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Monday 3 October 2011

postheadericon Travel by train though the Lake District

The train breezes down the Cumbrian coast, on one of Britain’s most absorbing — and least known — rail journeys. The morning mists are lifting, the couple opposite are sharing their first Polos of the day and I’m studying a chart showing how many passengers use the two dozen stations along the line, which runs from Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness.

Whitehaven, about halfway round, has 245,000 passengers a year. Maryport has 105,000. And Nethertown, a cluster of chalets and cottages, has 5,757. That’s fewer than 20 people a day. So just who are they?

“Well,” says Amanda McKeating, the affable guard, “there’s an elderly chap and his wife who do their shopping every Friday. And there’s another couple who go to a farmers’ market every month; they get on with great big suitcases that they fill up with stuff. And there’s a man who looks a bit like Father Christmas. And there are walkers . . .” The fells loom on the left, herons patrol the shore on the right, seals bob in the water ... you can understand why McKeating says: “I love my job.”

The line covers the little-explored coastal rim beyond the Lake District. It’s dotted with towns and villages that are practically pushed into the sea by the mountains. Spending three days here feels like pioneering. It’s not cosy; it’s not Kendal Mint Cake. This is the North-West Frontier; Ultima Cumbria.

I’m doing it all on trains, topping and tailing the coastal part with two of Britain’s great rail runs. From Leeds I take the Settle-Carlisle line, an everyday wonder that climbs steadily through a landscape that gets wilder with every passing mile. Bleak moorland stretches out and, just before Dent, England’s highest station, we cross Ribblehead Viaduct, so high that it’s like flying. Ramblers down below raise their arms towards us, as though in worship. On closer inspection, they’re taking photographs on digital cameras.

Carlisle, England’s most northerly city, is an engaging place, full of pavement cafés and sturdy sandstone buildings with a strong hint of Scotland about them. I spend most of the afternoon in the award-winning Tullie House Museum. It covers an impressive range: Pre-Raphaelite portraits; a Roman gravestone of a woman holding a pet bird for her son to stroke; a 1959 copy of Woman’s Own.

Next morning I take the first stretch of the coast line down to Whitehaven. A wind farm stretches across the horizon, its sails perfectly still, like a row of runes. I’m met by Trevor Lloyd, once in the motorbike business, now running the wonderful Lowther House “boutique B&B”, which has antiques and luxury at every turn.

Lloyd is an ebullient ambassador for his home town. “I’m running a crusade here,” he says. “I don’t just offer accommodation; I make sure people go to the right places and see the right things.” He sketches me a walking tour of the centre of the town, once a more important port than Liverpool, now regenerating itself out of hard times and melancholy. And he waves me off: “If you’re back by four or five, you can have tea and a bit of cake made by Cynthia of the WI.”

His map guides me along street after street of stocky, brightly painted Georgian townhouses, to the Rum Story, which traces Whitehaven’s rum trade and, unflinchingly, its darker side, the slave trade.

A few stops down the line, past St Bees (the start of Wainwright’s coast-to-coast walk) and Sellafield (no ornament to the landscape), is Ravenglass, whose big tourist draw is the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. Its miniature steam engines, all pluming smoke and churning pistons, head up a pretty valley through birch woods and past people’s conservatories: a pleasant jaunt in an open carriage. The couple in front photograph every passing cow and talk excitedly about the pencil museum in Keswick.

Ravenglass is basically one charming street of cottages overlooking a broad estuary. It’s so calm, so quiet, that I fall asleep at 4pm at the smart Pennington Hotel and wake only just in time for dinner in its superb restaurant.

Next morning, I head home. There’s one other passenger on the Ravenglass platform as the single-carriage train pulls in. “We feel a bit forgotten up here,” she says. “We’re praying for a Sainsbury’s.” The train passes request-stop stations where there’s no one to request and carries on to Lancaster past the great silver sheen of Morecambe Bay.

The line back to Leeds, through rural North Yorkshire, is only a few rungs down from the Settle-Carlisle for its scenery, but the young man across the aisle spends the journey playing football on his computer and occasionally photographing the screen with his mobile phone. We’re back in a different world from Ultima Cumbria.

Need to know

Stay Hallmark Hotel, Carlisle (01228 531951, www.hallmarkhotels.co.uk), has doubles from £69; Lowther House, Whitehaven (01946 63169, lowtherhouse-whitehaven.com), has B&B from £40 per person per night; Pennington Hotel, Ravenglass (0845 4506445, pennington hotels.com), has B&B doubles from £72.

Getting there North West Rail Rover tickets from Northern Rail (0845 0000125, northern rail.org) include all the network routes mentioned in this piece. Seven-day tickets cost £70 (with concessions); £57 tickets give four days’ travel in eight consecutive days.

Tourist information 01539 822222, golakes.co.uk

Cumbria’s hidden corners

Muncaster Castle A mile south of Ravenglass, this castle has almost 80 acres of gardens dating from the 18th century. The World Owl Centre houses more than 200 birds and there’s a daily “Heron Happy Hour” when wild flocks are fed. Said to be one of Britain’s most haunted castles. muncaster.co.uk

Ennerdale Water Arguably the Lake District’s wildest and most secluded lake, six miles inland from Whitehaven, it rarely attracts crowds because you can’t drive round it or park next to it . A great place to wander lonely as a cloud. wildennerdale.co.uk

Ulverston Home of the Laurel and Hardy Museum (Stan Laurel was born here), this market town, with its markets and cobbled streets, hosts regular food fairs and festivals. Add in a visit to Grange-over-Sands, a quiet, pleasant resort where time often seems to have stopped in 1967. golakes.co.uk

Honister Slate Mine England’s last working slate mine, with 11 miles of tunnels, is set in stunning landscape. It runs underground tours and “adventure climbing” sessions. Also sells slate products — from bookends to wine bottle holders. honister.com


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postheadericon BA granted injunction to stop cabin crew strikes

British Airways has been granted an injunction to stop the Unite union from carrying out cabin crew strikes that had been due to start at midnight tonight.

The High Court ruling, based on a technicality in the balloting procedure, is set to delay the start of the first of a four five-day strikes planned for May and June.

Unite conceded it would have to call off tonight’s strikes but said it would appeal immediately, meaning the case could reach the Court of Appeal as soon as tomorrow.

BA said there will still be some disruption to flights from Heathrow in the early hours of tomorrow morning because it had already put in place contingency plans for the strike.

The injunction offers temporary respite to BA in its long-running dispute with Unite over jobs, pay and staffing, and some relief to travellers many of whom have already seen their plans disrupted by volcanic ash.

The High Court found that the union failed to comply with the legal requirement to “send everyone eligible to vote details of the exact breakdown of the ballot result”.

In a statement, the airline said: “We are delighted for our customers that Unite's plans for extreme and unjustified strike action cannot go ahead.

“We are sorry the court judgment cannot undo the disruption already suffered by some customers who were due to travel during the early days of the union's industrial action.”

Unite’s chief officer for aviation, Steve Turner, said it was “an affront to democracy in our country when our members… can vote in a very open and democratic ballot and that still be ruled unlawful.”

