XL gone into liquidation

As you may know that XL, the UK's third largest tour operator, has gone into liquidation. XL customers who booked through a travel agent or paid with a credit card are protected and will get refunds, but those who paid by debit card will not.

For our AwimAway customers who are concerned, please note that we are ATOL-protected and that all holidays booked through AwimAway are guaranteed.

Weekend in South Africa - Where to go?

BOTSWANA
Southern Africa is becoming a new long-weekend destination for the British. There's no time difference, the flights are overnight (both ways), and you waste no precious daylight hours travelling.

The good news is that the aeroplanes depart around 8pm, so dinner; sleeping and breakfast are at the right time in the right order. The pleasure in travelling or sleeping overnight on a plane to South Africa however is that you wake-up to a different and dramatic landscape; fresh air and smiling warm faces and if you are lucky, some snarling animals as well.

BEFORE YOU GO
The best way to travel on your weekend is to pack light and travel easy. The out-going flight is on Thursday, so carry a bag, small enough to smuggle in and out of your office:

• Hand luggage can include your binoculars, camera and travel books you'll need on safari
• Arrive at the airport well before time to have a glass of champagne and some smoked salmon at the Caviar House.
• Travel in the loose chinos or combat trousers you'll wear for game drives, plus the baggy cotton or fleece jumper
• Take a pure down baby pillow: it squashes up small, you can cosy up to it on the plane and it's invaluable in the camps where pillows are hard.

JOHANNESBURG - MAUN
Your wake-up call is a few thousand meters above Johannesburg. You have the choice to eat on the aircraft or at the airport café that is decent and above the excellent book- shop. Buy Sasol's illustrated guide to the birds of southern Africa and the Sasol mammal book. This is the old Africa hand's library; your guide will be dead impressed.

From Johannesburg, there's a comfortable connection to Maun in Botswana. The two hour flight allows another opportunity for a nap or a quick introductory lesson from your book. At Botswana, we change into another plane for the last hop to adventure. The time to go to Botswana is in our summer when the Okavango Delta swells with water from Angola.

OKAVANGO DELTA
There is mystery and romance of the Okavango's waters. Much of the fun in viewing wildlife here is by a boat. Some prefer the big boat but the sound of silence is so potent that I prefer the traditional makoro. As we glide slowly above water, Hippos pop up on each side. We paddled to a far island where birds chatter volubly in the reeds. On ground, there is a herd of buffalo munching the water meadows and there are tracks of lion and elephant.

I spent my afternoon watching a fluffy, magnificent prince among raptors – the rarest, Pel’s fishing owl. He stood there contemplating us as I looked at him through my binoculars and hurriedly reading notes in my bird book. In the sunset, that was one of the most spectacular, we could see a lion pride feeding on a zebra.

En route to the tent we met the mamba, rampant, while I was withering along behind the camp manager. But when someone freezes in the bush, you shut up and freeze. The mamba dropped from its striking position and slithered off. I saw the swish of the most scary tail in Africa. Quite as bracing as my pre-lunch shower.

MOREMI WILDLIFE RESERVE
The next day, I flew to Khwai River Lodge in the Moremi Wildlife Reserve that has a drier, harsher environment. Moremi lies in the centre of the Okavango Delta. It is undoubtedly one of the world's most beautiful wilderness areas. Moremi is a place of lily-covered wetlands, grass plains and forests, where even at the busiest time of year you're likely to be the only spectators at even the most dramatic animal sighting.

The lion were at Khwai. Actually, the whole drama of life and death was at Khwai. Wild dogs are back here — a rare treat — and a pack drove a baby water buck into the river. The baby made piteous juvenile water-buck noises, its mother was frantic, the wild dog hovered at the river's edge. And the inevitable happened: the arrow-like ripple in the river, the black little eyes (nature's periscopes), the snap, the squeal, the thrashing hooves, the closing of the waters and Mr Crocodile had served himself dinner.

The next morning, while on a drive with our guide, we breakfasted with the lion. We were watching birth of a water buck in the reeds by the river’s edge when our guide heard the roar of a lion in the distance. Just as lechwe began its precarious journey in the wild, we drove into the wilderness.

The pride sat at their table without knife and fork but tidily eating their breakfast, a zebra. A few feet away and in our Land Rover, we opened our packed sandwiches. The lionesses regarded the vehicles with a lack of interest bordering on contempt; were one to get out, however, the time span between touching the ground and becoming a second course would be minimal.

