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Hiking in the heat

Catherine’s son cools down under a water pump while hiking in Alps early May during unexpected heatwave

I was recently asked to contribute to an article on ‘Dangerous Places to Visit’. I politely declined, as warzone voyeurism or ‘extreme’ excursions are not really my thing. I did ask them if they would like an article on my skating across Sweden’s frozen lakes, which is about as dangerous as my world gets really, but that was so not on the danger meter compared with what some people like to put themselves through on holiday.

A slow paced walking holiday is my ideal really. However, with temperatures rising there are now growing concerns about the safety of walkers. Just a few weeks ago, a tragedy occurred when a 78 year old British hiker died from a heart attack, after struggling with the extreme heat while she was walking on Gran Canaria. As temperatures hit 38 degress Celsius six other people, all in their sixties, were rescued that same weekend, suffering from problems relating to heat.

I, like so many others, read this with horror, knowing that even though these hikers were not new to long distance walks, they could be struck so suddenly by the heat in this way.  And even though they were in their more mature years, some of the fittest and most agile walkers I meet on my travels are twenty or thirty years my senior. And, I must admit, that I have hiked in extreme heat and never given it a second thought, as long as I had my usual water, sunscreen and a hat. But of course, there is so much more to take into account, whether you are five or fifty and the British Consul for the Canary Islands gave me ten of the best when I admitted that I wasn’t perhaps as knowledgeable as I thought I was:

  1. Don’t hike alone unless you are an experienced walker and are familiar with the area (guilty)
  2. Always plan your trail in advance.  There are many useful websites with well researched routes (more or less)
  3. Choose an appropriate trail according to your fitness level (Emm, guilty).
  4. Take a map with you and don’t go off the trail (Not guilty, but map not always brilliant quality)
  5. Wear appropriate clothing and footwear for the weather and length of your hike (not guilty).
  6. Take enough water and food (always pretty good on that one).
  7. Don’t forget other essential gear like sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat (ten out of ten).
  8. Inform someone of where you are going and when you expect to return (Guilty)
  9. Take a fully charged mobile phone with you (Guilty).
  10. Phone 112 if you urgently need assistance (OK, I always confuse the international emergency code with 121, I admit – see European Emergency Number Association,  for details)

    Timanfaya National Park in Lanzarote where you can only walk with approved walking guide

Another great piece of advice came from Amanda Marks, Managing Director of Tribes Travel, one of the most exemplary travel companies in terms of ethical and sustainable practices. Just back from Botswana, Amanda told me, “ I’m probably a good one to ask about this problem, as I don’t cope with the heat at all well, yet love going on walking safaris etc.  As soon as it goes above 25 degrees I struggle, but I have learned to cope with this in a variety of ways.  Firstly, shade.  I always walk wearing a hat with a wide brim all the way round. On top of this, if it’s REALLY hot, I take an umbrella.  Yes, I get a lot of stick for that one, and it’s not practical all the time, but can provide much needed shade at critical times.  Secondly, hydration.  Most people know to drink lots of water, but I always add rehydration powders to my water.  It gives you extra salts and sugars that help your body cope with the heat.  Thirdly, choosing your times. Apart from choosing the months which are less hot, I also choose my times of day quite carefully. Always walk in early mornings and late afternoons.  The middle of the day is most definitely siesta time for me”.

So, my hydration salts are going to be a firm fixture in my Camelbak from now on, and if you haven’t heard of Camelbaks, a brand of hydration pack,  check them out. There are many cheaper versions on the market now and when I have lots to carry, I just take the inner section out and transfer it to my normal day pack. Another expert is Carol Palioudaki, resident agent of Pure Crete which offers walking holidays on this stunning island, as well as a superb collection of holiday accommodation all owned by members of the local communities. She says that “People really don’t think about the heat risks, or they underestimate them. We always warn our clients here in Crete that when temperatures are above 35 celsius hiking becomes dangerous. Our body temperature is 37 celsius so when the outside temperature goes above this, the body can’t cool itself. The best time for walking in Crete is during the spring and autumn, but even then mini heat waves can pose a risk. The dangers of walking in extreme heat are well know in Crete, and the Samaria Gorge, one of Europe’s longest and most demanding gorge hikes, closes to visitors during extreme local heat waves” .

