Independent travel in Europe – Seven Secrets for Success by Karen Bryan

One: Do not try to see and do too much.

You may end up actually seeing very little. I think it is better to see more of fewer countries/regions and see them properly. You may not want to stay in one location for your whole trip. However if you choose carefully it may be possible to do several day trips from one central location. If you do decide to tour, consider spending at least two nights in some of your destinations. It can be quite tiring being on the move every day, packing and unpacking.

Two: Decide on mode of transport.

Driving will give you more flexibility but can be daunting at times and is not recommended if you mainly wish to visit cities. You may decide to take your own car if you live in Europe. If you fly you can hire a car. Beware of extra charges for additional drivers, insurance excesses, airport charges, out of hours charges etc. I always book a hire car through a UK company, with no excess.

If you use a budget airline try to only book direct flights. If you book a two leg journey, the budget airlines will not assist you, as they only operate a point to point service. Public transport is pretty good in most of Europe. There are also several budget airlines you can use between countries e.g. Ryanair and Easyjet.

Three: Be aware of security of possessions.

Use a money belt, hotel safe etc. Do not have all your money/cards in one purse or wallet. If you lose it you are in trouble. This happened to me when I was in Milan: I was travelling alone and was left penniless. My credit card company did transfer funds to me but it took 24 hours! I had to borrow 10 euros from the hotel receptionist. Make sure you have travel insurance and if there is an incident get a written report from the local police station, to enable you to make a claim. Four: Try to learn at least a few words of the language.

This will be greatly appreciated. My French is what you might describe as school girl (that was 25 years ago) but I do try when in France. Often I receive the reply in English but at least I tried. I always apologise if I cannot speak the language. I don’t assume that the person I am talking to should speak English, I ask in their language if they speak English. As I do have a Scottish accent, I try to speak more slowly and clearly than usual, certainly not raising my voice.

Five: Don’t be too structured.

You should allow some time just to wander around, enjoy a leisurely lunch. You do have to plan an itinerary, or you can just waste a lot of time, but it doesn’t have to be written in stone! Allow yourself the opportunity to be spontaneous.

Six: Don’t just stick to tourist traps.

Try to visit some authentic local restaurants, markets, villages, etc. where you will meet local people, rather than just other tourists. Surely part of the reason for going abroad it to experience at least a little of the local flavour, not just spend all your time with other tourists.

Seven: Book your accommodation in advance.

This may mean that you miss out on a charming establishment you come across in your travels, (you could always stay there on your other trip). However it will mean that you don’t waste precious time going from hotel to hotel trying to find a room, having to arrive early enough at your next destination to look for accommodation. I am not even convinced that you save money by last minute searches.

Karen Bryan is an independent travel consultant and writer, specialising in less well known destinations in Europe. Her websites are: www.europealacarte.co.uk, www.europe-culture-activity-tours.com/

My name is Greg McKenzie and I’m currently taking a break from earning a living to do something which has festered in the back of my mind for a while now – a major motorcycle trip.

I’m going to ride the length of the Americas south to north, starting January 2005. I’ll be visiting friends on the way and hopefully making some new ones too. I anticipate it will take me six-months – but in truth, I don’t know and more than that, I don’t care! I’ve taken many road-trips before – often on the bike, sometimes in a car – very often to the south of France, occasionally further a field. But these have been mere appetisers – building an appetite to embark on this one big adventure.

Up until now now, I’ve never ridden into the sunset without knowing when I need to be back. The timetable of work, annual leave and mortgage payments dictating my thoughts, attitude and agenda.

The broad plan is to visit the southern most town in the world (Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego) and riding to the northern most point of the north American landmass (Deadhorse, Alaska).

This is the plan :

• PART 1: Ride to as far south as you can get (Ushuaia – 55deg SOUTH)
• PART 2: turn around and head as far north as you can go (Deadhorse – 74deg NORTH)

There’s beauty in simplicity! What could be easier? So this is the ambition and the basis of the preparation.