CHOBE NATIONAL PARK
Our next flight hop was to Chobe, often described as one of, if not the best, wildlife-viewing area in Africa today. Savuti boasts one of the highest concentrations of wildlife left on the African continent. Animals are present during all seasons, and at certain times of the year their numbers can be staggering. Its uniqueness in the abundance of wildlife and the true African nature of the region, offers a safari experience of a lifetime.The most remarkable feature of the Chobe National Park is its huge concentration of elephants. But it's not just the elephants that make this special park worth visiting. It's so wild, a leopard made a kill in the Car park just before I. arrived and blood stains from a wild dog kill were still visible nearby.

Savuti Channel, a strange waterway that seems to have a mind of its own, bisects the park. The channel was dry for one hundred years, then flooded abruptly in the 1950s and remained flooded till the 1980s, when shiftings of the subterranean tectonic plates caused it to dry up again.The journey home is a sleepy crash- out, arriving back in good time in the morning. Jet lag? Ah, you don’t need to worry about that. There's nothing but buzz, excitement and a heightened sense of living; about going so far and seeing so much.

adventure and activity holidays

Thrill of caving - Where to enjoy?

“BY THE RULE OF THUMB, A MOUNTAINEER IS AN ADVENTURER” said Roger, a caving Instructor. I knew what he was getting at, but I wasn’t the least interested in going in to dark and dank underground places. I like the openness of the wide open valleys, beautiful vistas, fresh air and independence. Caving to me is claustrophobic but when you are upgraded to an adventurer, it is hard to pull out.

Roger, a fit-looking forty-something was going to be our instructor and leader the next day. We chatted for an hour or so during which he tried to explain the similarities between climbing and caving. “Oh, you climb up and then climb down, while we climb down and eventually have to climb up. It is no different than what you do” he said trying to make it look simple and easy. I couldn't decide whether to feel encouraged or not.

MENDIP UNDERGROUND
Unknown to him, I had been reading Mendip Underground, a caver's guide written by local experts Tony Jarrat and Dave Irwin. There was no mistaking what some of the technical terms foreshadowed: a low grovel, a muddy wallow, a wet flat-out crawl and a. desperate squeeze did not need translation.

The names of various features of the Mendip caving systems seemed similarly mixed in portent. The Ruby and Crystal Chambers, Princess Grotto and Harem Passage sounded appealing. But the Vengeance Passage, Agony Crawl and Sludge Pit Hole didn’t sound too good.

GOING DOWN
As Roger unlocked the door to the entrance to GB Cave the next morning, I started to think of Something Nasty In The Attic and Abandon Hope. Dressed in waterproof suits, helmets and lamps, I gazed down a squarish hole into darkness. Holding myself, I followed Roger down the hole, picking my steps on the metal ladder by the light of my lamp. It was dark and damp.

The cave was 3ft wide and straightened up with chambers out on each side and overhead. I could hear the scrape and shuffle of Jack bringing up the rear, a reassuring sound. We came to a place where the passage roof dropped sharply and the sides, narrowed in. My helmet lamp showed a short tunnel through the rock, roughly two feet square and maybe 5ft long.

The soles of Roger’s rubber boots gleamed momentarily in the opening, and then he was through with an athletic wriggle. I got down on my belly, shoved my arms out ahead, and wormed forward. It was impossible to squeeze through. The rock around me felt as if it was in-contact with every part of my body except my face, and that was laid ear-down in a puddle of mud.

“Turn on your side," came Roger's calm advice, "and just pull yourself forward." I did as he said but nothing happened. I was stuck. “Go back and try again” he said calmly again and again it was the same. After learning a few tricks lying down on the muddy floor, I slowly slithered out on the far side, as greasy as a new-born baby. Later, flicking through descriptions of desperate squeezes and right-angle corkscrews in Mendip Underground, I found that the little funnel I had passed through did not even rate a mention.

Then came a couple of 15ft descents down slippery looking walls of rock. That would be easy, I thought. With some experience in climbing and guidance from Roger about the cracks and hand-holds, I found I could spider my way down the vertical rock faces at the cost of a barked knuckle or two. It wasn't until the following morning that muscles I never even knew I possessed, began to complain about being woken from their 50-year slumber.

As we walked, crawled and crouched our way south, a couple of hundred feet below the grazing fields of Mendip, my lamp picked out gems of underground architecture: smooth curtains of cream-coloured flowstone coating the walls, tiny pale needles of stalactites dripping from the roof, helectite in hunches like coral or frosted cauliflower heads. "Calcite," said Roger. "You never get tired of the different ways it forms. Always different, always beautiful."

