The plan was extremely simple: cycle to a river, float down it, ride home. It would be the first time I’d paddled a watercraft since a school trip when I was 10, so it wouldn’t be anything earth-shaking, and I still hadn’t shaken off the nasty infection that had taken me out a few weeks previously. But it would be a proof of concept, at least — first-hand evidence of the feasibility of a bike-rafting trip.

Continue reading this article @ Tom’s Bike Trip

Photo: tomsbiketrip.com

I felt compelled to write to your organisation after spending several days cycling from Dover to the East Midlands, having just arrived from continental Europe. My intention was to make this journey as enjoyable and safe as possible, rather than to cover the distance in the minimum possible amount of time. Naturally therefore I looked to the National Cycle Network, in search of off-road and quiet routes through the country.

Flickr photo by tom.ride-earth.org.uk

May I, then, congratulate you on having constructed one of the most comprehensive cycling infrastructures that I have come across during my bicycle travels in 34 countries.

The UK’s cycling provisions stand out for many reasons. The first and most obvious is that they exist. From a global perspective, this immediately puts the UK far ahead of the game. Given everything I’ve seen here, from long-distance routes spanning Britain in her entirety, to urban awareness schemes in almost every significant settlement, to safe cycle-paths between particular amenities and points of interest, it’s difficult to understand why the system is on the receiving end of such constant criticism in the media. I guess people don’t realise how lucky they are!

Continue reading this letter @ Ride Earth – Tom’s World Bicycle Travel Blog

Leaving Preston on the Caledonian Sleeper / Flickr photo by Danny McL

So earlier this year I gave the Caledonian Sleeper a whirl, zipping me from my from my hometown of Edinburgh to my old stamping ground, London. This goes shuttles between the two cities with just a few unobtrusive stops en route (Carstairs, Carlisle and Watford Junction) and we were fortunate to bag a bargain mid-week single for around £30 a piece. Admittedly it was just the first leg of an amazing journey on the Orient Express, but more of that later…

Getting on board

The train sets off from Waverley at 11.30pm, but we were hopelessly early as usual and had plenty of time to stock up on vending machine provisions for the long night ahead.  Our steward didn’t exactly greet us with open arms, but we were boarded efficiently enough with plenty of time to settle into our cabin.  Maybe capsule is a better word. Space in our 2 person bunk was tight indeed, but it’s fine once you’re decanted and our cases fitted neatly in the overhead slot.

Continue reading this article @ He Thought of Trains

The cow barn / Photo by Nick Weston

There are few things more exciting than building a place of your own: being able to shape it yourself and have everything the way you want it in terms of aesthetics and functionality are just two of the reasons why it is worth doing. If money is no object it can be even better (I barely have any!), so you have to see what other avenues are open for exploration to provide you with a home you can be proud of…back to begging, borrowing and recycling we go! I have got around to adding video to the blog – so I will post the ongoing build and lifestyle elements as we go – apologies for the amateur quality… early days! It begins with an epic session of clearing and learning to use a strimmer.

Continue reading this article @ HUNTER:GATHER:COOK – Adventures in Wild Food

The Balancing Barn / Image from living-architecture.co.uk

Living Architecture

The newly established Living Architecture project in the UK signifies a marriage of this growing trend with another one – holidays at home. Living Architecture is a not-for-profit organisation set-up to revolutionise both architecture and the UK holiday home rental business. They have asked a series of great architects to design houses around Britain and are then making them available to rent for holidays all year round.  The project has already secured a Conde Nast Design Award.

“Living Architecture offers you a chance to rent houses for a holiday designed by some of the most talented architects at work today, and set in some of the most stunning locations in Britain. We have commissioned houses by Peter Zumthor, Michael & Patty Hopkins, NORD, Jarmund/Vigsnæs Architects & MVRDV.“

There are currently 5 different houses listed on the website of which 3 are already taking bookings for later in the year.  The aim of the project is first and foremost to act as an educational body, dedicated to enhancing the appreciation of architecture. If you’ve ever read any books by Alain de Botton – who is on board as the creative director of this project – you’ll understand exactly the philosophy driving it.

