It stinks, but the truth is the truth. Some forms of travel create a disproportionate amount of waste. Taking a cruise is one of them. The amount of fuel these behometh sea cities burn is astonishing, and there’s little that saving back linens or using animal-friendly shampoo can do to stop the waste it produces. There are, however, a wide range of less destructive options that will leave your conscience feeling much lighter. Read More
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Broome to Gnylmarung on the Cape Leveque Road
Grinning madly like a crazy teen on a roller coaster, I grip the steering wheel tightly, fighting to keep control as we fly over yet another hump in the road. Narrowly avoiding one of the many potholes, the SUV landed heavily on the red dirt. Plumes of red dust waft into the air in our wake as we speed along one of the infamous corrugated roads on the Dampier Peninsula. Read More
Agriturismo: A Unique Holiday Stay
All images: Agriturismo Niccolai
Traveling can be exhausting, so when you spend your days running around cities trying to soak it all up at once, it’s nice to escape the mayhem at night.
One way to unwind while you’re away is to stay with the locals; far from the madding crowd.
In Italy, especially over the past 20 years or so, it has become more and more popular to seek out farm stay accommodation. It doesn’t mean you have to get up at the crack of dawn to help feed the cows or pound the butter – although, no doubt your hosts would love it if you do!
It just means you get to stay with a local family, in the countryside and experience what life is like away from the tourist traps. Read More
UNESCO Protests Against Cruise Ships in Venice
Image: Mostly Dans
The much-publicized crash of the Costa Concordia cruise ship captured the world’s attention with startling photographs recalling the sinking of the Titanic. But for the Italian government, that crash was just the tip of the iceberg of the long-term damage done by cruise ships in Italian waters each year.
Searching for a Porpoise
When I tell people I swam with porpoises over vacation, they don’t wait for me to tell them the rest of the story before they fill in the details themselves.
Suddenly, in their heads, I am either the pipe-smoking father of an ’80s nuclear family petting a tame and labrador-stupid dolphin in a Seaworld tank, or a skindiver holding the fin on an ocean roller coaster beneath the surface of Photoshop-blue water, my snorkel bubbling away like a streamer behind me.
Neither of these is what it is actually like. If anything, it’s closer to Jaws.
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Even Meat Eaters Will Love the Menu at The Garden Café
Tucked away in the rural town of Frome, England is the Garden Café, a vegetarian restaurant that offers customers only the freshest local produce, grown using ethical, eco-friendly techniques.
Opened in the mid-90s, just an hour and a half from London, this excellent café has been offering the residents of Frome, of whom many are liberal city commuters, the chance to enjoy an ever-evolving vegetarian and vegan menu. Read More
Veggie Patch Restaurant to Truck Through Sydney
All images courtesy of Veggie Patch
Mention the words ‘food truck’ and visions of hot dogs, stodgy burritos and greasy burgers come to mind. The proposed food truck named Veggie Patch is working to change all of that and Sydneysiders can expect a very different meal to be rolling up to their sidewalks soon. Read More
Stop Rhinos Being Relentlessly Slaughtered for Their Horns
*Warning: Some Graphic Images
Lead image by Arno Mientjes under CC license.
People’s dogged ignorance and wicked behaviour never cease to amaze.
What’s got me so hot under the collar this week? No, it’s not a personal issue, well, not entirely, it’s about rhino horn. If you haven’t already seen the petition circulating the social networking sites then I’ll fill you in.
In a nutshell, rhinos are being killed en masse for their horns, and the number being slaughtered is continually increasing.
Image: Haul recently intercepted in Hong Kong by Bobby Yip/Reuters
How Many?
The World Wide Fund for Nature said poachers killed more than 1,000 rhinos in South Africa in the past four years. In 2007, there were only 13 killed. Considering around 20,000 white and black rhinos exist in the world, most of which are found in Africa, that number isn’t too alarming.
However, in 2010, 333 of the endangered animals were killed in South Africa alone. In 2011, the number had risen to 448. Read More
Harads’ Hanging Treehotel
Set on the outskirts of the small Swedish village of Harads is a scene not unlike something from a 1950’s B movie.
Shimmering glimpses of UFO style constructions trick passers-by into believing aliens have finally landed. Splashes of colour and light dance among the branches on the edge of the boreal forest; buildings seem to appear and disappear with every glance.
The UFO
All images: Peter Lundstrom/Treehotel
Yet, on closer inspection suspended in the canopy of trees is nothing more than a hotel.
A very innovative and eye-catching hotel. Read More
Eco Travel Vs. Psuedo Eco Travel: How to Know You’re Being Duped
In travel terms, they say green is the new black. Eco travel and ecotourism is in the limelight more than ever, with a growing number of holiday options available to travellers.
Unfortunately, there are a dubious group of travel companies and resorts that don’t play by the rules, instead they boast eco credentials that really make no difference to the environment or the local community, effectively duping clientele into believing they are signing up for an eco-experience, when in fact they’re not.
This practice has become widely known as greenwashing, and why it is difficult to understand what really counts as eco travel, or, what’s more, pseudo eco travel. Read More