Under 30? A member of Globetrotters Club? Interested in a £1,000 travel award?
Know someone who is? We have £1,000 to award each year for five years for the best submitted independent travel plan. Interested?
Then see our legacy page on our Website, where you can apply with your plans for a totally independent travel trip and we'll take a look at it. Get those plans in!!
Olympia London from January 30 – February 2
You'll find the largest range of holidays and ideas to be found under one roof – hundreds of tour operators, travel companies and tourist boards offering everything from adventure experiences to cultural weekend breaks. A limited number of complimentary tickets are available to telegraph.co.uk readers (maximum 2 per user) if booked in advance for Destinations 2003.
Visit www.destinationsshow.com, click on 'box office' and enter the code 'tcuk' when prompted.
by Charles Arthur / Independent/UK (via Common Dreams News Center)
The snows of Mount Kilimanjaro, immortalized by an Ernest Hemingway short story, are melting so quickly they are expected to disappear within two decades.
Researchers have found that the ice fields capping Africa's highest mountain shrank by 80 per cent in the last century, from 4.6 square miles in 1912 to just one square mile two years ago, which has brought down the height of the mountain by several feet.
The ice covering the 19,330ft peak “will be gone by about 2020”, said Lonnie Thompson, a glaciologist at Ohio State University. The process has cut water volume in some Tanzanian rivers that supply villages and hospitals. Global warming is one reason, but scientists say it alone cannot have caused such a dramatic change. The other factors behind the transformation remain a mystery.
New York City may convert de-commissioned cruise ships into shelters for its rising numbers of homeless people. Last month, a record 37,000 homeless people were sleeping in city shelters every night according to the Coalition for the Homeless, which compiles statistics for the city. City officials, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg's commissioner of homeless services, have flown to the Bahamas to inspect disused ships. They say the idea of using them was just one option being considered – but critics say the plan is unnecessary, and have called on the city to provide affordable housing for those in need. City officials stressed that it is too early to speculate on how the cruise-ship idea might be applied in New York.
A passenger on a Virgin Atlantic flight has won a GBP£13,000 (USD$20,000) award after being injured by an obese woman in the next seat.
Barbara Hewson, from Swansea in Wales, was travelling economy class from London to Los Angeles, 11 long hours when the incident happened. She suffered injuries to her chest, torn leg muscles and developed sciatica after being crushed by the oversized passenger.
The woman next to Ms Hewson, was so large she had to raise the armrest to fit into the seat and because the flight was full there was no alternative seat so the woman's arm rested on Hewson's chest for much of the journey. Ms Hewson is only 4 feet 11 inches tall. When the flight arrived in Los Angeles Hewson was admitted to hospital.
Source: airnews.com
Whilst walking her dog, a local hotelier on Staffin island, off Skye found a dinosaur footprint dating from the Jurassic period in rock on the beach.
Experts say huge meat-eating dinosaurs that left their prints in the sand 165 million years ago probably made the tracks. Scientists have described the discovery on the east coast of the Isle of Skye as significant.
Where is Europe's largest and most active volcano? Answer: Mount Etna on Sicily. Mount Etna has had four major eruptions in the last 309 years and it has just erupted once again – the last time was 1992.
Although lava flows have reached the tourist areas and the airport in Catania has closed and some hotels have been evacuated, the mayor reassured Catania's 330,000 residents that they were in no danger.
“The situation in Catania is completely under control and our city is not threatened in any way,” Mayor Umberto Scapagnini said.
The heaviest lava flow descended towards Piano Provenzana, a popular area for tourists to take mountain walks in summer and for skiing in the winter. The flow pushed over ski-lift pylons, knocked down power lines before surrounding an empty mountain hotel and lodge. No one was injured. See Murray's article on Sicily in the main part of the e-newsletter to see what Sicily has to offer!
LAPA, the Argentinean domestic airline went belly up a while back but the name LAPA is to be revived by new owners who rescued it from receivership. It has been operating as AIRG since the Aeroandina group raised capital in both Argentina and Bolivia to put it back in business. Plans are afoot to start regional services to Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Chilean cities of Santiago and Puerto Montt and to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, by the end of this year.
Due to the dreadful and unpredictable event in Bali, the new Bali based airline Air Paradise, which was due to start flying in October 2002, said it was delaying its launch indefinitely and refunding tickets it has already sold. The airline was due to make its first flights to the Australian cities of Perth and Melbourne.