FIRST LEG – South America

I land in Buenos Aries, Argentina on 21st January 2005, briefly travelling north to visit Montivideo, Uruguay before turning south heading for Ushuaia, just short of Cape Horn.

I then turn north again trek around Patagonia, based out of Punta Natales, Chile and continue on through Santiago and the Atacama desert into Bolivia. Across the border into Peru and head north again to Quito, Ecuador.

SECOND LEG – Central and North America

The bike will be flown to Panama from where I’ll continue heading north through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Mexico.

I intend to visit the Baja peninsula for some sea-kayaking and more trekking before continuing up into the USA stopping at Los Angeles and San Francisco on the way.

Across the border into British Columbia, Canada and on towards Anchorage, Alaska. From Fairbanks I’ll take the 400 mile solitary road towards Deadhorse and the the Arctic Ocean.

The bike is all set to go but it needs to go to Liverpool (!?!) to get a Dangerous Goods Certificate, basically means somebody checks that I’ve drained the petrol and disconnected the battery.

My flight is booked for Thursday 20th Jan with Iberia – I’ll arrive in B.A. late night on the 20th. I’ve booked a swanky hotel, if only to ensure I can get some English speaking help for picking the bike up. There’s a bunch of stuff that was intended but hasn’t happened, but I’m keen to get under way.

YE-HAW…….arrived in Buenos Aires 11.30pm on 20th Jan. The adventure begins!!!

The last couple of weeks before I left were manic..suddenly the motivation is get things done increased remarkably as the deadline sharpened.

Departure day was mighty long..after a few quenching ales the night before, I was left to pack the gear until 2am. Then up at 4.30am to catch the connecting flight to Madrid . Buenos Aires is minus 3 hours to GMT so the beer in the Hotel Nogaro tasted so goooooood!!!!

Despite the beer enhanced pack-job, I haven’t noticed anything missing. I even remembered to bring the bike keys!!

Initial thoughts on Argentina and Buenos Aires are great. People are friendly, prices are incredibly cheap, the food is copious and great quality (steak and red wine – perfect for a gout sufferer as myself) and the city easy to navigate. The taxi driver drove like like a nutter from the airport and he didn’t stand out (!) so looks like I’ll be right at home.

This morning I swapped the rather average hotel breakfast for a much better offering from a café on Plaza del Mayo. Coffee so think it could stand for election. A few photo´s are attached below to get a flavour of the city. In truth I´m still seeing the parts of B.A. that some Minister of Tourism encourages us to see. Despite taking a stroll away from the tourist / shopping centre today towards the more ´bohemian´ San Telmo barrio this afternoon (lots of shaded cobbled streets and quaint antique shops) I´m still on the tourist trail I think.

The bike arrived in one piece – good. I´m getting restless already. If things go to plan I´ll be on the road on Tuesday (25th).

If you want to know more about Greg’s travels, visit his website at: http://www.unbeatentrack.com/

Framed by glowing sunsets and a bountiful canopy of stars, lies the Kruger National Park. The park, rich in biodiversity, was established in 1898 and stretches for 350km (approx 140 miles – within the park itself the road network measures in at about 1300 miles) from the south to north along the Mozambican border before meeting up with the Zimbabwean border. A paradise for the wildlife enthusiast with close to 150 mammals to be on the look-out for, amongst them six cat species, the park also has more than 500 species of birds and over 300 species of trees for the visitor to identify. With its subtropical climate, the large habitat variety and a surface area of 19 633km², the park is home to a spectacular array of fauna and flora and is undoubtedly the world leader in dynamic environmental management techniques and policies based on experience gained over more than a century.

Most national parks also offer organised night drives or early morning drives in park vehicles with guides, but they have to stay on the road and take place at set times, so many people hire a car themselves to explore the parks on their own. Most parks have rest camps, and — depending on the park – a range of accommodation, from camps and huts to bungalows and guest houses. Most accommodation is equipped with self-catering facilities, although many camps do have shops, and some have restaurants.

