No. 3: May 2004
RED LIZARDS AND THE MILKY WAY
ADELE EVANS is reluctantly hanging up her boots and skis at the end of another season after sampling the terrain of the new Paradiski in France, linking Les Arcs and La Plagne - and the Milky Way in Italy - Sestriere, Sansicaro and Sauze d'Oulx - all of which will host events in the Winter Olympics 2006. Her knowledge of the major Italian and French ski resorts is now complete.
As an Italian specialist, that most beautiful of countries is never far from her thoughts. She is currently updating and contributing new material to Insight Guide Italy and Northern Italy, having already worked on the Insight guides to Tuscany, the Italian Lakes and Italian Rivera this year. Next on the agenda is the Bertlitz guide to Italy.
At the beginning of May, Adele is off to Slovenia and Croatia on assignment for two dps's for a best-selling magazine. As well as sampling the Lakes and Ljubljana of Slovenia - carefully timed to coincide with Slovenia's entry to the EU - she is looking forward to sampling some spa delights, including something known as a 'Roman Irish'. (Look forward to revealing more...)
Immediately after Northern Croatia she is heading off to Tunisia to follow in the footsteps of the stars - and the Red Lizard train. Before long, she will be back in the land of the 'dolce vita', but, in the meantime, is always hungry for commissions - and time back home for writing it all up!
Contact: adeleevans@compuserve.com.
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!
ALF ALDERSON is just completing a series of walking articles for The Guardian based on UK film locations - it will run over the next few weeks. A wide variety of destinations are featured, from SE Ireland ('Saving Private Ryan') to Norfolk ('Shakespeare in Love') and Glen Nevis (yes, you guessed it - 'Braveheart').
Alf says 'This was a great commission to work on as it took me to parts of the British Isles I'd probably never otherwise have been interested in. I particularly liked Holkham Beach in Norfolk ('Shakespeare in Love') – a beautiful location but, since it has neither surf nor mountains, I'd never have gone near it without this commission'.
Alf's projects for this summer include reporting on a surfing contest in Sri Lanka and exploring a few lesser-known corners of the Alps on foot, 'But I have plenty of time to take on other commissions if there's owt going!' he says.
Contact: alf@alfalderson.co.uk.
THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE
In February BRIAN JACKMAN went to a newly opened national park called Pench, near Nagpur in the heart of Mother India, to look for tigers. Found one on the first day, a magnificent male in his prime, reclining on a throne of teak leaves (see The Sunday Times, March 28 for full story). 'India is great for wildlife and I took some of it with me in my gut to Mexico a couple of weeks later. The words "coal" and "Newcastle" spring to mind. Fortunately the antibiotics did the trick, removing the offending protozoa so that I might swap Delhi belly for Montezuma's revenge. As it happened, Mexico was one of the healthiest destinations I've ever visited. I had flown from LA down to La Paz in Baja California, for 9 days whale-watching on a live-aboard boat in the Sea of Cortez. What an experience. You just have to put this on your "Ten best things to do before you die" list. We swam with sea lions, had blue whales - the biggest animals ever to live on the planet - circling our boat - and saw schools of dolphins numbering 4,000 or more. Altogether we reckoned we saw around 20,000 dolphins and maybe 200 whales. But avoided the temptation of sending postcards home saying "having a whale of a time". Next stop? Bryher, in the Isles of Scilly. Then Samos and Tanzania.'
Contact: brian@spickhatch.freeserve.co.uk.
GOING ROAMING
CHRIS TOWNSEND is roaming Scotland this summer, doing research for his forthcoming Scottish Mountains Guide (Cicerone Press), and collecting material and photographs for features.
In March, Chris spent a week skiing in the Finse area of Norway and can provide photographs and words on this fantastic area, including an ascent (and rather more exciting descent) of the Hardangerjokul ice cap.
Chris also has a new website ( www.auchnarrow.demon.co.uk) that is much more informative and colourful than the old one. The new site features Chris's recent activities, book details and photographs and will be updated regularly.
Contact: Chris@auchnarrow.demon.co.uk.
BEING IN THE RIGHT PLACE....?
