Category: Expert Travel Advice

Even as I begin writing this, I know I am going to have a tough time reliving the wonderful experiences that I have had over the past six months. Although I am glad to be home with my family, it feels as though I have left behind a little piece of me with my second family in South Africa. When I first decided that I wanted to take part in a voluntary overseas placement, I did so in the complete knowledge that it would be one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I expected to feel homesick, lost, out of place and out of my comfort zone. I did – but I got so much back in return.

My last four years have been spent at university working towards my law degree. After undertaking a module in environmental law and writing my dissertation on the various environmental challenges facing the modern world, I realised that my professional calling was to become involved in environmental law. However, aware of the fact that true environmental awareness can never be attained by sitting behind a desk, I decided to spend a little time getting knee-deep in the very things that I would soon be spending my working life trying to protect.

When I first arrived in the Drakensberg I couldn’t believe how completely remote it was. All around me were towering mountains, dark, brooding cliff faces, expanses of indigenous forest and miles upon miles of wetland. The nearest shop was almost an hour away. The first night I spent at Entabeni was both the most exhilarating, and the loneliest, night of my life. I was away from everything I knew and loved but could hear, see and smell things that I had never before experienced. Everything was new- terrifying and exciting!

After that first overwhelming night I quickly got into the way of life at Entabeni. As part of a small team, I was responsible for designing, coordinating and conducting environmental education programmes to groups of school children on short-term residential courses. This involved a variety of different activities including forest and wetland projects, interpretive hikes, captive crane studies and also more adventurous pursuits, such as abseiling, wall climbing and camping expeditions. Despite using a variety of teaching methods, all of the work that we did at the Centre was geared towards developing an awareness and passion for environmental and conservation efforts. Although the work was physically and mentally exhausting, experiencing a “light bulb moment” with even just one of the kids within your group made it all seem worthwhile (i.e. that moment where you actuallyseea child become imbued with the same passion for the environment that you feel).

Courses aside, the best thing about living and working within South Africa was the people you met on a daily basis. During my time there I experienced so many different forms of kindness from so many different people. When I mentioned that my feet were suffering from wearing hiking boots constantly, Sandi (my South African mummy), came back from the next town trip with foot cream. When I lost a bracelet, one of the maintenance staff, Thulani, searched high and low until he eventually found it lying in the dirt road. Knowing my weakness for all things sweet, one of our kitchen ladies, Nomusa, would keep me the mixing bowl from the chocolate cake. I will never forget how wholeheartedly and completely I was welcomed into the “family” at Entabeni.

Since returning from my placement I can honestly say that I have seen a massive change in myself. If it has taught me anything, it would be that when things go wrong you simply “make a plan.” When problems arose on placement, there was no time to cry, envisage the worst case scenario or phone my dad! I simply had to accept the problem, formulate a solution and get on with it. South Africans pride themselves on their ability to “make plans” and this is definitely something that I’m bringing back with me to the UK!

I am due to begin my postgraduate diploma in September and will then begin a job in Edinburgh involving environmental litigation. Spending six months in South Africa, getting knee-deep in wetland, lost in indigenous forest and watching endangered wild Wattled Cranes flying above me, has taught me more than I could learn if I spent a lifetime in a classroom. Not only that, but I have also learned that basic, simple acts of kindness can connect people, regardless of culture, race, background or life experience. When I said that I feel as though I left a little bit of myself behind in South Africa, I genuinely mean it. Perhaps I’ll need to return in the not-too-distant future to put myself back together again!

Hamba kahle South Africa, it’s been amazing!

I would like to thank the Lattitude Bursary Scheme for providing me with the means to have such a fantastic experience. I would never have been able to afford to go otherwise and I am hugely grateful for their assistance.

Plan your trip to South Africa with Stanfords, click here to see our selection of South Africa maps and travel guides

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Voluntary work abroad is not just for gap year students – whether you’re taking a career break, considering new opportunities, recently retired, or the kids have flown the nest; whatever the reason, more of us want to volunteer overseas, challenge ourselves in a new way and give something back.

