Outpost Adventure Racing Across the World
TRAVEL FOR REAL
BRATING ELE
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TREKKING IRELAND’S DINGLE PENINSULA
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Family Adventures DVENTURE TR
Like Father Like Son
A Wild Ride On the Tatshenshini River
The Philippines There’s No Place Like Home
On Rhino Watch In South Africa's
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Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park
Mashing Up Google Maps Counting Cetaceans off the Coast of B.C.
NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 2006
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Outpost54 Outpost contents NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006
Tripping 7 It’s Family Time 8 On the Fringe A spirited debate over vodka. Some nasty, hungry little sharks.
11 Local Knowledge In West Africa, cash is king. Just make sure you have enough.
16 Healthpost Keeping kids safe when travelling— can do, but it’s all up to you.
18 Going Hard Insanely fit athletes vie for the 2006 Raid World Championship in Adventure Racing.
20 Field Notes An intrepid ocean scientist conducts the first systematic survey of B.C.’s marine mammals.
25 Gourmet du Monde The Uber Tuber. From humble origins in Peru to the great Irish famine, the potato is tops any way you slice it.
26 MEC’s The Traveller's Edge 67 Open Box Google Map mashups are a lot of fun. Some of them are even useful.
68 The World is a Book Reviews of the latest travel tomes.
70 Backpackerz Buzz News from Hostelling International.
78 Wright of Way Ian (sort of) remembers the family vacation.
Features 30 The Irish Roamers
Story: Kevin Vallely Photography: Kevin Vallely and Nicky Hastings Two tiny travellers trek across Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula, showing their parents just how resilient kids can be.
41 Relating to the Philippines Story and Photography: Edd Baptista
A father teaches a daughter the ultimate history lesson through an odyssey to the place of his birth, where the air is sweet and the water warm, and there’s lots of emphasis on family and adventure.
48 Down a Wild River
Story and Photography: David McKee Inspired by memories and an uncanny bond, a son takes his 76-year-old father on one of the world’s great wilderness trips, rafting the mighty Tatshenshini.
55 Rise of the Rhino
Story and Photography: Lionel Mann Heroic conservation efforts have made Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park in South Africa the best, and just about last place to see rhinoceros in the wild.
62 Family Adventures Mini Guide
Whether in Alberta, Aberdeen or Africa, whether by donkey, camel or cart, bringing the kids has never been easier, and is just all part of the big adventure. Stories by Chris Chopik, Wayne Leek and Kelly McManus.
COVER PHOTO: NICKY HASTINGS PHOTO TOP: JEN BIRD; BOTTOM: KEVIN VALLELY
MAIL STOP
Outpost TRAVEL FOR REAL
NO.54
Publisher
MATT ROBINSON matt@outpostmagazine.com Deputy Editor
BARBARA WICKENS deputyeditor@outpostmagazine.com Editors-at-Large
PHOTO: W. LEEK
CHRISTOPHER FREY chris@outpostmagazine.com KEVIN VALLELY kevin@outpostmagazine.com Senior Editor, Travel Health DEBORAH SANBORN deborah@outpostmagazine.com Senior Editor KEVIN BLACK black@outpostmagazine.com Associate Editors
RYAN MURDOCK, LIONEL MANN, KRISHNA RAU, CALE BAIN Editorial Assistants
MARIA CALLEJA
Get ‘em while they’re young! Outpost makes a good read anywhere, especially between laps at CHICO Racing’s 24 Hour Hot August Nights mountain bike relay race. For the full family adventure story, see page 62.
Photographers-at-Large
LORNE BRIDGMAN, JASON GEORGE, DONALD WEBER Art Director
CHRISTINE AGER-SMYTH production@outpostmagazine.com Graphic Designer
Why do you like Outpost? What do I like about Outpost? • A really fresh perspective, that gets my youthful juices flowing and rekindles my love of offbeat travel, nostalgia for those trips on trucks through the Sahara, hiking in the Adirondacks and crawling China’s back alleys. Hard to do now with two kids under five, though! • Not the standard Outside/Men’s Health/Men’s Journal pap. • Ads for stuff I can actually buy in Canada. Thank you, Jonathan. EDITOR’S REPLY: Jonathan, of course, we think you can do it with kids—even more so by an adventure connoisseur like yourself. Hope our first Family Adventures issue gives you some practical tips, and gets your hardly-aged juices brimming over with unthought-of possibilities!