He criticised BA’s “vindictiveness”, after it removed some staff travel benefits and took disciplinary action against 50 staff. “That vindictiveness will not lead to a resolution."

BA had rearranged its Heathrow schedule last Thursday, providing for only 60% of long-haul and 50% of short-haul flights, to take into account the planned strike and prevent passengers from facing last-minute disruptions.

It said a full service would be back in place at Heathrow by the weekend, while the normal timetable would proceed at Gatwick and London City airports, as previously announced.

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Sunday 2 October 2011

postheadericon Where Raymond Blanc eats on holiday

I have always said that food is the best healer. So when I smashed my leg in five places by falling down my stairs in March, I knew that I needed to find an hotel with a great restaurant where I could convalesce. Naturally, I thought that France would be the best antidote to melancholy and the Provençal spring sun the best provider of vitamin D.

I was looking for quiet luxury; good food that would be simultaneously hearty and elegant; a spa that would heal me, and a place with some character where I could spend time with my son, Oliver, who is an actor and my best friend.

Le Mas Candille, near Mougins, seemed to provide all this in the guise of a beautiful Relais & Châteaux hotel in vast grounds with one-Michelin-star cuisine. It is also close to Nice and Cannes, and a stone’s throw from Mougins and Grasse.

Once I’d negotiated getting off the TGV with my broken leg (strong arms lifted me and eased me into a wheelchair), we drove up to the hotel through a simple but dramatic valley of silver olive trees. When I saw the building housing the bedrooms, I felt a little apprehensive because it was so obviously new. But it turned out to have been landscaped intelligently: set into the slopes with swimming pools, private gardens, terraces and secret gardens.

Am I an easy customer? No. I know that having me as a guest is a test for any hotelier, but having to cope with a disabled me must seem an ordeal.

Not for the young team at Le Mas Candille. Some places, when you first enter them, make you feel estranged and separate. Not here. It is obviously a well-loved place; every person with whom I came into contact made me feel he or she was integral to the experience I was having as a guest.

In my magnificent suite, light poured into the room, enhancing the sense of space (there was a vast bathroom, too). As well as the finest cotton bedsheets, there was sensitive lighting, plugs in the right places and a huge terrace with wondrous views of Grasse, the world perfume capital.

A wheelchair was waiting to take me to the restaurant in the 18th-century Provençal house, which also has a wonderful view of Grasse from its terrace. Here the chef Serge Gouloumes plies his craft.

I was famished, and so was Oliver. Our warm welcome included taking my crutches and placing them nicely within reach — in a champagne bucket stand. It was mortifying because they weren’t even fashionable crutches like you would get in France — they were from the NHS, and every step I took made a distinct “clunk” sound.

The feast started: niçoise olives, tender radishes and savoury mini-pastries were devoured. Serge wanted to give us 20 courses, but we decided against this — were we to eat like this for six days I’d need two pairs of crutches. I started with petits-gris escargots, wrapped in herby rocket chlorophyll with new garlic purée, and mousseline of ratte potatoes, which was a triumph. This was followed by jasmine-steamed langoustines, mango salad and basil Provençal vegetables, showing mastery in associating two difficult flavours and textures. I then enjoyed local cheeses ripened in their own cellars. A duo of Valrhona chocolate desserts were silky and cool, crowning a glorious meal. While Oliver ate his way through asparagus, lamb and Grand Marnier soufflé, we matched our food with the white Abbaye de Lérins, St-Pierre, 2006 and then an exceptional local red, Ch. Simone 2006, AOC Palette Rouge.

It was bliss. There was torture involved in my stay, though, and it came from my French physiotherapist. You have to have broken a limb to appreciate the painful journeys and small humiliations, such as having to go up and down stairs on your bum. Every night, I would go to the spa for shiatsu or for relaxing massages, which were wonderful.

A week of massage and good food — Serge took us on a culinary tour of his native Provence, inspired by the flavours and textures of spring — and I’ve never felt better. Now I’m back at home in England and my doctor tells me that my bones have mended 60-70 per cent faster than a normal man of my age. It’s almost a miracle. Like I said — good food is a great healer.

Raymond Blanc stayed at Le Mas Candille (00 33 492 28 43 43, lemascandille.com) which has double rooms from €295. A six-course Discovery Menu without wine costs €80pp.

WHERE RAYMOND EATS IN FRANCE

L’Oasis, La Napoule Stéphane Raimbault, inspired by travel in Japan, offers one of Provence’s best culinary experiences. Details: Rue Jean Honore Carle, 00 33 4 93 49 95 52, oasis-raimbault.com Nine courses €180

L’Ondine, Cannes On a beautiful beach, this restaurant serves fish caught that morning. Details: Boulevard de la Croisette, 00 33 4 93 94 23 15. Mains €19-€40

Le Resto des Arts, Mougins The restaurant where chef Serge Gouloumes, of Le Mas Candille, dines after he has finished his service. Details: 00 33 4 93 75 60 03. Menus €22-€25

Les Bacchanales, Vence Simple cuisine using quality produce from Vence’s small-scale producers. Details: 247 avenue de Provence, 00 33 4 93 24 19 19, lesbacchanales.com Three courses €35

Le Clos St Pierre, Rouret The chef changes the menu here every day after he has returned from market. Details: 5 place de l’Elise 00 33 4 93 77 39 18, hotel-du-clos.com Menus €31-€54

Bistro d’Antoine, Old Nice The bistro you wish was omnipresent in France. Details: 27 rue de la Prefecture, 00 33 493 85 39 57. Mains from €10

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postheadericon An insider’s guide to the World Cup cities

Cape Town

England play their second match in the World Cup at the spanking new Green Point Stadium in Cape Town, which looks like an enormous flying saucer at the foot of Table Mountain. There can be few more spectacular backdrops for football anywhere.

Cape Town differs from the rest of South Africa, with fewer crime problems than in Johannesburg and a different ethnic mix: about 31 per cent of locals are black Africans, while the national average is just below 80 per cent. While there are pockets of extreme wealth, especially along the coast towards Camps Bay, there are also vast, poverty-stricken townships. A township tour is a must (see below), as is a drive along the coast to Cape Point and a visit to one of the many fine vineyards.

Football fans will probably congregate at the lively bars and clubs along Long Street, or at the bars and restaurants in the modern, well-to-do V&A Waterfront.

Travellers’ tip It can be wet and cold with maximum temperatures in June and July of about 18C and lows of 7C, so take a jumper and a rain jacket.

Where to eat and drink

The Green Dolphin

Popular jazz venue with a buzzy atmosphere in an old brick building on the V&A Waterfront. The menu has a seafood bent and includes mussels, clam chowder, tempura prawns, crayfish and calamari. Three courses for about £20 (00 27 21 421 7471, dining-out.co.za).

Den Anker

Terrific Belgian restaurant overlooking the harbour and Table Mountain on the V&A Waterfront. There’s a good selection of local wines at about £1.50 a glass, and Belgian beers. Three courses about £22 (00 27 21 419 0249, denanker.co.za).