Guilty on so many charges, La Graciosa, Canary Islands

Gran Canaria is also home to a superb English travel writer, Matthew Hirtes who, if you are a fan of this part of the world, is worth checking out, either on his blog, Gran Canaria Local,  or via his book, Going Local in Gran Canaria (Summertime Publishing, 2012). His thoughts are also worthy of adding to the walking wake up call to those of us, myself included, who have been guilty of walking on regardless.  “What was most depressing of the recent hiking tragedies on Gran Canaria”, says Matthew “ is that they were  so preventable. There’s a reason for the hiking season being from October through to March on Gran Canaria. And that’s because the island is politically Spanish but geographically African. Heatwaves originating from the dry and dusty Sahara, which is a lot nearer than the Iberian Peninsula, make hiking a no-no from April through to September. I recently completed a round-island trek at the tail-end of March and it was heavy-going. The surprisingly verdant interior of Gran Canaria offers a whole new world to explore beyond the bucket and spade. But there’s a time for this place and it’s certainly not May”.

And a few final thoughts to throw into the mix from a spokesman at the British Embassy, following the Canarian tragedy. As well as concurring with all the above, he wisely added that tourists should “bear in mind there may be no supplies of fresh water in the mountains and hills. Streams will often have dried up” and “be aware that the Catalonia region has started charging negligent hikers, climbers, skiers and other adventurers who have to be rescued. The regional government has recently started sending bills to all people who required emergency rescues, to encourage others to be more careful”.  He also couldn’t stress the importance of travel insurance highly enough, adding that “If you need to be returned to the UK it could cost between £12,000 to £16,000 for an air ambulance from the Canaries”. All sobering stuff – not that I paid attention while walking along Pembrokeshire’s Coast Path in Wales a couple of weeks ago. After a night of storms, it suddenly hit a cloudless 24 degrees, and not a bit of shade in sight. I didn’t even have my Camelpak, just my usual aluminium water bottle and certainly hadn’t packed a rehydration sachet. This was Wales after all. After three hours of walking, I had to take a rest under a gorse bush, slowly sip what was left of my bottle, and then walk off my route for a couple of kms to find proper sustenance. I can honestly say I have now learnt my lesson.

 This article was first published in The Southern Star newspaper, Ireland.

 

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Urgent appeal to keep Goa ‘going with the flow’

If you love Goa, then you have a chance to take action to preserve its most vital resource – water. There are so many injustices going on with relation to water that the majority of tourists don’t have any idea about, and the fact is that water which is being made available to tourists in contrast with that available to people who live there has hit crisis point. Which is why I am asking you to urgently sign a petition to the Goan government, as part of an campaign led by Tourism Concern, the Council for Social Justice and Peace (CSJP) and Eco Footprints to urgently address the overexploitation of Goa’s water resources by  a growing numbers of resorts and hotels.

Petitions do make a difference, especially when they have an heap of tourists behind them, upon whom Goa’s economy heavily depends. New research by Tourism Concern entitled Reclaiming Water Rights – Towards and Equitable Social Contract in Goa will also give a strong spine to the petition landing on the Ministers’ desks, which indicates that the luxury tourism sector is being prioritised over domestic and small-scale livelihood needs.

For example, findings show that residents in the popular resort town of Calangute receive piped water for just two hours every two days. Traditional community wells are becoming unusable due to pollution and over-extraction, forcing a growing dependency on inadequate public supplies and infrastructure. Meanwhile, nearby resorts boasting swimming pools and golf courses enjoy a continuous water supply. One 5-star hotel in Benaulim consumes up to 1,785 litres of water per guest per day, compared to just 14 litres per day by neighbouring villagers. One guesthouse owner in Calungute comments,  “The wells here have been contaminated for 10 years. The contamination has been partly caused by soak pits from tourism. Dirty water leaches into the ground. The soak pits are illegal. In the hot, dry season – March, April, May – we get water for 20-30 minutes a day…. Many people depend on tankers.   Local people sometimes feel angry, but they recognise the benefits that tourism can bring. But it is we ordinary people who are suffering. We are drinking this water, they are not. Some can afford to buy water, some cannot.”

