In the first article I talked about the best ways to avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes and consequently how to avoid catching some of the many diseases they carry. Here we will look at a few of the most common and well known of those diseases and the consequences of not using your DEET based insect repellents and mossie nets properly.

Malaria

This is the one mosquito borne disease that eclipses all others. With up to 300 million cases of malaria reported each year it kills more people worldwide than any other disease. It is actually caused by a parasite that is injected into an individual along with some of the mosquito saliva, and from this initial point of invasion within minutes heads to the liver and sets up home where it develops over a period 7 days – 1 year. When its ready to leave the liver it may have reproduced into 40,000 parasites all ready to cause fever, illness and possibly death within a few days. Every year about a thousand travellers from the UK will get malaria, unfortunately a handful of who will become seriously ill or die. The initial effects of the disease are very similar to a mild viral infection, headache and general malaise, but it will rapidly move onto severe fever and chills, profuse sweating, diarrhoea, stomach pain and cough. At this point if it is not treated correctly it starts to get nasty. Many people are reluctant to take medications that can prevent malaria because of stories they have read about in the media, or something that happened to a friend of a friend. Those that have had malaria and recovered (which most people do) have described it to me as the worst case of flu that they have ever had and definitely not something that they would want to experience again, these people invariably take their tablets wholeheartedly and come back for more!

Dengue Fever

Whereas malaria is carried by a night time biting mosquito, dengue fever is transmitted by a daytime biting cousin. It is present in Asia, Africa and Central/South America. It frequently causes outbreaks in various countries but a fairly recent outbreak in Brazil was massive and present all along the Eastern coast, it resulted in thousands of cases including professional footballers and plenty of tourists and travellers. In otherwise healthy westerners it is rarely fatal but can be very serious and even the milder cases can be a very unpleasant experience. It is known in many places as ‘breakbone fever' because of the severe pain felt by sufferers, after about 4 days or so you often get a very fine rash followed shortly by a full recovery. If you happen to be a child, elderly, immunocompromised or just unlucky, the disease can move on to what is known as ‘dengue haemorrhagic fever' (DHF for short), this will generally happen if you have had dengue before and been careless enough to get it again. There is no vaccine against dengue fever at the moment although we are hopeful that there will be a good vaccine on the market very shortly. It is therefore important for an individual to reduce the number of mosquito bites received during the day as well as during the evening.

Note: Insect repellents should always be applied after sunscreens, and it's worth bearing in mind that DEET based insect repellents may reduce the effectiveness of your sunscreen.

Yellow Fever

This virus is carried by another type of daytime biting mosquito and is present across all of Sub Saharan Africa and a majority of South America. It is not currently found in any parts of Asia though the conditions are right, and therefore all Asian countries are doing their best to prevent its introduction. Unlike malaria, it is found in even the largest urban populations and apart from bite avoidance the best way to prevent catching yellow fever is to have the vaccine before exposure. The vaccine takes 10 days to become fully effective, but following this short period virtually 100% cover is achieved. When you are vaccinated you are given a little certificate that becomes your ‘yellow fever passport'. It is the presentation of this document that allows travel across borders in Africa, South America or travel to an area such as Asia when travelling from an infected country. The disease manifests itself initially as fever and jaundice (hence yellow fever), but again can move on to become haemorrhagic yellow fever for which there is no specific treatment except fluids to treat the shock and internal blood loss. Yellow fever can be fatal in almost 50% of non-vaccinated individuals during an outbreak, so that vaccine is well worth getting.

Japanese B Encephalitis

Although very rare amongst travellers it a potentially very serious disease present throughout Asia, although it occurs only very, very rarely in Japan. It is caused by a virus spread via the bite of an infected night time biting mosquito that breeds mainly in paddy fields. The most commonly infected animals are pigs and fowl – wading birds etc so in order to be in an area of risk you need paddy fields just around the corner and pigs at your feet. Actually quite a common sight in Asia but it also tends to have seasonal outbreaks especially at the end of the rainy season, for example around May in the southern areas of Nepal. If you think that you may be in these risk areas at high risk times there is a vaccination course available of two or three shots but you really should start this course a minimum of 38-40 days prior to travel.

For more information, visit the Nomad Travel web site: Nomad Travel or call the Travel Health Line: 0906 8633414 (calls cost 60p per min) to discuss your travel health queries with a medical.

