Justice Travel

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  • Peace and Reconciliation Tour- Sri Lanka

    We are eternally grateful for all the Gods involved for allowing this journey to occur, the planners, tour guides, conversation partners and everyone in, out and between. What Uniting Journeys has been able to facilitate has been nothing short of incredible.

    As I told you from the outset, I didn’t know what I could offer on this journey; being so far removed from it all as an Australian born of Sri Lankan heritage, I didn’t think I would be the right person for this journey. But sometimes, it’s not what you can do- it’s what others can do for you- open your mind, your understanding and your perspective of the world around you.

    It’s been a long time between visits and regardless of the time lapsed, now was the right time to be there with the right people. I couldn’t have been blessed with anyone better- what we had was a microcosm of Sri Lanka, a Noah’s ark representative – two of each, male and female of the major faith groups; Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian and the races; Singhalese, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher. There was so much diversity, yet so much in common. That first meeting at Lentil as Anything, we began by shaking hands. We walked out of the restaurant hugging and kissing goodbye like old friends.

    Led by the loving and gentle Larry and Cynthia, they took us in and kept us safe, yet allowed us space for vulnerability and exposure to every site we wanted to see, the patience to understand the stories of those we met and openness to allow the possibility of things not on the itinerary. These things were the most memorable.

    One of Sri Lanka’s many names was once Serendib – where the term serendipity comes from; happy discoveries by chance and we were blessed with so many connections due to lots of opportunities we allowed ourselves time for. Two such people we should thank in particular are Ralston who introduced us to the incredible story of the Tamil tea plantation family who has endured so much to continue working the land that they have known, and Rev Aloysius Peiris, who at 83 keeps inspiring us with his vigour to run a school for hearing impaired children with incredible success alongside his collection of Christian art depicted by a Buddhist sculptor.

    The second person is our tour guide Kumara, who went out of his way to answer every single question we could possibly throw at him and to made special effort to accommodate every request to stop at somewhere. For example, if it was at all possible, I was keen to visit a cinnamon plantation and moonstone mine along the way. We had had some free time and he promised it was half an hour away. The half hour journey ended up being a little longer than expected of course and by the time we arrived the manager had just left the premises for the evening and the security guards were having no bar of us to let us in. Well, Kumara worked his magic and called the manager who not only let us in for a tour of the facility and allowed us in the jewellery store for purchases. Turns out, had it have been anyone else, it wouldn’t have happened. Lushani, Kumara and I later charged our blue moonstone rings under the full moonlight of the Kataragama Perahera the next night. It makes me smile and is a constant reminder of the magical discoveries and adventures on our trip.

    We were so blessed to cover as much as we could around Sri Lanka, we were constantly changing environment, the lush greenery of the south to the dusty ochre roads and arid dry of the north. It reminded me of the varied landscape of Australia except instead of being greeted by kangaroos on the road, we had elephants! But it is not just the destination that is important. The journey along the way was just as important and my, what fun we had. Quite early on, Lushani had become our resident DJ, downloading baila hits in both Singhla and Tamil, taking requests from Larry for the additions of 60’s and 70’s party hits. Later on, we passed a drumming stall which landed some musical additions of not only a few more drums but even a tambourine to the bus. Shanaka and Desh accompanied our budding singer soloists, Sivanjana and Kumara and our dancers Shyama and Shally. Forget the Vengabus; we had the Montaloose party bus. It held singing and dancing, sightseeing and people watching, deep and meaningful conversations, a place of resting and snoozing and snacking on the incredible fresh produce and very tasty snacks.

    While we were surrounded by mostly fun and frivolity in South, our adventures in the North held a different story, deeper and darker. I do not know what it is like to experience war, let alone witness it as a child, dodging bullets on the way to school. Hearing Desh’s story in Batticoloa, seeing the bullet hole marks marring the property of his Uncle’s house, seeing the heavy German machinery rust away surrounded by self-seeded trees after the factory being burned down, show how nature finds a way. The resilience of the Tamil people is incredible as they continue living their lives in their hometown despite the horrible instances of the war. It takes time to heal, grow and mature our understanding and scars don’t fade completely. Their family insistent on not patching up the bullet holes reminds us of their struggle and story and how far we have come to be able to tell that story.

    Things appeared a little brighter in Jaffna where the bus welcomed extra passengers in the form of Sivanjana’s partner and friends, Ash and Kate. We were surprised to find them waiting at the Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil. After the initial shock, we were given a guided tour by Siv. I have never been in a Hindu temple before and I was struck by the colour and beauty of it. When asked to compare which place of worship looked better, I simply couldn’t, each place of worship is beautiful in their own special way. I was particularly captivated to the sound of the naraswaram, a reed instrument that sounded like it was a brass instrument. It seriously sounded like it was a bluesy pop saxophone played along with drums. It surprised me how calls to prayer could sound almost festival party-like when compared to the sullenness of an organ at a Catholic church. The stories of the Gods painted in large murals on the walls of the temple enabled us admire the morals in the tales, much like a parable that would be similar in Christianity.

