Good news for gorillas

Some rare good news from the gorilla world has come out of the Republic of Congo. A census conducted by the country’s government and the World Conservation Society has found that the population of western lowland gorillas is four times larger than previously thought.

The survey based its results on the number of sleeping ‘nests’ it found. What’s more worrying is that most of the gorilla population is currently found outside protected areas.

This news has been tempered by a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which warns that nearly half of the 634 primate species in the world are under threat of extinction.

The challenge now in many places is to promote protection, rather than poaching, as a source of income for countries with large gorilla populations. It’s not going to be an easy road but hopefully it will start before other species go the way of history.

Wanderlust editor-in-chief Lyn Hughes recently visited a project for orphaned and injured chimpanzees in The Gambia. You can read all about it here

Galápagos tortoise not so lonesome

So the news is in that Lonesome George, the committed bachelor giant tortoise and famous icon of the Galápagos islands, might finally have succumbed to the womanly ways of one of his female companions.

Eggs have been found in a nest inside the tortoises’ enclosure on Santa Cruz island and park rangers are eagerly waiting to discover whether George has successfully fertilised them. Hatching, if it does occur, won’t take place for four months, so we’ve got a long wait until we find out whether George is infact a bit of a stud, and not such a loner after all. 

It’s been 36 celibate years since George was rescued (as the last surviving Pinta Island tortoise) and kept in captivity on Santa Cruz. Despite the increasingly desperate attempts of his rangers to get George ‘in the mood’ he just hasn’t wanted to know, and has spurned female companionship for a life of munching on undergrowth and posing grumpily for the constant stream of visitors who come to catch a glimpse of this icon of the natural world.

So what will happen if it emerges that George has in fact finally done the deed? Will he still deserve his lonely moniker? Will people still come and see him? Perhaps he will discover what he’s been missing out on all these years and become a bit of a playboy tortoise?

The fact remains that he is still the last remaining Pinta Island tortoise on our planet. But if the rumours are true, this might herald the start of a breeding programme (that could take over 100 years and several generations of tortoise) to breed another ‘pure’ Pinta Island tortoise.

George, your species needs you. Keep up the good work. 

Is Tibet open for business?

Tour operator KE Adventure has just announced that, despite China claiming to have re-opened Tibet following the riots in March, in actuality this is not the case.

Only a handful of tourists have been granted permits and apparently no permits will be issued to group tours or those travelling overland from Nepal. Less of an open door, then, than a cat-flap. For small cats.

So where does this leave those wanting to go to Tibet? Would you dare to book a trip to the region now? Rumours suggest that the region won’t be fully open again until after the Paralympics have finished – but what guarantee is there that, even after that, China won’t decide to continue keeping travellers out?

Bad news for Tibet is good news for Nepal, though, with Himalaya-interested travellers diverting their hols to the new democracy, or to Bhutan, instead. Nepal could do with the visitors, following the Maoist uprisings there that scared off travellers. But then so could China – with the Olympics proving a bit of a damp squib, and the devastating Sichuan earthquake rendering the area offlimits, it’s not been a good year for the world’s most populous nation.

The Olympics is supposed to showcase a nation – which I suppose it has. Only rather than attracting tourists its having the opposite effect, leaving a bad taste in the global mouth.

But I suppose that doesn’t matter if you’re not allowed in anyway…

For more on the Tibet situation, have a look on www.wanderlust.co.uk

Travel horror stories – what’s the worst that could happen?

We’ve all had bad days on the road – flat tyres on a bus, delayed flights, lost luggage, no hot water in the hotel room, cockroaches on the floor, pubic hair in your pasta, the list goes on and on. Well for me it does…

So it was with much empathy that I read the latest post from Hywel Meredith on our community website goWander.com. Hywel, from what I can ascertain from his postings, is a cheerful chap who was very much looking forward to a family trip to South Africa. Until he broke his ankle the day before leaving…

It’s to his credit that, amid the disappointment, he can manage to post from his hospital bed. He’s even managed a poem about what might have happened had he gone. You can read it here

And while we’re all thinking of how lucky we are, why not share your own travel horror stories here? I might even tell you the one about the pubic hair…

Taking responsibility for responsible travel

Last night Wanderlust was in central London for the annual barbeque hosted by AITO, the Association of Independent Tour Operators. The food was top notch, but the conversation was not of organic burgers and sustainably-sourced cod, but of a different kind of grilling – the one given to eco-tourism in last weekend’s Observer newspaper.

Tom Robbins’ article took aim, in particular, at ResponsibleTravel.com – a much-visited web portal offering links to hundreds of supposedly ‘green’ trips supplied by vetted operators. The central charge was one that many AITO tour operators have previously voiced in private: that, through canny marketing, ResponsibleTravel.com gives the impression of being a guilt-free one-stop-shop for ethical holidays, whereas in fact it is a commercial travel agent selling trips on commission with companies that pay to be listed on the site.

An open and shut case? Of course not. Justin Francis, ResponsibleTravel.com’s founder, has penned a robust response to the article on his own blog here. And one imagines the Observer takes no small pleasure in attacking a company whose annual travel awards were first operated in conjunction with The Times and now with The Daily Telegraph.

But the bigger issue is, as the Observer article goes on to discuss, one of labelling. If nobody really agrees what a ‘responsible’ trip is, and there’s no objective standard or accreditation for measuring it, how is the consumer to judge?

Various labelling schemes, including Fairtrade, are being discussed. But for me, such schemes are always going to be superficial and subjective. The ethics of any trip are riddled with so many factors that no handy green label will ever be able to split the ‘good’ from the ‘bad’. Which is one reason that, despite being heavily involved in these issues, Wanderlust has never wanted to be known as a green / responsible / eco / ethical travel magazine – the terms are too cheap; the issues too complex.

