Posted on

Jersey’s cream has turned green

Archirondel Tower St Catherines Bay. One of several sustainable accommodations Photo: Catherine Mack

I remember Jersey as the first place I tasted a cherry. About five years old, I picked it off a tree and ate it, revelling not only in its unique perfume and texture but also in the fact that there were endless sweet gems for the picking. What felt like an ordinary family holiday had, in one moment, been transformed into an exotic adventure, an image of Jersey which has always stayed with me.

I didn’t go in search of cherries on a recent trip back to the largest of the Channel Islands, but I was aware of this same sense of excitement as I packed. I was there to explore the greener side of the island, to see if it is possible to discover it without a car – slow down the pace by walking, cycling and taking the bus around an island where, traditionally, local transport means a luxury yacht, private jet or a Bergerac-mobile.

It felt as if the bus service is made for tourists here, however, with drivers going out of their way to smile and proffer information. A family bus pass is £16.15 sterling per day which gets you around what local people fondly refer to as ‘The Rock’s’  74 square kilometres. My first stop on the number 1 bus was, aptly, Green Island, just a few kilometres east of St Helier, the island’s main, in fact only, town. A peninsula rather than an island, it has white sand and crystalline waters, and the perfect beach café serving locally caught seafood.

After a wake me up swim had done just the job, I got back on the Number 1 which clings to the shore as far as Gorey, a pretty fishing village on the East coast, and walked back along the dusty pink coast path built into the rosy granite which links the island geologically to its neighbouring Brittany, just 22 kms away.

Catherine cycling between Corbiere and St Ouen, Jersey

With fine local produce just about everywhere I visited, I realised that this is obviously an island which values its local produce, and with Jersey Royals spuds, Jersey cows, a plethora of fish swimming off its shores, they have everything going for them here. Some of the flavours I can almost still taste as I write include a fresh crab sandwich at the Driftwood Café immediately after a swim in St. Catherine’s Bay; sipping local wine and test chocolates at the islands winery, La Mare Wine Estate, run on a committed green basis by a Cork man, funnily enough; buying picnic ingredients at the Victorian covered Central Market in St. Helier, and the superb ice cream at the Classic Herd Farm Shop in St. Peter’s Village, which has all the supplies you could want if you are self-catering.

The ice cream moment followed a long day of cycling along Jersey’s greatest green coup – the Green Lanes. Launched in 1987, this is an 80kms network of country roads where the speed limit is 15mph (24kph) and where walkers, cyclists and horse riders are given priority.  All clearly marked on road maps as well as by very visible signs on the lanes themselves, drivers also seem to respect the spirit of what Jersey is trying to achieve here. Cycling up lavender lined paths, past flower filled gardens and potato-filled fields, cyclists and walkers all greeted each other, most of us visitors who are new to the notion that, for once, we had right of way over cars.

For green places to stay you can choose between yurts overlooking St. Aubin Bay (jerseyyurts.com), one of several historic forts right on the sea from jerseyheritage.org, a courtyard apartment attached to one of the island’s most sumptuous manors and gardens in St. Clement (samaresmanor.com) or in converted officers’ quarters attached to an early 18th century military barracks metres from the sea at Grève de Lecq Bay (nationaltrustjersey.org.je). Wherever you stay, you will soon see there are beaches and coves at the end of almost every cycle, bus or walking route here. In fact, it’s worth having a couple of sets of togs tucked in your backpack, and more than a couple of days on the ‘Rock’ where there are so many cherries for the picking, their bowl runneth over.

St. Aubin Bay, Jersey Photo: Catherine Mack

An edited version of this article was first published in The Irish Times in August 2011. For more information on Jersey see www.jersey.com.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Don’t let child abuse travel

Thai Police signing ECPAT's and The Body Shop's 'Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People' campaign petition Credit: ECPAT International

Most of us know that tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world.  However, travelling with the sole purpose of paying money for sex is also a form of tourism, and a multi-million dollar side of the industry it is too. And although these are not the type of economic benefits the world tourism industry boasts about as it develops across the globe, all sectors are set to benefit from it indirectly, including travel agents, hotels, airlines and taxis.

