sofia, Milan, Paris and Athens should also get a mention or - if any editors are reading this - another commission or two to add to those already completed
2004 kicks off with a weekend in Tangier, followed by a trans-Morocco train journey culminating in a trip on the fabled Marrakech Express. All this for a song at least half his readers will be too young to remember. That's life.
Contact: Email: PAULMANS1@aol.com
Discovering the Real Mallorca
After five visits to Mallorca in 2003, Tony Kelly's New Year resolution is to stay away from the island - though on past form he doubts whether this will last more than a few weeks. On his most recent visit in November, he picked up another award from the Mallorca Tourist Board, dined on pigeon and foie gras in coffee sauce, and finally got to see the Real Mallorca - the football team, that is. Over the next few months he will be writing a new guidebook to Mallorca as well as updating his best-selling AA Essential guide. Just so that he doesn't get too fed up with the view from his desk, he will also be taking his eight-year-old son on a learn-to-ski trip to Bulgaria and a family tour of ancient Egypt.
Contact: Email: tony@tonykellytravelwriter.co.uk
TAKING THE P***??
A month ago BRIAN JACKMAN was on a game drive in Kenya's Masai Mara national reserve with a guide from Governors Camp. It was at the same time that the film crews for BBC TV's Big Cat Diary series were there, shooting footage for their next series.
Brian tells the story: One of the animals they had been filming was a mother cheetah with three young cubs, and my guide found them all early one morning, resting on a rocky ridge not far from camp.
"This mother cheetah has become so used to vehicles that she often jumps on top of them," he said. "It's a good vantage point from which to keep watch for prey or other predators."
Sure enough, we had not been watching her for long before she stood up, stretched, then slowly walked forward and leapt onto our bonnet. Then, after staring intently at us through the windscreen, she jumped up onto our canvas roof and lay down, with her tail and one paw dangling within inches of my face.
Luckily for me, my good friend Jonathan Scott, the wildlife photographer and Big Cat Diary co-presenter, was close by in his own vehicle and able to shoot off a few pix to record this moment for me.
For 30 years I had waited for such an encounter. And now, to cap it all, I felt something wet trickling down the back of my neck. Yes - she had peed on me!
Was I pissed-off? No - only pissed-on. I felt quite honoured to have been singled out and anointed in this way - even though I was quite glad to get under the shower as soon as we returned to camp!
Back in the UK, when I related this story to Christine Walker, The Sunday Times Travel Editor, she sent me an e-mail. "Brian," she wrote, "you're the only one I know who would be overjoyed to have a cheetah pee on you."
Contact: Email: brian@spickhatch.freeserve.co.uk
STORMY WEATHER
Chris Townsend's usual luck with good weather deserted him in October when he had stormy weather during a visit to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Still, the area does reckon to have the worst weather in the world. He did return with some spectacular mountain top sunset and sunrise photos and other good pictures of the region plus some hiking and camping stories. Future trips include many in the Scottish Highlands for a book on the region and a proposed ski tour in the Finse region of Norway in March. Next August he will be heading to the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City for the launch of the third edition of the award winning The Backpacker's Handbook and doing some hiking in the deserts in the south of Utah.
Contact: Email: Chris@auchnarrow.demon.co.uk
BURMA - OR IS IT MYANMAR?
Whichever, Dennis Kelsall is spending two weeks there in February exploring some of its sacred Buddhist sites, ancient cities and colonial hill stations. Included in the itinerary are Yangon, Bago, Inle Lake, Mandalay, Maymyo and - reached by boat along the Ayeyarwady River, Bagan, one of the greatest temple sites in the world. On the way there'll be time to enjoy the spectacular scenery and see something of life in the smaller villages of a vast country that is largely untainted by mass tourism.
Closer to home, Dennis is completing a walking guide to Pembrokeshire, a companion to his already successful Pembrokeshire Coast Path guide (2nd ed) published earlier this year by Cicerone, and in spring he'll be taking time out to walk the Ribble Way, also for Cicerone.
Contact: Email: dennis.kelsall@virgin.net
HILL TRIBE TRECKY
Robin McKelvie is taking trips in December to Barcelona and around the Highlands of his native Scotland, taking his total number of trips for the year over the 30 mark.
In January and February 2004 he is venturing to the Champagne region of France, Quebec and Tenerife. Later in spring he will be travelling out to Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to trek with the hill tribes, visit the region's cities and UNESCO World Heritage sites, as well as an 'Elephant Hospital'.
Robin is also currently embarking with his wife, Jennifer McKelvie, on the first edition of a guidebook to Slovenia for publication in 2005. During his brief forays to his South Queensferry home he is available for magazine and newspaper work, covering everything from emerging destinations to European city breaks.
Contact: Email: robinmckelvie@hotmail.com
DEBBIE IN SEARCH OF CHINESE BUSH TUCKER - IN TENERIFE??