Dumped waste and sewage behind hotels at Colva Creek Photo: Tourism Concern

It does not mean that you shouldn’t go to Goa, enjoy your pool, shower or golf course, although using water responsibly, just as we do at home these days, does help.   Real immediate change must start at government level, so that urgent improvements can be felt straight away among the local population, who need water urgently.  “The Government of Goa must respond to this critical issue and implement the recommendations of our report, Reclaiming Water Rights – Towards an Equitable Social Contract in Goa. We urge them to instigate a clear regulatory framework for water and tourism management, implement existing laws and improve infrastructure to ensure community water rights don’t come second to major resort developments”, says Mark Watson, Executive Director of Tourism Concern.

The research simmers with discontent, quoting many local people who are now panicking about this life threatening issue. Geraldine Fernandes, another guesthouse owner in Benaulim says, “I have a well, but the water level is going down.  When they build these new developments they dig a borewell with a pump. My well water has significantly declined. I’m now running dry by February… There’s so much environmental destruction and garbage, and lack of proper sewage treatment… We are not anti-development; we want development that protects our livelihoods.”

So please, if you love Goa, take thirty seconds and sign the petition here to keep Goa going.

 

 

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The people I meet

Ben Rramat and Ben Longisa with Catherine in Masai Mara, Kenya

I remember pitching a column idea to some editors a few years ago, on one of those ‘if you don’t ask you don’t get’ sort of days. It had the working title of ‘The People I Meet’.  My aim was to get human stories onto the travel pages and, in the process, create a consumer awareness of responsible tourism without labelling it such. So many people get uptight about terminology linked to the responsible tourism movement but my feeling is that, call it what you will, it always comes back to people. Predictably I received several polite ‘no thanks’ to the pitch, but the one which stood out was from a leading broadsheet which just said “We and our readers want to read about places, not people.  If you could get an interview with Richard Branson, however, we might run it”.

So, I put the idea to bed for a while, and in my own way, still try to incorporate the people I meet into my travel features. For example, Ben Llongisa, the Maasai elder whom I met a few years ago and who, against all odds, has created a lodge to host tourists in his village of Enkereri in Kenya ( see the video thanks to The Travel Foundation). I remember one of the editor’s arguments against ‘people stories’ was that they don’t sellholidays and, in an effort to keep their sponsors and advertisers happy, they need to talk about the place first and foremost. However, ever since leaving home at eighteen, it has so often been people who have lead me to a place, not effusive editorial or ‘on brand’ marketing campaigns. In fact, it was hearing a Maasai elder speak at WTM about how they just ‘needed a voice’ that made me want to go to Kenya in the first place.

Christine Kieffer, donkey conservationist and mountain guide shows us our route through The Alpes - to be led by one of her donkeys

Of course, I accept that not every traveller wants to holiday in order to ‘give people a voice’ or indeed, an ear. But I do believe that people’s stories do often influence our travel choices. The success of the much missed BBC Radio Four’s Excess Baggage or popular books such as A Year in Provence are simple examples of this.  Last year we had the honour of hosting Michel Awad in our home, the co-founder of the Siraj Center in Palestine, an interfaith, community based tourism initiative in Palestine, which runs walking and cycling holidays. Michel talked to us about his fascinating organisation, which works closely with the Palestinan Center for Rapprochement Between People, enabling them to partner with many grassroots organisations to discuss and act upon issues such as water distribution and, of course, changing tourists’ perceptions about Palestine. Palestine is now at the top of my list of places I hope to visit in the near future, not because of a PR pitch or an alluring article, but because I met a lovely person doing extraordinary work there.  I will certainly be needing  a people-phile editor to commission that one as the stories will, hopefully, be worthy of a weighty word count.

It was a great relief, therefore, that humans were being put back in the heart of tourism at the recent  Tourism Industry and Human Rights meeting in London, co-hosted by the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) and Tourism Concern . Speakers from the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, Water Aid, International Business Leaders Forum, Minority Rights Group, and the the International Labour Organisation (ILO) all agreed that human rights issues have been at the top of corporate agendas in other industry sectors for a long time now, and that tourism has a lot of catching up to do. Not for the want of trying, I am sure Tourism Concern wanted to shout out, the charity which has been putting people first for a long time now, and giving a voice to many people who wouldn’t have had a hope in hell of being heard in the past.

