featherytravels.com

I am not deserting this blog, but just taking a break until later in the Summer. I would never have been given the job by Bradt Guides without this site and I am eternally thankful for all your support through the years. Without your encouragement I would have given up long ago. I will be back in a couple of months and in the mean time you can follow my travels around the Inner Hebrides, Scotland, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Despite this, Dan and I were usually treated with warmth and respect, never felt at risk of a crime (a notable difference from certain parts of South America) and was guided through the country like a baton in a never ending relay race of people offering to help. Smaller car “bush taxis” usually filled with a couple more people than seats (though sometimes the gelly-gelly is also called a bush taxi). Usually all these forms of transport (including the private taxi) are grouped together at a transport hub called “the garage”, though you may find a separate gelly-gelly station or taxi-rank in bigger cities. In terms of waste and consumption, it is very difficult to travel in an environmentally friendly way in The Gambia: Being vegetarian or vegan is unheard of outside tourist areas and it is extremely rare to find accommodation with a kitchen.

I had not seen my family, or visited the Hebrides, since the previous January; a trip to Islay was long overdue... The house is finally finished and I spent a lot of time there reading and entertaining entertaining my family's multiple dogs. Christmasy and I ate and drank continuously while trying to remember what people normally talked about (too much time in the wilderness will do that). We did typically British things such as burning puddings, wrapping pigs in blankets (though not eating them in my case) and wearing too small/big paper hats in the shape of crowns while pinging tiny plastic frogs across the dinner table.

Unfortunately, we don't have time; climate scientists have warned there are only twelve years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond that point even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people, not to mention the effects on our ecosystem. The oceans are drowning in plastic, habitat for our dwindling numbers of remaining species is being eradicated as I type, we are still ignoring the millions of refugees and homeless people worldwide and we seem totally unable to tackle the vast inequality in our own country (the UK for me), let alone internationally. Running their Twitter and Instagram pages is not a difficult job and feels like the most productive thing I can do to help refugees right now while still retaining my sanity. For refugees and displaced people, I will continue to demand compassion, legal and safe routes into the UK , an end to detention and for people to be allowed to work while they are waiting (sometimes years) for their asylum claims to be processed.