DEBBIE KING's recent visit to Hadrian's Wall included a night at Slaley Hall where I slept in the same bed as Robbie Williams - although, not at the same time. Since then I've been working on a Southern Nature newsletter and am now something of an expert on pink grasshoppers.
Last month I escaped to explore Catalonia where I nearly ended up as an extra dressed in a nun's habit.
I'm returning to Northumberland in May to write a piece about the puffins on the Farne Islands and have plans to visit some wilderness camps in Botswana in June and a tree house in Kruger Park.
Contact: debbie.king@ic24.net.
BEAVERING AWAY QUIETLY
DONNA DAILEY is revisiting some of her favourite destinations with a number of projects. She is currently writing text for a new guidebook to Ireland and updating her Spiral Crete guide, co-written with Mike Gerrard. She will then be writing the text for two photographic coffee-table style books on New York and London. Articles on Cambridge, Arizona and scenic drives in the USA are due out shortly.
Contact: donna@dailey99.freeserve.co.uk.
TAKING A LESSON FROM GANNETS
FELICITY MARTIN is just back from wildlife watching on the Moray Firth in temperatures of 20 degrees centigrade not bad for the north of Scotland in April. She found ex fishermen, whose boats were tied up because of restrictive EU quotas, gainfully employed in other guises including taking visitors cruising to see seabirds and seals, and running a seafood restaurant with the biggest king scallops she's ever seen.
Her current work includes writing about aspects of 'Spring in Perthshire Big Tree Country' (www.perthshirebigtreecountry.co.uk) and promotion of 'Go Outdoors in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park' for the park's Activity Operators Group (www.gosmileoutdoors.co.uk).
Felicity's library of images includes landscapes, nature, walking, cycling and adventure activities in Scotland (especially Perthshire, Highlands and Islands) and further afield.
Contact: felicitymartin@sol.co.uk; Telephone: 01764 684454.
A BROAD MIX
For GILLIAN THORNTON a recent trip to the Ardeche to sample craft courses in chateau B&Bs included an interesting evening at L'Ete Indien - the restaurant made famous (or should that be infamous?) by Nigel and Reza in Channel 4's 'Place in France'. Love them or hate them, the duo have drummed up huge interest in this stunning area.
In the last few weeks, Gillian has placed features on destinations as diverse as Corsica and North Norfolk, Windsor and Florida, Portsmouth and Fuerteventura. The coming weeks promise an equally broad mix, including Cornwall and south Devon, Corfu and central France.
All commissions and press trip ideas gratefully considered.
Contact: gillian.thorntons@btinternet.com or telephone 01582 468771.
SOMETHING FOR INTELLIGENT MEN?
JEANNINE WILLIAMSON has recently been appointed to write a monthly travel column for REfresh "the intelligent read for gay men" (their words not mine, so I'll leave you to describe!) and will be off to Gay Pride, Oslo, in June on their behalf, but more pink commissions very welcome.
If anyone is looking for any city break pieces I've recently covered Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Geneva and Prague. At the end of this month I'll be going to back to Switzerland to Montreux, so if anyone wants me to follow in the footsteps of Freddie Mercury - one of the area's most famous contemporary residents - check out the high life in Gstaad or file a report from the recently refurbished Royal Plaza, the only 5-star directly on the shores of Lake Geneva, I'd be very happy to oblige.
Contact: Jeannine@motcombemedia.demon.co.uk.
BACK TO THE HIGH LIFE
JUDY ARMSTRONG's planned ski traverse of the Karakoram has bitten the dust - or glacial ice, to be more precise - due to injury. Oh, and Foreign Office high-jinks and the Big Beard's reluctance to come out of the (obviously too cosy) cave system.
Instead, it's back to the high life in France, with features on spring ski touring or snowshoeing in France. Fact panels on getting started, equipment and technique tips can be part of the package. Mountain biking and sea kayaking, are on the agenda for summer. Who needs Barbados when you can paddle the blue sea and white beaches of the Outer Hebrides?
Contact: judy.journalist@virgin.net or Telephone: 01751 417371 (please note new email address).