BEAUTY BELOW GROUND LEVEL
Turning around a corner, I found myself suddenly gobsmacked. What I saw was a breathtaking sight. GB's main chamber opened up in a vast cavern, nearly 100ft from floor to roof. A rock bridge sprang out across a ravine. Long stalactites hung among wavy curtains of calcite and haphazardly sinuating worms of helectite. Nearer at hand were smooth, round knobs of stalagmites, hobbling the chamber floor.

When caving first took off as a serious science-cum-sport in the 19th century, cavers would snap off calcite formations and knock down stalactites for their rock gardens. Finders could be keepers in that carelessly innocent climate of opinion. Nowadays the emphasis is on responsible caving: enjoy it, and leave it for others to enjoy. "Don't touch the stalagmites," Roger warned when he saw me stretch out a hand to the irresistibly rounded shapes. "We try not to spoil the decorations."

I knew well enough the kind of pleasure I had got out of my few hours underground: the sense of achievement in overcoming squeezes and rock climbs, the beauty of the calcite formations twinkling in lamplight; the feeling of being somewhere truly "other", yet part of a familiar landscape.

I call myself an adventurer but that is an old term that has long lost its true meaning. The real adventures are the cavers and what they do is real exploration.

adventure and activity holidays

How To Prepare For An Adventure Holiday?

“Work hard, enjoy hard” is the common dictum amongst the adventurers. It is indeed a follow-up of what they say in the army, “the more you sweat in peace the less you bleed in war”. The truth is that there's no alternative to training, be it army, sports or adventure.

Different activities and sports make specific demands on your body, so it pays to know which muscles you are going to need and how to make them stronger long before you leave home. Adventure holidays don't come cheap, and you won't get the most out of your trip if you spend half of it suffering from aching thighs or sore shoulders.

TREKKING
The best preparation is to head for the hills. Go for long weekend walks in Snowdonia, the Lakes or the Scottish Highlands. Gradually increase your pace and take routes that require rambling. Initially, you may feel comfortable to start from a B&B but follow this up with a camping routine. Remember, getting ready from within a tent does require more effort.

In the Himalayas, trekking is often at varied gradient, sometimes over moraine and at times over high altitude. And the pattern of the day will be different, too. You will be up at dawn and on your way before Sun.

Most adventure travel companies have their treks graded from mild, that involves about four to six hours' walking a day, through moderate with the occasional steep path to expedition grade. Different tour companies use different terms, so read the small print to know what you are letting yourself in for.

Contacts
Ramblers Association organises regular walks all over the country. They also produce a useful handbook and accommodation guide for the UK.

Essential gear

• Comfortable walking boots that you have worn already. I recommend leather over the fabric-panelled, which, in my experience, don't stay waterproof once the boot is worn in.
• Sun glasses or shades to protect the eyes.
• Clothing in three layers – thermals, a fleece and a breathable waterproof jacket and trousers.
• Mattress or Thermarest inflatable mattress and four-season, down-filled sleeping bag with a full-length zip.

CLIMBING
There are two types of mountain climbing: technical climbing with ropes over rocks, or climbing during trekking over snow and ice at high altitudes. For the Himalayas, you will need to prepare for the effects of high altitude. Most Himalayan climbers now prefer running to get their lungs intake more oxygen and stabilise their pulse beat below their normal rate. You will also need to prepare your upper body, so pull-ups are a good idea. Long distance walking with a rucksack will ready your muscles.

Contacts
British Mountaineering Council for more information about local clubs. Check at sports centres with a climbing wall about tuition. Scotland and Wales are the best places in the UK to practise winter climbing

Essential gear

• Most operators will send a list of gear provided by them and what you must take with you.
• Walking boots that you have worn already.
• Clothing in three layers – full thermal layer, a good quality fleece and a gortex waterproof jacket and trousers.

CANOEING
Canoeing can be of different types. It is important to consider the type of trip you are doing and in what vessel. Are you going on a long-distance river trip or dealing with technical white water? And will you be in a kayak or a canoe?

For a kayak, that requires sitting with legs forward in a closed-in boat with a double-ended paddle, you'll need flexible hamstrings to keep sitting comfortably.

For a canoe, where you’ll be kneeling in an open boat with a single-ended paddle, you’ll need a strong lower back and stomach because you are twisting to paddle on either side of the boat.

Few gyms have machines to simulate paddling, but any aerobic-based exercise, such as rowing or running, is good for endurance.

Contacts
The British Canoeing Union for information about local canoeing clubs and courses in the UK.

Essential gear

• Sandals but not trainers, as you may have difficulty getting them into a kayak, particularly if you have large feet.
• Neoprene socks, if it is cold.
• A swimsuit or trunks or quick-dry shorts and a lightweight thermal top.
• Eye protection in the form of shades, a peaked cap or both - with a strap to stop them falling off.
• Insect repellent — water attracts insects.