Available now to book

• The Balancing Barn (see above) that stands on the edge of a tranquil nature reserve a few miles inland from the Suffolk coast, near the historic towns of Walberswick and Aldeburgh.
• The Shingle House is sited on one of the most unusual and poetic landscapes in England, on the shingle beach of Dungeness near Romney Marsh.
• The Dune House lies just to the south of the picturesque village of Thorpeness in Suffolk, on an idyllic spot on the very edge of the sea, nestled among rolling dunes.

Nick and Greg around the fire / Photo by Nick Weston

After the rather bum-like experience of sheltering overnight in a pillbox, I was eager for more, but I wanted something that was not created by the hands of man, something crafted by mother nature herself, that probably held more history than my local library…who knows what has occurred in such a place over the centuries?

The cave in question is on a private estate and after a bit negotiation, was very kindly “lent” to me and super sharp shooter Greg Funnell, a friend and professional photographer who took some stunning photos for The Tree House Diaries as well as most of the snaps on this post. The pair of us mustered our primal instincts along with a couple of ales, steaks and took ourselves up to a truly Stone age landscape for some caveman revelry (no clubs, grunts or dragging of women by the hair allowed).

Continue reading this article @ HUNTER:GATHER:COOK – Adventures in Wild Food

Nick checks out the pillbox

I packed a small rucksack with headtorch, knife, flint and steel, culinary survival kit, pork (fresh from my friend Dan’s recently dispatched piggies) book, i-pod, camera, notepad, two ponchos, hatchet, water and the all important hip flask of whisky.

I clipped my sleeping bag and roll mat to the side of the bag and set off into the countryside at 4pm. I didn’t have a destination and only an hour of daylight left, unprepared perhaps, but as Mark Twain once said, you need two things in life: ignorance and confidence. And that seems to have worked for me in the past!

Continue reading this article @ HUNTER GATHERING: Wild & Fresh Food

Rapeseed fields in Austria / Photo by Stephen Chapman

The Schengen Zone Agreement was signed in 1985 in Schengen, Luxembourg by five European Community states to allow free movement of their people. The area now comprises 25 countries across Europe whose borders have been eliminated. Most of those involved are members of the EU with the exception of Norway, Iceland and Switzerland.  The UK and Ireland are not part of this Zone.

It’s possible to drive from the south of Spain across all of Europe to Estonia without ever leaving the Schengen zone – a distance of some 4,300km (Further than Sydney to Perth or Miami to Seattle).

Czech Republic to Croatia

A recent trip from Prague to Dubrovnik with a few whl.travel colleagues really opened my eyes to the possibilities of road travel within Europe.

Day one was Breakfast in the Czech Republic, Lunch in Austria and dinner in Slovenia.  Admittedly the driving was near constant but in a nine seater van boredom is rarely a problem.  Day two took in another trio of countries - Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia - and we eventually broke out of the Schengen Zone leaving Slovenia.  Croatia is forecast to be joining the EU soon so it’s inclusion in this zone will not be too far away.

The change in landscape upon entering the top of Croatia is dramatic.  The lush, forested hills of Slovenia take over from the bright yellow rapeseed fields of the Czech Republic and Austria and give way to a barren karstic landscape that extends right down into the Balkans region.

Croatia-Slovenia border

For many years whilst Yugoslavia existed the border between Slovenia and Croatia was unmarked.  Today many Croatians living along this line cross it every day for various reasons, and there’s an agreement that allows them to do so with only an ID card.  The same is true along their borders with Hungary and Italy.

Yugoslavia fully disappeared in 2003 and by 2008 Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo all appeared independently on the world map.  Travelling through this region is a real education on the many political and social conflicts that have unfolded throughout history. Fascinating and hugely important events from a global perspective have occurred here over recent years.  WWII was triggered when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated on 28th June, 1914 in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

The journey down through Croatia towards Dubrovnik requires a short passage through Bosnia & Herzegovina at Neum.  This stretch of the Adriatic coast is the only access Bosnia & Herzegovina has to the Sea, and it splits Croatia in two for almost 25km.  The division goes back to the 1700s when Dubrovnik gave access to the Turkish army for protection from the nearby Republic of Venice.