Having decided that my hair was in desperate need of some care and attention, I decided to be brave and try to get my hair done. The word for hairdresser in Portuguese is Cabeleleiro (and no, I still can't pronounce it properly) and because of that I decided to do the coward's way and go to El Cortes Ingles where I thought I could wing it. Well after prowling ladies underwear twice (very glamorous and quite a lot of men wandering around!), I approached an assistant and managed to make myself understood and she directed me to a very smart hairdressing salon.

Well the interesting thing was that not one of them spoke English so I found one who spoke French and the rest was down to sign language and pointing at pictures in magazines (I knew that word at least but as for tint, cut etc forget it). There is no appointment system apparently in this country, you turn up and just wait. I got there around 4.00 and left at 8.00!

I decided I was sick of being my wonderful three shades of red as it had gone a very strange colour in the sun so thought I would go back to blonde. This was indicated to the staff by pointing at an assistant with what I thought was a nice shade of blonde streak! You are given the usual gown but you have a pocket on the arm into which they put what treatment you are having i.e. cut, colour, manicure, pedicure etc.

The backwash is very high tech; the chair has a series of buttons on the inside of the chair arm which allows you to raise the lower part of the chair so you are practically lying down. All the women are beautifully turned out as you would expect and as it was all a bit of an adventure, I decided to go the whole hog and had a pedicure and manicure as well. This is quite entertaining as the manicurist follows you around whilst you are having your hair washed, cut, coloured etc. All in all it was a great experience and my hair looked brilliant as well as my nails. Cost-wise it was on a par with where I used to go in Bath, but it was a high class department store.

Some other interesting things about the city are the fact that the metro system is small and very efficient. It is also amazingly clean and considering the seven months of hell I had using the District Line, someone from LT should take a look. You never seem to wait more than five minutes for one either. The trams are good fun. The No.28 is one that does a circular trip and is very handy if you are down in town with a heavy bag – Lisbon is made up of seven hills and I live on one of them! The fare is 1 Euro! I got stuck in a tram jam the other week which as amusing as it means that no cars can get by as trams have right of way. There were four No.28s in a row. Before I got on it, I heard one of the old dears waiting at the bus stop saying that she had seen four No. 28s go the other way and none hers – reminiscent of the London bus problem.

I never fail to be amazed as how silly some of the tourists are over their personal safety here. When I was wandering around Feira da Ladra (Thieves Market held every Saturday and Tuesday), you spot them with rucksacks or big bags on their backs and it is so easy for pickpockets to lift wallets and purses from them in crowds. Women in particular seem to lose all common sense – they wear totally inappropriate outfits and cause great amusement when you see them bright red and staggering around in shoes suitable for premieres rather than sightseeing. There again men who are follically challenged really ought to wear hats!

We went to the outskirts of Sintra (Lord Byron thought it was wonderful – gardens, palaces etc etc) with a friend who has a car and investigated a garden centre. Now this was interesting. There were the usual pots etc but the plants were fascinating. Large bougainvilleas, lemon trees, lime trees, climbing roses, herbs etc. Some plants were the same as in the UK and others were new to me. I settled for pots (60p for terracotta 23″ ones!), some herbs, a climbing rose, something called a plumbago and an amazing large lavender. Inside it has the usual candles, pot pourri, plastic flowers etc – it's run by an Englishman apparently. After we had finished there, my friend took us to Sintra to try a tearoom. Everything in the tearoom was for sale, from the plates to the pictures. It was a very eclectic mix and had that “I think we should whisper” atmosphere that you find in posh tearooms like Castle Combe! Anyway they do a mean cream tea, which consists of three scones (warm), jam and cream, a piece of cake and a tea of your choice – excellent! Afterwards, to walk it all off, we wandered around Sintra.

Sintra was where the Portuguese Royal Family used to escape to in height of the summer heat. There are some amazing houses/villas as well as palaces on the top of mountains and in the main square. One of the palaces, the Pena, you sometimes see on tourist posters – it looks like something mad King Ludwig of Bavaria would have built. It's all different designs and colours and quite spectacular to get to.

I have got involved with a local theatre group – The Lisbon Players – via my Portuguese teacher. She invited Derek and I to go to a workshop on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. It was a very entertaining evening and by the time we left, I had been asked if I would like to get more involved with them. I have now been made Stage Manager for the production as well as Task Force Director to help them raise funds and gain a higher profile.