DIVING
The first preparation is to take the "Experience Scuba" module of the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) Ocean Diver course. Cost £20 and operates in swimming pools all over the country. BSAC also gives away free lessons during National Try Dive Week generally during September. During these sessions, which last for one or two hours, you'll learn the underwater signs, how to share air with your "buddy" and practise swimming in full gear.

It's the lower body — abdominal and hip muscles, the quads and hamstrings — you need to work out, and don't forget to keep ankles flexible for more productive fin movements.

Most adventurers are put off diving because they are not strong swimmers. BSAC says; you don't have to be a strong swimmer, it’s all about buoyancy

Contacts
Call the British Sub-Aqua Club for details of local clubs and courses.

Essential gear

• A wet suit.
• A well-fitting mask is important. Do the suck test: you should be able to “hold” the mask to your face, without using the strap, by just breathing in through your nose.
• Wet-suit bootees with a rubber sole should be bought rather than hired. If you have very small or very big feet, buy your own fins, too.

HORSE RIDING
Horse riding is fun but if you haven’t been riding enough, you can stiffen your thigh muscles on the very first day of your riding holiday. It will help if you work those inner thighs before you go. A riding-holiday specialist, recommends "doing the splits". Stand with your legs as wide apart as is comfortable and hold the stretch for as long as possible to strengthen the thigh muscles, which bear the brunt of the effort on your horse. Exercises that strengthen the back will also be helpful.

It's important that you are honest about the amount of riding experience you have so that organisers can match your mount to your abilities. In addition, I suggest that beginners should prefer a ranch-based holiday that allows you to return to your comforts, such as baths and massage, every night.

Contacts
The British Horse Society for a list of approved riding schools and companies running UK riding holidays

Essential gear

• Riding boots – for holidays you can take the short riding boots or the new riding trainers unless you have your classic long leather boots.
• Non-Specialists can take all-terrain boots, which are lightweight, compact and have some ankle support; but check that the sole is not so rugged that it might get caught in the stirrups.
• Trousers – Jodhpurs are still the trousers of choice or Jeans. Novices can wear jogging pants.
• Take your own riding gloves. Hard hats are provided by operators but take you own if you have one.

© Harish Kohli (2006).

Explorer, adventurer and mountaineer Harish Kohli is one of the most widely travelled Himalayan experts. He has visited almost every valley in the Himalaya and stood atop hundreds of its mountain passes. Share his vast knowledge and experience in the field of adventure holidays and activity travel.

10 Tips for holiday divers

On a diving holiday to Australia in January 1998, two Americans, Tom and Eileen Lonergan, joined a group in Port Douglas, near Cairns, for a day's diving on the Great Barrier Reef, 40 miles off shore. In the evening when the boat returned, unnoticed by either the crew or any of their fellow divers, the Lonergans were not on board.

Two days passed when the manager of the hotel where they were staying noticed their absence and raised the alarm. By the time the search was finally launched, it was almost certain that the Lonergans were dead.

No one knows what happened to them, whether they eventually drowned or were eaten by sharks. Either way, their end is too horrible to Imagine. A few months later, one of diver's waterproof notepad was found in a mangrove swamp. In the faded writing that was still readable was a horrifying message. “To anyone who can help us… we have been abandoned… please rescue us before we die.”

All adventure sports carry risks, and diving is no exception. When complications arise in diving, they can quickly become potentially fatal with an alarming speed. Most of these are due to human error but can be avoided if precautions are taken before hand. Practice and experience do help but the key to safety is in the preparation. Here are ten tips to remember.

1. Training and Practice
Learning to dive is a bit like learning to drive. You arc not a competent driver when you have passed your test – you need to broaden your experience before you have gained true competence. You can begin by joining the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) that has branches throughout the UK and in several overseas locations. At the BSAC courses, diving skills are taught progressively so that each new experience is built upon step by step.

2. Select Qualified Operator
When diving on holiday, you have to be dependent on your operator. If you are going to trust your life on their equipment and experience then it makes sense that you spend some time in selecting the best. Divers should ensure that the operator is affiliated to one of the main international diving associations, such as the BSAC, PADI or CMAS (World Underwater Federation). If possible, talk to the operator and get to know the depth of his local knowledge.

3. Undertake a Refresher Course
Take a refresher course before you go. Most accidents happen with divers who go on a diving holiday without preparing enough mentally, physically, equipment-wise or experience-wise. PADI recommends that all divers complete a refresher course if they have not dived for six months or longer."

4. Be True With Your Diving Record
Maintain you diving record. Before going on a diving holiday, check your record. Go on a refresher course if you are not confident and inform the operator how long it is since you last dived. Some dive operators would look at logbooks to establish your experience.