Less well known, however, is that over three million children are exploited for sex around the world. It was not surprising, therefore, that it was one of the topics being debated at last week’s United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) International Congress on Ethics and Tourism in Madrid, which I attended along with 450 people working in tourism. One of the key speakers was Kathleen Speake, Executive Director of ECPAT International (ecpat.net), a global network of organisations and individuals working together for the elimination of child prostitution, child pornography and the trafficking of children for sexual purposes. Speake not only managed to astound us with her stats and strategies, but also enlisted many of Spain’s leading tourism companies to sign ECPAT’s Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism, an initiative funded by UNICEF and supported by the UNWTO.

The Code (www.thecode.org) is for companies which are willing to put ethics before profits and already has 1030 signatories in 42 countries. ECPAT is not just about Codes and empty words however. They run international campaigns, lobby local governments to increase policing and change policy and  lead training groups for hotel and other tourism related businesses around the world.

ECPAT’s influence has been significant. In Thailand, for example, there have been more and more prosecutions relating to child sex tourism offences. But it is still happening, and although many prostitutes will claim to be over eighteen, few sex tourists are going to ask for ID. The town of Pattaya, for example, is notorious for prostitution, and you only have to put ‘bachelor holidays Thailand’ into Google or Tripadvisor see that the industry is thriving. In Leo Hickman’s book The Final Call (Eden Project Books, 2008) a serious piece of investigative journalism into the dark sides of tourism, he describes a visit to Pattaya where he saw “men sitting around tables with boys who look as young as ten…it seems gut wrenchingly obvious what must be going on”. They are rarely caught in the act of paying for or having sex with a child, however, as they groom the children in these cafes, and then have them ‘delivered’ at a later stage to their room. As Hickman puts it, “this is child abuse made as easy as ordering a pizza’.

And yet Pattaya, is a town which marketing website gothailand.com promotes as “The ideal family holiday destination” in one paragraph, and a place where “Beer bars and g o-g o bars are dotted all along main roads and side ‘sois’ (streets), and have earned a dubious reputation for Pattaya, but also happens to be one of the main draw-cards” in the next. Thailand is not alone, of course, with ECPAT providing statistics on many countries around the world, such as Mexico’s 20,000 minors being estimated to be victims of prostitution, Kenya claiming to have as many as 30,000 girls aged from 12 to 14 being sexually exploited in hotels and private villas, and Moscow alone thought to have between 20,000 to 30,000 victimised children.

According to ECPAT, the majority of people exploiting children for sex purposes are not all defined as a ‘paedophile’ either, but more often as a ‘Situational Child Sex Tourist’, i.e. “someone who abuses children by way of experimentation or through the anonymity and impunity afforded by being a tourist. He or she does not have an exclusive sexual inclination for children”.

So, what can we do? Support ECPAT through donations, but also check www.thecode.org to see which companies have signed up and, more significantly perhaps, which ones haven’t. Accor Hotels (which includes Novotel, Mercure, Ibis and Sofitel) have worked with ECPAT for eleven years now, for example. If your hotel, airline, tour operator or travel agency has not signed up, then ask them why not. And most importantly, as confirmed by ECPAT’s website, report anything suspicious directly to them as well to a local authority if you can. This includes if you see a tourist sexually abusing a child, a person selling a child’s services (including a taxi driver, waiter, café owner etc), a tourist trying to buy a child for sexual exploitation and a hotel or travel company allowing it to take place. Child abuse has shocked us for many years at home, but now the time has come to ensure that we don’t let it travel.

An edited version of this article was published in The Irish Times, September 2011

 

Posted on

Canopy and (five) stars

The Gypsy Camp, Essex Photo: Canopy and Stars

You know that feeling when you first open a box of Green and Black’s chocolates? Butterscotch is better than…Ok, let’s not go there. Well, when I first went on Canopy and Stars website, it had the same impact really. Each web page unwrapped a delicious, quirky place to stay,and  the choice almost overwhelming. Which is why I have invited them to write a guest blog, featuring places which are all accessible by public transport of one sort or another. I am all for leaving the car at home, so hopefully these places will inspire you to do the same. And after all those chocolates, it is best for me to get walking, cycling, canoeing there anyway. Over to the gang who created it…

Canopy and Stars.

