Eco Holidays

posted by Catherine on Jun 22

What is the fun in making a whole load of rules about the countryside?

The Countryside code is something that people rarely ever read – and this is for 2 main reasons. Either the people being shown the information are too rude and selfish to consider what might be best for the countryside itself and everyone else sharing in it’s beauty, so they have no interest in being ‘told what to do’.

Or they already know the code inside-out as it is all common sense to the the eco thinker!

I mean how more obvious could it be to anyone that dropping litter isn’t a great way to keep the countryside healthy! If you drop litter here today – what do you expect it to look like tomorrow?

The basic principles of the Countryside code are really just the exact same things as we see everywhere else in our lives – but maybe with sheep instead of hamsters, and oaks instead of rose bushes.

Would you leave the door to your friends hamster cage open after you put something inside? Would you start pulling roses off your neighbours bushes because you wanted a closer look at the leaves? Would you hit your dog waste under a hedge with a stick and into the school playground? While looking around a shop, would you start opening all the doors just to see what’s on the other side?

Strange. Because that is just what people expect to be able to do in the countryside.

How Are They The Same?
Unfortunately, because the countryside (and beaches and woodlands and mountains, moors and marshes) are all free to visit – some people assume that they have no value. And so they treat them as such.

For example, Family A travel to a small village for a visit and decide to wander off up a footpath as it is sunny. As they have not ‘done this before’ they may well ‘lose’ their way, find the path turning the ‘wrong’ way or come across a huge muddy puddle.

photo credit: robertsharp

Rather than thinking that the footpath goes another way for a reason or that the place they want to go might be private anyway – they say to themselves: ‘Well, we can see where we want to go – so if we just jump this fence, we can walk across this dry field and get there anyway’.

Now if you went around your friends house for a visit, walked to the end of their garden and saw a beautiful lake across someone else’s garden – you wouldn’t just bunk over your friends fence and trample your family across somone else’s garden to get to the private lake, would you?

So what makes it OK when it is just a farmers field?

All Are Welcome:
The countryside is usually ‘free’ to enter as many charities and private owners alike want people to experience to wonder and amazing character of the open countryside.

They do this by opening up for private business, extending their existing footpath and bridleway network to allow great freedom of the visitors and by making their land as easy to access and walk through as possible.

However, at any time they can revert to the bare minimum of access for walkers and riders. And repreated trespassing and vandalism will only bring this about sooner.

For example, shops that find large numbers of children encourage thefts restrict the number of children they allow in to their stores. Private Houses and Gardens open to the public often put barriers around precious items, flower beds and lawns and even close of certain rooms – usually due to past visitors damaging or breaking something with their carelessness.

The same could be true for your favourite areas of the countryside.

Imagine if all footpaths were fenced in; Open Access land was restricted back to the by-ways and gardens and houses were closed of?

Imagine also that due to the cost of repairs and alterations due to damage by visitors was placed on future visitors.

I remember a whole host of places that used to have ‘free parking’ or ‘free entry’ all year round – and churches that were left open all day.

That is not always the case anymore. More and more landowners, farmers, clergymen and charities are finding that unquestioning hospitality and generosity just are not traits that keep things ticking over.

Times are changing, but hopefully people can too!

Please pass on the Countryside Code to whoever you take out with you on your eco adventures. Pass on the reasons – not the rules – and hopefully you can change a few yourself.

posted by Catherine on May 31

Why take your safari in the same place as everybody else if you don’t have to?

Kenya, South Africa and Botswana get all the coverage with the big names for Safaris – but there is plenty to see in less visited countries – so don’t overlook places like Uganda and Rwanda too fast.

Not to name drop but you would be missing out on Bwindi Inpenetrable National Park and it’s mountain gorillas; both the Congo and the Nile rivers; the Great Rift Valley; and Lake Victoria.

When you are choosing an African adventure, make sure you give the less well known companies and countries their fair share of your attention and subsequently your funding. If we want to show countries that it is worth them keeping something – then we have to pay them in return.

And that is what your eco friendly travel plans should consider – what benefit does your vacation have on the people you spend it with – and those people you don’t spend it with?

So, here is a little bit of information on these 2 countries to show that there is plenty of Africa to see without sitting in a coach filled with 30 other tourists all looking at the same sleeping lion or baby elephant!