Sarah, Alastair and Katie all became volunteer managers with youth and education charity Raleigh, and they recently completed the organisation’s 10-week spring expeditions in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Borneo. Here they share some of their experiences…

Freelance travel journalist Sarah Neale made the decision to take a career break after a family tragedy. Sarah joined Raleigh’s 10-week spring expedition in Costa Rica as communications officer and loved it so much she is staying out to volunteer again as project manager on the 2010 summer expedition. She says:

Four months before I signed up for Raleigh my brother was killed in a climbing accident. I was finding it difficult to write, so I decided to do something positive and constructive with my time, away from normal routines. Taking on a new challenge in a safe, structured environment, and one which nurtures personal development, with a charity organisation that had been recommended by close friends, seemed to tick a lot of boxes for me.

My role on the expedition was communications officer which is predominantly a field-based role. The induction phase prepared me really well; I enjoyed the training and as our expedition was so large, it was great to get to know the field-base crew before the mass of venturers arrived. I thought that the training itself was excellent and I felt well equipped to start the expedition come deployment day.

My key responsibilities included: setting up and maintaining the expedition blog, producing the merchandise (magazines and t-shirts) and documenting the expedition images. I really enjoyed the blog; I worked hard to develop the Google blogger website during the induction, and aimed to post updates on a daily basis. In the main part, we achieved this. I was really happy that I managed to get the venturers involved in writing blogs as it’s a great opportunity for them to get writing published, and I expect parents at home appreciated this too.

I also loved spending time out in the field, talking with the venturers and project managers, getting a better insight into expedition life, and seeing a lot of the two countries.

My role on the expedition has given me focus and purpose at a difficult time in my life, and introduced me to an amazing, supportive and inspiring network of people. I hope that during my second expedition, by taking on a project manager role, I can push myself, learn new leadership and negotiation skills, and learn to work better as part of a team.

I spent three months describing my days via the blog; here are a couple of snippets:

Field base day:
It’s Sunday morning. By 6am, the swirling white mist that hovers over the dairy farm is starting to lift. The first mellow rays of sun have just crept over the horizon, warming my cheeks as I wander up the dirt track. It is 100 metres from my bed to the office.

I stick the kettle on and make some coffee. Outside the kitchen door, a couple of rickety chairs and a table are the makings of a breakfast room which gazes out over the farm. Chocolate brown cows peacefully munch the grass in a field dotted with vast trees bearing bright orange flowers. Brightly coloured birds flit playfully from tree to tree. The black-and-white cat that sleeps on the terrace lazily lifts his head and gives them a cursory glance before curling back up to sleep. It’s far too early for chasing birds.

A couple of kilometres away, at the edge of the valley floor, the landscape starts to rise. The emerald green grass changes to deep-green forest, lights from dwellings twinkle on the hillside and the slumbering giant of Volcan Turrialba looms above, a pillowy plume of smoke lingering on its summit like cotton wool.

I love this time of the day – the late-night owls are still sleeping, the early morning joggers are out pounding the back lanes and here in the office there’s an hour of absolute peace and calm. The start of another fine day at field base.

Trek day:
When I boarded the plane bound for Costa Rica I pictured a lush, jungled land; uniformly green, brimming with wildlife and swelteringly hot. Instead, I found something of a melting pot of landscapes – cloud forests, dry forests, mangroves, ashen volcanoes, bustling cities and fields bursting with fresh produce. It wasn’t until the end of expedition phase three that I discovered the place that I had imagined back in January: deep in the tropical south, Corcovado National Park stretches across the Osa Peninsula, a pristine bastion of biodiversity that left me open-jawed and wide-eyed. For me, it was the absolute highlight of my time in Costa Rica; I saw more wildlife in three days than I’ve seen in any other place on earth, even miraculously stumbling across a female puma and her cub during an early morning stroll through the jungle.