After investigating the legends of North Wales for Triangle magazine, Deborah King has interviewed bushcraft expert, Ray Mears and the chef, Ken Hom. She edited the current newsletter for Southern Nature and has just returned from visiting hotels in Dublin. Her next assignment in January involves a trip south to discover the highlights of Santa Cruz and Tenerife for the Daily Telegraph.
ELVIS LIVES
MIKE GERRARD and DONNA DAILEY are planning to see the New Year in quietly, recuperating from a hectic series of travels, including three separate visits to the USA. They have articles to write for The Times, Travel Weekly, The Express, Essentially America and others. In September they went to Alaska, in October to Amsterdam and in November spent four weeks visiting Arizona and Iowa. Arizona was a mix of work and fun, seeing the Grand Canyon, spending a few days in Phoenix and a week in Tucson. Then they were in Iowa for two weeks, for a family Thanksgiving. December saw them in Mississippi, touring movie locations (and meeting the actor Morgan Freeman), followed by a few days in Memphis checking out the Civil Rights Museum, the Gibson Guitar Factory, Sun Studios, the Stax Museum, the Rock and Soul Museum, Graceland and the Peabody Ducks.
Contacts: Email: donna@dailey99.freeserve.co.uk
Email: mail@mikegerrard.com
TAKING A CHANCE
Non-swimmer, non-sailor TERRY MARSH is putting his faith in calm waters around the Canary Islands early in January as he heads off to crew a tall ship. As if that isn't enough, he's heading for Norway in February to try his hand, well, his legs, at cross-country skiing for beginners. "Oh, I know, it's easy for you to scoff. . . . . . but this is the trailing edge of new adventure for me."
After that, it's Down Under time as he heads for Australia for seven weeks - that's almost 50 slap-up dinners and 100 bottles of wine - might even write a few notes and take some pics. Ah, but, he'll have to stay sober long enough to cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the hard way, on top.
Contact: Email: terrymarsh@wpu.org.uk.
NEW BOOKS FOR DIVERS
Between diving and trekking trips abroad, writing for diving magazines in the UK and Asia and consulting on photographic books, the two multi-author coffee table books that JACK JACKSON has been working on are now out - "The World's Great Adventure Treks" and a massive 300-page "Dive Atlas of the World", which made the Sunday Times 'Book of the Week' in November and 'Stanfords Christmas List'. I am now working on two more diving books and will begin travelling again when my lecture season ends in February.
Contact: Email: jack@jackjackson.co.uk.
FACING UP TO GRENOUILLES AND ESCARGOTS
SARAH DAWSON moved from London to Brighton three years ago but the past few weeks has found her re-familiarising herself with the cultural capital on an insider's guide to London for Horizon's Magazine. In the new year, she's going to overcome her aversion to frog's legs and snails and find out about gourmet food in Picardy, France, and will be having a rather sleepless and potentially spooky night at the inn believed to have inspired Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, on a UK literary break.
Further afield Sarah is planning on taking a three-day train ride on the Ghan which travels through the inhospitable desert from Adelaide to Darwin. Meanwhile, she is enjoying the blue skies followed by awesome sunsets at Brighton beach . . . . well, some of the time.
Contact: Email: sarahdawson@onetel.net.uk
THE CHAMPAGNE LIFE
It's been a busy year for GILLIAN THORNTON with more than 10 trips to France covering destinations as varied as Calais and Carcassonne, Cambrai and Cognac. Outside the Hexagon, she's done short breaks to Barcelona, Reykjavik and Arhus, and written about a variety of UK destinations and visitor attractions.
First trip of 2004 is Champagne, closely followed by Rome, but there are lots of other plans for features on France, Portugal, Spain and the Canaries, plus of course the UK. All press trip invitations will be gratefully received and bounced off her 'tame' editors* in search of a commission.
Contact: Email: gillian.thorntons@btinternet.com
*Do such things exist? Ed
TELLY TULLY
Clive Tully's unique and epic voyage around the world in a 33ft powerboat in 2002 - the subject of his acclaimed book Confronting Poseidon - is shortly to grace TV screens worldwide. A half-hour documentary will be broadcast early in the New Year to an estimated 200 million households in 144 countries on the National Geographic Channel, as part of their Total Adventure series.
The programme is composed almost entirely of video footage shot by Clive in often trying conditions on board Spirit of Cardiff, as he and his crew mates battled their way around the world against impossible odds.
The programme follows hard on the heels of Spirit of Adventure, a documentary about Clive's record-breaking transatlantic from Canada to Scotland via Greenland and Iceland in the same boat in 2003 - again featuring a substantial proportion of Clive's own footage. It was broadcast in November on Portsmouth and Southampton TV, and is now awaiting national screening.
Confronting Poseidon is available price £14.99 plus P&P from www.spirit-of-cardiff.com/shop.
Contact: Email: clive@clivetully.com.
BACK FROM NAGALAND
TONY HOWARD and partner Di Taylor are just back from their second visit to “the least visited yet most varied part of India” - the north east, where unique tribal cultures live in remote mountain and jungle terrain along the Tibet and Burma borders. This time they were developing new treks between remote Naga villages to which they were sometimes the first visitors. It is the hope of the villagers and their sponsors that income from trekkers will supplement the almost non-existent local economy and encourage retention of their rapidly vanishing cultural heritage. A return visit in 2004 to other parts of this fascinating region is possible.