JEFF GUSCOTT Map Design
STEVE WILSON Assistant Designers
ALEXANDRA ISHIGAKI Food Editor
DON DOULOFF Contributing Editors
ROBERT J. BRODEY, MICHAEL BUCKLEY, CHRIS CHOPIK, DAVID FIELD, ADNAN KHAN, PATTI GOWER, TYLER STIEM Book Reviews
KELLY MCMANUS Explorers Club Co-Editor
JOSEPH FREY
Online Manager LIONEL MANN lionel@outpostmagazine.com
The Boomers are Coming! Hello—the Boomers are retiring! We don’t do weekend trips. We take our trailers and campers and go to Mexico or the south of the USA for the winter. The other three seasons we look for exotic destinations for up to four to 12 weeks at a time. We look for uncrowded time periods, and we love adventure travel! • From a registered nurse and very proud boomer, whose last two trips were biking in New Zealand and camping in Alaska—among destinations in the last five years which included Central America, Europe and Southern Asia.
Feedback? Comments? A travel tidbit to share? Outpost welcomes letters to the editor: editor@outpostmagazine.
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The Outpost National Adventure Travel Reader Survey WE NEED YOUR HELP! To keep Outpost off the beaten track fill out our survey online @ www.outpostmagazine.com
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Outpost [ISSN: 1203-7125] is published six times a year by: Outpost Incorporated, 425 Queen St. W., Suite 201 Toronto, ON M5V 2A5 Editorial and Business Tel: [416] 972-6635 Advertising Tel: [416] 972-6527 Fax: [416] 972-6645 E-mail: info@outpostmagazine.com Web site: www.outpostmagazine.com Individual Subscriptions Canada: 1 Year [6 Issues] $20 Cdn, 2 years $35 Cdn USA: 1 Year [6 Issues] $30 US, 2 years $50 US Intl: 1 Year [6 Issues] $40 US, 2 years $60 US Subscriber Services: 416-972-6635. Although we rarely do, we may make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies and organizations whose products may be of interest to our readers. To be excluded from these mailings email us at circ@outpostmagazine.com, or write to the above address. Subscriptions to Outpost are also available through memberships to Hostelling International in British Columbia and Alberta for $35 Cdn. Publications Mail Agreement #0040017920 Postmaster send address changes & undeliverable copies to above address. PAP Registration No. 10626 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada, through the Canada Magazine Fund and the Publications Assistance Program (PAP), toward our editorial and mailing costs. Copyright 2006 Outpost Incorporated. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Printed in Canada. Outpost is a member of Magazines Canada.
THE IRISH R Two little girls prove how resilient kids can be as they take a family trek of the ragged Dingle Peninsula in their stride. Good planning helps. STORY BY KEVIN VALLELY PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICKY HASTINGS AND KEVIN VALLELY
Walking on the slopes of the Slieve Mish Mountains.