Hildebrand

Down-to-earth Italian restaurant with cheap prices and no-nonsense service. There’s a large terrace overlooking the ferries that go to Robben Island. Three courses about £15 (00 27 21 425 3385, hildebrand.co.za).

The Kirstenbosch Tea Rooms

Just inside the entrance to the beautiful Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in a quaint building, and offering simple salads, sandwiches, fish ’n’ chips and burgers in pleasant surroundings. Three courses about £18 (00 27 21 797 4883, www.sanbi.org).

Long Street Café

A good choice for a relaxed meal in the heart of the city centre, close to the antique shops and quirky retro clothes shops. Menu includes pizzas, burgers, sandwiches and omelettes. The café doubles as a bar, and is a popular place to watch live sport. Dishes are about £6 each (00 27 21 424 2464, dining-out.co.za).

Kauai

This is a cool, very good value, fast-food chain that serves sandwiches, salads and burgers — there’s a particularly well-located branch on the beach just outside the city on Camps Bay. Sandwiches and wraps — good food for fans on the move. About £3 for a sandwich and £2 for a smoothie (www.kauai.co.za).

What to do

- Go up Table Mountain (tablemountain.net), £6.50 one-way, to see Cape Town from above. Best to go early to avoid crowds.

-Take a tour of Robben Island (robben-island.org.za), £17 for a four-hour tour of the island on which Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in captivity. Book well in advance on the internet.

- Visit the Cape of Good Hope (tmnp.co.za), where the Cape Peninsula juts out into the Atlantic, entrance £6.50 — beautiful views and unspoilt landscapes.

- Try wine-tasting at Groot Constantia (grootconstantia.co.za), in Constantia, a short drive from the V&A Waterfront — £2.50 to taste five wines at one of South Africa’s oldest and most beautiful vineyards.

- Do not miss the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden (www.sanbi.org), entrance £3 — terrific for all the unusual southern hemisphere plants.

- Go on a township tour offered by Cape Capers (tourcapers.co.za), £30 for half a day. This takes in Langa township and is an eye-opening insight into life beyond the tourist sights. Money goes directly to the communities.

Places to stay

Almost every hotel in Johannesburg is fully booked (so best to try one of the tour operators listed below for rooms in or near the city). There are still some places in Cape Town — but they aren’t cheap.

Table Bay Hotel

Grand, traditional-style hotel bang in the centre of the V&A Waterfront. Rooms are elegantly decorated and there’s a rooftop pool and spa. B&B doubles from £670, three nights minimum booking (00 27 21 406 5000, suninternational.com).

Cape Grace

Also on the waterfront, Cape Grace is set aside from the malls on a quay and has a glamorous interior. There’s a chi-chi pool and a terrace bar (best to book evening tables in advance), with terrific views of Table Mountain. B&B doubles from £495 (00 27 21 410 7100, capegrace.com).

One&Only Cape Town

With its Gordon Ramsay Maze restaurant and its Nobu sushi, the One&Only is perhaps the trendiest of the hotels by the waterfront. There’s a cool central bar serving cocktails and a spa on a mini-island, with steam rooms and hot tubs and treatment rooms. Doubles from £392 (00 27 21 431 5888, oneandonlyresorts.com).

Mount Nelson

A five-star spa hotel on the foothills of Table Mountain, offering fine views of the city below and the mountain looming above. The terrace bar is popular for sundowners and has a colonial feel. Doubles from £320 (00 27 21 483 1000, mountnelson.co.za).

15 on Orange

A new design hotel in the city centre, within walking distance of the National Gallery and the quirky shops on Long Street. Rooms are slick and comfortable. Doubles from £260 (00 27 21 469 8000, 15onorange.com).

The Grand Daddy Hotel

This is a funky hotel on Long Street with quirky modern bedrooms and, most bizarrely, a mini trailer park of shiny chrome Airstream trailers that double as suites on the roof. Each is decorated differently, in jazzy, kitschy styles. Doubles from £175 (00 27 21 424 7247, granddaddy.co.za)

Long Street Backpackers

For cheap and very cheerful, this hostel fits the bill, just along the road from the Grand Daddy in the heart of all the bars and restaurants on Long Street. There are dorms with five single beds in each, as well as private rooms. The downstairs bar is lively and there are big balconies with sofas overlooking the street (a fun nightclub called Mama Africa is opposite). Dorm beds from £22, but very limited space now (00 27 21 4230615, longstreetbackpackers.co.za).

Where to watch the games

If you don’t have tickets to the games at the fabulous new Green Point Stadium, there is a screen showing the matches in the amphitheatre at the V&A Waterfront. Otherwise you are best off going to one of the many bars with screens on Long Street or at the Waterfront.

Getting around

It is almost essential to hire a car if you want to explore the Cape area properly. Holiday Autos (holidayautos.co.uk) has a week’s rental from £118, with easy pick-up from the airport. For getting around at night after a drink, Rikkis (0861 745547, rikkis.co.za) has fares around the city centre from about £3. Elite Taxis (021 447 9003, elitetaxis.co.za) is also recommended by the local tourist office.

Johannesburg

Poor old Johannesburg — few places on Earth get such a bum rap. There’s no denying that the city of gold has a disturbingly high crime rate, but it’s not the hell-hole of urban legend. It’s worth remembering that most front-page- headlining acts take place in areas a tourist would never go to. Would you visit New York and head straight from JFK to the dodgiest parts of the Bronx or step off the Eurostar at Gare du Nord and mooch around the 20th arrondissement in Paris?

Here’s the thing about Jo’burg — aka Jozi or Egoli — that will truly shock you: it’s a fantastically fun metropolis, with an energetic vibe, a buzzing arts scene, heaps to see and do, friendly people, great restaurants, bars, cafes and clubs. Use common sense, be cautious, not paranoid, and use a local guide and you too will come away with a positive image of Africa’s most cosmopolitan city.

Where to eat and drink

The Butcher Shop & Grill

South Africans are big on steak — braaing (barbecuing) is more a religion than a culinary way of life and here you get cuts of meat the size of a Springbok prop (00 27 11 784 8676, thebutchershop.co.za).

Casa da Galinha

Portuguese-Mozambican influences, with live music most nights (00 27 11 803 9691, corner First Avenue/Rivonia Road, Morningside).

Brown’s of Rivonia

A wide range of affordable meat and fish dishes; two prime ostrich fillets cost only £13.50 (00 27 11 803 7533, browns.co.za).

Chief’s Boma

It’s a buffet, but an upmarket one and a carnivore’s dream. On Thursdays and Fridays there’s a special that costs R155 (£14) for two people excluding drinks (00 27 11 840 6600, indabahotel.co.za).

The Codfather

As you’d guess, a large selection of fish (00 27 11 803 2077, corner First Avenue/Rivonia Road, Morningside).

Gramadoelas

Eclectic and eccentric, this place mixes Malay and African influences (00 27 11 838 6960, gramadoelas.co.za).