In the last 20 years most of the fences have been removed between the private reserves and South Africa’s Kruger National Park, allowing game to roam freely. The most famous of the parks is Sabi Sands where you can find well known lodges such as Londolozi, Singita and Mala Mala. The Timbavati area is slightly further north and is well known for its large populations of elephant and buffalo.

When to Go

Between October and March, when summer rains transform the dry landscape into a flowering paradise, the park is alive with baby buck and migratory birds, but at the same time temperatures can hit over 105°F (40°C), dropping to 68°F (20°C) in the evenings. The foliage can often hide game, and this is when the risk of malaria is at its highest so you are advised to take a course of anti-malaria drugs.

In the winter, when water is scarce and the plant life dies back, the animals are easier to spot, especially at water holes and riverbeds. This is the most popular season, so be prepared to share your safari with other motorists. The days are warm, but temperatures can drop close to freezing at night, and units are not heated. Try to avoid going during the school holidays, particularly in winter, when the park is packed to capacity.

Driving

Unlike some private game reserves where rangers are permitted to drive off road, at Kruger you must drives on roads. The speed limit is 50 kmph on paved roads; 40 kmph on gravel roads; 20 kmph in the rest camps (30, 25, and 15 mph, respectively). There are speed traps! You should always stay in your vehicle unless you’re at a designated picnic site.

Safety

Under no circumstances should you leave your vehicle unless at a designated site; one story goes that a local ranger left his game drive to “relieve” himself didn’t survive to do up his zipper, so make sure to visit the bathroom before leaving your rest camp.

Entrance and Admission

The entrance gates open from January to February from 5:30am to 6:30pm; March from 5:30am to 6pm; April from 6am to 6pm; May to July 6am to 5:30pm; August to September 6am to 6pm; October from 5:30am to 6pm; and November to December from 5:30am to 6:30pm.

Admission to the Kruger Park costs R30 ($4.75) per person and R24 ($3) per vehicle; children ages 2 to 15 R15 ($2).

For the Rest Camps, the gates follow the same hours except in the summer months (Nov-Jan) when they open an hour earlier (that is, 4:30am). Camps are fenced off to protect residents from animals. If you’re changing rest camps, try not to ensure that you get to your new camp before its gates close. Operating hours for camp receptions are from 8am to 5:30pm; for shops from 8am to 1/2 hour after camp gates close; for restaurants from 7 to 9am, 12 to 2pm, and 6 to 9pm. There are petrol stations at every rest camp, but you can only pay in cash.

The highest risk of malaria is between October and May,

Getting There

There are nine entrance gates, around a 5- to 6-hour drive from Johannesburg or Pretoria. The closest gate, Malelane, is 428km (265 miles) from Johannesburg, while Punda Maria (the farthest) lies 581km (360 miles) northeast. The southern gates: Malelane, Crocodile Bridge, Numbi, Phabeni, and Paul Kruger. The central gates: Orpen and Phalaborwa. The northern gates: Punda Maria and Parfuri. Allow sufficient travelling time to the park; entrance-gate hours are strictly adhered to. Note that officials recommend using the new Phabeni Gate from safety and ease of access point of view.

To get to the Kruger park by air, there are three airports in the Kruger vicinity: Kruger-Mpumalanga International Airport (near White River and Hazyview, southern Kruger), Eastgate Airport (Hoedspruit, southern/central Kruger), and the Kruger Park Gateway Airport (Phalaborwa, central Kruger). There are daily flights from Cape Town on SA Express (www.saexpress.co.za) to Hoedspruit’s Eastgate Airport. SA Airlink (www.saairlink.co.za) flies daily to the relatively nearby Kruger-Mpumalanga International — as does Nationwide (www.flynationwide.co.za), but you’ll have to stop in Johannesburg for at least 20 minutes to pick up passengers. From Johannesburg, SA Express flies daily to Hoedspruit’s Eastgate Airport. SA Airlink and Nationwide fly daily to Kruger-Mpumalanga International. SA Airlink also flies daily from Johannesburg into Kruger Park Gateway Airport. From Durban: SA Airlink flies Sunday through Friday to Kruger-Mpumalanga airport.