30 Outpost NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006
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H ROAMERS
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Relating lating to the Philippines STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY EDD BAPTISTA The Baptista farm, Tupi, South Cotabato
www.outpostmagazine.com NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 Outpost
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The three-week trip to the Philippines with my sevenyear-old daughter marks a new beginning. Not only am I a newly single dad, this is the first time that Hailey will be outside the confines of our Canadian comfort zone. Well, there was that family holiday in the Dominican Republic, but I don’t think that an air-conditioned bus ride outside our five-star resort will have prepared her for the conditions we’re likely to encounter in the next 21 days. Fast forward one year, plus one separation and one very long plane ride. “So tell me what you know about the Philippines.” I don’t know why I’m asking her this now. My heritage has played a minimal part in her upbringing. Hailey knows she is part Filipino because my parents told her. Everything else she knows is based on a school project I helped her with two years ago. The students were to choose a country with some sort of family significance and write about it. Hailey had two great choices—the Philippines or Latvia, where her mother’s family is from—but she chose Australia, because her Auntie Donna lives there. After a couple of days of lobbying on my part, Hailey finally gave in and chose the Philippines. “I know Lolo’s farm is there.” Lolo is Tagalog for grandfather. “Anything else?” “Is it going to be like the Dominican, with swimming pools and water fountains you can swim in?” “A little bit,” I lie. Our trip will take us to the northern island of Luzon and the southern island of Mindanao, with roughly 1,300 kilometres in between. To sprawling Manila, and places so small you’re as likely to see men on horseback as cars. No luxury resort, no mother; just father and daughter. And as it turns out, her father’s parents and sister, so there will be five of us travelling together, and visiting an endless parade of aunts, uncles and cousins. I don’t really know what I hope to accomplish on this trip. I guess if I can get Hailey to realize that there’s more to this world than Spongebob Squarepants—and myself to stop worrying whether she’s enjoying herself—I will be satisfied. As we prepare to land in Manila, I ask Hailey if she’s OK. She turns away from the window and looks at me. God, she looks tired. I never realized what 22 hours of air travel would do to a child. There are not enough activities—colouring books, comics, and even portable DVD players—to keep a kid from getting bored and cranky. Plus, I made the mistake of waking her up when the food was served. She didn’t want it. Then, she couldn’t fall back to sleep—and made sure that I knew it for the rest of the flight. She nods her head. I give her a doubting look. “I miss my mama.” Damn. We’re on the tarmac at Ninoy Aquino International Airport when I see the sign on the terminal building: “ino uino I ational A po t.” Now that’s a promising start. My Uncle Ricky is there to pick us up. I haven’t seen him in over 10 years, yet his first words are, “Where’s Hailey?” My daughter, playing shy, introduces herself.
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His next statement sticks with me for the rest of the trip: “It’s hot, eh?” Even while waiting curbside for our ride, I’d been ready to peel my shirt off. It was already undone, except for the button covering my stomach. I swear Manila is another name for humidity. Wait, make that Humidity with a capital H. Hailey looks so miserable that I’m beginning to regret bringing her here. She doesn’t need an eye-opening experience in the Third World. Next time she can travel with her mother and connect with her Latvian half. We will soon get a break from the Humidity—unfortunately, it will be in the form of Typhoon Florita. Typhoons, the Asian equivalent of hurricanes, generally occur in the Philippines around July. My mother failed to mention this simple fact when I was planning the trip. “Oh, July. Yes, that’s when you should go. Your cousin’s getting married and we’re going also. Plus, it’s not too hot around that time of year.” My parents arrive in Manila the following day and Donna joins us from Australia the day after that. I haven’t seen my sister in about a year and it was bittersweet seeing her and my mother together. They share a special bond and I wonder whether Hailey and I can ever be as close as those two are. In any event, it’s the first time these three generations of Baptistas have toured the Philippines together. My parents have visited every few years since moving their young family to Canada in 1977. But I haven’t been back since 1989—I simply saw no good reason to, and even now I’m still trying to convince myself that this trip is a good idea. No matter how old I get, how successful I become, my parents have this hold over me where all of the sudden I feel like a 12-year-old boy again. I’m starting to resign myself to the fact that this trip is slipping out of my hands, when I think “Goddammit, this holiday is not about my parents, or my sister, or my cousin’s wedding, or whatever. It’s about my daughter discovering her Filipino roots. I will make this a trip to remember.” Cue the thunder and lightning. My cousin Gerry’s wedding is taking place in Baguio City, about 250 kilometres north of Manila in the Cordillera Mountains of Benguet province. Situated more than 1,000 metres above sea level, the City of Pines, as it’s known, can be as much as 10 degrees cooler than anywhere else in the Philippines. So not only is Baguio the country’s honeymoon capital, it’s where vacationing Filipinos go to escape the heat. Many, it seems, are staying. Baguio rebuilt following the massive 1990 earthquake that wreaked widespread damage on northern and central Luzon Island, and the city now sprawls across the steep mountain slopes. This urban development, ABOVE: A small river in Tupi, South Cotabato. Opposite page top Left: Quaipo, open market, Metro Manila. RIGHT: A view up in Tagaytay. Bottom Right: The Bacolor Church, Bacolor, Pampanga. Bottom left: Hailey at a very rural water hole.