They operate out of a lovely old theatre – Estrela Hall – that originally used to belong to the British Hospital. It has a certain faded glamour (dust) and does quite a few productions each year. We start work on the production in the next two weeks and then I shall be thoroughly occupied most Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday evenings with rehearsals all the way through to Christmas. Obviously it is unpaid but it means you meet new people, which is great. Shakespeare is very popular with the Portuguese and is on their education programmes so you get a good mix of audience.

Sally can be contacted by e-mail on: Sallypethybridge@aol.com should you wish to ask her any questions about Lisbon or Portugal in general.

I am an artist and one who, not surprisingly, is drawn (no pun intended) to the sun, the sea and a beautiful landscape. Now, obviously, you don't need to be an artist to appreciate those sorts of things. I, on the other hand, do like to make paintings of them and it is because of that I would like to speak of a group of islands that lie off the north coast of Sicily. They are called the Aeolian islands and there are seven of them, steeped in history and wound into the fabric of myth. That, as they say, is another story, for now I would like to explore briefly only two of the seven islands and the first of those is called Stomboli.

Arriving at a small jetty, a long beach of black volcanic sand stretches away to your right and the tangle of tiny streets of Stromboli village lie ahead. Jasmine and bougainvillaea ramble over the garden walls, the narrow lanes are lively with scooters and “ape” a type of tiny three wheeled truck. Walkers are there, kited out for the rocky paths to the volcano summit. Behind you the spiky outline of islets break the blue water.

It takes about an hour, walking along a pleasant road through fields, from the square in front of a pretty church, at the top of the village, to the lower slopes of the mountain. Another couple of hours on a steep but well-marked path brings you to the peak, 918 meters up and as you arrive the craters explode dramatically, shooting stones and hot ash high into the air. This happens every twenty minuets or so and it's quite safe as long as you stay on the paths, strong shoes are a good idea, the ground is hot. These regular explosions give rise to the term ” strombolic action ” which prevents pressure building up to a major eruption.

By day the view of the other islands is stunning. Particularly from the high ridge on the southern side. Night hikes with a guide, or a night boat trip to the north-eastern side of the island offer spectacular views of the red hot lava flows and fiery explosions.

From there you board the ferry and eventually arrive at Alicudi. On the map, if you've got one to hand, it is on the other end of the group, the most isolated and the next island that I would like to speak of. Uniquely car free, Alicudi is a near perfect cone, over six hundred meters high and only 2.5 kilometres across. The rugged slopes are covered with huge prickly pear cactus, gorse, carob, olive and wild apricot trees. Surprisingly, in times not long past, over a thousand people lived on this tiny island supporting themselves by growing their crops on narrow terraced fields.

Over the years that number has dwindled and the population is now only about one hundred and life is quiet. Mains electricity arrived no more than a decade ago and the major water supply is still rainfall, caught off roofs and collected in wells on the terrace of each house. It is charming and quaint.

Hawks and ravens wheel high above and bright green lizards dash away as you explore. The sea is very clean and rich with fish, shrimp and shellfish, and, so the locals tell me, ideal for snorkelling although I've never done it but, from the look of it, I could well imagine.

At night you can see the lights off Sicily's north coast, 20 kilometres away and on days when the haze has evaporated, about this time of year, the snow covered slopes of Mount Etna are visible, the black summit streaked with red lava. Colour seems to be the theme of these islands, it really is a painters paradise, so much so that you don't need to be a painter or an artist at all to appreciate it. The imagery around you is just so strong and peaceful at the same time, the countryside so unspoiled. It is just one of those places. I have painted in country that is beautiful to the eye but putting it down on paper can be very difficult. One finds ones self inventing, a bit of red here, a bit of yellow there, not because it's in front of your eyes but because the painting needs it and so you make it up. Alicudi and the other islands are not like that in the least, the place is there to paint. The hand runs riot along with the eye. To my mind, not only an easy place to paint but a pleasure and pure joy, if for nothing else but to just sit and look. A tiny little haven almost at the end of Europe.

Murray Hubick is Canadian, now living in Kent in the U.K. As an artist his time is divided between work in the studio, teaching art and as much travelling as possible. He is currently in the process of organising an art excursion to the islands for the coming Christmas/New year and would welcome anyone interested to join him in having an espresso overlooking the sea in the sun on New Years morning.

Murray is happy to answer any questions on Sicily, so please e-mail him on: murrayr@onetel.net.uk