 

“Holidays are great. Getting there… less so. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to stop at the M&S at the service station. You might even have a really good mix CD…

But it doesn’t have to be like that! Canopy & Stars, the leading new glamping company, is encouraging you to leave the car at home, and make your journey part of the fun! To get you started, here is a selection of unusual places that can be reached by unusual means…

The Gypsy Camp , Essex – where two Romany bowtop caravans lie between the apple trees in a private orchard – is connected to central London by the National Cycle Network, so you can cycle all the way there from ‘town‘. Or, if you don’t fancy propelling yourself, you can catch the train and arrange for Ann, the owner and creator of this rural gem, to pick you up in her pony and trap from Wickham Bishops, a short bus ride from Witham Station.

Millstream Camp, Shropshire – To reach this hideaway under the stars, you can take the single track line to Bucknell, a rural station so tiny the train will only stop if you ask the driver.  Let Carolyn know and she can arrange to have two bicycles waiting for you on the platform. Then it’s just a three miles down quiet Shropshire country lanes to the Millstream Camp, where a homely shepherd hut just for two awaits you. You can even cool off after your journey with a dip in the dammed Millstream.

A stable by the shore at Lochhouses Photo: Canopy and Stars

If you have access to a noble steed, you can gallop along the beach right up to the Lochhouses Safari Tents near Edinburgh, and stable your horse there, too! If you don’t have your own horse, don’t worry! Trains from Edinburgh Waverley to North Berwick take about half an hour, and there’s a trekking centre next door, so you can still go riding on the beach.

A ‘post bus’ sets off daily at 3pm from Llandovery, Dyfed (where the railway station is) and goes right to the bottom of the drive of The Cabin – a cosy octagonal space in the lush Cambrian mountains. If you can’t be bothered with all the stopping and starting as they pick up the post, you can always hire a mountain bike from the station (a very reasonable £3.50 a day) and cycle there.

The Mollycroft, a retired showman’s wagon, is less than a mile from the Coast to Coast walk, so an excellent place to stop off for a couple of days, and rest your weary legs.

You can reach On The Water, a luxurious boat in Regent’s Park, by bike (courtesy of Boris), horse (from Hyde Park stables) or canoe (hire from Pirate Castle). A stylish aquatic haven in the centre of London, On The Water is the perfect place to hide yourself away, or dip a toe in the city as you please.

Inshriach Yurt in The Cairngorms Photo: Canopy and Stars

The Cairngorms are cool, especially when you discover them by canoe. You don’t even have to bother with much portage, with Inshriach Yurt, right on the water’s edge at. Take the train to Kingussie, and paddle all the way there in around three hours (with a guide from Spey Descents, if you don’t have your own canoe). Go down the Spey, through the Insh marshes and across Loch Insh. Enter Inshriach waters half a mile from Loch Insh and 2 miles later keep your eyes peeled for a yurt on your right hand side. Disembark for divine canopy, and of course, stars.

And if you really want to make an entrance, why not charter the Yacht Infanta to take you to By The Beach – a luxury yurt with a private beach on the Isle of Wight. Canopy & Stars has a wonderful collection of glamping places including a treehouse, luxury yurts, Gypsy caravans… even a boat in Regent’s Park!

Posted on

Lanzarote, green not grotty

Just one of Lanzarote Retreat's stylish yurts

I never expected to come back from Lanzarote with a yearning to create.  Indeed, I can’t think of any other occasion when my expectations of a place have been so totally reversed, thanks in the main, to the place we stayed. Lanzarote Retreats is an eco hideaway, almost concealed from view from the beach of nearby fishing village, Arrieta, just minutes’ walk away, on the remote north coast of the island. Just a few elegant palm trees mark the spot of the finca, or farm, where Michelle and Tila Braddock, of UK origins, but living on the island for the last twenty years, have not only mastered a collection of eco designs, but also created an exemplary flagship of what sustainable, rural tourism can and should be.

The finca boasts seven yurts and a handful of cleverly restored stone and wooden buildings, including a stunningly romantic, converted water tower, an about to be completed eco barn, all powered by forty solar panels and two wind turbines, with spring sourced water and a grey water recycling system. The small community revolves around a communal, solar heated pool area in the restored farm reservoir, with an honesty shop built over a disused well, now housing everything from locally sourced water melons and bread to local wine. They now have the only electric car on the island, a very cool lunar looking mobile which they power using their solar panels. Click here for a photo of Twizy getting solar sustenance.