Uganda:
Home to an estimated 50% of the World’s mountain gorillas as well as chimpanzees, 120 species of mammals, 250+ species of butterflies and 360 species of birds in the Bwindi alone – making this site one of the richest and most diverse wildlife site in East Africa (beating Kenya hands down!).

photo credit: Kabacchi

It also has over 200 species of tree, 100+ ferns and 86 species of orchid! A plant lovers dream location too then!

In total there are 9 National Parks in Uganda – so you won’t be short of a wildlife adventure or two for your efforts.

There are a variety of habitats including wetlands, marshes, mountains and cloud forests to explore as well as 40 different languages to discover amongst the 4 main areas of the country.

And due to its high altitude and rings of mountains it is cooler than other countries on the equator – as well as being less prone to tropical diseases than many of it’s neighbours – always a bonus for the traveller!

Rwanda:
After being in the news for everything but it’s wildlife and culture – why not take a look at the eco adventures on offer in this less visited country. After all, gorilla safaris are this countries leading tourist attraction!

There are habitats here ranging from active volcanos in the Virunga mountains, through rolling hills, savannah, plains and swamps as well as all the lakes that fill this part of the Great Rift Valley.

There are only 3 National Parks here – but you won’t be disappointed with the wildlife: gorillas, giraffes, forest elephants, 14 species of primate and over 700 species of bird.

The people of Rwanda all belong to one ethnic group and so share a common history and culture, including dance, music and story-telling – as well as shared and local arts and crafts.

Eco Adventures:
These 2 countries border each other (as well as Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo) so you could easily travel between them all on an overland tour – either with an organised group or independently depending on your needs (overland tour buses don’t usually have toilets!).

So when you are planning your Safari Holidays - don’t look to the same old same old – think of something new and you might just have the best safari ever!

Following your heart – not the tour bus rules……

posted by Catherine on May 14

Rather than recite facts to your kids out on a walk – let them find it out themselves.

Why not spend a while at home creating a wildlife, tree or plant id guide yourself – specific to your local woods, park or open downland. Maybe even specific to the season!

Most field guides contain ‘all the plants in Britain’ or the ‘Birds of Europe’ – when all you need is the small number of common plants or animals living near to you at that time.

When searching through a field guide, you will have to sift through hundreds of species that will never grow where you live, or in winter – but they are still hindering you in the book – taking up valuable pages.

photo credit: kasthor

Also, you might think you have seen a certain species, only to find out that it is only found in the remote snowy highlands or on volcanic rock only – and you are in a city park!

Be Specific – But Not Fussy:
Find the most common species to where you are and focus on them – there is nothing more dissapointing to an amateur wildlife detective than not finding in your guide – the very thing you are looking at on the ground.

I have done it many times myself, only to then have to resort to reading about all the most likely alternatives to see if they ‘could’ be the one – or taking a photo to show someone more in the know than me! Very frustrating!

So, save the kids the trouble of being stumped by another yellow flower or brown bird and only show those you know are found here – or settle for the family or genus rather than the actual species. For example knowing that a plant is a violet is good enough for the kids – they don’t want to get bogged down with the fact that there are actually around 500 species of it around the world!

And a ‘warbler’ is good enough for basic bird id – considering even regualr bird-watchers can’t always tell them apart without scopes, songs and the bird to sit still for about 30 minutes on a noticable branch with the sun shining on it!

Make It Special:
Also, rather than prattling on about it’s distribution, egg size and mating ritual; focus on its benefits to the environment or the landscape.

Why is it there, not somewhere else? Did we plant it or are we trying to get rid of it? Is it edible or useful around the home? Do butterflies feed on it, does it attract bees or is it poisonous!

All of these things are far more interesting to a child who is new to the world of wildlife and nature. You don’t want to bore them with charts and maps – you want to inspire them with ideas and let them feel like they have achieved something in the process.

You never know where it might lead them in the future!

posted by Catherine on Apr 10

Throw out that traditional ‘city’ guidebook – write your own eco adventure guide!

We all try to make sure that we see the oldest church, tallest tower, biggest fountain or a giant shoe – but what about the landscapes surrounding us? Do you find out where the local wildlife lives? Where the local people go and relax or where the more remote landscapes off the tourist trail are?

If not – then you aren’t having an eco adventure – you are having the same ‘adventure’ as a thousand other tourists who passed by.

By finding out a bit more about your destination first, you can discover so much more when you are travelling – and will have a better eco holiday that you ever imagined.