Go for an evening of township jazz. Boyang Gape can organise a spin round some of Soweto’s most happening joints from £90pp (min three) which includes transport, guiding and some drinks (00 27 11 465 5053, boyanggape.co.za).

Areas for decent bar and restaurant hopping include 7th St in Melville for a studenty vibe, Melrose Arch, Rosebank, and 4th Ave in Parkhurst.

What to do

- Township tours needn’t be voyeuristic if you go with an operator based there, and when money is going back into the local community. Try the father and son-run JMT Tours (083 307 6038).

- Gold Reef City This theme park has rollercoasters and a casino, but the real draw is the chance to go 200m underground to see what it’s like down one of the city’s old goldmine shafts (00 27 11 248 6800, www.goldreefcity.co.za).

- Apartheid Museum Make sense of South Africa today by exploring its troubled past here. A must see (00 27 11 309 4700, www.apartheidmuseum.org).

-Cradle of Humankind If you’ve looked up your family tree and felt that half your family was still in it, come here to see where it all began. This is where some of our earliest ancestors (4 million years old) were found (00 27 14 577 9000, maropeng.co.za).

-Constitution Hill Home of the constitutional court, but also to the old prison where thousands were detained during the apartheid era (00 27 11 381 3100, www.constitutionhill.org.za).

-Orlando Cooling Towers If the adrenalin rush of a penalty shoot-out is not enough, come here to bungee between the two cooling towers of a disused power station. You can even jump inside them (00 27 12 345-5114, orlandotowers.co.za).

Where to watch the games

Three fan parks will be set up where ticketless crowds will be able to watch matches — see joburg.org.za for more information. The Montecasino complex in Fourways (montecasino.co.za) will show games on a huge outdoor screen.

Getting around

Car hire Despite government-funded public transport projects, the car is king in Joburg. If you hire one (holidayautos.co.uk), get one with sat-nav (£5 per day extra). Joburg’s freeways have two speeds — gridlock, and rollercoaster fast, not helped by minibus taxis cutting in from all sides.

Train and bus Gautrain (gautrain.co.za) is the new light rail system. Its most tourist-friendly line is the one linking the airport with Sandton. A new bus system is being rolled out too — details at reavaya.org.za.

Taxis have to be prebooked and are cost-effective when shared. Try Corporate Cabs (00 27 11 771 2200), Rose Taxis (00 27 11 403 0000), Safe Cab (0861 665566) and SA Cab (00 27 44 382 0444).

Further info: southafrica2010.org, fifa.com/worldcup, southafrica.net

Tom Chesshyre travelled to Cape Town with ITC Classics (01244 355527, itcclassics.co.uk), which offers five nights at the Table Bay Hotel from £1,580pp, flights and transfers included. BA (ba.com) has flights from £619.

Will Hide travelled to Johannesburg with Virgin Holidays (0844 5573859, virginholidays.co.uk), which offers flights and five nights’ B&B from £839pp.

Prices quoted here are for travel outside the World Cup period.

Need to know

Getting there Thomson Sport (0845 1212018, thomsonsport.com) has five-night trips watching one of the group qualifying matches from £2,537; four-star hotel, tickets and flights included.

Thomas Cook (020-8739 2360, thomascooksport.com) has a 17-night trip covering all three England group games leaving on June 8 from £4,399; flights, tickets, transfers and four-star hotels included. It also has a four-night trip for the England-Slovenia game in Port Elizabeth leaving on June 20 from £1,597.

BAC Sports (020-7456 7100, www.bacsport.co.uk) offers tickets to the opening England game from £3,250, with three nights in a four-star hotel in Sun City and flights to Johannesburg.

Sportsworld (01235 555844, sportsworld.co.uk) has three-night trips with tickets and flights from £2,200, while Keith Prowse (0845 1254880, keithprowse.co.uk) has 19-day tours leaving on June 8 for all three England qualifiers from £4,495.

Trailfinders (0845 0505892, trailfinders.com) has return BA flights to Cape Town during the World Cup from £825, and return SAA flights to Johannesburg from £849.

All prices were correct as we went to press


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postheadericon The waves are hot in Costa Rica

I was tired. The surf was big — between 6ft and 8ft — and I’d been in the water for four hours. My son, Harry, had called time on this, our final day’s surfing in Costa Rica. I watched him ride a wave smoothly to the shore, and envied him as he stood on the beach of Playa Grande, palm trees waving gently behind him and the setting sun warming his seaward gaze.

There were just a few surfers left in the line-up. Suddenly, a lump on the horizon loomed, heralding an outsize set whose waves would l be 8ft or higher. The sensation, as I caught the best wave of the set and jumped to my feet, was an exquisite blend of bliss, adrenalin and fear. I flew down the face. The speed was phenomenal, but better yet, the wave peeled for up to 70m. It was one of the rides of my life.

My two-week surfing holiday in Costa Rica had provided scores of good waves. I had been lured there by the former Miami Vice scriptwriter Allan Weisbecker’s “road trip beyond the end of the road”, In Search of Captain Zero. In Weisbecker’s book, a cult classic, the renegade author sets off from Montauk, New York, on a surf trip that takes him down the coast of California and Central America before, in search of a long-lost friend, he ends up in Costa Rica. He never leaves — not because of a rekindled friendship but because of the surf. As he puts it: “I had found the perfect place on a perfect wave, and I had remained there endlessly. For ever.”

Weisbecker gravitated south, to the legendary left-hand point break of Pavones, but in his wake the hordes followed. I wanted to surf Costa Rica’s waves, but was looking for an area that would offer uncrowded sessions. I was also mindful of the boredom factor when waves fail to appear. Where to go, then, for both surfing and other activities?

The answer was Playa Grande in the northwest province of Guanacaste. This is a well-known surfing beach, with a nearby surf break, Witches’ Rock, being one of the most famous in the world. It featured in Bruce Brown’s 1994 surf film classic, Endless Summer II, but the entire coast either side of Playa Grande abounds with top-quality waves. The town of Tamarindo is near by and, just a few hours away by car, is the region of Arenal. Here the Parque Nacional Volcán Arenal was sure to prove diverting if the surf went flat.

The Una Ola Surf Camp at Playa Grande, where you can hire boards for all ages and abilities and get lessons for all levels, had promised good surf. “Don’t worry, you’ll get waves,” said Colin Briers, Una Ola’s cofounder. Briers, 42, quit California for Costa Rica four years ago, drawn by its climate, high standard of living and surf. Before arriving in Costa Rica he had been a private investigator, state lightweight jiu-jitsu champion, hypnotist and boxer. Throughout his various incarnations, Briers had surfed. He had taught surfing, too, in both California and Costa Rica, before deciding to set up Una Ola in November 2008. His business partner, Justen Chitmon, brings a similarly eclectic skill-set to the surf camp, having been a licensed racing driver in America.

As our first morning dawned, Briers was already on the beach. He greeted Harry, then 13, and I with a smile and a shrug of the shoulders, as if to say “I told you so”. Surf-speak best describes what we saw: pumping, peeling, head-high surf, held up by a gentle offshore breeze and warmed by the early morning tropical sun. In other words, it was as good as it gets.