Zinaib, a Berber woman, teaches me the basics of weaving in Morocco

In other industries, speakers reminded us, the commercialisation of an industry needs to take into account all the costs involved and a true analysis of the social, or human cost should take place in tourism destinations as well. There was a lot of talk about UN Guiding Principles, endorsed in June 2011, which outline how States and businesses should implement the “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework in order to better manage business and human rights challenges. So, do destinations which are marketing themselves for tourism protect their country from human rights abuses by travel companies, for example? Secondly, adhering to the corporate responsibility to respect human rights in all tourism activities, and then thirdly, providing greater access to victims to seek a remedy for any injuries resulting from human rights abuses.

The tourism industry was also being urged to get a system of due diligence in place quickly if they were to play ethical catch up. What are the country’s human rights risks, are you linked to them in any way, how transparent are you being about these risks, and do you have adequate remedies available when, as one human rights expert stated ‘ when bad things happen’ ?  Tourism businesses were being advised to ‘stop being the experts and go out and see what people think on the ground – not just once, but often, as human rights issues change all the time – and if you don’t engage you won’t know’. We are not just talking about the Burmas and Balis either here. This could involve child sex tourism in Eastern Europe, inhumane working conditions in the UK hospitality sector, or people displacement in Scotland in the name of a golf course.  And if, as a tourism organisation, you are super proactive in the area of remedying some of these issues, then these are stories you might want to shout about. And hopefully, if any editors out there don’t want to shy away from the human element in tourism, I can then share.

David Job, owner of Yarde Orchard eco bunkhouse and cafe on North Devon's Tarka Trail

By writing about people who are creating a force for change in tourism, we can not only assist them in seeking remedy, but we can also simply remind tourists that human beings and their homes are central to our holidays.  I stayed at a Cretan house a few years ago, and we invited our hosts in for a bottle of wine on the first night. A bottle of home made wine they had been kind enough to give us, by the way. In spite of our language barriers, we enjoyed the wine, more wine, songs, laughs and warmth. And then more wine. When we left, our host told us we were the first UK family in twenty years of hosting, to invite him and his family in. This is far from a human rights issue, but for that human, it was certainly a big issue. If it is this hard for us to even say ‘hi’ on holiday, then we have a long way to go before we hear the real stories behind the smiles. But, we have to start somewhere.

 

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All inclusive holidays – the way to a ‘better world’?

A beach in Togo Credit: Tourism Concern

Since leading holiday company, First Choice decided to make 100 per cent of its holidays ‘all inclusive’ packages this year, it has grabbed the headlines. An all inclusive holiday is one where flights, accommodation, food, drink and entertainment are paid for in advance of the holiday so that customers can, more or less, leave their wallets at home. Demand for such holidays has been increasing over the last few years (a third of all package holidays booked in the UK are all inclusive now)  and so First Choice says that this switch over is merely a response to customer demand. In spite of the fact that the company has a responsible tourism plan which is crammed as full as an all inclusive buffet. A veritable smorgasbord of sustainability, in fact, which proudly states that, “We in the travel industry often get to meet those who are most affected by the big social and environmental issues of today. So perhaps this gives us a greater chance to create a better world through the way we operate”. So, is the all inclusive holiday the way to a better world?

I pick First Choice merely because it calls itself the ‘The home of the all inclusive’, but of course there are many other companies offering similar packages. First Choice even has an all inclusive calculator on its website, where you can work out just how much you are saving,  compared with staying at the local villager’s apartment, buying fruit and vegetables at his mother’s market stall, eating at his uncle’s restaurant, renting canoes from his neighbour, and buying ice cream from his best mate. Don’t do that, First Choice says, because you can get it all in their resort and at half the cost.

“We are just doing what our clients want us to do’, emphasised First Choice’s representative at a recent debate on the sustainability of all inclusives, as if to suggest, it’s nothing to do with us, we just have a duty to uphold.  So, imagine this. A region such as West Cork in Ireland, the Isle of Wight in England, or the Pembrokeshire in Wales,  is suddenly marketed as THE next destination for, say, Russian tourists. The Russian tourists want casinos, golf courses and all day buffets, all within the resort gates, with no access to local people, except to come and clean the rooms and serve the food. The use of locally produced food is not guaranteed, no one needs to use local cottages, canoes, walking guides, car hire, bikes, markets, tourist offices, gift shops, bakeries, pubs,  etc. Looking at the ‘I want therefore I get’ school of commerce, it’s not hard to imagine what the reaction of the host nations would be.