The Landscapes:
It might sound boring to research the rock types and weather patterns of your holiday destination – but by finding out things like whether the rock is ‘hard’ (granite) or ‘soft’ (limestone) you would know whether there would be a lot a water on the surface, the likelihood of caves and what plants and animals you could see.

photo credit: DaveBleasdale

For example softer more porous rock types like chalk and limestones don’t hold water so will be reasonably dry landscapes and any water features will usually be seasonal or man-made. And this affects the wildlife and plants you will find.

Other rock types might produce totally different effects and environmental diversity – which could make for some very interesting places to visit on your vacation.

The Locations:
By looking at the niche habitats and weather patterns – you could find out where the most pleasant places to visit are.

You may well avoid India in the monsoon, and the Caribbean during the hurricane season – so why visit a desert at the hottest time of day, or a tropical coastal location before the afternoon sea breezes come in?

Locals know all the secrets to making the most of the day – so if the locals don’t go out until the afternoon – you know to copy them! What do they do instead and where do they do it?

I remember when I first went to Malta I was back in my flat by 6pm and stayed in all night as I was totally knackered from all that sun. But 1 night I needed something important, so popped back out to the shop and found the entire local population out on the boulevard socialising!

Kids on bikes, couples, babies in strollers and games of chess all going on – there wasn’t a single seat free for about 2 miles of promenade! I had wondered why the prom was so wide with so many benches when I hardly ever saw anyone there – but of course it was too hot during the day to sit in the sun!

Learning a bit more about somewhere isn’t so hard – and then you could find you get a lot more from the experience.

posted by Catherine on Feb 22

Why not take an extended eco holiday to a part of your past?

These days you can buy yourself a genome-realted DNA test that may well help you to see where your ancient ancestors came from or travelled through on their journey to becoming you!

It is currently believed that around 60,000 years ago the first humans started to move away from their original homeland. Theories still abound as to why they moved and how they managed it – but basically from those first steps – they sowed the seeds for all the thousands or cultures, languages and peoples that we know today.

Some of these groups are still very isolated such as island communites, whereas others are now highly mixed up including many capital cities like London and New York.

Over thousands of years of migration, settlement, working and trade; cultures have met, mixed and moved on. But where does your history come from – where has your distant family been living all this time?

Genome Testing.
It is now possible to buy a testing kit for yourself or a friend that will tell you about the journey of your ancestors as far as we know it.

There have been many studies over the past few decades that have found certain ‘markers’ in human DNA which can be plotted on a map of the world based on where these markers are found within indigenous populations still living in those locations.

For example, certain markers found in indigenous people living on Island A will be identified as different to all other marker combinations, so if your DNA is found to have most or all of those same markers, then you can almost guarantee that your ‘family’ were there too at some point.

And as humans moved from Africa across Asia, Europe and the Americas, they left a trail of these similar markers – and it is these markers that the DNA test can highlight for you.

These markers can be found for both your maternal linage – through your mother and then her mother and then all the mothers for ever; or paternally through your father, then his father, then all your family’s fathers (however only males can follow their paternal lineage due to the ‘Y’ chromosome – as ladies don’t have one!).

This tracing backwards doesn’t give you a list of all their names and addresses of course, it just tells you whether your markers are found in certain populations over time and in which areas and countries.

Wow!
This is of course something that could change your life. Especially if you have no idea what your ancestry is and find out that most of your past relatives were from a totally different continent to what you thought.

I know skin colour and your direct relations might give you a clue to more recent family ties over the past 100 years (like the last 3 generations of my family were all from Europe) – but they can be hiding a whole host of other relatives over the past 59,900 years that are hidden within our genes!

And finding out that your history is focussed in a whole new landscape could be the very input you needed to find a new path in life. What if you could travel back to that place for an extended period of time; learn about who still lives there and past events.

And if it is still a developing region – there may be volunteer or teaching opportunites close by so that you could actually be helping people still living in that very place who share a similar past to you.

If you are interested in learning more about yourself, then maybe take a look at one such Genome Project and take it from there?

photo credit: Lordcolus

posted by Catherine on Feb 8

If you see ‘poisonous’ Ragwort alongside a footpath – would you destroy it?

After all, Ragwort is known for it’s toxic nature – and is always destroyed on equestrian land and is generally unwanted on cattle grazing land and in hay meadows.

Eating it over a period of time will usually cause permanent liver damage, but this is very, very rare in reality. However, some walkers take it upon themselves to snap off the ragwort stems as they pass them by – for reasons only known to them.