BUSY TIME ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT
MARI NICHOLSON is shortly heading to Dresden and Leipzig to check out the culture, museums and the sights.
While in Tuscany in June, she is going to be using the new B&B Tuscany for one week, and villa living for the other. The B&Bs are all in up-market villas, en suite rooms, car parking, and, most of them are on a public transport route, making it easy for non-drivers to stopover.
Then in July she will be in France on an art tour, to study the influence of the Seine-Maritime area on so many painters, visiting sites that have been the subject of their work etc. Time will be spent mostly in and around the area of Rouen, Etretat and Le Havre. I can accept commissions on any aspect of the trip or the area.
Mari wants to remind editors that she lives on the Isle of Wight and is obviously, well placed to write about it.
First up this year is Walk the Wight, the annual Walking Festival, 8th-23rd May, and the biggest of its kind in the UK with over 100 themed walks across the island.
Then on 4th-19th June we have the IOW Festival, a two-week celebration of a wide range of music, with David Bowie as one of the guest stars.
Skandia Cowes Week 7th-14th August, is the largest sporting event in the UK after the London Marathon with nearly 1000 yachts and 8000 competitors taking part. Mari is an accredited journalist to the event, and has access to the main players during the week.
After that, the two-day Garlic Festival in August bursts upon the Island when it is host to thousands of garlic-loving visitors eager to sample, amongst the gourmet foodstuffs, the garlic beer and garlic ice-cream.
The Cycling Festival in September and the White Air Extreme Sports Festival in October brings the year's main activities to a close, but the great pubs, restaurants, some of the finest walks in the UK, attract visitors all year round to the Island with the sunshine record.
Ring me, fax me, email me. It's my territory and who better to write about it.
Contact: maritravel@beeb.net.
HEADING FOR BEVERLY HILLS
HUGH TAYLOR's latest book Jarrold Short Walks in Fort William should be hitting the book shops any day now. He has also produced a detailed consultancy report on Denmark for a major guidebook publisher and is putting the finishing touches to the scripts and storyboards for a series of hand-held multi-media tours of Stockholm City.
From mid April to early May he will be in the USA researching and writing features on Los Angeles including Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Marina Del Rey and Santa Monica. Following this he will attend the annual Pow Wow of the Travel Industry Association of America, then visit the Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks on a writing/photographic assignment. Finally, before returning to Scotland, he will spend a couple of days in San Francisco.
Contact: mccrossan.taylor@btinternet.com.
THE ROAD TO NOWHERE
MIKE GERRARD is going nowhere. Two nights in Winchester to write about watercress for The Times is all that's in his diary, though he is also currently updating Spiral Crete for the AA, writing a long essay on Paris for a coffee-table book of photos, working on a new guide to Ireland and acting as Editorial Consultant on the forthcoming Eyewitness Guide to Tunisia for Dorling Kindersley. All of which will keep him out of mischief for the next few months.
Contact: mail@mikegerrard.com.
THREE BIG STORIES
PAUL MANSFIELD writes…
I have three stories you'll be hearing a lot about this year.
Athens. Currently being written about all the time, but either as an Olympic disaster-in-waiting, or a new Style Mecca (based on the opening of two ludicrously overpriced design hotels). Having lived in Athens, and travelled there for twenty years, I can reveal there are still problems with the Olympics, but that they will forgotten when the Games are over. New airport, roads, metro, tramway, waterfront park, pedestrianised downtown…Athens has already become an A-list short-break destination. Never mind the boutique hotels.
Bosnia. In May Paddy Ashdown will be touring the UK in a high-profile effort to lure tourists back to Bosnia. (Don't forget, the Winter Olympics were held in Sarajevo just 20 years ago). There's also the reopening of the famous Mostar bridge in June, and the 90th anniversary of the 'spark that lit World War One', the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. (The band Franz Ferdinand it also doing pretty well for itself.) I believe I'm the first UK travel writer to visit Sarajevo, which is clean, safe, cheap, beautiful, and ready for business.