    We then took a boat ride to Nainativu, a small island off the coast of Jaffna Peninsula. Here there is a Buddhist shrine and a Hindu Kovil. Here my faiths were in all the Gods not only to get there and back safely but also to avoid sea sickness. The Gods were with us. Again we were struck by the beauty and the prayerfulness of both the temples and I also noticed the rituals are similar; water to cleanse, fire for candles of blessings, incense to purify and flowers for homage.

    Here we stayed for lunch which was an experience in itself. Imagine a room with a continuous straw like mat laid in rows with individual banana leaves as place mats on the floor. Here we lined up and were admitted into the room in a somewhat orderly fashion to be served a vegetarian meal of rice, dahl, vegetarian curry and pappadums. This was communal eating like no other. Although being right next to each other in the queue, we all became separated from each other and I sat amongst ladies resplendent in their sarees, crossed legged, eating the same meal. The service was faster than any McDonald’s and tastier than anything I have ever experienced and just as soon as we had finished, a new group of people flooded the doors and new spots were taken up and new banana leaf placemats replaced.

    Later that evening, the ladies of the group were in on a plan that had been hatched in the form of an engagement. Dilan, the ever romantic had organised an outfit and transport for Siv for the evening which us ladies were (invited ourselves) to surprise her with. Surrounded by a bed full of jasmine petals, Siv awoke from a siesta with a box full of instructions and us at standing at the foot of the bed armed with cameras. A bullock cart whisked her away while we waited with in an icecream parlour for the wonderful news. Needless to say, being able to bear witness to the engagement of a beautiful interfaith couple only strengthened my belief that there is hope for unity in diversity and hopefully an invite in the mail for an excuse for a reunion tour!

    There were so many personal stories from this trip that were uncovered and I along with others are honoured that they felt comfortable to share their story with us. Being all “overseas Sri Lankans”, the accepted term for diaspora, we all have our own family story for leaving this beautiful little island and not all of them are pretty. However, whether time heals old wounds or that we’ve fallen in love with new places, the majority of the group have all committed to returning sooner rather than later.

    Something I’ve come away from this trip is that if you haven’t been affected in some way, you haven’t really travelled. It has to have an element challenge, a depth of reflection and journey inward. It’s not ticking off a bucket list of tourist hotspots or tracking the kilometres travelled. There’s more to life than that. I’d like to thank you, Uniting Journeys, for the opportunity you have given us all to experience and witness a travel experience like no other.

  • What Does it Take to Save Just One Rhino?

    What Does it Take to Save Just One Rhino?

    With one rhino dying by the hands of poachers every seven hours, there isn’t time to waste, and with everyone’s help, the #JustOneRhino campaign might just make a difference.

    2015 is set to be an incredible year for the endangered rhino. The largest blogger-driven fundraiser ever assembled has started making waves in the fight against poaching. Two organizations, Travelers Building Change (founded by Jeremy Scott Foster) and Justic Travel have teamed up to raise money for Rhinos Without Borders through 2015. Rhinos Without Borders was developed to save rhinos by translocating them from South Africa to secret locations in Botswana with the hope of providing a safe haven for them to thrive in. RWB’s conservation goal for this year is to raise five million dollars and translocate 100 rhinos out of harms way. This project was started by National Geographic Explorers In Residence Derek and Beverly Joubert, founders of the Great Plains Foundation.

    With 100 percent of donations going directly to the project, over 120 of the world’s top travel bloggers have joined the Jouberts’ cause to save #JustOneRhino. Over 20 sponsors have also signed up to give away more than $30,000 worth of travel prizes, such as resort stays, tours and exciting adventures in dozens of countries. According to a recent press release posted by supporters of the #JustOneRhino campaign, “Every donor to the TravelersBuildingChange.org site earns chances at winning incredible prizes, including a safari in South Africa, a Galapagos Islands cruise and stays at luxury resorts in Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. The Jouberts are also offering #JustOneRhino donors additional incentives, such as origami rhinos and downloads of their wildlife photos.” The campaign ends March 1 and even though the #JustOneRhino hashtag has already reached nearly 4 million people on Twitter, there is still much more that needs to be donated.

    Even with so much left to do, Jeremy Scott Foster was able to spare a few minutes to answer our questions about the campaign and what it would take to save the African rhino.

    Why spearhead a campaign like #JustOneRhino?

