Want to do some volunteering in 2012? Be inspired by Lucy Gillmore’s guide to holidays that give something back… from tracking lions to diving reefs.
This article was taken from the January 2012 issue of Food and Travel. To subscribe today, click here.
Man and beast living in harmony is the ideal, of course, but unfortunately it’s not always the reality, especially in an environment as harsh as the African bush. Members of the Olowaru Lion Conservation Project are monitoring the effect of the ongoing conflict between humans and wildlife on the lion population in the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The lions have been persecuted by herders and farmers for years, so sightings are rare and numbers down. Going on safari is one of those Out of Africa-style fantasies, but this time it can also be a way of contributing, in a very real way, to a wildlife conservation project. On this trip, families (children must be 12 years and over) can join the research team, helping to gather data while on game drives or on foot with local Maasai guides.
Rest and Relaxation The Maasai tribesmen will teach you traditional skills including how to throw a hunting spear; you’ll also have the chance to attend evening lectures on Maasai culture, and camp under the stars. The trip features a visit to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, the Giraffe Centre, to assist injured and orphaned giraffes, and also includes time at the Oloibor Elephant Project, where you will learn about elephant migration.
This two-week trip from The Adventure Company costs from £2,249 per adult and £1,749 for children, including flights. (0845 287 7820, adventurecompany.co.uk)
About 20 years ago, tours of favelas such as Rocinha, the largest and most notorious of Rio de Janeiro’s shanty towns, catapulted the seedier side of life into the tourism arena. These days, there is still much poverty in the region, however, as well as homelessness – but the cost of this trip pays for a simple stable-like house for one homeless family, which you will have the chance to help build alongside the community over the course of four days. Projects like this help to raise awareness of the plight of the people who have swarmed to the city looking for work – and reveals how they are still positive and friendly and striving to overcome the obstacles facing them. Fortunately, there has been progress. Rocinha now has paved streets, sanitation and its own city hall. A few years ago, children from the Pereirão favela created a miniature shanty town of their own, called Morrinho, on the hills above Rio, and it was so successful it wound up being exhibited at the Venice Biennale.
Rest and Relaxation Rio is all about sun, sea and sizzling samba: by day, you will work in one of the poorest parts of the city, but at night you will curl up in a boutique hotel in the bohemian hilltop quarter of Santa Teresa with its quaint galleries, cafés and restaurants. There are also trips to the wetlands of Marapendi to look foward to, as well as colourful fishing villages and the enormous, bustling street market Feira do Nordeste.
This 11-day trip from Hands Up Holidays costs £3,700, excluding flights. (020 7193 1062, handsupholidays.com)
We’ve all seen the typical snaps of tourists teetering on elephant rides while perched on a cumbersome wooden seat. Here’s an opportunity to do something different – while getting up close and personal with these gentle working animals. As part of this trip to southern Thailand, you will learn how to ride an elephant bareback – just like a traditional mahout (rider) – and care for the animals in the village. Project volunteers fetch the elephants from the
mist-shrouded forest, who then lumber down to the lake for an early morning bath. Throughout your days in the village, you’ll learn how to give verbal commands to your elephant, feed her, clean her living area and bond with her. Mahouts used to command elephants to carry logs felled in forests, but after massive deforestation throughout the country many of them lost their jobs. They were left with little choice but to take their elephants to cities such as Bangkok, where they offered people rides on the busy roads. Unfortunately, the elephants suffered from stress in their new environment and were frequently injured in car accidents. Supporting this elephant rehabilitation project creates work, a safe home and a secure future for the elephants and their mahouts.
Rest and Relaxation The villagers will also be happy to show you how to cook local food or make your own hammock, but if you prefer, you can simply opt to spend the afternoon gently snoozing and swinging in one beneath the trees. Work in the village finishes each day at about 3pm, after which you are free to hit the beach or go sightseeing around the local area.
A one-week trip from Responsible Travel costs £400, excluding flights. (01273 600030, responsibletravel.com)
Gardening: it’s back-breaking, physical work but someone’s got to do it. Volunteers at Erddig Hall Estate spend days clearing tangled vegetation from overgrown footpaths, as well as repairing gates, markers and signs. Voted the second-finest stately home in a national competition, this elegant 18th-century mansion is set in 1,200 acres of formal gardens and landscaped parkland beside the River Clywedog – that’s a lot of acreage needing a thorough spring clean before the start of each season. If you’re a fan of Downton Abbey, this is a rare opportunity to delve behind the scenes at a real-life country house. At Erddig, the upstairs-downstairs life of the house is wittily re-enacted for visitors.
