catherinemack – Ethical Traveller

Wilderness Scotland – wild and awake to its country’s future

It’s ten years since I canoed the Great Glen Canoe Trail with leading Scottish adventure company, Wilderness Scotland, one of the most exhilarating journeys I have been on in the last decade. At the time, this adventure company was already a leading light in sustainable tourism, boasting a minimal carbon footprint and wholeheartedly supporting local communities. Ten years on, I`m taking another journey with them to see if their eco-lights are still shining. From the minute they pick us up from the Caledonian Sleeper at Inverness station in a Tesla, I realise that they are still firing on all carbon-free cyclinders.

One of the best Croatia travel books you will find

If you are planning a trip to Croatia, Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, this poignant memoir, My family and Other Enemies, by Mary Novakovich (published by Bradt Guides), about travels to her native lands in Lika, Croatia, is a must read. I have just put it down, watery eyed and feeling just a teeny fraction of the loss that Mary must feel every time she has to part company with this incredible piece of the world.

Was an Interrail Pass a good Christmas gift?

Our family travel plans were stymied by COVID-19 during Christmas 2021, and so I decided to give my sons an Interrail Pass each for Christmas instead, so that they could at least look forward to adventures ahead. I also gave them a HostelPass each, so that they could get discounts in hostels on their travels. And, because you have to have a book in your stocking, the most recent edition of Europe by Rail, by the brilliant Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries was tucked in there too. Both of the lads travelled during late July and August 2022 and they were 19 and 22 at time. Now, over to them to hear how they got on.

Travelling to Cornwall by sleeper train

Catherine marks a milestone by taking the sleeper train to Penzance, Cornwall, and wipes the sleep out her eyes at Jubilee Lido, followed by a blissful weekend based at Chapel House boutique hotel.

And suddenly there it was. The empty nest. Given that there is no Hallmark card to mark this maternal milestone when our children finally take flight, I decided to mark it myself by taking a trip I had planned to do years ago, but never managed to get together. Taking the sleeper train to Cornwall, do some hiking and Hepworth, swimming and spacing out and, basically having a weekend all to myself.

It was September, of course, that time of year when so many young ones head off into the world, and so the Great Western Railway (GWR) Night Riviera had cabins free, and my name all over one of them.