The days settled into a paradisiacal routine. Each morning at 5.30, Harry and I would go surfing. We’d finish at about 9.30am and join my wife, Karen, and younger son, Elliot, for a breakfast of fresh fruit at our hotel. Then we’d sit by the pool, read, relax and swim. A little later, we’d go to the beach as a family since Elliot, not being into surfing, loved every inch of Playa Grande’s expansive beach. In spring, it is a prime nesting site of leatherback turtles; we missed them by a matter of days, but their arrival guarantees government protection for the area’s surrounding forests and mangrove swamps. Cycling on the trails behind the beach was a delight.

With the surf dropping midway through our stay, we travelled inland to the Arenal region. Here Volcán Arenal towers above Lake Arenal and its surrounding lush rainforest, erupting daily and creating one of the most spectacular firework displays on earth. Arenal’s ceaseless energy is mirrored by the array of activities in a national park that is one of Costa Rica’s chief attractions. We hurtled around on the zip wires of the Arenal Sky Tram, hundreds of feet above the jungle floor; rappelled down precipitous canyons; swam in the icy cold waters at the foot of the torrential La Fortuna waterfall; and swam in hot springs with howler monkeys chattering in the trees above us.

Back at Playa Grande, Harry and I scored some more great waves in what was to be my last overseas surf trip. Since then I’ve undergone what the medics know as “anterior cervical discectomy and fusion” (ACDF) — in other words, a serious spinal operation. Surfing is on hold — and if it becomes a part of my life again, it probably won’t entail sessions in 8ft surf. But guess what? The only surfer I’ve heard of who has had ACDF and recovered to surf again is based in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. His name is Mark Price and I aim to paddle out in Costa Rica with him again one day. Meanwhile, like Weisbecker, I recall my last Costa Rican wave, one where I found the perfect place on the perfect wave, and remained there, endlessly, for ever.

Need to Know

Getting there Trailfinders (0845 0505892, trailfinders.com) has return flights from Gatwick to San Jose, Costa Rica, via Atlanta, from £697pp. The Una Ola Surf Camp at Playa Grande offers tuition and boards for hire (unaola.com).

Further information on activities and things to see: anywherecostarica.com.


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postheadericon Kilimanjaro: my nightmare climb

I had never thought about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro until I learnt of its statistics. Of the 25,000 climbers who attempt it each year, 40 per cent don’t make it to the top and a handful don’t make it down at all. A ghoulish curiosity set in. Would I be a winner or a loser? What price that one moment of looking down on the world?

I am climbing with four others. At the start of the trip we congregate in the Dik Dik hotel, Arusha, for a “safety” briefing. At this juncture it doesn’t occur to us to feel anything but smugly confident. Our tour company is based in Tanzania and comes highly recommended. Between them, our two guides have skipped up Kilimanjaro more than 300 times.

We’ve chosen to pay over the odds for a less-travelled but more technically difficult route, with some reassuring built-in safety features. Over 4,600m (15,000ft), the team will be carrying oxygen, a Gamow bag (used for treating severe cases of altitude sickness) and a satellite phone. Our combined goodie bag also includes such treats as drugs for altitude sickness, a pick’n’mix of sleeping pills, 50 assorted energy bars and, most lifesaving of all, a coffee press.

2,750m A blue monkey shakes its bottom at us, ravens screech. From we human beings, there’s regulation chatting and banter. Our back-up guide Joseph, with his hip-hop gait and rusted-tooth grin, is quick to join in, but our lead guide, Royseems a touch without humour, constantly admonishing us for being rude to one another. Late afternoon we pirouette into camp to high fives from the porters. It’s warm and the tents are the size of airport hangars. The head cook, Alfred, produces packet soup No 1 (courgette) and does clever things with chicken and rice.

3,350m Kilimanjaro is not particularly hard trekking. It’s the climate and altitude that are tough. As forest morphs into foggy heathland, clouds release a deluge of biblical proportions. None of us is carrying adequate wet weather gear, including Roy, and by the time we reach camp, everyone is profoundly cold and wet. Still, nothing packet soup No 3 (tomato) and an imaginative twinning of cream and mystery meat won’t sort out.

“So how are you?” Roy asks, eyeballing each of us in turn. We exchange a look. To be fair, we had been warned to carry wet-weather gear, but the advised pocket poncho hardly sufficed. “Fantastic,” we reply. Roy seems strangely put out. “I saw your faces out there. You were scared.” “Wet,” we tell him. “We were extremely wet.”

“The rain is nothing.” He fixes us with another long stare. “This mountain will kick your arse.” We suppress the urge to giggle, but we’re wondering: what’s with the hint of aggression? Later Roy asks for Nurofen. One of the porters has a headache. Something about this jars, but we happily oblige.

3,950m Walk, talk, pole, pole, drink. Cry “jambo!” at every porter who passes, thanking them for carrying our obscenely heavy loads. There is precious little flora or fauna at this altitude. The most colourful creatures are the dead butterflies on the trail. More walk, talk, vulgar jokes, eat, drink, pee. As the air gets thinner, the ability to do all these simultaneously begins to fade.

We stop to look at a plaque dedicated to the mountaineer Scott Fischer, a Kilimanjaro veteran who died in the catastrophic 1996 Everest expedition. “What went wrong?” we ask. “He broke his own rules,” Roy says. “He broke the golden rules of mountaineering and he died.”

There are three killers on this mountain: pulmonary oedema, when your lungs fill with water; cerebral oedema, when your brain explodes; and hypothermia, which is what usually nails the porters. They cannot afford the gear to keep warm, and at a shaming $5 a day they can’t afford not to take the gig.

In camp, an acclimatisation walk is in order. Roy is nowhere to be found. By the time he crawls groggily from his tent, the fog has come down and he declares the route too dangerous. We are increasingly concerned about our guide. First, we don’t like him much, but there’s something else — inappropriate hugs mixed with glowering stares suggest a sociopathic edge. At one point someone says “penny for your thoughts”, to which he replies, “killing you”.

If it’s an attempt at levity, it backfires. We consult between ourselves. Probably it’s our fault. We are opinionated and pretty silly to boot. We resolve to include him more and tease him less. That night at dinner, he sits, head in hands, refusing his packet soup No 6 (sweet potato). It crosses our minds that he is ill. We flip him the obligatory safety questions. How you doing? What grade is your headache? We instruct him to eat. Loss of appetite is a symptom of mountain sickness.

At 2am I am woken by coughing in the camp. I lie, blinking into the night and doing the maths: 20 porters x 8 days @ $5. We have jointly forked out close to $15,000 for this trip. How many Tanzanian fat cats are feeding themselves at the expense of these men? Porters are chosen randomly from a pool of itinerant, usually illiterate workers. Park regulations forbid portage weight over 15kg, but tour companies, keen to save money, double-load their porters, sending the extra men home as soon as they’re out of sight of the park gate.