5. Equipment
Use the correct equipment because to put into practice what you have been taught in theory is crucial – and more difficult than it may seem. There have been instances when a single item of the equipment like a diving knife can make a difference between life and death. Avoid cheap equipment.

6. Buddy System
Divers depend for their safety on their fellow divers. This is why the "buddy system" – always diving in pairs – is taught by all the main agencies including the BSAC and PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors).

7. Make Friends with People Onboard
Incidents similar to Lonergan have occurred not for the first time. People have been forgotten in the sea. If you are a holiday diver and no one on the trip knows you, make agreement with another member of the party to watch out for each other. The trip operator should be doing this, but arranging your own back-up plan is a sensible precaution.

8. Remember Your Lessons
Most accidents are caused by human error, when divers panic and forget what they have been taught. The most serious transgressions include diving solo, lack of buoyancy control, decompression mistakes and inexperience with equipment.

9. Intermittent Holiday Diving
Accidents occur more frequently to those who dive only from time to time. A diver with the right paperwork is technically qualified, however long it is since his last dive. But it takes time to reacclimatise and techniques that used to be second nature require relearning. Practise makes the man perfect.

10. Are You Physically Fit?
Before going on a dive, ask yourself, if you are physically fit? Small instances like a bad cold can be dangerous. The pressure and infection on the eardrum can disturb the sensitive mechanism of the inner ear for life.

All divers must accept responsibility for themselves. And that means never diving when there is any doubt as to their own competence or the competence of the operator.

Adventure Travel Holidays

Wecome from Harish of Awimaway

Hi,
Up till now, Harish has rejected pleas to write the story of his best Himalayan adventure saying, “I want to keep the secrets of the Himalaya”. Now at last, after 25 years, Harish breaks his silence and agrees to tell the story in his own words. This blog is about his many adventures and favourite expedition – the Trans Himalayan Expedition, which made history in the world of mountain exploration.

About the Author
Harish took tiny steps at the age of 8, to climb the Himalayas on a religious trip. This trip left a lasting impression on his ethos. His quest for a life of adventure led to a lifetime achievement Award for Adventure and his name in the Limca Book of Records, India's equivalent to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Little did Harish realise then, that his deep passion for adventure would take him across four continents leading trekking, mountaineering, skiing, riding and river guiding adventures and wildlife safaris to India, Spain, Bolivia, Peru, Tanzania, Namibia, Madagascar, Guatemala and Belize among others. He has climbed high on Mt Everest, crossed the Norwegian Arctic on skis and run across Iceland. He is the author of "Across the Frozen Himalaya", the story of his treacherous ski journey across the Himalaya.

Harish will write in this blog about his adventures and favourite expedition – the Trans Himalayan Expedition – which made history in the world of mountain exploration.


More about Harish:
Explorer, adventurer and mountaineer Harish Kohli is one of the most widely travelled Himalayan experts. He has visited almost every valley in the Himalaya and stood atop hundreds of its mountain passes. Out of his vast experience and passion for adventure came the idea of finding a ski route across the Himalaya. This became a 2,000 km marathon ski traverse in near-Arctic conditions and a journey of exploration into unknown regions. He wrote the story in his book ‘Across the Frozen Himalaya’ and the famous explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, OBE, wrote the foreword.

Harish Kohli is the founder of the Asian Geographic Trust. For his contribution to exploration and adventure, he has received the Vishist Seva Medal from the President of India and the National Adventure Award. His two record-breaking expeditions are in the Limca Book of Records (India’s Guinness Book of Records).

As a young man, Harish lived and worked in Australia for a time, skiing in the fashionable resort of Thredbo and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. In recent years Harish has led several expeditions to different parts of the world, spending over a month in countries on the four continents. He has explored the Amazon jungles in Bolivia, taken the Machu Picchu trail in Peru, followed the Maya Trail in Guatemala and Belize, swum with sharks and stingrays in Caye Caulker, off Belize, taken a desert safari across Namibia, climbed Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, and followed humpback whales off the coast of Madagascar. He has ski-sailed alone across Lappland, northern Norway, ran across Iceland to raise funds for cancer research and climbed to 8,000m on Mt Everest.

One of his first adventures was also his best. In 1981-82 he conceived and led the first traverse of the Himalaya, covering 8,000 km on foot in 475 days, a pioneering journey of adventure and discovery. Much emulated since by other travellers, the expedition has been praised as the “the best in Himalayan history” and the legendary mountaineer Reinhold Messner said of it, “What I do vertically, you do horizontally”.