To spend time in this haven is a privilege: we work closely with the national park authorities to maintain and improve facilities in these protected pockets and, in return, we are granted access permits to explore the incredible ecosystems within. During my six days with ‘Zulu One’, we skirted a coastline that was peppered with sharks, crocodiles and dolphins; we watched sunsets that ranged from deep golden through dusky pink to blood red; we swam in crystal-clear rivers and slept in wooden-stilted ranger stations serenaded by the sounds of the jungle at night. We saw tapir, four different kinds of monkey, anteater, sloth, agouti, spiders, snakes and dozens of insects and butterflies. The vegetation included root buttresses the size of buses, Ceiba trees that towered 100m above the jungle floor, strangler figs, giant palms and thousands more. It was a truly magical experience.

My highlights so far include the people I’ve met – both in the UK and Costa Rica, and both volunteer managers and venturers; wild swimming in Corcovado National Park; wild camping on Playa Blanca (Santa Rosa National Park); field-base road trips; trekking; Catie swimming pool at dawn; coffee – sticky, sweet and delicious; discovering how much fun you can have not drinking; jungle camps; spotting rainbows through the rain in Guanacaste National Park.

The expedition has certainly built my confidence and energised me. I’m now able to spend a full day writing to a brief, and stay focused and positive. It’s also made me realise what you can achieve in a day when you get up at 3.30am! It’s made me aware of how little you need materially to succeed, and it has pushed me to be more resourceful and creative.

The experience has been a breath of fresh air. The rigid structure of training means you achieve so much during the expedition. It’s relentless at times, challenging and inspiring; it gives you a chance to explore environments that are simply not accessible to guidebook-toting backpackers, within a nurturing environment that encourages personal development. You also make some incredible friends – these alone are reasons enough to sign up!

Two years into a graduate programme at a business and technical consultancy firm, Alastair Parry decided to take a structured sabbatical in which he joined Raleigh’s expedition in Borneo. He enjoyed it so much; he decided to stay on as volunteer manager in a trek leader role. He says:

Since graduating two years ago from Durham University, I’ve been on a graduate programme with a business and technical consultancy firm. As part of a structured sabbatical, I first took part on an expedition as a venturer and then continued into the spring 2010 expedition as a trek leader.

From my time out, I wanted to see the world and to travel and I wanted to experience Malaysia as a participant rather than just a traveller. I also needed to get away as I was becoming a bit blinded by life in London.

What attracted me to Raleigh was its team’s diversity. As a venturer you are thrown in with people from all over the UK as well as the rest of the world. As a volunteer manager you have to manage that diversity, and the conflicts that arise which is good experience.

My key responsibilities were as follows:
1. Getting up to 13 venturers through a trekking phase without injuring themselves.
2. Getting up to 13 venturers through a trekking phase having enjoyed it!

In my role as trek leader I had a variety of responsibilities including looking after rationing and making sure the group were hydrated enough. I also had to provide support and facilitate group activity, maintaining all contact with field base. During the first part of the expedition phase, I had to lead and facilitate group bonding, as well as ensure that personal development and one-to-ones took place. I was constantly enforcing health and safety, and was a key point of contact with guides and supporting organisations such as the Sabah Forestry Park.

This role has been brilliant for my self-development. Motivating a group of 18-24-year-olds to get up and trek at 6am is challenging. You have to be constantly motivated and upbeat. You also have to learn how to delegate. I was always the day-leader’s back up.

I have learnt new hard and soft skills to fulfil my role. Hard skills I’ve learnt include trekking, using a parang (a Malayan machete), building bashas and camps, open-fire cooking, and diving.

Soft skills I’ve learnt include management, motivation, delegation, facilitation, how to do one-to-ones and conflict management. The last three skills have been completely new to me and developing these has been a process of trial and error, and learning on the go. Learning this way has been much more fun than studying the theory and then implementing it.

One of my best moments on the expedition was hearing a clouded leopard moving in the background, which was a real highlight after a hard day’s trekking. One of the most challenging moments on the expedition was trekking along the ridge at Crocker Range National Park, knowing there was a distinct lack of water and trying to keep both myself and the group calm. I also had to keep field base informed with our progress and liaise with the guides to make educated decisions on what steps to take next.