The charter flight revolution. The launch of Excel Airways' three-class flights to the Caribbean late last year has shaken up the airlines. Long-haul travellers are fed up with being treated like cattle, or being forced to pay staggering amounts for comfort. Excel's first class is as good as most airlines' business, at around a third of the cost. From Summer 2005, First Choice is taking a row of seats out of all its planes to increase width and legroom. Excel itself is expanding to India and looking at other routes. I reckon we may well be witnessing the start of an affordable long-haul revolution, of the kind the budget airlines caused in Europe. I've tested the Excel product and done a study of value-for-money in long haul flying. Any takers?
Contact: PAULMANS1@aol.com.
A GREAT MYSTERY
PETER and LENI GILLMAN have just completed a major investigative feature for the Sunday Times magazine into the great Nanga Parbat mystery of 1970. That was when Reinhold Messner and his brother Gunther climbed Nanga Parbat and went on to attempt the full traverse of the mountain, ascending by one route and descending by another - only achieved once before in the Himalayas, by Americans Tom Hornbein and Willy Unsoeld on Everest in 1963. But after the brothers reached the summit via the Rupal Face, Gunther died during the descent of the Diamir Face.
There was a cataclysmic row after the expedition, with Reinhold Messner suing the expedition leader, Karl Herrligkoffer, for Gunther's alleged manslaughter - Messner claimed that blunders by Herrligkoffer were the main cause of Gunther's death. Messner lost the case. Then, more than 30 years on, the controversy flared into life again, when Messner effectively accused other members of the expedition of contributing to his brother's death. The row has raged on, in the German media and law courts, ever since.
The Gillmans interviewed many of the principals in the row, including Reinhold Messner himself, and their 4500-word article, which explores both the original accident and the reasons why the controversy refuses to die, appeared in the Sunday Times magazine on Sunday April 25. Peter Gillman has also written a parallel review for the British Alpine Journal of Messner's book about the saga, The White Loneliness.
The Gillmans' award-wining biography of George Mallory, The Wildest Dream, has just been reissued in a new paperback edition by their UK publishers, Headline. The cover quotes Touching the Void author Joe Simpson, who found the Gillmans' book "compelling and evocative". Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air, is also quoted. He considers the book "A masterful achievement - impeccably researched, beautifully written and a delight to read". (The Wildest Dream is published in the US by Mountaineers.)
Contact: petergillman@clara.co.uk.
SLIGHTLY LESS BALMY
ROBIN McKELVIE is continuing his single-handed attempt to make Slovenia the world's number one tourist destination by writing both a Bradt country guide and a city guide to Ljubljana, as well as features for four UK publications and two North American. He is also easyJet's 'Man in Ljubljana', writing monthly updates for the new Stansted route and will be out in one of the EU's newest members (as of May 1) from April to June. Over the summer Robin is also cruising on the Douro, joining a Page and Moy cruise from Rome to Venice, via Sicily and Dubrovnik, as well as taking to the slightly less balmy waters of St Kilda for a week's sea kayaking. He is still available for commissions as is his wife, Jennifer McKelvie, who now also works full-time as a travel writer and is co-author of the Slovenia books.
Contact: robinmckelvie@hotmail.com.
A PUSILLANIMOUS PAIR
Not every member of the WPu is an outdoor exercise fanatic: ROBIN MEAD (020 8346 3772) is on record as describing his favourite walk as being along the corridors of a luxury hotel, while partner VAL FIELD (01424 753181) gets puffed out climbing a flight of stairs - never mind a mountain. But the pusillanimous pair - who have previously, and tongue-in-cheek, recreated the first-ever caravan trip by Dr Gordon Stables in the 1890s - are gearing up to follow in the giant footsteps of another Victorian adventurer, author George Borrows, on a journey through Wales this Spring. Genial George learned Welsh for his adventure, carried an umbrella to ward off muggers as well as the rain, and patronised his hosts by trying to persuade them to be more like the English. Monoglots Robin and Val are not bothering with the first of these.
Contact: RobinRMead@aol.com.