The ‘pro’ argument for all inclusives is always that local people should be happy because they offer ‘employment’. At a recent conference on responsible tourism, when one international hotel chain which was boasting its ethical practices in the Caribbean, because it was now buying all its jam from an island producer, I challenged them: “Why stop at jam?” I suggested, “Surely there are so many other products you could source locally?” to which the response was, “Have you any idea what that would do to our profit margins? And anyway, we employ hundreds of people here every year, which is more than they had before we arrived.”

Sustainability Manifesto for Lanzarote outside home of island acclaimed artist Cesar Manrique Photo: Catherine Mack

In a BBC television interview last week, where Nick Longman, Distribution Director at First Choice defended the decision to move to a 100 % all inclusive model, he said “Businesses have to be innovative in how they get to customers and I would also suggest they would want to work with our hotels”, adding that First Choice is “developing dine-around programmes, where we may give people the opportunity to go out into the town to eat and drink in bars that we have relationships with”. This suggestion that, for example,  traditional cafés selling cafes con leche and cervezas were just not innovative enough or, indeed, commercially minded, is beyond patronising.

I also asked a representative from the Spanish Tourist Board recently, who was agreeing that all inclusives were not a positive model for the Spanish economy, why they just didn’t go out on a limb and ban them. “We can’t do that, it is a free economy, they can do what they want”.

Until the customer starts to say no, that is. Especially if it is, as suggested, solely customer desire which drives boardroom decisions. Many customers are capable of calculating the real costs of costa del consumerism, especially if they know that only 10% of tourist spend in Turkey makes its way into the local economy due to the all inclusives, for example. Or that in Kenya, 87% of tourists go on all inclusive holidays, and yet over half of local people live on less than $1 a day.  These statistics are from recent research from Tourism Concern, the leading UK charity campaigning against the exploitation of human rights in tourism, which is currently leading a campaign highlighting the destructive impacts of all inclusives in destinations all around the world. Check out their online questionnaire on the subject, to give much appreciated feedback on these issues.

Jost Krippendorf, author of a superb book The Holiday Makers (Butterworth-Heinemann) put it perfectly in his detailed study of the impacts of international tourism:  “Why has the loss of local autonomy – certainly the most negative long-term effect of tourism- been totally ignored? Why does the local population tolerate it?…the determining factor is perhaps the very nature of the process: it creeps in, moving on soft soles and one only becomes fully aware of it when it has reached an advance stage. Tourism is a kind of friendly conquest, which takes place not only with the acquiescence of the conquered, but at their explicit invitation” and that eventually, “foreign infiltration it total”. He concludes that “it is a new and devious form of colonialism, because it creates, in a butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-its-mouth way, a new dependence and exploits people and resources”.

The fact is that all inclusive resorts are not always the cheaper option. I used the First Choice all inclusive ‘calculator’ to see just how much a saving they say I would make if I buy an all inclusive holiday in Lanzarote, compared with a self-catering one. For a week in July, with two adults and two children, they offer a deal of £2768 (Sterling) all inclusive, and claim that a similar holiday on a non inclusive basis would cost £4349. Although the calculator is not an exact quote, described as merely an ‘entertaining tool’ , I thought it would be equally entertaining to compare the cost of staying at a wonderful eco-friendly glamping resort which I wrote about earlier in the year, Lanzarote Retreats. Here are the approximate costs for a family of four in Sterling: Flights £800 (quote from 29 April 2012), accommodation, £700, airport transfers £100, day trip to water park £100, day trip to local island £122. Total:  £1822. If I were to add on £946 for food and drink for the week, that would bring me up to the same cost as First Choice’s all inclusive deal, as opposed to the £4349 they were suggesting. And even eating out a couple of times, buying fish from the local fishmonger, shopping at the local markets, buying the finest Lanzarote wine at €10 a bottle,  I can make a grand a week spread a long way and have an wonderful and truly sustainable holiday. So, you can consume and care, without it costing you or your hosts a fortune. But at the end of the day, the real choice is yours.

Lanzarote Retreats, a sustainable and sublime alternative to the all inclusive resort Photo: Catherine Mack

(An edited version of this article was first published in The Southern Star newspaper, Ireland)