A couple of weeks ago I met a young woman, Katrina Sokk, who is organising a fascinating trek to Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, as part of the charitable organisation Ladies Trekking. This is not like every other charity trek, however. The aim of the project is to send a group of 10 women, internationally renowned for their achievements in life, up Kilimanjaro. It will take place in February 2013, and Katrina got in touch with me because she is looking for another (ideally female) photographer to join the trek. My first thought as a possible trekker was Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and all round genius in terms advocating human rights of course, and my second was Clare Balding, all round broadcasting genius, who kept the Olympic flame of sports coverage well and truly burning for the duration of the games.
Back to photography, however….The women’s journeys and stories will be recorded in a high quality book, called Dreamers and Doers, which will be a collection of inspiring stories and breathtaking photos of those extraordinary women who take on the trek.
And the reason for taking on the trek? For every copy of Dreamers and Doers sold (and they aim to translate it into several languages and sell 500,000 copies), one textbook will be given to Tanzanian children, depending on their age and education level. Most importantly, they will be textbooks compiled to cater for the needs of the local children, not Western imports of Enid Blyton hand-me-downs. In order to help children get an education Ladies Trekking Virtual Club established the Impatiens Kilimanjari Charitable Foundation to help find the right textbooks because, as Katrina points out “We often see charitable donations whereby people in Europe and America send school supplies to Africa. Unfortunately, these textbooks and supplies are used in American and European school systems, which means that they are often unsuitable for the African context. African children must learn from textbooks prepared in their cultural space. They have to learn about the history and traditions of their own countries. Textbooks prepared in our cultural space cannot be used with the textbooks of other cultural spaces. We can learn and share the educational experiences of our own cultural space, but we should let every country use their own opportunities and initiative”.
Ladies Trekking 2011
So together, the trekkers will bring the message “Everybody is entitled to education” to the summit. The book will not only profile the trekkers (or ‘education ambassadors’ as Katrina calls them) and their journeys, but also address problems concerning education around the world, locally and globally.
Could you be the other photographer? Are you experienced in capturing people’s journeys as well as the journey itself? The commitment as well as the climb? All expenses plus a small fee will be paid, so if you are interested and have relevant experience, please contact Katrina Sokk , Email: katrina@ladiestreking.com
There is a growing network of travel writers committed to responsible and green tourism. Rooksana Hossenally is one of them, and so I am delighted to have her write a guest blog on this site – introducing We Love Green Festival, this coming weekend in Paris – and Rooksana – whose writing we also love…..
The environment has become big business for some, and a way of expression for others. Finding a page dedicated to green issues once in a while in your local paper, or favourite glossy, is now the norm, but something that stands out from the rest is the annual We Love Green Festival.
Now in its second year, it is the first festival with the environment at its core. The Paris-based three-day event, We Love Green, is an appeal to our awareness of our impact on the environment via live performances by artists like Norah Jones, Charlotte Gainsbourg, James Blake, the Klaxons, Beirut and Django Django, but also through a series of stands manned by various local environmental associations and several workshops. Because let’s face it, we know how to sort our rubbish into different piles now, but what else can we do with it? Leaving out the ‘here’s one I made earlier’ Blue Peter edge, no one’s going to ask you to stick two toilet roll tubes to empty yoghurt pots, which will magically become a dolls’ house for your nieces. No we’re talking scenography workshops using reclaimed materials to create furniture and signage already in gear for the festival kick-off in a week’s time.
Photo: Mar One
Like at all festivals, there will be several stands of food, clothing, and all sorts, including a place you can charge your phone by pedalling on a bike, a group of ‘pixie’ hairdressers who will be making sure everyone’s barnet is styled for the occasion, the Starck-designed Volteis V+ buggies will be seen carrying artists and equipment from one end of the site to the other, various art exhibitions will be happening, as well as green design inventions revealing future possibilities of bettering the way in which we use the planet’s resources. The ‘Green Peas’ area will be up and running, educating children of all ages about the impact each one of us has on the environment through a series of workshops and games. Also part of We Love Green, don’t be surprised to see, among the park’s century-old trees, a somewhat different type of green: Heineken green. Okay, so the beer brand is more dollar-green than grass-green, but this is a festival after all, and what festival would be, without beer? And although no one’s pulling the wool over our eyes about We Love Green being another marketing ploy for the brand, Heineken, will be hosting a key part of the festival with its ‘Green Room Sessions’. Located in its own leafy wooden contraption it will provide another area for festival-goers to enjoy the spirit with a jukebox playing sounds from the psychedelic tunes of Django Django to the folk rhythms of Beirut.