KEEPING AN EYE ON HIS BEHIND
Freelance journalist and photographer RON TOFT, who specialises in nature, travel and general interest features for up to 50 publications globally, is currently somewhere in the wilds of northern Botswana learning how to track big game with the help of a bushman. Walking safaris are "fundamentally dangerous and can be frightening" he was told before setting off on his travels, so the trip should generate some scintillating copy! Before leaving for the Okavango Delta, Ron said he wasn't worried so much about the big game in front of him but what might be coming up behind!
This summer Ron will be visiting the R&D facilities of a major fish food/supplement manufacturer in Germany to write articles for specialist trade and consumer magazines. Also upcoming are trips to South Africa (to see the southern hemisphere's largest astronomical telescope, nearing completion in the desert near Sutherland) and northern Arizona.
Contact: ron.toft@btinternet.com.
WHISTLING WAYS
SARAH DAWSON has recently returned from Haworth, the heart of Brontë country, for a literary inspired break. She managed the seven mile round trip on the Moors to trace the steps of the Brontë sisters but was more than relieved to be greeted with a plateful of freshly baked scones and the sound of a whistling kettle back at her B&B afterwards.
She has also been learning about the unique whistling language that locals use to communicate with each other across the valleys on the beautiful and unspoilt Canary Island of La Gomera, and has been busy compiling a list of some of the world's best spa holidays, a horrid task if ever there was one!
Sarah plans to go to Cornwall in the summer to try her hand (or feet) at some surfing on Newquay beach and will be visiting the Spanish city of Seville later in the year.
Contact: sarahdawson@onetel.net.uk.or telephone +44 (0) 7960 023871.
CHAMPAGNE AND WHISKY
Having survived the Champagne trail, SOLANGE HANDO is now setting off on the Whisky trail, all in the interest of research of course. Then she'll be painting on the French Riviera, or perhaps just getting a tan, so if you want to know about Nice, Champagne or Scottish Whisky (castles optional), do get in touch.
Contact: solange.travel@ukonline.co.uk.
A TALL SHIPS STORY
SUE BRYANT has won the contract to edit The Clipper, a glossy on-board magazine for Star Clippers. The magazine will be an annual and will be published in September. Star Clippers operates beautiful square riggers in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the Andaman Sea and the magazine will cover travel and lifestyle related to these destinations, and stories on tall ships generally.
Contact: Telephone: 020 8987 2750, or email sue@suebryant.com.
KELLY SCOOPS TOP SPANISH AWARD
TONY KELLY has been named Travel Writer of the Year by the Spanish Tourist Office in London for his article on the Jerez horse fair in Living Spain magazine. He received the award from shoe designer Manolo Blahnik during the recent STEPS trade fair in London. Tony is currently completing a new guidebook to Mallorca and updating his existing guidebooks to Menorca and the Costa Brava.
Contact: Telephone: 01223 892553; Email: tony@tonykellytravelwriter.co.uk.
BACK UP TOP FROM DOWN UNDER
TERRY MARSH has just returned from a seven-week jaunt around Australia, where he encountered the Treorchy Male Voice Choir, a man with thirteen didgeridoos, a Swiss-Indian chef (in Alice Springs, of all places). He spent time sitting in on Prime Minister's Question Time in the Parliament House in Canberra, visited Glenrowan, where Ned Kelly met his end, dined out beneath the stars at Ayers Rock (Uluru), spent time on a penal colony island in Tasmania, did the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb and the highest and longest tree-top walk in the world in the Otway National Park. All of this is going into a travel book – provisionally titled 'Good Eye' – about Australia, which is already under way. This is under consideration by a publisher, but other publishers who might be interested in taking this on should feel free to get in touch.
He's now trying to overcome jetlag, and get back into the swing of things with an imminent trip to Saxony, followed by a photographic assignment to the gardens of the Languedoc, and in August will be setting off to climb Kilimanjaro…..and he's just about to return to a monthly slot on BBC Radio Lancashire, talking about travel.
Oh, and while all this is going on, he's busy organising the first Walking Festival on the Isle of Man, from 28th June to the 2nd July (see www.isleofmanwalking.com).
Contact: terrymarsh@wpu.org.uk; Telephone: 01772 321243.
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