British Columbia, Canada's westernmost province, is located on the Pacific Coast. It is Canada's third largest province comprising 9.5 percent of the country's total land area. The province is nearly four times the size of Great Britain and larger than any American state except Alaska.

Geography

British Columbia, Canada's westernmost province, is located on the Pacific Coast. It is Canada's third largest province comprising 9.5 percent of the country's total land area. The province is nearly four times the size of Great Britain and larger than any American state except Alaska. The population in 2001 was 4.1 million people with well over half living in the Vancouver/Victoria metropolitan area. From south to north, B.C. stretches 1,200 kilometres and as much as 1,050 kilometres east to west. It's glaciated fjord and island-dotted coastline extends some 7,000 kilometres.

British Columbia, renown for it's spectacular mountains landscapes, has four distinct regions: the Coast Mountain Granite Complex in the west, the Rocky, Percell, Selkirk, Monashee and other sedimentary and volcanic ranges from the eastern border, an extensive Interior Plateau and a lowland segment of the continent's Great Plains in the northeast.

The province is blessed with 1.8 million hectares of clean waterways in the form of rivers, lakes and streams. The combination of mountains and plentiful precipitation provides the province with abundant clean hydroelectricity for its homes and factories.

Climate

The highly varied terrain produces a full range of climate from regional temperate and coastal rainforests to alpine and desert climates. The southern interior has the province's driest and warmest climate with Canada's only defined desert with the area around Osoyoos receiving less the 10 inches of rain annually. Microclimates, rainshadows in the lee of some mountain ranges, permanent snowcap regions all result from the unique topography.

Environment

British Columbia has the richest variety of habitats in Canada including forests, grasslands, meadows, wetlands, rivers and inter-tidal and sub-tidal zones. They support the greatest diversity of plants and mammals found anywhere in Canada. In addition to their diversity, the populations of some species in B.C. have global significance. The province has 75 percent of the world's stone sheep, 60 percent of the mountain goats, 50 percent of the blue grouse, at least half of the trumpeter swans and 40 percent of the grizzly bears and the most bald eagles.

Services

The province hosts world class services ranging from the urban center of Vancouver and Victoria where over half the province's population live. Vancouverites enjoy one of the healthiest lifestyles in the world with outdoor activities ranging from year round sea kayaking, running, golf, tennis and even gardening. Skiing at the nearby world famous Whistler Resort or 4 local mountain resorts is a part of an active winter scene. The city has world class dining, shopping, nightlife and tours.

The interior hinterland of the province includes a full range of outstanding outdoor activity that the varied landscape can provide. Hunting, fishing, downhill and ski touring, hiking, riding..there is hardly and activity that can't be found in some terrain in the province. The medium sized centers such as Kelowna, Prince George and Prince Rupert carry many of the services of Vancouver including universities, hospitals and many other urban businesses.

Tourism

British Columbia's scenic attractions, combined with its clean, safe image, serve to make it an attractive destination for Canadian as well as international tourists. In addition, there are a wide variety of urban and cultural attractions, ranging from the performing and visual arts, to professional sports, amusement parks and shopping. Tourism is a major part of the provincial economy. During 2001, $9.2 billion was spent by 22 million overnight visitors.

British Columbia's national, provincial, regional and local parks provide a spectrum of natural beauty, breathtaking scenery and opportunities for outdoor enjoyment and recreation. The 807 protected areas (provincial parks, ecological reserves, recreation areas and other protected areas), covering 11.4 million hectares, are diverse in their features and facilities. There are 13,302 campsites, 487 day-use areas, 136 boat launch areas and 3,000 km of hiking trails within Provincial parks, that serve approximately 24 million park visitors each year. Nearly one-tenth of the province's parks are wilderness, largely untouched and accessed by back-packers and mountaineers. Inland and coastal waters are dotted with marine parks intended primarily for water-borne users.

The abundance and variety of wildlife in British Columbia reflect the great diversity of the province's environment. There are more species in total and more unique species of birds and mammals than in any other Canadian province. In British Columbia, the salt and fresh water

resources of the province provide both recreational and tourism opportunities for such activities as sport fishing, boating and sailing.

Imagine a holiday in a province where, no matter what your recreation passion, be it skiing in the summer, rock climbing, horseback riding, ocean fishing or reading a good book on the porch of a mountain cabin by a lake, British Columbia has it all…and more

Steve is a former corporate geologist with an extensive background in international remote terrain exploration. He is the President of GeoQwest, a company he started to provide informed travel through the spectacular wilderness landscapes of British Columbia. For more information about travel in British Colombia, contactSteve on: snoakes@okanagan.net or visit his website: www.geoqwestexcursions.com

This street was featured on the cover of Oasis' ‘What's the Story? Morning Glory' LP, and is also home to a tiny market in the heart of Soho.

Soho is that rather strange little area in central London occasionally described as London's infamous sex district. This is where you can find (if you are looking!) small rooms high above the street corners dimly lit by a red light bulb with a cardboard sign in the window saying “model” and there are the last of the seedy sex shops and tourist rip-off peep shows. At night time, you can see couples walking arm in arm, on their way to one of Soho's famous watering holes.

In the day time, the area is fascinating and home to many TV, PR and film production companies and has many extremely good restaurants and Berwick Street Market. Tucked away between Oxford Street and Old Compton Street, Berwick Street Market is renowned for its quality fruit and vegetables. Here you will find from Mon-Sat, 9am-5pm clusters of cheap and colourful fruit and veg stalls, as well as lots of off-beat record shops.

Dotted along the market are some stalls with great specialist foods, such as fish, cheese, sausages of all kinds, herbs and spices as well as a fabulous stall selling all manner of nuts and dried fruits for peckish (hungry) shoppers. There are some semi-interesting interesting shops that line the market where you can buy spangly belts, flared trousers and “recreational” pipes.

Address: Berwick St, Soho, W1

Getting there: exit Piccadilly Circus tube station, walk up Shaftesbury Avenue and then turn left into Rupert Street. At the top of Rupert Street, just past the small market area, cross Brewer Street and walk along Walkers Court, past the Raymond Revue Bar and you'll emerge into Berwick Street.

Bus Routes: 7, 8, 10, 25, 55, 73, 76, 98

Nearest Tube / Rail Station: Piccadilly Circus Open: Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm

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.