Rest and Relaxation The accommodation is more downstairs than upstairs, but this trip gives you exclusive access to enjoy the grounds and gardens before the tourist hordes arrive. The estate’s walled garden has a Victorian parterre and Yew Walk and it is also home to the National Collection of Ivies. As well as wonderful walking trails, there’s also a great cycle route through Erddig Country Park to enjoy.
Skaftafell in the south-east of Iceland is part of the recently established Vatnajökull National Park, the largest national park in Europe. The landscape – with its snow-capped peaks, grasslands and glaciers and sweeping plains of black sand – is simply breathtaking and, as such, is at risk from damage and erosion from everincreasing visitor numbers. On this trip, volunteers working with the Iceland Conservation Volunteer (ICV) programme will do their part to help reverse some of this negative impact by repairing the network of hiking trails, constructing timber bridges, building stone drains and removing invasive plants.
Rest and Relaxation You’ll have the opportunity to camp out under the midnight sun, and take part in other guided activities in the local area, including ice-climbing and glacier expeditions.
This one-week trip with TCV costs £345, excluding flights. (01302 388 883, tcv.org.uk)
Anyone who has been trekking in the Himalayas will be able to conjure up images of monasteries, and monks with shaved heads, saffron robes and cheeky smiles. But most visitors don’t get to see the Buddhist monks in action in a classroom – unless they volunteer to take part in a teaching project. Buddhism is one of the key faiths in Nepal and helping the monks to teach English, a smattering of maths and computer studies to young boys, aged from seven to 13, will give you real insight into their fascinating world – and provide the children with an integral and important part of their education, alongside Buddhist teachings and philosophies.
Rest and Relaxation Volunteers work five days a week for two hours a day, so there’s plenty of free time to explore the local area by visiting many of the beautiful temples and tea houses of Kathmandu. Weekends are free so you can opt to go trekking in the Himalayas, white water rafting, or you can even take to the skies with a flight over Mount Everest.
This two-week trip from I to I costs £759, excluding flights. (0113 205 4620, itoi.com)
PE lessons are something most of us took for granted at school. However, for many children in Kerala, this is simply not the case. Local schools don’t have the staff or equipment to organise sports activities. When school finishes, many children are expected to do chores at home. Global Vision International volunteers in the historic port town of Fort Kochi help teachers and staff at a local school to organise games of football, cricket, netball, basketball and athletics – helping to build the children’s confidence and levels of motivation and inspire teamwork, while making sure they have fun.
Rest and Relaxation In your free time, you can take your choice of cooking or yoga lessons, indulge in a traditional Ayurvedic massage, visit the local sights in Kochi, cruise Kerala’s backwaters, cycle through picturesque villages or explore the tea and spice plantations of Munnar.
This two-week trip from Global Vision International costs £650, excluding flights. (01727 250250, gvi.co.uk)
The plight of the world’s coral reefs may be old news but the problem is becoming more urgent. Global warming, increasing industrialisation and overpopulation are slowly poisioning our reef systems. Reef Conservation International volunteers on Tom Owens Island, part of the Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve and a World Heritage site off southern Belize, have the opportunity to help with a number of marine conservation projects and diving expeditions. Regular survey dives need to be made to monitor changes to the reef, while help is also needed to log breeding and migratory areas for lobster and conch, which need protecting, as well as collecting data to ensure that conservation efforts are effective.
Rest and Relaxation In your free time, you can snorkel, canoe, fish, sunbathe or just collapse into a hammock. In the evenings, watch the sunset in true laid-back Caribbean style with a cold beer on the jetty. Weekends are spent at local hideaways such as Coral House Inn, where you can chill out by the pool. You can also opt for land-based trips to see Mayan ruins, waterfalls or the Blue Creek caves.
This one-week trip with ReefCI (01525 714486,
reefci.com) from Much Better Adventures costs £650, excluding flights.(muchbetteradventures.com)
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