4,400m I am minding my own business, admiring the epic cragginess of the view, when I feel a sudden rush of warmth in my three-ply Gore-Tex pants. I retreat to my tent. Without warning, copious amounts of excrement have poured out of my body. Horrified, I send for hot water and towels. The humiliation factor is high. The whole camp knows what’s going on. Imodium, Dioralyte, charcoal pills and four emergency stops later, we reach our first camp above the ice line. It’s a desolately beautiful spot, but like those before it, beset by rubbish, decaying vegetables and bits of used loo paper. Behind every rock is the residue of some other climber’s intestinal misfortune.

4,900m Early starts mean rainy afternoons to kill inside the tent. It’s punishingly cold, impossible to concentrate. Suddenly, the weather clears and there are the iconic white snows of Kilimanjaro set against a darkening sky. For the first time, we feel a quickening of excitement. Even Roy perks up and leads the group into spontaneous song. Then the fog closes in, the summit disappears and it’s time for bed.

Tonight the coughing in the camp sounds raw and painful. At breakfast we discover that two more porters are ill with chest infections. Roy asks for antibiotics. We hand over everything, but what’s happened to the company first-aid kit? What the hell is going on?

In hard hats, we begin a difficult seven-hour climb in darkness. Only at dawn do we notice that Roy is not carrying his backpack. He is coughing green slime into a handkerchief and the penny drops. The head in hands, the baleful silences. The antibiotics were for him. Our guide is sick. Five hundred feet more and he collapses.

We are now at 17,000ft on a precipitous incline of black ice and scree. It’s increasingly difficult to catch our breath, hard not to feel the air icing up our lungs. No backpack means no promised oxygen, no Gamow bag, no satellite phone. We leave Roy behind, deeply concerned for him but furious. He has broken the golden rule of the mountain. To climb with a chest infection is dangerous. To guide with a chest infection is irresponsible.

5,650m Glacier camp is deserted. Six days ago our team numbered 27. Today we’re down to three. Everyone else is involved in the desperate attempt to rescue Roy, whose condition has deteriorated into acute pulmonary edema, fatal within a few hours if left untreated. A helicopter has been called but the air is too thin for it to land and below us the weather has closed in making descent too hazardous. Alone, we struggle with the onset of acute mountain sickness. Breathing difficulties, nausea and headaches that no amount of painkillers can touch.

Six hours later the rescue party appears over the crater rim. Roy is in terrible shape, coughing up frothy pink blood. Joseph activates the Gamow bag after which there’s a frantic scrabble in the dark for torches and equipment to carry Roy over the other side and down. The cold is brutal. We do synchronised spooning, huddled together under the stars.

In the morning, Joseph, coolest of cool dudes, is undeterred. “Piece of cake,” he says, grinning at the final 1,000ft to the summit and he’s right. We reach it as the orange glow of dawn spreads across the horizon.

5,895m The summit. And it is, as one might expect, a moment of almost divine mystery and beauty. The banks of cloud far below, the melting glaciers. This is why we push boundaries — to touch the sky, to understand what the edge of our existence looks like.

We cannot and will not spend another night on the mountain. It takes us 13 hours straight to get down, but get down we do, just before night falls, sore and heartily sick of our white tourist dilemma. Do we turn Roy in? Get him fired?

To our horror, at the park’s entrance, Roy is lying in wait for us — freshly delivered by the flying doctors and eschewing hospital in favour of “seeing us safely home”. If he registers the disgust on our faces, he ignores it, scavenging among the exhausted porters for the threads of his former control.

There is no doubt who his real prey is, though. It’s all about the big end-of-trip tip. The porters are about to disperse and Joseph, bound by an “honour system” between guides, which decrees that the leader takes all, will not accept our money — it’s down to Roy to eke out these men’s livelihoods at his discretion. Will Joseph be rewarded for his loyalty? The porters for their dedication and bravery? It’s hard to know and impossible to interfere. After all, this is Africa.
Names have been changed.

The Summer of the Bear, by Bella Pollen, is published in August by Mantle, £12.99

All companies working in the Kilimanjaro National Park should be accredited, but African bureaucracy allows for leeway. A good company will have fresh food and a trained guide. It will provide equipment such as stretchers and tents but clients should hire or buy personal gear. With the last day involving a night climb in temperatures as low as — 20C (-4F), mountaineering clothes and a headtorch are essential.

The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project says that climbers should use companies accredited by the International Mountain Explorers Connection (mountainexplorers.org/club/partners.htm). Tom Whipple


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postheadericon Q&A: your options during BA strikes

When are the strikes?

The High Court ruling that granted an injunction against strikes by BA cabin crew has now been overturned and strikes will go ahead from Monday 24 May.

There are three five-day walkouts with one day between each: May 24 to 28, May 30 to June 3 and June 5 to 9. There will be disruptions to flights on all of the strike days, the days between the strikes and for at least a day or two before and after the full strike period, i.e. disruption will continue from today until June 10/11.

Are all BA flights cancelled on the strike dates?

No. Not all BA flights will be cancelled on the strike days.

BA has now announced its full schedule for flights up to June 4. Some previously cancelled flights have been reinstated. If your flight has been reinstated you won’t be automatically booked onto it. You need to rebook through the normal channels.

During the period up to June 4, all flights at Gatwick and London City will operate as normal. At Heathrow, the disruption is likely to impact short-haul and domestic services more than long-haul flights. You can check the status of your flight online, but further to that, you should already have been contacted by the airline if your flight is affected.

The schedule for the next rounds of strikes, on June 5-9, and for the following day on June 10, will be announced on June 1.

Will the strikes definitely go ahead?

It seems unlikely, at this stage, that there will be a resolution between the Unite union and the BA management, because the dispute has been going on for some weeks already. However, both sides say they remain open to talks.

Can I still book flights during the strike period?

Yes. London City and Gatwick flights remain on sale. BA has also now reopened bookings for its Heathrow flights for the first strike period, and will put more Heathrow flights on sale as the schedule is confirmed.

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postheadericon Times Walks: Slieve Gullion, Co Armagh

Ever smelt pine needles properly?” inquired my companion, the walker and naturalist Ron Murray, as we strolled the Forest Drive along the southern flank of Slieve Gullion. “Crush ’em like this between your finger and thumb.”

I suited action to words and sniffed deeply: a spicy blast of orange as pungent as a marmalade factory.

We left the trees and climbed, short and sharp, to the southern peak of Slieve Gullion. This big dark hump of a mountain forms the centrepiece of a remarkable volcanic landscape set in the green farmlands of South Armagh. Powerful subterranean convulsions 60 million years ago caused the ancient Slieve Gullion volcano to collapse, sending a ripple of molten rock outwards like a stone thrown in a pond. The circular ridge solidified, then weathered over ages into the guardian hills of the Ring, a ten-mile-wide circle of craggy mini-mountains encircling Slieve Gullion like courtiers around a king.

Surprisingly few walkers venture into the countryside southwest of Newry to climb the mountain and savour for themselves one of the most spectacular high-level views in Ireland, a 100-mile circle from the Mountains of Mourne to the tumbled hills of Antrim and the billowy Sperrins, the green-and-brown mat of the Midland plain and the Wicklow Hills beyond Dublin, as tiny and pale as tin cut-outs.

