Dear Fellow Adventurers,
Greetings from Beirut! I have just finished leading our first adventure here in Lebanon, which coincided in parallel with another of our cultural adventures in Iran, led by YellowWood guide Andy. Both of these were absolutely fantastic trips but could easily not have taken place if our clients had listened exclusively to the hyperbolic mainstream media:
We have partnerships on the ground with well-established operators in every country we travel in, and in the case of Lebanon I even flew out ten days earlier to gauge if the on-going political protests could negatively affect our journey. In addition to this we are in constant contact with the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) whom give official advice (which affects our travel insurance policies I might add) on whether or not to travel to regions of any given country. So, in short, unless our partners on the ground, the FCO and our own judgement say we can’t go – then we go!
I spent my second year of university living and studying in the small rural town of Oita on the southern island of Kyushu, Japan. During the long halu yasumi [spring holidays] I took my surfboard and tent and spent a few months hopping down the Ryukyu Islands that stretch all the way to Taiwan. As per usual I have posted one of my travel stories from that time on our blog, and I am very much excited to share this remote and magical region of the world with you via our Lost Islands of Japan Adventure, taking place in April 2020:
Looking for a new hairdresser?
Look no further than the village of Koraro, Tigray region, Northern Ethiopia:
We have run four adventures in Ethiopia in the last couple of months and those of you who have hiked in Gheralta Mountains will know Berhanu, who has long since been by far our best campfire dancer – despite having only one functioning leg.
Berhanu can’t work in the fields because of his disability and has spent most of his life just getting by. He has been expressing a desire to be a barber however, so our most recent group here in September clubbed together and raised enough money to buy him the equipment he needs to get his new career off the ground! Go Berhanu!
I apologise for the monotonous genre of my travel books this year, but I have been re-reading Freya Stark – the doyenne of Middle East travel writers – most famous for her travels in Arabia at a time when very few men, let alone women, had fully explored its vast hinterlands. Her amazing work ‘The Valley of the Assassins’ (1934) inspired me to create our similarly named hike in Iran. The following passage is from her closing thoughts in ‘A Winter in Arabia’ (1937-8), documenting one of her expeditions in Yemen:
“I thought of this civilization and of the beduin who is so happy without it. Perhaps it is because he need never choose the second best. Poor as his best may be, he can follow it when he sees it, and that is freedom. We, too often compelled to see two roads and take the worse one, are by that fact enslaved. Our lesser road may in itself be better than the wild man’s best one; but that is neither here nor there, it is our choice of the second that makes us second-rate…
… It would be pleasant, I reflected, to look back on a life that has never given its soul for money, its time to a purpose not believed in, its body to anything but love. The Arab can still say this, unconscious of alternatives. He will take a bribe gladly but will then do what he likes notwithstanding…” – Freya Stark
It has been an amazing year for YellowWood and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has come on our trips. We are a young company operating in some challenging environments and very much value your feedback. We read it all and act on much of it to improve our itineraries, procedures and service quality:
A good example of this are the new highly detailed adventure info packs painstakingly compiled by Cathy, incorporating feedback from you and our guides directly. We can’t (and don’t want to) take the adventure out of adventure travel, but are striving to give you a better idea of what to expect.
I am flying from Lebanon to the Sultanate of Oman next week where I will be travelling solo for the best part of a month to scope out our next YellowWood Adventure there. What can I say? I just like doing it the hard way…
Until next time,
Sam McManus, MD