What’s more the local wine is good – another thing you wouldn’t expect from a place which is notorious for being grotty not green. There are wineries, or bodegas, spread throughout the heart of this volcanic island, with La Geria valley covered in thousands of craters dug into black sand, each home to an individual vine surrounded by a stone wall  to protect it from the island’s almost constant, and welcome, wind, so that they can thrive in this harsh environment.

This harsh beauty, with its fertile oases, is what makes Lanzarote so unique, and Michelle and Tila’s finca is a

microcosm of this, with yurts mirroring the soft mounds of the island’s myriad volcanic cones, and the stone renovations a reminder of a local determination it to survive here following first eruptions in 1730.

The general air of living life to the full at the finca, where chickens roam around freely and the much loved donkey, Molly, always brays a welcome, infused our holiday from the start. Although we had the use of a hybrid Toyota Prius, which came as part of our Eco Luxury Yurt package, Tila met us off the plane in his Prius, with a bottle of chilled bubbly in the boot to wash away any travel stress within minutes. Within minutes of arriving at their divine homestead, Tila had whisked our boys down the dusty path to the beach, complimentary body boards in hand, to show them where to catch the best waves. We sipped more bubbly, rifled through our pre-ordered box of local fruit and veg, and took in our sumptuous surroundings.

Our yurt was bigger than our home, with polished wooden flooring, swathes of fabric separating our bed from the kids’, a private terrace with daybed and dining area, an outdoor  kitchen with a view of the sea, and a private bathroom with shower and wooden bath. All enclosed by the finca’s signature stone wall, with cleverly designed windows set into it, so you never lose sight of the sea and swaying palms.

Lanzarote Retreats is not a product of the latest ‘glamping’ fashion, however. There are plenty of less ‘luxurious’ yurts on offer, still stunning, but with the use of a communal kitchen and shower, but with all the same gorgeous views and vibes. They are not trying to impose a glamorous retreat onto this quiet, rural spot, but simply letting their finca something organically and sustainably.

The Braddocks have always been inspired by the Lanzarote’s visionary artist and architect, César Manrique, who worked closely with local authorities throughout the late 20th century to prevent his homeland from resort ruination, and whose many architectural masterpieces built into lava bubbles and caves we visited and adored. To visit Lanzarote without imbibing the creative juices of Manrique is like doing Barcelona without Gaudí.

The Eco Luxury Yurt at Lanzarote Retreats

Manrique’s statue ‘El Diablo’ is the symbol of Lanzarote’s National Park of Timanfaya, and his restaurant is still at its heart, with meals still cooked using the volcano’s heat. Most tourists opt to tour the Park by bus or camel, but I avoided the tourist trail by trekking up Pico Partido volcano with expert local walking guide Marcelo Espino of Canary Trekking, one of a handful to have a walking permit within the Park. With superb geological knowledge, English and charm, he led us along dramatic lava flows, tunnels, craters and ridges, and finally up to the one of the best viewpoints of the island, where the geological magnificence was closer to my landscape expectations of Iceland than resort land.

Like the wild figs which thrive in the volcanic desert, or the fecund vines which blossom out of their otherwise barren foothills, Lanzarote Retreats proffers colour and life. We jumped off the local pier with a bevy of screeching local kids. We took a boat out to the small nearby local island of La Graciosa, camped on one of its secluded beaches, barbecued freshly caught tuna from its tiny fish shop, and snorkelled along its reef. The boys surfed, we all swam and I saluted the sun in the finca’s yoga class. On the last day I went hiking with Michelle straight out of the finca, up through the Temisa Valley, onto a mountain path which led to the artisan craft market at Haria.

On the way back we strolled into Haria’s cemetery where, hidden away, we found Manrique’s grave. Just a plain, engraved stone set into the ground, with a palm at one end and a cactus at the other it was, “Just as Manrique had requested”, the gardener told us. “It’s simple, natural beauty is really quite touching,” Michelle said and, as we strolled back down the side of the volcano, in quiet contemplation of the good things in life, I caught sight of her simple, natural creation among the palms far below, and smiled, thinking that her hero must surely be looking down on it and smiling too.

This article was first published in The Irish Times . For more photos see my Flickr collection