Other potential projects include visits to some of our favourite countries for trekking and climbing guidebook updates, in particular, Norway and, in the Middle East, Palestine and Jordan where they look forward to enjoying the deserts and mountains of Wadi Rum again with our Bedouin friends.
Contact: Email: nomads@n-o-m-a-d-s.demon.co.uk
Snakes and spooks
S-s-s-suffering s-s-s-snakes Batman, Robin's going up the river. The Amazon, that is. And the "Robin" is travel writer/photographer Robin Mead, who is booked to take a five-week trip up South America's mightiest river in January/February - visiting Indian villages, and investigating the wildlife, along the way to Manaus. Interested?
In the Spring, Robin who has had a couple of ghostly gazetteers published, as well as his two dozen travel guide books will be investigating the world's most widely witnessed ghost story: the annual appearance of an entire spectral army which has been seen by thousands of people. Where? When? It will cost you a commission to find out!
Contact: Email: RobinRMead@aol.com
SNOW FUN
It's snow-time... so January will see Judy Armstrong at her home in the French Alps. Ski touring, climbing, winter walking, snowshoeing are all on the agenda, from her base in the beautiful Beaufortain mountains. There's an ulterior motive this year, though: Judy's main focus for early 2004 is an expedition to Pakistan. It's a six-week traverse of the Karakoram mountains on skis, which has never before been attempted. The trip will include trekking through remote and rarely-visited terrain, followed by sledge-hauling on skis up complex glacial systems. Later in the year she will enjoy a more sedate but equally exciting trip to Argentina, riding horses for a week through the Andes to the base of a snow-covered volcano, which she plans to climb, then ski down. In between, mountain biking in France and sea kayaking in Scotland are on the cards. To discuss features on any of these trips or activities,
Contact: Email: judy.armstrong@virgin.net
VOLCANIC INTERLUDE
Freelance journalist and photographer RON TOFT, who specialises in nature and travel features, recently returned from La Palma in the Canary Islands where he interviewed Spanish astronomers about the huge astronomical telescope they are building on the edge of a volcanic (hopefully extinct) caldera. Earlier, he visited Volcanoes National Park in northern Rwanda to gather words and pics for publications in Britain and well beyond about the endangered mountain gorillas. Next year Ron will be working in the Cape Town area of South Africa; Orlando, Florida; Maryland; and Arizona/New Mexico. A trip to Guyana is also on the cards.
Contact: Email: ron.toft@btinternet.com
ALF IS 'RESTING' . . .
. . . as they say in the acting business: Alf Alderson is having a slow start to 2004 with just a road and ski trip through Washington State and Idaho in February, followed by a surf trip to Costa Rica. So if anyone's looking for material from those two very different destinations they should give him a call!
Contact: Email: alf@alfalderson.co.uk
JUST WHERE IS THE OFFICE ANYWAY?
The Mountain Sport Picture Library, owned and run by WPu photographer DAVE WILLIS is expanding rapidly with several regional tourist boards now using the library regularly to source pictures of people out there doing things. Many have commented on how difficult it can be to find outstanding images of outdoor pursuits and leisure activities rather than scenics and landscapes. Mountain Sport does carry a good selection of very striking landscape images of the Lake District, Scotland and European mountain regions, but it specializes in images of people enjoying the challenge of playing in the great outdoors. Subjects include mountaineering, rock climbing, mountain biking, mountain walking, skiing and snowboarding, windsurfing and sailing, adventure sports like skidoo riding or bungee-jumping, canyoning and river scrambles as well as mountain rescue, fell running, conservation (footpaths, walling or tree planting) and much more besides. Cumbria Tourist in particular have been a regular user for their outdoor activities website at www.lakedistrictoutdoors.co.uk.
Dave is interviewed in the December edition of Professional Photographer Magazine where he discusses his job description! Not an easy thing to do when the office is anywhere from a cliff face to the middle of the ocean, although a portfolio of images included with the feature also shows that photographing the annual re-painting of Blackpool's famous Pepsi Max roller coaster also falls within his remit. Other images featured in the magazine include mountain biking, rock climbing, windsurfing and a spectacular cliff jump in the Grand Canyon. Talking about the business end of running his extensive library of outdoor images, Dave says that work is "getting better as our lives increasingly focus on leisure pursuits, but budgets are tight and I have to be flexible and imaginative to find new markets for my work . . . in this job we do it because we love it and because it's who we are".
And of course finding new markets is what Writers and Photographers Unlimited is all about. You can read the interview in full here and see a wide range of adventure travel and outdoor action images, or call Dave Willis on 01931 716174 to discuss commissions.
For more information about WRITERS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS unLimited contact Terry Marsh, PO Box 520, Bamber Bridge, PRESTON, Lancashire PR5 8LF. Telephone: 01772 321243; Email: terrymarsh@wpu.org.uk.