For more information contact Dewald Bodenstein at info@stylishtravel.co.za or visit the official webpage www.krugerpark.co.za

In the first of a number of Where in the World profiles, we look at Diego Garcia, a tiny island in The Indian Ocean, with coral beaches, turquoise waters and a vast lagoon in the centre. It is 1,600 kilometres from land in any direction, which seems to be the main attraction for the people who are allowed to go there. If you were ever thinking of visiting Diego Garcia, unless you are in the US or UK military, it might be wise to think again. But where is it, and why is it so controversial?

The Portuguese put Diego Garcia on the map in the 1500s. The island’s name is believed to have come from either the ship’s captain or the navigator. Diego Garcia was covered in plantations (copra, coconut, etc) in the 1800s. Between 1814 and 1965 it was a dependency of Mauritius. It then became part of the Chagos Archipelago, which belonged to the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory. The island remains a British dependency today but is leased to the US by the British. In 1970.

Once Diego Garcia had a small native population, known as the Ilois, or the Chagossians, many of whom were agricultural workers or fishermen. They were, however, forced to relocate (1967–1973) so that the island could be turned into a military base, much to strong protestations of other Indian Ocean islands, who objected to the island being used as a base for cruise missiles. Most of the Ilois now live in reduced circumstances in Mauritius’s shanty towns, more than 1,000 miles from their home. A smaller number were deported to the Seychelles. In 2000, a British court ruled that the order to evacuate Diego Garcia’s inhabitants was invalid, but the court also upheld the island’s military status, which permits only personnel authorized by the military to inhabit the island. The Ilois sued the British government for compensation and the right to repatriation, but in Oct. 2003 a British judge ruled that although the Ilois had been treated “shamefully” by the government, their claims were unfounded. Not much help, really. In 2004 the British government issued an “Order of Council” prohibiting islanders from ever returning to Diego Garcia.

A somewhat biased 2004 documentary by Australian journalist John Pilger called Stealing a Nation publicised the plight of the islanders. According to Mr Pilger, the islanders were tricked and intimidated into leaving until “the remaining population was loaded on to ships, allowed to take only one suitcase. They left behind their homes and furniture, and their lives. On one journey in rough seas, the copra company’s horses occupied the deck, while women and children were forced to sleep on a cargo of bird fertilizer. Arriving in the Seychelles, they were marched up the hill to a prison where they were held until they were transported to Mauritius. There, they were dumped on the docks.” Some of the Ilois are making return plans to turn Diego Garcia into a sugarcane and fishing enterprise as soon as the defense agreement expires (some see this as early as 2016). A few dozen other Ilois are still fighting to be housed in the UK.

Now, Diego Garcia is home to a military base jointly operated by the United States and the United Kingdom, although in practice it is said to be largely run as a US base, with only a small number of British forces and military police. No other economic activity is now allowed. The base serves as a naval refueling and support station. It is also equipped with airfields that have been used on missions to Iraq during the 1990 Gulf War, and to Afghanistan in the 2001 U.S. Attack on Afghanistan.

But still there is controversy. Human rights groups claim that the military base is used by the US government for the interrogation of prisoners (allegedly with methods illegal in the US). The British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said in the British parliament that the US authorities have repeatedly assured him that no detainees have passed in transit through Diego Garcia or have disembarked there. Intelligence analysts say Diego Garcia’s geographic isolation is now being exploited for other, more sinister purposes. They claim it is one of several secret detention centres being operated by the Central Intelligence Agency to interrogate high-value terrorist suspects known as “ghost detainees” or the “new disappeared,” beyond the reach of American or international law.