Such labels are a compelling idea, though, because they take the responsibility for weighing up all these issues out of our hands. Ironically, I’d suggest, ResponsibleTravel.com has been so successful because it allows people to shrug off their responsibilities and jet off happily into the moral high ground.

If you really want to be a responsible traveller, you have to ask the probing questions, weigh up the issues, make the odd sacrifice. In other words, take responsibility. And nobody else can do that for you.

To stopover or not to stopover?

Flying long haul always lead to dilemmas – should I upgrade to premium economy (or even higher) in an attempt to get some sleep? Should I take something to help me sleep? Should I stop over?

The latter question is always the most problematic for me. On the one hand, there’s the draw of getting a ‘free’ visit to somewhere I may not have been before. On the other, there is the attraction of getting to my destination that much quicker.

It also depends on what you want from a stopover. Do you want to metaphorically stretch your legs for a day or two? Or scratch beneath the surface of a place and get a sense of what makes it tick?

If you’re on a budget, there’s the expense of stopping over, particularly if your stopover is more expensive than your final destination, for example Tokyo on the way to New Zealand.

I have to confess to regretting it once, when flying from London to Darwin, Australia via three Royal Brunei. Coming in to land over the lush, verdant rainforest of Bandar Seri Begawan after what seemed like days of endless night, I rued not building in two days or so to break the journey. Still, there’s always the next flight…

Check out 10 free stopover cities

What to do on a stopover in Madrid

Trains, planes and, well, more trains

Eurostar has just announced that it’s running more trains due to high demand – there will now be 30,000 seats available on Fridays alone from the UK to the continent. Now that the trains depart from St Pancras, and through-fares from cities to the north are available, people are clamoring for tickets.

Which is all good. Trains are by far the most civilised way to travel, even if you no longer get the mahogany-and-gilt style of the Orient Express days. Upgrade to first class on the Eurostar and you’ll get a waiter-served meal – Gordon Ramsay it aint, but there’s something inexplicably romantic about eating with a knife and fork while rumbling across the countryside by rail.

Of course there’s the carbon footprint to consider – this is the creme de la creme of eco-travel (well, almost – coaches boast lower emissions, but there is nothing romantic about coaches…), so you can feel smug while you chug.

I can’t give up flying. I just don’t want to. And I don’t have time to take the bus to Australia. But I do take the train when possible, such as on a recent trip from London to Istanbul, recreating my own plushed-down version of that old Orient E grandeur (to find out more, click here). It took ten days (with stops) – significantly longer than the 3.5 hour direct flight – but it was SO MUCH MORE FUN. You don’t get to take a steam bath with a load of rotund Hungarians on the plane, do you? Or watch the Serbian national side lose to Ukraine in a local-filled bar. Or eat big cakes at a cafe frequented by Hitler.

We need to further embrace the train, to fall in love again with the railways (as much as National Rail has tried to make us hate them), and to use them for every journey its feasibly possible to. We just need Eurostar and the other train operators to make them as cheap as the planes. Let’s hear it for Ryanrail…

Discover 10 great rail journeys

Are travel visas becoming too expensive?

China this week followed the lead of India in outsourcing its visa application process for UK travellers. On visiting the website of the China Visa Application Center we discovered that the cost of a visa has more than doubled.

To buy a single-entry tourist visa costs £30, the same price as it was before. However, and here’s the catch, there are now ‘service fees’ totalling £35.25 – more than double the cost of the visa. For that price, you’re expecting a lot of service.

But initial reports haven’t been good, saying that the phones have gone unanswered and there have been delays and difficulties in applications. So not much service then.

Zambia also came under fire earlier this year for doubling the cost of its tourist visas, with some accusing the government of trying to cash in on the chaos in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

One thing that often gets lost in the debate around visa costs is how much people have to pay to enter the UK. Far from cashing in, Zambia’s government claimed it was only pursuing a policy of ‘reciprocity’, based on what the UK government charged Zambians entering the UK. So it’s the government’s fault, right?

Things are never that simple.

Have your say on visas on Wanderlust’s community website goWander.com

New gorilla lodge in Rwanda

A new mountain gorilla eco-lodge has opened in the Virunga Heartland area of Rwanda. The Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge was opened at the annual young gorilla naming ceremony, Kwita Izina.

This naming ceremony now draws a big crowd from all over Rwanda and the world. One of this year’s crop was named Sacola, after the trust that helped build the new lodge.

A percentage of the profits from Sabyinyo will be ploughed back into community projects and conservation.

Rwanda also has an agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda to share both funds and information to help protect mountain gorillas. With just 720 estimated to be left in the world, they need all the help they can get.

More on Rwanda:

A tour around Rwanda

Kenya needs more travellers

It’s not often that you say that a destination needs more travellers, but that’s certainly the case in Kenya at the moment.

The devastating violence following the disputed election results earlier this year has hit the country hard. And it’s not just a question of local businesses suffering.

The drop in visitor numbers to Kenya has meant local conservationists are struggling to pay compensation to local Maasai tribespeople for livestock killed by lions. This means that some lions are now being killed to protect local livestock.

Some rangers have also had to be laid off, leading to an increase in poaching.

As well as the chance to help redress this situation, another compelling reason to visit now is the cost. It’s arguably never been cheaper to visit Kenya.

Many operators are cutting the cost of trips by up to a third. So, if you’ve ever wanted to go and experience magnificent wildlife-spotting events, such as the great wildebeest migration, AND do it with fewer crowds, the time is now.

More on Kenya:

Lessons in bushcraft in Kenya’s Masai Mara

A star-spotting trip to central Kenya

Trekking with the Samburu in northern Kenya

Win a trip to Kenya in our exclusive competition