I turned away from the breathtaking prospect at last to find Ron beckoning from a little low doorway of stone set deep into the side of the cairn. On hands and knees I followed him inside to find a chamber walled with stones neatly shaped and fitted. A Neolithic passage grave under a Bronze Age cairn, say the archaeologists. Not at all, retort the romantics. Here is the house of the Cailleach Beara, the unspeakably wicked witch who turned the mighty hero Fionn MacCumhaill into a feeble old man when he dived into the Lake of Sorrows to retrieve her golden ring.

Ron and I strode the windy summit ridge past the Lake of Sorrows. A huge half-finished millstone lay half in and half out of the water. “A miller pinched it from the Cailleach Beara’s house,” said Ron, “but it brought him such bad luck that he decided to put it back. When his donkey had got it this far, the poor thing fell down dead. That’s where it stayed from then on. No one quite fancies moving it . . .”

Start & finish Slieve Gullion Forest Park car park, Drumintee Road, Killeavy, Newry, Co Armagh BT35 8SW (OS of NI ref (OS ref J 040196)

Getting there Bus: Service 43 (Newry-Forkhill) to Forest Park entrance Road: N1/A1 Dublin-Newry; B113 (“Forkhill”); in 3½ miles, right (“Slieve Gullion Forest Park”) to car park.

Walk (8 miles, moderate, OS of NI Discoverer 29; Ring of Gullion Way/RGW blue arrows): Top-left corner of car park, left up path through trees. In a quarter of a mile join Forest Drive (038191), up slope, then level, for a quarter of a mile to RGW post on left (035190). Right up drive, past metal barrier; left uphill for 1½ miles to car park (018200).

Beyond picnic table, right at white post, steeply uphill. South Cairn (025203) — Lake of Sorrows — North Cairn (021211). Aim north for Sturgan Mountain (left of Cam Lough), then white house between you and lake. Fork right at grassy “lawn” with boulder beyond, aiming for house. At road (025230), right for 3 miles, passing Killevy Old Church (040221), to Forest Park entrance (046199). Right to car park.

Lunch Slieve Gullion Courtyard coffee shop, or picnic by Lake of Sorrows

More info Slieve Gullion Courtyard (028-3084 8084); discovernorthernireland.com

For detailed instructions, online map, more walks: christophersomerville.co.uk


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Saturday 1 October 2011

postheadericon 20 wild days out in the UK countryside

Pony express, Dartmoor, Devon Explore 400 sq miles of moorland on horseback — children even get to ride the famous Dartmoor ponies. Trot past rocky outcrops, gorse and heather, and splash through streams. dartmoorstables.com, 01364 621281

Hunters and highwaymen, Epping Forest, Essex A former Royal hunting ground and 18th-century haunt of the highwayman Dick Turpin, Epping Forest is a rich mosaic of habitats. Discover heath, rivers and more than 80 lakes and ponds. www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/epping, 020-8508 0028 Insect hunting Cambridgeshire Wicken Fen is Britain’s oldest nature reserve and supports 8,230 species of birds, plants and insects. Don’t miss the rich peat bog, a haven for invertebrates — Charles Darwin travelled here to collect the rare crucifix ground beetle. wicken.org.uk, 01353 720274

Cold War relic, Orford Ness, Suffolk Today the bleak shingle spit is home to marsh harriers and barn owls, but only 40 years ago it was the test site for Britain’s first atomic bomb. The ramshackle concrete pagodas that once housed secret experiments on nuclear weapons can still be seen today. tinyurl.com/pdaoh, 01728 648024

Peak practice, Dark Peak, Derbyshire Lying in the north of the Peak District National Park, this moorland is dotted with bizarrely shaped boulders with outlandish names, such as Back Tor, the Cakes of Bread and Salt Cellar. Worth a visit, as long as you are aware that it is also notorious for uncanny occurrences, from missing aircraft to a giant slug that is rumoured to slither across the moor. www.visitpeakdistrict.com, 01457 869176

Rule the roost, Rutland Water, Rutland Stand on the banks of Western Europe’s largest man-made reservoir, watching windsurfers, canoeists and fishing boats, and chances are, until early September, you could spot something rarer. The osprey — on the brink of extinction — was introduced to Rutland Water by conservationists in 1996. Chicks hatch between May and June and develop into fledglings just nine weeks later. rutlandwater.org.uk, 01572 770651

Wildlife of the Wash, Frampton Marsh If you fancy a panoramic view of this Lincolnshire nature reserve, one of the 360-degree hides will bring the wildlife of the Wash, such as wading birds and ducks, up close. rspb.org.uk/framptonmarsh, 01205 724678

Waterfall watch, Durham Dales Is it any wonder that this has been named Britain’s most tranquil spot? Open moorland, sweeping meadows, heather-clad hills and the High Force waterfall — England’s highest uninterrupted drop — where the River Tees plunges 21m (70ft) into a churning pool. visitcountydurham.com, 01833 640209

Wild walking, Forest of Bowland Why not see if you agree with the Queen when she says that if she could retire, she would make the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, her home? Enjoy 300 sq miles of remote, heather-covered, peat-bog moorland. forestofbowland.com, 01200 448000

Caves and caverns, Isle of Staffa This small, uninhabited island off Mull in the Inner Hebrides is home to Fingal’s Cave, one of the world’s most famous caverns — it inspired Mendelssohn’s work of the same name. Take a boat from Oban or Iona to see its haunting beauty. tinyurl.com/yh8eo7q, 0844 4932215

Golden eagles, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Generations of urban Scots have journeyed to Loch Lomond in West Dunbartonshire for fresh air. The 24-mile (38km) stretch of water is home to more than 30 uninhabitated islands, while the Trossachs are often described as the Highlands in miniature. www.lochlomond-trossachs.org, 08452 255121

Precipice Walk, Snowdonia Despite its scary-sounding name, the four-mile walk on the lower slopes of Foel Cynwch involves hardly any climbing, although at 244m it is probably best not attempted by vertigo sufferers. Surefooted walkers aged 8 to 80 can enjoy the spectacular views. www.visitmidwales.co.uk, 01654 703526

Dolphin-spotting, Cardigan Bay, Ceredigion Cardigan Bay is home to some of the largest bottlenose dolphins on earth. While they can be seen at most times of the day, the best chances of seeing these playful animals are in the early morning or evening when there is more boat traffic. visitcardigan.com, 01239 613230

Coasteering, Pembrokeshire coast The term “coasteering” was first coined here 20 years ago. Simply dress in a wet suit, put on some protective headgear, grab a buoyancy aid and then throw yourself off a rock face into the swirling sea below. Not something you should try alone, but if the idea appeals there are several companies that organise coasteering days for wannabe daredevils. www.activitypembrokeshire.com, 01437 776499