To sum up my experience: wholesome. You see a side of the country you’d never normally see unless you were working there, and you attain a sense of achievement you wouldn’t get unless you’ve pushed your emotional, physical and mental capabilities.

Keen for a career break, luxury travel specialist Katie Aston joined Raleigh’s 10-week spring expedition in Costa Rica and Nicaragua as the logistics coordinator and project manager.

At the beginning of 2009 I moved from London to live with my boyfriend in Jersey. My background is in luxury travel, but I was restricted with the jobs I was able to apply for. I ended up juggling three jobs; working in a cafe; waitressing for an upmarket catering company, and, amusingly, making sausages for a local farmer and developing his food products.

I felt that volunteering may be a way to regain my confidence in the workplace, allow me to live and work in Latin America and equip me with new skills. Raleigh was my only consideration, as I knew of its reputation. I had attended an open evening in London and knew that it operated in Costa Rica and Nicaragua – places I had always wanted to visit.

As logistics coordinator, I was in charge of designing suitable menus, placing orders with the wholesaler and allocating food to the groups, working within a tight budget. As a member of the field base staff, I was also required to assist other members of staff and operate the radio.

I enjoyed the camaraderie at field base, the variety of the job, the chance to go on road trips to see some spectacular projects, working alongside some fabulous Costa Ricans, improving my Spanish and answering the radio. It was also great getting an idea of where the groups were and what they were up to, despite being dispersed so far and wide.

The fact that you have to hit the ground running with the job is challenging, as is working to a deadline with last-minute changes to the numbers of people in the groups and having to deal with late deliveries.

In the role of project manager, I was responsible for the welfare, happiness, safety and personal development of a group of 17-24-year-olds. I enjoyed the support that everyone gives each other on a trek, the highs that followed the lows every day, the physical challenge, the breathtaking scenery and the chance to visit communities far off the beaten track.

In terms of soft skills I learnt on the expedition; I developed my knowledge of Microsoft Excel as well as learning how to upload posts and messages onto the Raleigh blog. I have practised my Spanish extensively – this is the most that I have ever been required to use the language – so it has improved enormously.

The soft skills used at field base are communication (working on the radio is a newly acquired skill) and teamwork. Out on the project sites I had to solve problems, resolve conflict, give feedback, and work as both a leader and team member. I have found that being thrown in at the deep end is the best way to learn and develop.

A typical day on an expedition would go something like this:

As the logistic coordinator at field base, I am usually up at 6.30am and eating breakfast at my desk by 7.30am. For the rest of the morning I could be checking the food allocation spreadsheets, inputting invoices, offloading a delivery from the wholesaler, or counting packets of peanuts and raisins in the bodega. Hopefully someone will have thrown lunch together, and in the afternoon it could be a visit to the wholesaler, photocopying for the administrator, updating the blog or answering the radio. A trip to Maxi Bodega to pick up provisions is a regular occurrence, and in the evening I may be cooking a shepherd’s pie for the rest of the field-base staff, followed by time checking my email or Facebook, or if I could be persuaded, joining in a game of cards.

For me the expedition highlights were successfully distributing the food for the first phase with not too many dramas. Completing the Guanacaste trek and living in El Terrero in Miraflor, Nicaragua, sharing the house with pigs and chickens!

Volunteering has given me confidence to realise that I can be thrown into a variety of situations and that I can cope well outside my comfort zone: I previously felt uncomfortable speaking in front of a group and was overly concerned about how I came across to people. In completing the trek I realise that I am mentally and physically stronger that I originally thought. I realise that I am more positive than I thought and that I am able to lead a group of young people. I have enjoyed the teamwork at field base and the variety of tasks that are presented.

It has been the chance of a lifetime, combining living in a region of the world that I have always wanted to visit, working for a worthwhile organisation and being put in challenging situations surrounded by other inspiring volunteer managers – and having a lot of fun in the process.

