Survival International, the movement for tribal people estimates that there are still around 40,000 people in some 100 tribes around the world that have had at most limited contact with ‘civilisation’ (lucky them!).

The Brazilian government department for Indian affairs, FUNAI, estimates that there are up to 70 tribes that have had limited contact in its rain-forest. This is despite the incursion of loggers and cattle farmers into these areas over recent years.

On second thoughts, as fatality rates usually rise after first contact, due to disease and violence, perhaps we’d best leave them alone….

Due to massive irrigation to feed Soviet era cotton fields, the Aral Sea (in fact a lake) in Uzbekistan has reduced from nearly 70,000 square kilometres 40 years ago to under 20,000 square kilometres now.

This leaves vast tracts of desert that are mostly uncharted and unexplored …

Get out there and explore!

Never wanting to be one to be unprepared when I travel, I always like to know what the weather is likely to be at any new destination. So prior to setting off for Prague in the Czech Republic last week I checked the weather data on WhereWhenWhy. Seven degrees celsius average temperature in April sounded reasonable for the time of year, so I packed accordingly. Plenty of layers and some good thick sweaters for when the temperature drops at night.

My first warning came at the airport when the lady at the bureaux-de-change claimed in was ‘about 25 degrees’ in Prague at the moment. ‘Surely she’s wrong…’ I said to my wife and carried on to board the plane.

Arriving to the blazing sun and four days of perfect mid-twenties weather I had a great if somewhat sweaty and ill-prepared for (by around 15º C) few days.

So, the moral of the story is, in these days of uncertainty whilst checking the weather trends is useful, make sure that you also check the current weather conditions as well. You never know what might be waiting for you.

As has happened since we first staggered out of our caves, people love to tell others their (often tall) tales of the adventures they’ve had on their travels. We love to listen and share, placing ourselves in their shoes, following in their footsteps, wondering what we would have said / done / felt in the same circumstances.

This is human nature at its most basic - the hunter / gatherer instinct to find new lands, search for Eldorado or find the grass that really is greener on the other side.

The ‘down-side’ to this is the tendency of people to travel in groups and seek safety in numbers. This is what leads us down the slippery slop of the back-packers trails and whole graduations classes from Surrey trooping around the far-east.

So listen to your family and friends and take on board their opinions of both the places they’ve been and things they’ve done - let the story guide you!

An intriguing site that has come to my attention lately is grief-tourism.com a site that has dark tourism, battlefield tourism and dead celebrity tourism as it’s central themes.

It’s all about tourism to the sites of tragedy and evil — Ground Zero, Holocaust sites like Auschwitz and infamous places such as Strawberry Fields & the Dakota Building (where John Lennon was assassinated) and Soham, England (the scene of the murder of two young girls).

Grisly but fascinating, a real exploration of the dark side of human nature and our attraction to the horrific.

I must admit that travel no longer holds the appeal for me that it did. Perhaps Osama can add me to his count of the victims of global terrorism?

In truth, it’s not the risk that may be present in other countries that puts me off travelling (I think I’m probably at greater risk at home in the UK), but the (seemingly) pointless additions to existing security arrangements. To start to list them -

Restrictions on hand luggage,

No liquids through security (but I can buy whatever I like in departures! - how hard would it be for a terrorist to get one of his mates a job in duty free and smuggle through whatever liquids or powders he needed?),

Checking the soles of my shoes,

A bevvy of security people staring at me intensely as I pass through customs,

Arriving ridiculously early for flights….

…That list is enough to put anyone off and that’s just a start!

Back in September, I speculated, Some hand luggage sense at last? when the restrictions on what can be carried as hand luggage started to be eased.

Now I read on http://www.wherewhenwhy.eu/ that liquids are to be allowed on flights - seems sensible, but on reading further, this is to be limited to…

100ml containers carried in a one-litre re-sealable clear plastic bag

…What??? is it just me or has the world gone mad?

writeabout.us is a site that has one of those ‘ah, wish I’d thought of that’ ideas going on.

Basically, you write about them on your site (like this) and in return get a link from their site to yours…a million dollar, travel pixel, home page mashup type scenario…

So this is me writing about them…and now you should go and do the same thing…traffic? We’ll see!

An article on the BBC news this morning gave me pause to think. It was regarding the threat of mass tourism to the fragile ecology of the Galapagos Islands (off the coast of Ecuador for the initiated.)

Basically, cruise ships have begun to visit the waters around the islands and those concerned with protecting them are keen to ensure that this doesn’t escalate. They cannot legislate to stop these visits so rely on the ethics of travellers to not stimulate the demand for low-cost tourism to the islands. They are keen that the islands don’t become just another box to tick on the world-travellers itinerary.

Having seen the voracious Japanese tourists devouring Europe under their lens caps and Brit’s gobbling up the med’s sun traps I question if such a ‘caring’ approach can succeed…

We all have dreams in childhood, dreams of adventure in far flung places. So use those dreams when looking for inspiration for your next journey…

Having played the Emperor of Kyoto in a school play, dressed in a kimono (is that what Japanese men wear?) with fan in hand, Japan and the orient have always held an allure for me. This has been compounded for through some great TV - ‘Monkey Magic’, ‘Shogun’ and ‘The Water Margin’ (none of which I imagine have stood the test of time).

My other main inspiration from childhood is the Netherlands (or Holland as we called it in school). To me the stereotypical combination of canals, windmills with clog clad mice dancing on the steps (don’t ask!), tulips and big red edam cheeses was irresistible. At 7 years old, I went so far as to get a Dutch phrase book from a well travelled family friend, with every intention of learning the language. Needless-to-say my Dutch has not come on greatly since.

These long held dreams may provide some of our most precious experiences.