According to union sources, a one-day strike planned by Air France unions for October 24 has been switched to November 5.
Workers are protesting over French government plans to privatise the French flag carrier and reduce the state's controlling stake.
Expanding Australian budget airline Virgin Blue plans to add flights to New Zealand to its schedules and will cause a few ruffled feathers in the Australian flight market, largely operated by Air New Zealand and Qantas. Virgin Blue was launched in August 2000 with a single route between Brisbane and Sydney. It now serves thirteen Australian destinations. Now, Virgin Blue plans a code share arrangement with United Airlines so that it will be faster and easier for booking flights from Brisbane to San Francisco and Los Angeles and beyond.
Meanwhile, back in the US, Boston Logan Airport is to introduce security scanners that can make immediate checks on driving licenses and passports against government databases or “watch lists.” Despite concerns expressed by civil liberties groups, the airport said it will go ahead with the system. Initially, it will only be used to check around 10,000 people who work at Logan. However, the airport's operators, Massachusetts Port Authority, say they would like to see the system extended and in tests carried out during the Summer discovered a number of passengers flying out of the international departures on forged passports.
Passengers due to fly into or out of Stansted (the Beetle's most HATED airport, ever) near London may want to alter their travel plans if this involves early morning or late evening flights.
Due to alleged rail improvements, from Sunday 29th September 2002 through to Spring 2004, all Sunday train services to and from Stansted Airport will be replaced by a slow coach service.
Incidentally, the last coach leaves Stansted at midnight on Sunday for Liverpool St station and 11pm from Liverpool St. First coach to Stansted from Liverpool St is allegedly at 4.30am and 5am from Stansted to Liverpool St. You have been warned, and allow plenty of time – preferably around 2 hours journey time! Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport is closing down international services from Terminal 2 at the end of October week due to reduced numbers of passengers. The decision, by the Israel Airports Authority, is part of a series of cost-cutting measures, according to daily newspaper Haaretz. If international passengers start to increase the Terminal 2 facility may reopen.
Overland in Africa
New Globetrotter Renate would like to make contact with others who share her interests: overlanding in Africa, archaeology, anthropology, natural history and the environment, conservation, and, others who have travelled in the following countries in North and South Africa: Libya, Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia, Sahara desert, Chad, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and, S Africa: North Cape Province, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kalahari Desert, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Angola. If this is you, please contact Renate on desertfox@freeuk.com
Advice and Travelling Companion(s) wanted
Bengt from Gothenburg, Sweden is looking for a travelling companion(s) for a road trip around June/July/August 2003 to join him in full or in part for a 6-12 month trip overland in the USA, Canada, Alaska and down through Central America to Panama. He/she must speak decent Spanish as whilst Bengt speaks good English, he is not so good with Spanish. They must also be able to drive as he is shipping his own Toyota Landcruiser over to the USA, probably to Jacksonville (Fl). In addition, if any Globetrotter out there can help Bengt with any advice about driving around, where to visit, car documents etc, he would be very grateful. He also asks if anyone knows if it's still exist a boat carrying vehicles between Colon Panama to Cartagena Colombia? If you can help Bengt with travel advice about specific countries or is interested in being a travel companion, please e-mail him or phone Bengt on: +46(0)31403327
UK Winter Break
Simon from the UK asks: I wondered if you could help me. I am looking to get away for a winter break in the UK and want to rent an isolated cottage without neighbours or developments just the cottage and the elements. I have searched extensively for this but can't seem to find it anywhere.. Do you know of such a company that can help me out with this.
Need help? Want a travelling buddy or advice about a place or country – want to share something with us – why not visit our Mutual Aid section of the Website: Mutual Aid
Extract from The Star (Johannesburg): “The situation is absolutely under control,” Transport Minister Ephraem Magagula told the Swaziland parliament in Mbabane.
“Our nation's merchant navy is perfectly safe. We just don't know where it is, that's all.”
Replying to an MP's question, Minister Magagula admitted that the landlocked country had completely lost track of its only ship, the Swazimar:
“We believe it is in a sea somewhere. At one time, we sent a team of men to look for it, but there was a problem with drink and they failed to find it, and so, technically, yes, we've lost it a bit. But I categorically reject all suggestions of incompetence on the part of this government. The Swazimar is a big ship painted in the sort of nice bright colours you can see at night. Mark my words, it will turn up. The right honourable gentleman opposite is a very naughty man, and he will laugh on the other side of his face when my ship comes in.”