My time as a volunteer manager has introduced me to some wonderful, dedicated people and given me experiences that I would never otherwise have been exposed to. It has given me the confidence I was lacking. The key for me was to take myself out of my comfort zone – be it completing a trek that I would never have thought I was capable of, or acting as a translator on a building project in Nicaragua.

Raleigh, the youth and education charity, runs overseas volunteer expeditions in Borneo, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and India. They need a variety of volunteer managers aged between 25 and 75 to help run expeditions in a number of roles.

Date: 08/06/2010

Once you have fought off the doom-mongers who maintain that flitting off to a distant corner of the world on a gap year is irresponsible in these recessionary times, turn your attention to deciding where to go, what to do and who to go with (if anyone). The range of choices can be overwhelming – studying lemurs in Madagascar, backpacking around Indonesia, teaching English to Ecuadorian children, picking fruit in New Zealand to fund some adventure travel, working a season in a French ski resort, learning Spanish in Argentina, and so on.

The best advice is to do lots of research – starting, dare I say, with my book Your Gap Year. Let the ideas swill around in your imagination and see what floats up.

The next step is to do some hard-headed planning. The first question is always: how can I afford a gap year? Most gappers spend at least half the year working and saving hard, knowing that their reward will be a full moon party, a watersport instructor’s course on the Mediterranean, a bungee-jump in New Zealand or any of a thousand adventures.

Remember that you have only to take a firm decision for a crazy idea to become a reality. Once you have announced your travel plans to parents and friends and there is no going back, don’t worry about the odd moments of blind panic at the prospect of leaving ‘it’ all behind. These are guaranteed to evaporate within 48 hours of disembarking at your destination.

Whatever you decide, here are some handy practical tips to help your gap year go smoothly:

• Look at the advice concerning personal safety given by the Foreign Office (www.fco.gov.uk). On arrival in countries where embassy officials may need to track you down in the event of an emergency, register your details and itinerary on the FCO’s LOCATE service (www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/staying-safe/Locate).

• Shop around for travel insurance and make sure you are covered for everything you intend to do e.g. working and sports. Expect to pay roughly £25 per month for basic cover and £30-£40 for more extensive cover for a policy that covers the whole world.

• Keep a record of travel document details, like passport number, insurance policy, driving licence, travellers’ cheque serial numbers, tickets, emergency number for cancelling credit cards, etc. Scan and email this information to yourself so that you can access it at any stage from an internet café.

• Have several ways of accessing money rather than relying on one bank card that can be lost, stolen or damaged.

• Carry valuable items (like passport, essential medicines and, of course, money) on your person rather than relegating them to a piece of luggage which might be lost or stolen.

• Only pack items you are prepared to lose. Flashy clothes and electronic equipment may attract the attention of pickpockets.

• Learn a few key words and phrases in the local language, so as not to seem arrogant in assuming everyone communicates in English.

• Be aware of the laws, customs and dress code for the country. Guidebooks should provide all this information.

• Online banking is a great way to manage your finances while you are away. But many internet cafés are slow and access may not always be easy so don’t leave important transactions until the last minute.

• If you are volunteering through an organisation, ask for the contact details of some recent volunteers on your project. They should be able to give you advice about the project.

• If you are staying in one country for several weeks, consider getting a cheap local mobile phone or a local SIM card for your UK mobile. Local texts and calls will be cheaper and incoming calls from abroad are free, which avoids the massive charges when using your UK mobile.

• Most importantly, have a ball! Pay attention to your instincts and aim to achieve that perfect balance between travelling safely and enjoying yourself. If you are over-cautious you might miss out on something amazing, but at the same time you want to avoid unnecessary risks.

Browse all books by Susan Griffith. Author: Susan Griffith Date: 06/04/2010

Wherever your gap year travels take you and however enthralling the trip, there will be moments when a good book to read is just what you need. Whether it is to fill time whilst waiting for a departure, to relax in a quiet moment away from all the excitement or just to close the chapter on your day’s activity, finding room in your rucksack for that work of fiction is something you won’t regret.