However – I bet it didn’t oocur to them that the land owners or reserve wardens may in fact be actively encouraging the ragwort to grow there.

photo credit: MGSpiller

Who’s Land Is It Anyway?
Many countryside walkers assume that the land is unchecked, not cared for and little visited by the owners – but they would be wrong in nearly all cases.

All land is ‘owned’ by someone and they would either look after it themselves or have someone else look after it for them (usually with some financial incentive).

And if you studied any biology or geography in your life you would know that there is a natural pattern of succession in the plant world, starting with bare rock or dried riverbed, leading up to mature forest.

(If you are one step ahead of me now you will know what I am about the say.)

As a result of this natural pattern – if land wasn’t tended to or ‘controlled’ by somebody – then the very grassy patch or field where you just snapped that ragwort in half in wouldn’t actually be grassy – or even have any ragwort in. It would be a mature forest.

And as with your own land (generally just your garden) – even if it looks a bit messy and you are at work 5 days a week – you really wouldn’t want someone to walk through it while you were out and then take it upon themselves to cut down your only tree and uproot your rhodedenron bush.

Understand Nature’s Way:
By cutting down young or densly growing trees down to create a glade, or patch of open grass in the middle of a woodland can be a fantastic haven for dozens of butterfly and moth species – and some of them just love Ragwort!

The day-flying Cinnabar Moth (a bright red medium-sized moth) is most renowned for this association and has bright yellow and black striped caterpillars that feed on the ragwort plants. Many other moths also use the plant for parts of their lifecycle.

photo credit: MGSpiller

And strangely enough – bearing in mind how horrible the plant tastes – sheep tend to love an appetiser of Ragwort amongst their normal grasses and flowers. It is believed to kill off internal parasites for them!

Woodlands all over the country are managed to a certain extent – even though they tend to take care of themselves most of the time – but if you want to attract any birds, mammals or insects that don’t live in woodlands, then you need to cut them down.

And that is just what happens throughout the year on the very land you are walking on.

Some plants are best cut down at certain times of the year – and of course you can’t disturb a nesting bird over the spring – so rather than taking on the role of dangerous plant destroyer (ivy cutter/squirrel scarer/dead wood clearer/or anything at all that isn’t agreed in advance with the land-owner) – just walk on by.

If you have anything you would like to share with them about their land, then contact them in the appropriate fashion rather than just sabotage their property.

So, when you are out exploring the countryside – think of their trees as you would of your garden fence; their plants as you would of your rosebush; their gates as your own front door.

Would you want someone to leave your front door open, break down your fence and snap your rosebush in half?

I didn’t think so…….

posted by Catherine on Jan 6

Your empty car could cause charities to lose money and reduce visitor numbers!

Thinking about what your car can do when you aren’t using it is one of the first step towards eco friendly living and the right attitude.

Anything that limits the chances of other people enjoying their day or makes them have to try twice as hard to get to where they want to go – isn’t very eco friendly.

And in the case of your car – your decisions can make all the difference.

Let’s say that you parked your car in a local viewpoint car park – but you only noticed that you were taking up just over 1 space after you had got out the car. There weren’t many other people in the car park, so would you leave it there or would you move it?

If you aren’t going to be there long, you might be inclined to leave it there – but how do you know what might happen while you are away? What if you are longer than expected or it suddenly fills up. You are preventing someone else from parking where you are.

photo credit: Blyzz

You might be having a lovely walk out there – or a delightful picnic with friends – but there could be a whole family wanting to do the same – but instead they are left in the car park staring at three-quarters of a parking space and no doubt a little bit annoyed as well!

Long Term Effects:
Yeah, that might only be a one off for you as you live close by and go there all the time – but what if that person you prevented from parking had come a long way to see your local coastline or woodlands – and they never got to see it because of your actions.

What if they were going to spend their holiday money in the area – your area? But instead they drove off to a town further down the way and spent it there. Their loss or yours?

What if the car park was a pay and display car park funding the very location you love to visit – and you just lost them some money as well – paying once but using 2 spaces and driving of another customer to boot!

And do you think those people would recommend your viewpoint to their friends back home who are planning a road trip or will they just say ‘there wasn’t enough parking’. How can they tell them about the beautiful countryside near you if they didn’t get to see it – they will just have to say how wonderful the other place they went to was instead.

Your loss again I think!

posted by Catherine on Nov 2

By paying upfront – you are more likely to take part in local events!

If you get home from a long day at work – the last thing you normally want to do is then pay to go out with a friend to the movies or to eat.

However, what if that meal was already part paid for – or there were lots of other people you know going to see that film?