    The idea behind Travelers Building Change is to support the communities which have nurtured people on their travels. Last year we raised money for elephants in Thailand and this year we’re supporting rhinos in Africa. Both places have been highly affected by tourism and, with so much to lose (we’re talking about an entire species, here), we knew that rhinos had to be the focus of our campaign this year.

    Was there a personal reason that prompted your interest and involvement?

    I actually began working on this project for some more personal reasons. I was feeling entirely overwhelmed by the amount of kindnesses that I was experiencing, time and time again, on my travels around the world. When nobody ever asked for anything in return, I knew I had to take it into my own hands in order to pay these kindnesses forward. So I started a charity project and, over the past three years, it has evolved into what you see today.

    Why does it cost so much to translocate a single rhino? What does the process involve?

    The translocation process is actually quite involved. After a lengthy process of identifying and selecting a rhino for relocation, a crew arrives by helicopter and darts and sedates the rhino. Blood samples and other information about the rhino are collected and the strength of each rhino is assessed to ensure it is strong enough to make the trip. Finally, it is loaded into a container and driven to a quarantine enclosure. After a six-week quarantine period, the rhinos are airlifted and distributed to a secret, remote location in Botswana. Once the rhinos are on the ground, teams assess their health and set them free. In total, the whole process costs $45,000.

    What makes Botswana so much safer than South Africa? What is stopping poachers from moving there and doing the same thing?

    Much of the relocation has to do with “spreading the risk.” Moving rhinos to another location makes it much harder for poaching units to come in and hit large numbers of animals at one time. Not only does South Africa hold 80% of Africa’s rhino population, but they have some of the most liberal poaching laws on the whole continent. The translocation helps to spread the assets and into areas where poaching is a much more difficult undertaking.

    There are extremely stringent anti-poaching laws in Botswana, which do not exist in South Africa. The anti-poaching units, who operate on the ground in Botswana, function under a shoot-to-kill policy in which any uncooperative poacher is treated as an aggressive military threat. This should be a major deterrent to any poachers hoping to hunt in Botswana.

    What kind of progress has #JustOneRhino seen so far? What will it take to become a reality?

    The #JustOneRhino is a smaller project in a much larger fundraising effort. We still have a ways to go before we meet our goal of raising $45,000 to translocate #JustOneRhino, but every dollar counts. Rhinos Without Borders, the organization that we are raising money for, is hoping to raise $8 million toward the relocation of 100 rhinos in the year 2015. By the end of 2016, they’re hoping to have moved 500.

    Apart from donating to causes like this one, what else can travelers do to fight against poaching?

    The truth is that donations are the only thing that will help right now. The rhino situation is critical and, although raising awareness is extremely valuable in its own right, there simply isn’t enough time for that to be our only recourse. One rhino is being killed every seven hours. 50 years ago there were 500,000 black rhinos in Africa, and now there are only 5,000. If there isn’t drastic intervention, the end of the rhino is a very real possibility and it takes place within our lifetime.

    If you are interested in being a part of the #JustOneRhino campaign, visit TravelersBuildingChange.org. No donation is too small.

  • Orangutans Dying as Demand for Palm Oil Soars

    During the 1950s, the Sarawak house of Barbara Harrisson and her late husband Tom became a home for orphaned baby orangu-tan who had been found helpless in the jungle. Here, she describes her experiences rearing orangutan in a half-wild state and her attempt to re-educate them to jungle life.

    The Harrissons decided eventually that their partially domesticated animals would have great difficulty surviving in the wild– yet keeping full-sized orang-utans in the home was no more practical. This personal account of the joys and trials of raising orang-utan is both informative and delightful reading.

  • Can the elephants survive the coup in Central African Republic

    Last month saw the government of the Central African Republic overthrown by rebels and the state has now become lawless. Rebels groups have reportedly joined up with Sudanese poachers and elephants are facing a crisis. Conservation groups World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and World Conservation Society (WCS) have today released a joint statement calling for immediate action to tackle the problem.

    Elephant meat is openly on sale in the markets and villages around the World Heritage Site of Dzanga-Sangha protected area.  Many of the park rangers have fled the area because of the dangers as rebel groups take control.  The WWF have pulled many of their staff out of the park after a series of armed raids on their offices. Some rangers and WWF staff have stayed behind to try and protect key areas despite the dangers to their lives.

    Bas Huijbregts, head of policy for WWF’s campaign against poaching in Central Africa, said it’s impossible to know for sure how many elephants have been killed because patrols have been suspended in the area.

    “Given the total absence of any type of law enforcement and rule of law in the  area, there is elephant meat all over the place,” he said. Heroic rangers are standing firm in the face of immense danger, but they alone cannot safeguard the special species and places the world treasures.

    Despite patrols being severely restricted since the coup on 24th March it’s known that at least 40 elephants have been killed in or around the World Heritage Site. The rebel group behind the overthrow of the country are the Seleka and they are known to have joined forces with the Sudanese poachers who regularly target central African elephants.

