BBC2s ‘By Any Means 2′

Charley leaving Sydney with a huge biker escort on the first leg of his trip to Tokyo.

Just a reminder that Charley Boorman has embarked on his second series of By Any Means, this time starting his adventure in Sydney and travelling to Tokyo.

This latest series, if you’ve never seen it, features Charley Boorman (son of famous film director John Boorman) travelling on any type of transport he can he can get his hands on, through several countries within the Asia Pacific Rim.

So, if you’re thinking of travelling with Audley to Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Philippines or Japan, then you’ll get just a small flavour of what to expect by following his progress.

You can see Charley’s next adventure, through Indonesia, on BBC 2 at 9pm on Sunday 18th October.

PS. Don’t forget that you can watch previous episodes online for a limited period via the BBC iPlayer.

Lost Land of the Volcano on BBC1

Lost Land of the Volcano on BBC1

Last night, many of us at Audley watched this new series on BBC 1. In Lost Land of the Volcano, an international team of scientists, cavers and wildlife filmmakers travel into the heart of Papua New Guinea to explore Mount Bosavi – a giant extinct volcano.

Some of the species they filmed include a giant rat the size of a cat and the world’s smallest parrot.

It was a great start to an interesting series with new species of wildlife being discovered literally at every turn. If you missed the first episode, it’s available on iPlayer (UK only). The rest of the series continues next week.

If this series has whetted your appetite for a (slightly less adventurous) trip to Papua New Guinea, then find out more on our tailor-made Papua New Guinea tours.

Changing times for Burma?

The Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Burma

We were pleased to see reports this week that Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma opposition leader, has changed her views on tourism to her country.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Last week she was reported to have said that she now believes tourism should be welcomed and encouraged as long as it is run through private operations and not through the government.

We will be watching this story with interest as we have always had a very close affinity to the Burmese people. We believe that our clients themselves should be the ones to make an informed decision as to whether or not to travel there.

If this recent change of heart has encouraged you to find out more about Burma and the arguments for and against travel there, try the “Visit Burma” section of our website.

Audley Seminar: Discovering Costa Rica

Red-eyed tree frog, Monteverde Cloudforest

This morning I went along to another of our weekly client seminars, which this week was on ‘Discovering Costa Rica’. Although we are currently very busy in the e-Commerce department working on a new version of the website, I am really interested in Costa Rica having recently built a feature on Wildlife of Costa Rica, so went along to find out more!

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Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey on BBC2

Rick Stein in the Far East

Tonight at 8pm on BBC2 is the first in a series of programmes which sees the chef Rick Stein undertake an epic culinary journey by river, sea and overland to discover the diverse food cultures of the Far East.

“I’m here to discover not just the food,” Stein promises, “but what makes places like Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam tick. What’s so special about Bali, Sri Lanka, Malaysia or Bangladesh? Well – the food of course. But beyond that it’s the people. People talking about food…”.

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Audley Travel’s most remote client ever!

The remote Tristan da Cunha in the middle of the South Atlantic

Here at Audley we pride ourselves on having a far flung client base but even we were surprised to hear we have a client on an island a whopping 1,743 miles (2,805km) from the nearest mainland.

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Himalayan Treasures – Tibet, Nepal & Bhutan client seminar

Tiger's Nest Monastery in Bhutan.

On friday afternoon I popped along to another of our client seminars, ‘Himalayan Treasures’, which was presented by Chris Moore from our North and Central Asia department, and Camilla Brent-Smith and Iona Laing from our Indian Subcontinent team.

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Audley Seminars: Safari for Beginners

Walking safari in Zambia's South Luangwa National Park

This morning I grabbed a spare chair at the back of the Safari for Beginners seminar, and along with some Audley clients, listened intently to our Africa specialists go through the basics of safaris.

I sit in on these presentations from time-to-time to ensure that the content I am creating and maintaining for the Audley website is consistent with what we are actually offering clients. Secretly, I have to confess on this occasion I had an additional motive for being there.

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Peter’s catch of the day

Peter with his Chinook (King salmon) weighing just over 20lbs

This is a Chinook or King salmon weighing just over 20lbs. These are the biggest of the several types of Pacific salmon and are an absolute joy to catch.

I caught it while staying on the west coast of Canada’s Vancouver Island, several miles offshore from Tofino, while fishing at depth with a lure while in the company of a guide from one of the lodges. We ate it later back at the lodge.

The next day was even more satisfying because I caught two Coho salmon while fly-fishing within the sheltered waters of Clayoquot Sound.

Peter Stanley-Jones
Regional Manager for Canada

Client seminars begin again with ‘Wildlife, Walks & Wine’

Grapes in the Hawkes Bay area of New Zealand.

The summer season of client seminars kicked off on Friday 12th June with a presentation by some of Audley’s Australasia specialists. ‘Wildlife, Walking and Wines’ covered both Australia and New Zealand and was attended by 18 Audley clients.

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