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Down a Wild River His father spawned his love of outdoor adventure —and pushing his limits. So who else but his dad would a grown son want to take along on one of the world’s great wilderness trips, rafting the mighty Tatshenshini?
Story and Photography by David McKee
www.outpostmagazine.com NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 Outpost
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Rise Landscape of Hluhuwe-Imfolozi Park
Rhino of the
Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park is the best place in South Africa to see rhinoceros in the wild, thanks to the game reserve’s pioneering conservation efforts
Story and photos By lionel mann
www.outpostmagazine.com NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 Outpost
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The Land Cruiser’s wheels spin on the gravel road as we lurch up a small hill. Stopping at the top, Leon, our guide and driver, points out roaming elephants far off in the valley below. We step out and walk over to the edge. The lush green landscape reminds me of a scene from Jurassic Park—minus the dinosaurs. Zebras and kudu, as well as elephants, meander by a twisting river that zigzags its way to a distant horizon. As the bright hot sun pierces a clear blue sky, an untouchable, subconscious energy seems to flow in and around us. It’s a connection with nature one doesn’t find at the city zoo. Everything here is unconstrained by signs, fences or steel bars. Nothing, in fact, separates us from the animals, except cameras and a good driver who knows how to find fifth gear in a pinch. The cameras click and we all head back to the jeep to continue our journey along the winding roads of Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park. With the October 2005 creation of Camdeboo National Park, there are now 22 national parks in South Africa. Kruger Park is the best known and, at 1.9 million hectares, by far the largest. There are plans to expand its borders into Mozambique and Zimbabwe, which would create the world’s largest transfrontier park. South Africa also features scores of wildlife and nature reserves, both public and private. These too showcase the spectacular beauty of the country’s wilderness areas and rich diversity of its flora and fauna, but draw fewer visitors. Over one million visitors passed through Kruger in 2005, as opposed to 250,000 for Hluhluwe (pronounced “ShushLooey”). “I like this park much better than Kruger,” says Leon, who has been guiding for eight years. “There’s something about the size and intimacy of Hluhluwe that gives you a better experience.” Hluhluwe and Imfolozi were created as separate game reserves in 1895, and share the distinction of being the oldest wildlife sanctuaries in all of Africa. Joined by a connecting corridor in 1989, they became one large park of 96,000 hectares which today is home to some 350 varieties of birds and more than 80 species of mammal. Over the past two decades, the park has gained a reputation as one of the best places to see Africa’s Big Five—lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and
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this page: Muddy rhino. next page from top: Elephants. left: Leon. middle: An ornery Cape Buffalo. Right: Zebras and kudu.
rhinoceros. Particularly rhinos—but there were times when such a boast seemed highly unlikely. The park is located in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, in central Zululand, the name a reminder of the region’s turbulent history. It was at the very heart of the increasingly powerful Zulu tribe during the 19th century, and was used by one of its greatest kings, Shaka, as a royal hunting ground. By the 20th century, hunting was hardly the only problem. When nagana, an often fatal disease transmitted by tsetse flies, infected cattle on farms adjacent to the park, farmers blamed the wildlife as the source. A massive slaughter ensued and during the 1930s and ’40s, some 100,000 animals from over a dozen species were systemically killed. Today, however, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi is virtually the world’s breeding ground for the white rhino, a crowning achievement that has taken more than 50 years of fierce conservation management. Thanks largely to the renowned Operation White Rhino, begun after the park came under the jurisdiction of the new KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service in 1952, the animals’ numbers have gone from just a few dozen in the early 1900s to nearly 2,000 today, with another 3,500 relocated to other parts of Africa and the world. In 1994, the southern white rhino became the first species to be delisted from the World Conservation Union’s “critically endangered” list (it’s now classified as “lower risk conservation dependent”). Meanwhile, the park has become the place to see these magnificent animals. As our guide wagers, “If we don’t see more than one, I’ll put my head on a chopping block.” Our vehicle’s radio suddenly squawks, and Leon picks up the receiver to heavy static and a faint human voice. After a quick chat, he tells us that rhinos have been spotted on one of the side
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