Some people opt for a mighty tome to last, such as Tolstoi’s impressively humongous War and Peace or A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, using the time away to embark on reading something that they haven’t found the opportunity to get through before. Others choose a slimmer volume, for example the cult classic Jack Kerouac’s On the Road or Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, then look to trade it en route with fellow gappers when finished. Either way, something location specific can enhance a trip and inspire you with ideas and enthusiasms for your own travels. 

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts is a current chunky favourite and is a modern-day saga based on a specific period of the author’s life. Encompassing everything from philosophy and ethics to underworld crime and war, and set in India and Afghanistan, it is something to keep your mind engaged and give you ideas to grapple with.

Other titles that I would add to the list of books designed to last you a significant chunk (if not all) of the way round wherever you are would be Cervantes’s tale of the noble knight, the errant Don Quixote, Olivia Manning’s The Balkan Trilogy – an epic evocation of a marriage and a breaking 20th-century world, James Clavell’s Shogun, set in Samurai Japan, and The Count of Monte Cristo – a classic tale of a miscarriage of justice, providence, retribution and fate by the 19th-century French great, Alexandre Dumas.

Alex Garland’s The Beach (set in Thailand) and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code have been the choice of those wanting an easier, escapist read in recent years, with the more literary reading options often being something such as the Mann Booker winners Life of Pi and The White Tiger, Ian McEwan’s film-adapted Atonement or Rose Tremain’s Orange Prize-winner The Road Home which centres on Lev, a Polish migrant worker who journeys to London, both to seek and escape, on a path that leads him home to where his heart is.

A perennial favourite for the more surreal backpack is Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, a title harder than most to condense into a summary…suffice to say that the devil, in the guise of a magician, lands himself and his entourage (which includes a human-sized upright walking, talking, chess-playing cat) in 1930s Stalinist Moscow, with the general and targeted aim of prodding a few consciences and scoring a point or two for the artist’s right to self expression and freedom from state control.

Esther Freud’s Hideous Kinky has accompanied people to Morocco. Haruki Murakami has been the choice of those heading to the Far East with titles such as Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. With Rohinton Mistry’s novels A Fine Balance and Tales from Firozsha Baag and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and Satanic Verses likely to accompany a trip to India. There is even the wide-reaching Edward Rutherfurd, whose epic tomes encompass the entire histories of Russia (Russka), Ireland (Ireland Awakening), London, and New York.

The chances are that there is a novel set either where you will be going, where you have been or where you might want to go in the future…so save a little space in your back pack and see whether fiction really is stranger than the reality that’s out there!

See also: Gap year gear – Top 10  Author: Sam Golding

Self-catering accommodation can often be the best option for your holiday – making your stay more relaxed, comfortable and fun. Matt Richardson, from self-catering specialist Lagrange Holidays, tells us why…

1. Self-catering isn’t what it used to be

Long gone are the days when self-catering meant a sparsely furnished, pokey studio flat with uncomfortable sofa-beds. Today’s self-catering residences are made up of spacious apartments with well-equipped kitchen areas, separate bedrooms and comfortable furnishings.
Continue reading 10 Reasons to Go Self-Catering

Exciting holidays are still possible once you have children, and the French mountains are an ideal destination for little ones, says Alison Willis from France holiday specialists Lagrange…

Having a baby doesn’t have to mean the end to days of throwing everything in a rucksack and heading off into the sunset on an adventure; it just means you might have to make a list first, then throw everything into your rucksack, grab the change bag and then head off. While babies are very small, they are infinitely portable, and toddlers although less portable will find even the smallest adventure fascinating. With that in mind, why not get back to being your old self and head to the Alps or Pyrenees to blow away the cobwebs and get your kids hooked on fresh air and walks.

Trains and little ones go very well together. It’s easy to assume because you have the baby paraphernalia to cart around that you are reliant on a car for all your holidays, but toddlers find train travel fascinating and the French high-speed TGVs mean that long journeys don’t feel endless. Ever-changing scenery can keep them busy for the first hour or two, while a few well-chosen toys and books and a trip to the buffet while away the rest of the time. Continue reading France With A Baby