However, household consumer brands like Heineken and Philippe Starck aside, We Love Green has positioned itself as an experimental crossroads for exploring new ideas. And like at its first edition last year, the ‘Green Team’ will be onsite to distribute earplugs and disposable ashtrays. Water fountains will also adorn the site providing free water and saving on plastic bottles. This year however, the team pursues its goal of creating a festival that is 100% green by composting all waste generated during the event. Even the recyclable tableware the food stands use will go on the heap. The clan will be teaming up with the association, OrgaNeo, to test a composting system that relies entirely on worm activity. The bulk of waste generated by the festival will be carried off to a factory in Dreux, a neighbouring region, where composting can be done on a larger scale.
A festival anchored in present-day issues, which the Because.tv clan holds close to their trendy hearts, We Love Green is a ‘disposable’ festival; it doesn’t impact the land it occupies nor does it disturb the park’s eco system in its logistics. Running partly on solar energy, it is a festival that questions the resources that we have and what can be done with what we have as opposed to living on borrowed resources…borrowed because if we continue to live beyond the means nature offers us at the current alarming rate, it is only be a matter of time before the reality of an Earth stripped bare really hits home – quite literally. So We Love Green is still a festival and it’s still fun, and the Green Team knows there is still a long way to go before We Love Green can be a fully functioning paragon for future festivals – but it’s a damned good start.
We Love Green will run from Fri 14-Sun 16 September 2012 at the Jardin de Bagatelle, Paris 16, France. For full details see the We Love Green website (in French only). Tickets are available here (free for children under 12 years old).
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) is inviting tourism businesses, organisations, and destinations worldwide to apply for its prestigious Tourism for Tomorrow Awards.
Each year, the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards recognise global leadership in sustainable tourism best practices. Due to its rigorous three-step judging process involving 22 independent expert judges from all around the world, and including an on-site evaluation of all award finalists, the Awards have become one of the highest accolades in the global Travel & Tourism industry.
Applicants should demonstrate how they are actively engaged in a successful programme of sustainable tourism practices and management, including maximising social and economic benefits for local people, reducing negative impacts to the environment, and supporting the protection of cultural and natural heritage in destinations where they operate.
Award applicants may enter in one of four Award categories: Global Tourism Business, Conservation, Community Benefit, and Destination Stewardship and can submit their entries online at www.wttc.org/tourismfortomorrow until 26 November 2012.
David Scowsill, President & CEO of WTTC said: “The Travel & Tourism industry has immense influencing power and has the potential to raise awareness and initiate action on the sustainability agenda among consumers, employees, and governments.
With its ninth year under WTTC stewardship, the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards are rewarding top sustainable tourism practices globally. These are outstanding examples, reaching new heights in the world’s sustainable tourism advancement.”
Finalists and winners receive complimentary flights and accommodation and will be recognised during a gala Awards ceremony which takes place alongside WTTC’s Global Summit in Abu Dhabi, UAE on 9 April 2013, attended by Travel & Tourism industry leaders, government representatives and members of the international media.
Costas Christ, Chairman of Judges, stated: “A tremendous amount of work goes into the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards each year. These Awards are truly global in nature, with a team of nearly two dozen judges from all around the world, ranging from indigenous tourism leaders to international sustainable tourism experts, and hailing from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.
One day there will be no need for Awards that recognise sustainable tourism best practices. Care for local people and the planet will simply be a part of how every tourism business operates. Until then, the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards are shining a light on the sustainable tourism visionaries of today that are helping to lead the way forward.”
In 2012 ‘Destination Røros,’ won in the Destination Stewardship category, ‘Saunders Hotel Group’ won the Community Benefit Award, ‘Inkaterra Peru’ won the Conservation Award and ‘Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts’ won the Global Tourism Business Award.
The strategic partners of the 2013 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards are Travelport and the Travel Corporation’s TreadRight Foundation.
Tucked up in a ‘secret cinema’ in the middle of the ancient town of Teguise, Lanzarote on what feels like a secret rendez-vous with my loved one, the lights dim. Dramatic scenery from Lanzarote’s barren, volcanic magnificence, the location for Pedro Almodóvar’s film Broken Embraces, skite across the screen to cheers from the small, but bursting with pride Lanzarotian audience. And proud they might be, as they have managed to keep their stunning island a secret from many of us for years.
The best kept secret is, of course, that Lanzarote is a land of sensuous beauty. ‘You’re going to Lanzagrotty? Why on earth…?’ friends said, but I had been seduced by one particular company’s website for years, keeping an eye on its progress, and finally found the opportunity to visit it. Lanzarote Retreats is an eco-enclave located in the fishing village of Arrieta on the island’s remote northern coast. We had all been feeling cold to our bones after last year’s winter of discontent and, like so many, craved some real sun. So, with enough carbon credits under our belt to justify the flights, we went in search of the green, not the grotty.
