Top ten travel books

It’s Friday, it’s 5 o’clock and time for some inane ramblings. In High Fidelity style here’s a top ten of travel books. Obviously a completely subjective and personal list borne out of all sorts of prejudices and complete lack of literary nous. Steered clear of mountaineering books and news books (which therefore excludes the likes of John Simpson’s books). Some authors would have several entries but I’ve applied the one book rule. One variable is how recently I read them, if it was years ago then less likely to make an appearance unless it made a stunning impression, enough rambling, here goes:

1. Congo Journey – Redmond O’Hanlon (Could have picked any of his books, but will restrict choice to one.)
2. A short walk in Hindu Kush – Eric Newby
3. In Siberia – Colin Thubron
4. Under a sickle moon: travels in Afghanistan – Peregrine Hodson
5. A Reed Shaken by the Wind: Travels Among the Marsh Arabs of Iraq – Gavin Maxwell (Arguably better than Wilfred Thesiger’s own writings from this part of the world)
6. Zanzibar Chest – Aidan Hartley (pushing the limits to be classified but a great read)
7. Dark Star Safari – Paul Theroux (had to be one)
8. Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran – Jason Elliot
9. One foot in Laos – Dervla Murphy (but take your pick from any)
10. A book about Papua New Guinea that was published by Lonely Planet. Can’t remeber the name of the book or author but it was good! If anyone ever reads this and thinks of the name. Thanks: It’s ‘Islands in the Clouds’ by Isabella Tree about Highlands of Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya.
11. Grains of Sand – Martin Buckley (know that’s 11 but just remembered this one about deserts)
12. In Patagonia – Bruce Chatwin

Stopping now as thinking of others.

Worst book: ‘Reality was a bug that bit me in the Galapagos’ – garbage

New Mill ornithology

We’ve been in the New Mill about 18 months and a reasonable sized list of birds have been spotted. The habitat is watermeadow, lowland river with quite a few pollarded willows. Here’s the list which excludes all those small brown unidentifiable ones:

Grey wagtail, kingfisher, little grebe (dabchick), cormorant, mallard, moorhen, pied wagtail, chaffinch, yellowhammer, blackbird, mistle thrush, song thrush, wren, wood pigeon, greater spotted woodpecker, fieldfare, white egret, heron, swallows, swifts, housemartin, sparrow hawk, kestrel, common buzzard, red kite, little owl, starling, house sparrow, carrion crow, rook, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, longtailed tit, goldfinch and pheasant. Plus the Audley chickens.

Paper, printing and recycling

We appear to use tonnes of paper in our brochures and other printed material, however, as a company we are actually very paper efficient. Our brochures are produced in very low volumes and have a long ‘shelf life’ because they don’t contain departure dates or prices. We have found that we are printing less brochures per region than we were five years ago.

We are talking to printers about the environmental friendliness of all our printed material with a view to improving it further. You may have noticed that the latest edition of Audley Traveller carries the FSC logo (Forestry Stewardship Council), which means that both the printer and the paper source have been audited to ensure sound environmental practise. We are exploring using naturally based inks on everything we print and using carbon neutral printers. At present it’s not possible to print our brochures on fully recycled paper as the quality isn’t to a high enough standard, however, it’s already possible to print on paper that is partially recycled. Similarly we are also investigating fully biodegradable/recyclable options for the plastic bags that brochures are mailed out in. Electronic communication via the web and email will undoubtedly cut down on our printing but is unlikely to ever completely stop it.

You can now also view all our brochures online in a completely interactive format.

Exploring Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford

If you’re ever in Oxford then an hour or two at the Pitt Rivers anthropological museum is definitely well spent. Not a lot has changed here since Victorian times, and this is part of the pleasure. Shrunken heads from west Africa sit alongside intricately stitched fur Inuit suits from the Arctic, all in big glass cabinets, and in a half light to protect everything from UV light. Most artefacts were collected by explorers in the 1700 and 1800s, although the museum also holds the 20th Century explorer, Wilfred Thesiger’s photographic collection. Indiana Jones would certainly feel home at the Pitt Rivers! www.prm.ox.ac.uk

 Cheating slightly, I’ve ‘cut and pasted’ the museums description of their collections:

‘Pacific island objects, including a magnificent Tahitian mourner’s costume, collected during Captain Cook’s Second Voyage in 1773-74; Hawaiian feather cloaks in brilliant shades of red and yellow; a wide range of handwoven textiles and looms; a collection of ceremonial brasses and ivories from the Kingdom of Benin; a fine group of early masks worn by actors in Japanese Noh dramas; more masks from Africa, Melanesia and North America; sculpture from all over the world in wood, pottery, metal and stone; boats, ranging from full-sized sailing craft to model canoes; baskets in all possible shapes and sizes; pottery from Africa and the Americas, including many pre-Columbian pieces; costumes from North America including Inuit fur parkas, Plains skin shirts decorated with porcupine quills, painted coats from the Northeastern Woodlands and a range of decorated moccasins; magic objects including amulets and charms; jewellery and body decoration; locks and keys; tools and weapons; musical instruments.’

Audley wins Wanderlust Best Tour Operator award

We’re delighted to have been voted Best Tour Operator in Wanderlust magazine’s annual travel awards. The awards were announced today at the Destinations show at Earls Court. There’s a real buzz of excitement around the office – this is one of the top awards in travel as it’s voted for by readers of the magazine, rather than a panel, ie.real travellers.

Destinations & the 5 golden rules of exhibiting

It’s exhibition season at the moment with ‘Destinations’ at Earls Court this weekend and the NEC at the end of February. This year we’ve gone for a purpose built stand – it’s been something of a dilemma, whether to go for the DIY option or employ a company to do the design which may look a bit a corporate. Well, if you go to the show, do let me have some feedback. The exhibitions are always a great way to chat through ideas and meet up with clients old and new, there are however, a few unwritten (until now) golden rules about exhibiting: Continue reading »

Audley come out top in Green Travel survey

Delighted by the results in the Daily Telegraph and responsibletravel.com survey at the weekend where Audley came out top in the luxury tour operator sector. Good to see that all the responsible travel practises that we are putting in place are being recognised. We can’t really be pigeon-holed as just a luxury tour operator although we undoubtedly offer luxury trips. You can read more about our responsible travel on the main Audley website and within all the trip ideas.

A genuine traveller

There are thousands (millions?) of personal travel websites out there, some wonderful, some not so. We were sent an office copy of travel writer, Fiona Dunlop’s new book Medina Kitchen before Christmas and I’ve meaning to have a look at her website. Just did so – what a great writer (and photographer) and someone who really loves travelling. Great blog as well. Here’s the link www.fionadunlop.com

Family holiday in Libya

Travel writer John Gimlette travelled with us to Libya over the Xmas and New Year. Just emailed to say he’d had a fantastic trip and how the much the Libyan people loved children – he took along his 3 year old daughter. Looking forward to seeing the article.

UPDATE: John Gimlette’s article is now published here.

Audley Traveller magazine

Always a moment of some agony when the new Traveller arrives from the printer, everyone loves to find a typo. Non found yet and we love the cover. Not sure about the cowboy boot competition!