All of the destinations listed below have travel websites run by local people, all eager for you to visit their homes.  I met all of these individuals at the conference I was travelling to on the island of Mljet, Croatia.  We stayed in the only hotel on the island, Hotel Odissej – a fascinating place to spend a few days with an inspiring group of people, all with incredible stories to tell.

• Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina - Twitter: @greenvisions & @thierryjoubert
• Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Medjugorje, Bosnia & Herzegovina - Twitter: @medjugorjeinfo
• Kvarner, Croatia
• Kotor, Montenegro – Twitter: @SlavicaMA
• Budva, Montenegro
• Podgorica, Macedonia
• Ohrid, Macedonia
• Bled, Slovenia
• Ljubljana, Slovenia – Twitter: @travelSlovenia

A regional gathering of passionate locals

The Chesapeake Bay area today

The English, Italians and Spanish all sailed up the North American coast countless times at the end of the 15th Century and during the 16th Century, but no real effort was ever made to colonise it until 1585.

The first inhabitants of North America were nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived in small bands across the continent. Most of them migrated with the seasons in search of food and temperate locales. They built few permanent structures and tended to own land communally. At the time of European contact, many native people lived at the waters edge around cornfields and gardens of squash, beans and potatoes. For generations they prophesised that strangers from across the sea would come and destroy their people.

The first European colony was established on Roanoke Island just south of the Chesapeake in modern North Carolina, however it vanished mysteriously several years later. The Jamestown colony was founded in 1607 and local tribes under the powerful chief Powhatan warned the colonists that they would need to plant corn to sustain them through the cold months, when hunting and fishing were difficult. Few settlers had the inclination or skill to plant, tend, and harvest corn and as a result they verged on starvation for many winters. Low on funds and without direction or initiative, Jamestown was close to collapse.

At this time the British were paying big money for tobacco that ship captains purchased from planters in the West Indies. The Native Indians were already smoking tobacco, but it was not the same variety that was fetching high prices in Europe. An enterprising Englishman named John Rolfe joined the colony in 1609 and married Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas five years later. Rolfe managed to obtain some seeds of the West Indian plants and cultivated them in the rich tidewater soil of the Chesapeake Bay. This was the beginning of a new cash crop for the colonists.

Beginnings Of The Slave Trade

Once the Indians had been driven off prospective plantation land and seeds had been planted, tobacco supply was limitless, but the labour supply was not. In the early colonial period, Europeans tried enslaving the Native Indians as a cheap source of labour, but many escaped back into familiar terrain. Some of the colonists eventually returned to England offering to pay passage for anyone willing to work on the tobacco plantations for several years (typically 5-7), in exchange for room and board. Tobacco plantations began to spread all along the shores of the southern Chesapeake and its tributaries. Thousands left England for Virginia seeking fortune and a new life, but the influx of people still did not meet the demand for plantation labour. The slave trade began.

In 1619 a Dutch merchant ship sailed into Jamestown full of indentured English servants to “sell” to local plantation owners striving to produce more tobacco. Onboard the ship were 20 Africans the captain had picked up on his travels. The Virginians bought these Africans together with the English. Due to their distinctive appearance and unfamiliarity with local language and terrain the Africans found it nearly impossible to escape their servitude, and planters soon realised that the Africans could be ruthlessly exploited beyond their agreed years of labour. As oversupply of tobacco began to lower prices and cut into profits, ruthless planters conspired to keep servants in bondage. From here the transistion to outright slavery was swift.

The slave trade reached its height in the 18th Century; yet its legacy continues to shape contemporary society throughout the Americas.

• Visit the Jamestown website and plan your visit, or make a virtual visit on The National Geographic website.
• Survival International has downloadable education packs on the ‘Jamestown Landings: 400 years on’.