Welcome to our Spring 2009 newsletter. It’s the year of Homecoming and the celebration of the life and wisdom of Robert Burns, 250 years young. Rabbie has been an inspiration to us throughout our company history and like him “Our hearts’ are in the Highlands”. However it is his sense of humility that has inspired our latest innovation in delivering memorable and enriching experiences that last a lifetime.
“O would some Power the gift to give us. To see ourselves as others see us!”
On 4th March 2009 we launched a world first and unique customer guarantee:
Guaranteed Experience – If you feel that you haven’t had the experience you deserve and we are at fault then we will give you YOUR MONEY BACK – no quibbles.
Why? Because for years we have believed that our tours are as good as we say they are and now we are giving you the opportunity to really tell us if they aren’t.
This summer we have a whole range of 5 day tours to the Highlands and Islands including firm old favourites Iona, Mull and Skye and Highland Explorer, new favourites Orkney and the Far North and brand new tours this summer to the Outer Hebrides, and for whisky fanatics – the Islay and Whisky Coast tour. For those of you heading south from Scotland we have a series of tours to the Lake District and Hadrian’s Wall, as well as our regular programme of 1, 2 and 3 day tours from Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The programme has been knitted together so that you can combine some of our tours with stopovers in the Highlands and enjoy vacations of 7-15 days duration. Please email or call to book these holidays.
For all tour details and more please visit our website at www.rabbies.com
In October and November this year we are also giving you all the opportunity to spend a week living like a laird as we have teamed up with the National Trust for Scotland and developed a new experience at Mar Lodge. For more information on the Mar Lodge Experience click here.
Responsible Tourism News
2008 was a busy year for us and we pledged to donate £10/tonne of carbon that we used in operating the tours to Climate Change Scotland. Sadly, because of the credit crunch, the not for profit company Climate Change Scotland was unable to continue. Instead we are donating the £3250 that we taxed ourselves to various charities including Trees for Life, the National Trust for Scotland and the Scottish Wildlife Trust. In 2008 we also donated over £1300 worth of tours to various charitable organisations including the Red Cross, Barnados, Action for Children, Mountain Rescue and Maggie’s Cancer Care.
Other news:
We are taking possession of 2 new luxury, air-conditioned 16 seat Mercedes mini-coaches in May this year as we expand the number of tours we operate. We continue to restrict our scheduled tours to 16 passengers to give you a more personal experience. – Another one of our guarantees.
We have almost completed recruiting our new faces to the team, who are dieing to share their enthusiasm and passion for Scotland with you this summer, and we look forward to welcoming you and your friends on tour soon.
If you are a fan of Facebook, please join as a friend on our group called Rabbie’s Travel. This will give you the opportunity to chat with your fellow travellers and other people who have taken a trip with us. We have a few members already.
And in brief:
Congratulations to Sigrid (Finance Manager) and Richard (driver/guide) on the safe delivery of their wee bundle of joy in December. Baby Innes Sorley Hunter was finally inspired to come out when Sigrid watched the final of “Strictly Come Dancing'' on TV.
Over the weekend on Sat 28th and Sun 29th March 2009, Robin, Calum and Caroline will be representing Rabbie's at the 'Best of Britain and Ireland' exhibition being held at the London Excel centre. It’s a great opportunity for anyone in the area to come in and meet the team, and find out more about all our products. They will be delighted to chat with you all, and answer any questions you may have about our tours.
Well done Caroline, Mhairi and Jeff for popping out today to donate a pint of blood. They are amongst our regular givers. As Mhairi put it so well - “once you have had a baby, you can do anything!”
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Our bus back to Pokora after our long trek with
our awsome staff! |
Travelling enriches our lives, the experiences we have, the changes we face and the people we encounter, but they all make flying a torture worthwhile. (You've guessed it - I don't like flying) I took three flights, the last one into a blazing sunset breaking over the Himalayas, before I landed in Kathmandu, Nepal. For someone that doesn't appreciate the joys of sitting in a metal tube 30,000 feet above terra firma, it was a sight to behold, and made all the stress worthwhile. Fortunately my friends did not tell me before I left that Tribhuvan International airport is one of the most dangerous in the world, because of the very short landing strip.