You might think differently.

Basically, I am trying to get you to think about joining a membership scheme for something local – or national – that you really like or want to get involved in more.

Why?  Because there are too many people out there saying ‘Oh, I’ve always wanted to do that’ or ‘I haven’t really got the time to….’ – and this needs to change.

Local Groups:
Say for example you had joined your local cinema or theatre group by paying a small joining fee.  Yes, you will get all the benefits of newsletters and priority booking and seating – but you will also get a discount on viewings.

Hopefully this should be more of an incentive to get out more often in your own town and meet up with friends.

And, if you are out in town with a few friends, then you are more likely to use local services like restaurants, bars and taxis – all great for your community.

And it won’t seem like a drag each time as you will know the seating, the entry times and the best nights to go!

National Groups:
In the same way that local services benefit from your membership – so do more distant organisations.

For example, if you want to help preserve wetlands or historic houses and gardens but there are none in your town, then joining a membership scheme that supports their work directly will help them get things done.

This way, when you do decide to travel further afield on a weekend or day off – you are more likely to be able to go and see the very thing you have been preserving from your own home.

I mean, how can you go and visit a wetland if it is not there anymore due to lack of funding?  And that historic house won’t be open to the public if there isn’t enough money to pay the electricity bill for it!

So, Join Up:
So, if it’s just cheaper cinema tickets you want or a greener countryside – find out who is working in your area and the memberships or offers available – and think about joining.

Most schemes work out at just a few pounds a month – so its not like you will spend a fortune on anything – but it might just liven up your evening or weekends if you got a bit more involved.

posted by Catherine on May 22

We all know that 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity – so what’s special about today?

International Year of Biodiversity is a time where huge projects can be started, or completed. Many projects across the world take years and years of planning and can take up to 15 years to start to become effective – and according to climate change experts: we don’t have much time left.

So the idea of this ‘year’ is to highlight the need for research into biodiversity and the beginnings of a change in the way that we deal with climate change, extinctions and the environment as a whole.

So Why The ‘Day’?
Well, the day of Biodiversity is a time where ordinary people like you and you family can become involved in something much bigger without having to devote months of your life to field research, and without cracking out the cheque book!

Events across the world have been organised for today that involve the very simplest of events such as pond dipping – to show you what actually lives there; through woodland creation – to help what is already there; right up to scientific meeting and lectures discussing everything on the world agenda.

So today you could be introducing your friends and family to the whole diverse world out there – and hopefully making a difference to their future.

And What About Tomorrow?
Well, the future isn’t looking like it’s going to be as good as it has been in terms of many weather related things, such as farming and soil fertility.

I mean many people think of ‘bio-diversity’ as being about all the amazing wild animals and plants that we love to see in parks and zoos – but diversity also means in terms of ‘boring’ plants and animals too.

Take for example the ability of wheat to grow in certain weather conditions, and we all know that rice needs water to grow – but the weather could change all that and make these crops very difficult to grow in the huge amount that we currently do. So we need a diverse range of crop plants to take their place when we start to get short. If it’s to dry to grow rice – we need to find something that we can grow instead!

Then think about all the thousands of different bugs and creepy crawlies that live in the earth and under rocks and even feeding on other dead animals – we need thousands of them to get the job done! If not then the soil loses it’s fertility and we will be surrounded by dead animals and plants, festering in the sun!

The more species that become extinct, the less chance we and the planet has of finding a solution to our problems – whenever the arise. For example, imagine you have a serious disagreement with one mobile phone company – you can currently just go and use another one; there are plenty to choose from today.

But what if there was only that one phone company? What if you had to put up with their charges or go without a phone?

This is the scenario that many of our animals face today – and more will so in the future. If they can’t find the food type or the habitat or the nesting site that the need to survive – they will have only 1 choice: Move on and hope to find it elsewhere – or die.

Your Actions:
However you can stop this – in both the example and in real life.

If you make sure that there is always a vast array of choices for both your family and the wildlife in the world – then there will always be a second, third, fourth or fifth choice. So when species are faced with the effects of climate change or the results of human encroachment, they can evolve a different way to deal with it – like eating berry B instead of the usual berry A.

And we all know that when something is the only thing left – it will be in demand (it’s scarcity value) – and then it becomes very expensive and very difficult to get your hands on.

So by keeping the world rich in choices and full of variety – there will always be a fair spread for everyone involved. This is what sustainability is all about – and it can make a huge difference to humans and the environment.

So think about that today: Biodiversity Day