philippajacks.co.uk

White-fronted Bee-eater

Leading on from my first blog on South Africa, here are the birding highlights of my recent trip with Eco Training. The Mukaleke concession has some of the best bird life in the whole Kruger National Park, and I was lucky enough to see and learn about all of the following (click each image for a larger pic):

Blacksmith Lapwing - which makes a noise like the… Continue reading

I’ve just got back from an incredible trip to South Africa, where I spent a week at a safari guide-training facility in the northern-most tip of the Kruger National Park. Eco Training is South Africa’s leading training provider for safari guides, and has trained more than 3,000 guides in southern Africa and beyond.

It has three camps in South Africa, but what makes the camp I visited at Makuleke special is that it’s within a unique part… Continue reading

I was in Jamaica last week for a tourism conference and spent a fascinating day down on the south west coast, learning about a marine sanctuary project at Bluefields Bay.

More destructive fishing methods and growing unemployment have led to greater and greater pressure upon Jamaica’s fish stocks, and it is now the most over-fished country in the entire Caribbean. In 2009, the Jamaican government agreed to create nine marine sanctuaries around… Continue reading | 5 Comments

My feature on dive holiday suggestions for 2011 is out in the January issue of Diver magazine….including some great new volunteering opportunities – Biosphere Expeditions in Maldives,Blue Ventures in Belize, and Montserrat Reef Ball project in the Caribbean… Continue reading | 4 Comments

My greentraveller feature on the bike policies of all the major UK rail companies…..

Read the full piece here

[this blog first appeared on greentraveller ]

Visitors to Cumbria this summer can take part in cycling activities free of charge, thanks to a new Passport 2 Pedalling scheme.

Cumbria Tourism has teamed up with CycleActive, a company in Penrith, to offer training courses and guided bike rides across the Lake District from July to October.

‘Beach biking‘ sessions are taking place on the sand at Allonby, Barrow and St Bees in August with… Continue reading

I went for a lovely lunch with a Peruvian hotel group called Inkaterra today, at a restaurant called Bumpkin in South Kensington.

Inkaterra has some of the most exciting, sustainable hotels in Peru. It all started in the 1970s with Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica right in the Amazon jungle. Next were La Casona in Cusco, part of the super-luxury Relais & Chateaux collection, and Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel right by Machu Picchu. Inkaterra has now launched another sister brand… Continue reading

[This article first appeared in TTG]

Despite a thorough explanation from instructor Derek on how to hold my paddle and how to slow down and change direction, I was still concerned about losing control and smashing up my kayak on the rocks. But Derek assured me the kayaks were practically indestructible. “You might hit into each other, though – the kayaks have got magnets in them,” he warned us.

I’d have thought magnets would make the… Continue reading

My feature for Australia and New Zealand magazine on eco-volunteering in the Antipodes is in stores now….

Thanks to Biosphere Expeditions, Conservation Volunteers, Reef Check Australia and everyone else who helped out!

Click here to read it as a PDF

I was interested to find out more about the Rainforest Alliance at WTM last week. I first heard about the organisation when I was out in Central America last month – it’s a not-for-profit organisation with three distinct arms, advising and campaigning on sustainable agriculture, forestry and tourism in rainforested areas around the world.

Its work in tourism ranges from training hotel staff on green technology, to helping them attain certificates of sustainability, to educating tourists on how they… Continue reading