I took a trek into the mountains. We were 6 women on a manned expedition and 18 staff accompanied us. We had our team leader, our own chef, and wonderful porters to carry our rucksacks, tents, mattresses, dining tent, toilet tent, food and cooking equipment. I have never seen such valiant and impressive efforts on my behalf. These young men carried our belongings, and everything else strapped to their heads, whilst wearing flip-flops to negotiate hardened tracks.
The sun shone from a limitless winter blue sky and we were endlessly rewarded with brilliant views over the Annapurna from our tents. I will never forget our first meal in our blue dining tent. Pumpkin soup, (delicious, mmmm….) laced with garlic, apparently helps with altitude sickness. This, followed by baked potatoes, stuffed with spinach, and a little spaghetti in tomato sauce, stunned me a bit I have to admit - a bit like a rabbit caught in car headlights. I blinked a few times, and rubbed my eyes, just in case I was hallucinating from the thinner air. But indeed, this veritable feast was for us, and, I don't mind admitting, tears suddenly sprang into my eyes and we were humbled that we should be so worthy of such treatment. I felt like a princess each morning we were roused from our beds, with a hot cup of black coffee or tea, and a warm bowl of water to cleanse the sleep from our eyes. We indulged in hearty breakfasts, our hike was well off the beaten track, and we saw no one else until out last night, when we camped by a few wooden shacks next to a plunging river.
It was our last supper. Chef surpassed himself, and a feast was served. By now, perhaps it was the sense of spiritualism I felt, or just the intense gratitude, that we should be enjoying such incredible food brought to us by the gracious efforts of our staff that words of thanks were offered to the universe before we ate. We had soon learnt the Nepalese way of saying fantastic “O-Hooo” and that night it echoed raucously around the valley.
All too quickly our trek was over, and it was time to say a fond farewell to the Annapurna range, as we finally reached our destination, where our Himalayan adventure bus was waiting to pick us up. The joy on the bus was immense, as Nepalese music was played at full volume and the porters danced in the aisle. It was such a happy sight - (perhaps they were filled with joy that they didn’t need to carry our stuff any more!) and a memory not to be forgotten.
In all, the experience left me enriched, humbled, challenged, overwhelmed at times, and happy. It is also apparent to me, that unhappiness and feelings of discontent realise themselves when we all have too much. The old adage that the best things in life are free is, in fact, true.
You know I love Scotland with such a genuine passion, that she leaves me humbled. Imagine my thrill to see what looked uncannily like the Scottish flag draped over Lamjung Himal whilst I was in Nepal. No matter where I go, Scotland never leaves me. You can take this lassie out of Scotland, but you can never take Scotland out of me.
Namaste. |
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Now, some of us enjoy a bit of garlic lacing our food, and why not, it is actually classed as a '”hot” herb. Known as a natural wonder drug, it reputedly assists with anything from the common cold to warding off mosquitoes, midges in Scotland and even altitude sickness.
Garlic has a sulphur content, and depending on how strong the taste of the clove it will determine how good its medical properties will be. The stronger the taste the better, generally meaning that organically grown garlic will probably be best. (mmmm but what about the garlicky breath?) Whilst there is some evidence that garlic may, in fact, be a bit of an aphrodisiac, because of its stimulating properties, I'm not convinced myself. It’s a breath thing! Incidentally, it appears that only chewing fresh raw parsley, or cardamom seeds will help reduce that delicate aroma. I also personally believe that honey helps as well, or maybe it’s just because I love honey!
Joking aside though, nature’s larder is full of natural remedies that are available to us with relative ease. My own Mum, and hers before her, and generations before that, are strong advocates of the use of garlic, which they believe have helped my ancestors during the plague.
Eh?
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Fortunately we no longer have the plague to deal with, but our lifestyles are such that a good many of us suffer from things like high blood pressure and high cholesterol - we really need to stop eating cakes in the office! So garlic, whilst not a prescribed drug, certainly seems to help manage both conditions, so dig in.
Now back to the mosquito issue - in Scotland we have midges, a close relative of the mossy. In fact we are seriously the worst country in Europe to suffer from midges, due to our acidic soil, and the fact that we are very, very tasty. Well, we do have men in kilts. Now, for those of us that love garlic and are willing to indulge in it, you need to eat aplenty to ward off the midges.
The great thing in our favour is that there’s little evidence to suggest that if you eat garlic a lot, that the body will become immune to its properties, so come on, eat up (Just make sure your friends are garlic lovers too)
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