    Next week sees a regional meeting of African countries to discuss ways of tackling elephant poaching the is rife across the region.

    Jim Leape, WWF Director General said, “The elephant poaching crisis – driven by insatiable ivory demand – is so severe that no area is safe, not even the World Heritage Site Dzanga-Sangha where both WWF and WCS have now worked for the conservation of elephants for decades. Heroic rangers are standing firm in the face of immense danger, but they alone cannot safeguard the special species and places the world treasures. When meeting next week, Central African governments must urgently join forces against this criminal activity that is also threatening the stability and economic development of their countries. I encourage them in the strongest terms to take a stand against wildlife crime and together declare that poaching and illicit trafficking will not be tolerated.”

    Cristian Samper, WCS President and CEO said,  “Together, WCS and WWF, are calling on the Central African Republic government to immediately increase security in the region to protect these elephants from poachers and is asking other regional governments to provide assistance to stop the killing. Our staffs have been forced to evacuate in the chaos. I recently visited CAR and saw first-hand that without a full-time conservation presence in the region, these elephants are in jeopardy from poachers. WCS and our partners will continue to work tirelessly to protect elephants across their range.”

  • Gorillas Visit Sanctuary Gorilla Forest Camp in Uganda

    Check out this amaz­ing pho­to­graph cour­tesy of Sanc­tu­ary Gorilla For­est Camp.

    Tucked away in Bwindi Impen­e­tra­ble For­est in Uganda, Sanc­tu­ary Gorilla For­est Camp was recently host to some unex­pected vis­i­tors. One of our guests at camp fell sick and had to for­sake his long awaited dream of gorilla track­ing. For­tu­nately, the goril­las decided to visit the camp while the guest was recov­er­ing and he was priv­i­leged to view the goril­las for much longer and with a much clearer view than those who went track­ing. This once in a life­time expe­ri­ence high­lights why Sanc­tu­ary Retreats place such impor­tance in hav­ing the right loca­tions for our safari camps and lodges in Africa.

  • Sanctuary Lodges and Camps Expands into Zambia

    Sanctuary Lodges and Camps Expands into Zambia

    Sanc­tu­ary Lodges & Camps—founded by Aber­crom­bie & Kent as envi­ron­men­tally sus­tain­able lodgings—has expanded into Zam­bia with five new properties:

    Sussi & Chuma is built among huge ebony trees, just upstream from Vic­to­ria Falls in the Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park. The 10 lux­ury tree houses have pri­vate views of the Zam­bezi River. Chuma House is an exclu­sive two-bedroom villa located near the lodge.

    Lechwe Plains Tented Camp in the Lochin­var National Park, north of Lusaka, is a photographer’s par­adise. Located on the Chunga Lagoon, this World Her­itage Wet­land offers incred­i­ble birdlife and tens of thou­sands of Kafue Lechwe (ante­lope), an aquatic ante­lope of excep­tional grace.

    Kulefu Tented Camp in the Lower Zam­bezi National Park is on the wildest stretch of the Zam­bezi. Eight spa­cious tents are set on plat­forms at the river’s edge.

    Puku Ridge Tented Camp in the South Luangwa National Park is a real wilder­ness expe­ri­ence under can­vas with excit­ing wildlife oppor­tu­ni­ties. This superb prop­erty is located on a ridge over­look­ing game rich floodplains.

    Chichele Pres­i­den­tial Lodge was orig­i­nally built by Pres­i­dent Kaunda and refur­bished as an early colo­nial “Gentleman’s Lodge”. The hill­top set­ting in South Luangwa National Park over­looks plains teem­ing with wildlife.

    “Though rel­a­tively unknown out­side Africa, Zam­bia offers a diverse range of envi­ron­ments with pro­lific wildlife,” said Aber­crom­bie & Kent Group Chair­man and CEO Geof­frey Kent. “Walk­ing safaris were pio­neered in Zambia’s Luangwa Val­ley; if you have only seen ani­mals from inside a vehi­cle, you will find walk­ing with big game a thrilling expe­ri­ence. Night dri­ves are also a spe­cialty and the best means of see­ing some of the more elu­sive noc­tur­nal species, includ­ing leopard.”

    The com­pany also oper­ates Olo­nana in Kenya’s Masai Mara; Swala in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park and Kusini in the Serengeti; Gorilla For­est Camp in Uganda’s Bwindi Impen­e­tra­ble For­est; and four prop­er­ties in Botswana (Sanc­tu­ary Chief’s Camp, Sanc­tu­ary Chobe Chilwero, Sanc­tu­ary Stanley’s Camp, and Sanc­tu­ary Baines’ Camp).