The End Of The Line?

A new film produced by a friend of ours at OT warns of the severe - and possibly irreversible - depletion of wild fish stocks in the world's oceans. Dubbed "the 'Inconvenient Truth' of the sea" The End of the Line is pretty harrowing in parts, but there's an upbeat finale and a simple message of how we can all do our bit to avert one of the most serious ecological disasters of this, or any, age. If you want to see the movie, there are still screenings around the UK over the coming months, and we strongly recommend seeing it.

Italianissimo

Lovers of all things Latin will enjoy a wine and cookery school in Tuscany this September (26th September -2nd October) with Selina Maldini. Her parents have run the successful Gran Paradiso restaurant in Victoria for over 30 years. We are taking over a beautiful villa in the hills in between Arezzo and Siena near the hilltop village of Monte San Savino. The mornings and early afternoons are free for you to relax or explore the region with both Siena and Arezzo just a short drive away.

At 4pm each day wine guru Matt Day will guide you through a new Italian region using six carefully chosen wines. Then at 6pm you will move to the kitchen where Selina will teach you how to cook a simple three course menu with some dishes from the wine region of the day. You will, of course, cover the classics including pasta making, gnocchi, risotto and much more. Then all the prot-chefs eat together with three of the regional wines which will usually include a white, red and dessert wine. The all inclusive* price for this fantastic week is £900 – a bargain when you consider most schools in Tuscany charge three times that! Email tom@originaltravel.co.uk for more details.

Latin Lucy in Central America

The journey from south to north took us through three fascinating countries in Central America - from cosmopolitan Panama City, through swathes of jungle and chilled out Pacific and Caribbean beaches to the colonial towns and villages of Nicaragua – all unique in their own way.

Costa Rica is the most well-known to tourism, due to its long political and economic stability. We had dinner beside the Pacuare River after whitewater rafting to a Jungle Lodge where the new Linda Vista suite had recently been home to heart-throb Matthew McConaughey! This wasn’t the only connection to celebs – Canal House in Panama City’s historic quarter had been Daniel Craig’s chic hang out while playing Bond.

Other highlights? The engineering feat of the Panama Canal was awe inspiring and Nicaragua is simply magical – a land of volcanoes and ripe for exploration of its lakes, jungles and local markets. Bocas del Toro and the remote beaches of Bastimentos National Park stole my heart. We watched turtle conservation in action, snorkelled coral reefs and kayaked around the Zapatillas Cays. I want to go back already!

Air Shot

Want to drive a golf ball further than Tiger Woods? In fact 470 yards, to be precise. Well, now there's no need to book in for endless lessons, or buy a new driver with a club head the size of a Fiat 500 - no, simply play the Extreme 19th Hole at Legends Golf & Safari Lodge in South Africa, which involves a vertical drop of 430 metres to the green. The average shot takes 30 seconds to reach the green, but as yet no-one - not even a pro - has got a hole in one, despite a $1 million dollar prize on offer. Playing the 19th comes in at about £550 per four ball, including helicopter transfer (to the delight of the caddies), souvenir cap and glove and video of your longest ever drive.

Singing in the Rain

The Met Office has assured the nation that this might actually be a good summer - thereby in the process guaranteeing it'll be wetter than since records began. If that's the case, the inhabitants of the following - the 10 Wettest Places in Britain - might want to give us a ring

1. Dalness, Glen Etive, Highland
Britain's wettest destination, this Scottish town receives an average annual rainfall of 130.16 inches, or 3.3m.

2. Seathwaite, nr Borrowdale, Cumbria
The most sodden spot in England, Seathwaite is pelted by around 124 inches (3.15m) of rain each year.

3. Glenfinnan, Loch Shiel, Highland
With an average annual rainfall of 118.98 inches (3.02m) the village of Glenfinnan seals third spot in our list.

4. Inverarnan, Loch Lomond, Stirling

Just north of Britain's largest body of water, the residents of Inverarnan are drenched by around 106 inches (2.7m) of rain every year.

5. Inveruglas, Loch Lomond, Argyll and Bute

A few miles south of Inverarnan, overlooking Loch Lomond, Inveruglas has an average annual rainfall of 104.8 inches (2.66m)

6. Capel Curig, Gwynedd

This Welsh village comes in at number six in our list of Britain's most saturated spots, with an yearly average of 100.59 inches (2.56m).

7. Wythburn, Lake Thirlmere, Cumbria
With an average yearly rainfall of 99.8 inches (2.54m), Wythburn - on the banks of Lake Thirlmere - seals seventh place.

8= Chapel Stile, Cumbria
The delightfully-named Chapel Stile, in the hearth of the Lake District, receives around 98 inches of downpours each year.

8= Tyndrum and Crianlarich, Stirling
Showers are equally abundant in this Scottish outpost, around 20 miles north of Loch Lomond.

10. Lochgoilhead, Argyll and Bute
The residents of Lochgoilhead, which include the BBC journalist Alan Johnston, are soused by an average of 97 inches of rain each year.

(source: Daily Telegraph)

The Award for Best Tiger Goes To....

We at OT are strong supporters of TOFT (Tour Operators For Tigers), which takes contributions from visitors to India's tiger sanctuaries and puts the money towards a more sustainable conservation strategy to protect these most special of beasties.

In the interests of drumming up more awareness worldwide, TOFT have come up with a novel new Lifetime Achievement Award, which this year goes to two tigers - Machali in Ranthambhore and the slightly less Jungle Book-invoking B2 in Bandavgarh.

Machali is reckoned to have earned the Indian economy as much as $100 million since she became the dominant female in the park, and has brought up 11 cubs. B2 has been even more productive, siring 35 tigers who have made it to adulthood. In fact the sizeable majority of tigers in Bandavgarh are reckoned to be his sons and daughters.

“Machali herself earns as much as a top cricketer or Bollywood actress” says Julian Matthews of TOFT, “and it’s critical to recognise these extraordinary economic benefits that come from saving her species in the wild. She literally provides livelihoods for thousands of people from forest guards to wildlife guides, drivers to hoteliers.”

High & Dolomitey

Fresh back from a week’s skiing in Italy, and my family, previously wedded to the French Alps, have run away with an Italian Dolomite mistress. As easy to get to as most (1.5 hrs from Innsbruck, a little longer for Venice or Milan) the area is a picturesque string of picture perfect mountain villages connected by a slick network of lifts and 1,000km of runs. Better suited to sedate skiers (there are only a few blacks there, but heliskiing and off piste aplenty) the pistes are set against a stunning rocky and wooded backdrop.

It’s also surprisingly reasonable to eat and drink here (way cheaper than France), and San Cassiano has the greatest cluster of Michelin stars in the Alps, but the clincher for us was the charm of it all. The ancient villages have very little purpose built accommodation (mostly small hotels with sloping snowy roofs that evolved from family houses) which means that they have all retained their historic feel.

I stayed in a recently renovated set of 20 apartments developed by the same family that own the immaculate Rosa Alpina, arguably the best hotel in the Dolomites. The Ciasa Antersies apartments are a clever way of combining the flexibility (and cost saving) of self-catering living with the culinary know-how and service ethic of a five star hotel. The apartments are spacious and elegantly designed and a world away from the boxes you end up in at most French resorts. There is also a brand new spa, excellent breakfasts and a summer yoga club for children. I also challenge you to find more hospitable hosts than Max and Bettina.

With a week for a family four costing around £3,000 (including accommodation, ski hire, passes for all and car hire for the week) and Easyjet flights costing less than £100pp, it is a bargain trip, but in a beautiful part of the world, and in a lovely place to stay. And I hear that summer was better... AP