Michelle and Tila Braddock, of UK origins, but living on the island for twenty years, created Lanzarote Retreats because they wanted to share some of their beloved island’s secrets, and do so in a sustainable way. They began by restoring an old farm or ‘finca’ , starting with a stone water housing unit or aljibe, now a luxury villa, and expanding organically into its own little universe, with yurts dotted around the place like the stars and stone cottages like petite planets. All revolve around a central pool area with honesty bar, yoga sessions, paella evenings, or just chilling out on the giant daybed. It is an eco-design coup, the yurts mirroring the soft mounds of the island’s myriad volcanic cones, and the stone renovations a reminder of locals’ determination to survive in an otherwise arid, infertile environment over hundreds of years. But also because although there are many options of accommodation to choose from, they are positioned in such a way that you are never aware that there are quite a few people staying here, meeting a family here, or a honey moon couple there, some people happy to enjoy the privacy of their self-sufficient yurts and others enjoying the communal camping vibe by the solar heated pool.
The pool at Lanzarote Retreats Photo: Catherine Mack
You don’t even need a car to come here, as Tila will meet you at the airport in his eco Prius, with a bottle of bubbly to wash away any travel trauma, his equally bubbly personality infusing us all with Canarian cameraderie, as he whisks us down to the beach (just minutes’ walk from the yurts) just as soon as we have downed bags, to show us how to manage the surf (body boards provided outside every yurt, of course). The finca is about ten minutes’ walk along the beach from the village shops and a few excellent tapas bars too, one of which, the Bar el Pesquito is right by the water, tucked away in a corner beside Lanzarote Retreats’ other accommodation, ‘The fisherman’s cottage’ which, although separate from the main site, still has the same sussed, sustainable and sassy vibe. It is so close to the water, you could cast your line from bed in the morning and go back for a doze while waiting to catch your breakfast. It also overlooks the small pier which became part of our daily ritual, swimming out to it from the beach, joining the local kids who jump off it, and swimming back into the beach again. A few rounds of this and you have earned your tapas.
Tila and Michelle, as well as having excellent eco credentials, with wind and solar power, water sourced from a spring while recycling all the grey stuff, free range chickens with eggs for those who can get out of bed early enough, also promote local excursions in an impressively low key way. We took a rib boat out to La Graciosa, another of Lanzarote’s secrets. Just a mile or so off shore, we went on a day trip to this small white sandy island which, along with four other islets make up one of the largest marine reserves in Europe. Totally unspoilt, it has sandy streets, a chapel dedicated to its fishing traditions, barren paths where you can hike between two volcanic peaks and crystal clear swimming and snorkelling. This is also where we bought some of the best fish of our trip, straight out of the wheelbarrow of a local fisherman who had just arrived into the fish shop, providing us with eight enormous tuna steaks which we barbequed back at the finca, washed down with a bottle of Lanzarotian Malvasian white from our honesty bar.
Catherine descending into Arrietta after a hike to Haria Photo: Catherine Mack
Lanzarote is a walker’s dream, and despite it being August when we visited, I managed a few serious hikes. Starting early in the morning, and always bringing my ‘Camelpak’ of water, I had a couple of very special outings. With over one hundred volcanoes on this island, it is extraordinary to think that the peaks which add such character and undulation to the geography here, did not exist before the first eruptions in 1730. Before this time, the land was fertile and fecund and as my walking guide, Marcelo Espino of canarytrekking.com, explained, there are now just a few spots of lichen and a few fig trees which we enjoy harvesting to give us a bit of an energy boost as we walk, as signs of re-emerging life forms.
Marcelo is one of a handful of walking guides who leads hikers across the highly protected scenery of the volcanic Timanfaya National Park (for more information see turismolanzarote.com). You need a permit to roam across the dramatic lava flows, tunnels, craters and ridges, and most people choose to do this on a bus trip or by camel, but I couldn’t recommend a morning with Marcelo more highly. An expert geologist, charming raconteur and full of local anecdotes, he led a group of six of us up one of the volcanic peaks, Pico Partido. It was one of the highlights of visiting Lanzarote, and my only regret was not taking the kids, as they would have loved this guy and it sure did beat traipsing round the Park on a bus. You have to touch the lava for the geographical history to come to life, from the tiny volcanic ‘lapilli’ stones underfoot, which turn to larger, hollow coals the more we climb, or the rough jagged boulders which lie in random spots depending on where the violent eruption sent it, all of which contrast highly with the swathes of smooth, labyrinthine lava flows which had moved slowly, snake like almost, down the peaks all those years ago.
Enjoying the soft sands of La Graciosa island Photo: Catherine Mack
One of the most spectacular scenes in Almodóvar’s film is an overhead shot of the protagonists driving through the black, barren interior of Lanzarote. There are mini craters all around them, which are in fact mini oases, each one home to a well protected and carefully nurtured vine. Aesthetically beautiful in their defiance of nature’s harshness, they hold the secrets of Bacchus. Similarly, Lanzarote Retreats, tucked into its own natural hollow at the bottom of the Temisa Valley, holds the secret to sustainable and sumptuous tourism. All we’re hoping for now is that we get a chance to go back for a sequel (for a humble amateur film of our stay, however, you can click here)
This article was first published in Ireland’s Southern Star newspaper.