Mind the hump, Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall England’s most southerly point is a favourite with wildlife enthusiasts. The peninsula’s sea caves, formerly home to smugglers, now provide a haven for grey seals. For a beach trip with a difference, take a ride down to the seaside on a camel. Seven camels live at a nearby farm and pay their way by taking people on treks. cornishcamels.com, 01326 231119

Bats and hobgoblins, Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire is peppered with scowles, a local term for bizarre moss-carpeted rock formations. Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Romans excavated iron ore from the forest’s caves. They have since been reclaimed by nature, leaving spooky, magical creations that look like the homes of hobgoblins and dwarfs. A word of warning: watch out for the low-flying bats that inhabit the area’s oak, lime and beech trees. puzzlewood.net, 01594 833187

Subterranean tunnels, The Needles, Isle of Wight The remote, windswept headland on the western tip of the Isle of Wight is riddled with subterranean tunnels in the chalk, and has stunning views along the cliffs. To explore the tunnels, you don’t even have to do any climbing — there’s a chairlift to take you down to the beach. www.theneedles.co.uk, 0871 720 0022

Footsteps of miners, Honister Pass, Borrowdale The Honister Via Ferrata — or Iron Road — allows you to follow in the footsteps of Victorian miners over the raw and dramatic landscape of Cumbria, crossing steep gullies on intimidatingly narrow bridges. If you have a head for heights, you can also walk across to a cliff face, fasten yourself on with lanyards and clips, and hang off the edge, thousands of feet above ground. honister-slate-mine.co.uk, 017687 77714

Witches, wizards and haunted woodland, Alderley Edge, Cheshire Hunt the wizards and witches of local folklore in this sandstone escarpment above the Cheshire Plain, which is covered by oak and beech woodland and riddled with hidden entrances to Bronze Age mines. In the middle of the wood, take time to search out the delightful, tiny wishing well. The water is said to be magical, and to fall by the sorcerer Merlin’s will. alderleyedge.org

Mountain bike paradise, Tamar Valley, Devon The network of old mine chimneys, hidden quays and lunar-like spoil tips in the Tamar Valley makes it popular with mountain bikers. Expect sections that drop 500ft in a mile, adrenalin-inducing jumps and nerve-shredding bends that weave along the 50-mile River Tamar. Watch out for nightjars, endangered lichen and rare heath fritillary butterflies. woodlandriders.com, 01822 618178

Taken from Countryfile Perfect Days Out, by Cavan Scott, (BBC Books), £16.99


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postheadericon BA strike starts on Monday on after court strikes down injunction

Tens of thousands of British Airways passengers face flight cancellations over the Whitsun Bank Holiday and school half-term after the Court of Appeal overturned an injunction that was blocking a strike yesterday.

The Unite union said that cabin crew would stop work for five days from Monday, with further five-day walkouts due to start on May 30 and June 5.

Last night BA said that it was considering an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The joint union general secretaries, Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley, issued an ultimatum to Willie Walsh, the BA chief executive, to meet their demands on travel concessions and suspended union members or face the longest strike in the airline’s history.

If the action goes ahead, BA intends to operate a full schedule at Gatwick, a full schedule at London City, about 60 per cent of long-haul flights at Heathrow and about 50 per cent of the airport’s short-haul programme.

BA, which is expected to tell the Stock Exchange today that it has lost hundreds of millions of pounds for the second consecutive year, is showing little sign of giving way. No negotiations are planned and it is forging ahead with contingency plans to keep as many flights as possible running. A spokesman said: “Unite’s strikes have failed twice and they will fail again.”

The company said a peace deal remained on the table. Unite agrees that a deal is close, but the dispute remains locked over BA’s refusal to return unchanged travel concessions to thousands of crew who joined seven strike days in March, and to put the sacking of eight union members during the dispute out to third-party review.

The Appeal Court judges who overturned the injunction said that the dispute could be settled only through negotiation. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, said: “Legal processes do not constitute mediation. They often serve to inflame rather than mollify the feelings of those involved.”

He sided with Justice Lady Smith to quash a High Court injunction granted on Monday against the strike, though the Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, said that the injunction should stand. Their deliberations turned on the interpretation of section 231 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. The clause says that a union must take all steps “reasonably necessary” to inform all members as quickly as possible after a ballot about the number of votes cast, the number of “yes” votes, “no” votes and the number of spoilt ballots. On February 22 the union sent members e-mails, text messages and tweets saying that the ballot had been carried by an overwhelming majority — but did not give the four pieces of information.

Mr Justice McCombe granted an injunction blocking the strike on those grounds. Lord Judge and Lady Smith overturned the decision and found that by posting results on its website, notice boards at Heathrow and Gatwick, and in a newsletter, the union had complied. Lord Neuberger disagreed. The Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, said: “It is in the interests of the travelling public, British Airways and the cabin crew, whose jobs depend on the future success of the airline, that both sides now urgently get back around the negotiating table.”

Investors have so far backed Mr Walsh. The City awaits today’s company results, which could take BA’s losses in the past two years to £1 billion.


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postheadericon The 40 best British beaches

Beaches for swimmers

Mill Bay/Nanjizal near Land’s End, Cornwall

Low tide at this bay reveals the Song of the Sea arch with its emerald plunge pool. Follow the coast path south to a string of pearly coves: Porthgwarra, St Levan, and the Pedn Vounder sand bars beneath Logan’s Rock. sennen-cove.com/nj.htm

Crackington Haven Cornwall

Crackington Haven makes a wonderful family swimming destination. At low tide the sandy beach is perfect for body boarding, or you can explore the Mermaid Pools. In the evening people make pebble towers, transforming the cove into a megalithic site. thisisnorthcornwall.com

Barricane shell beach Woolacombe, Devon

Swimming here is so safe you can go for a night swim. If it’s been very hot, and you’re lucky, you may see phosphorescence, when plankton glows luminous green, swirling and flashing as you move through the water. Magical. northdevon.com

Purbeck plunge pools Worth Matravers, Dorset

These blue lagoons feel like Crete on a hot summer day. Continue 20min east to find Dancing Ledge, a low rectangular tidal rock pool that warms up nicely in the sun. From here you can swim into a set of eerie sea caves on the left. thepurbecks.co.uk

East Head West Wittering, West Sussex

West Wittering can be reached by a tranquil cycle ride from Chichester station. It has white sand and great expanses of dunes. Walk up to the tip of East Head and you’ll find a beach that shelves deeply — perfect for swimming. It also has shallow lagoons that warm in the sun and are excellent for mud fights and slides. westwitteringbeach.co.uk

Burnham Beach and Scolt Head Island Norfolk

This five-mile stretch of sand is probably England’s wildest. Swim across the deep pool to Scolt Head Island, an uninhabited nature reserve, and England’s only desert island. Return via the mud creeks and swimming holes on the Cockle Path. naturalengland.org.uk

Bow Fiddle Portknockie, Aberdeen

This is an ordinary fishing village with extraordinary coastal features. The Bow Fiddle rocks sits in a little cove and its slanted rock strata have created a huge natural archway as high as a cathedral. The swim out is easy and once underneath you can climb up on to the arch and jump back in. You may even be lucky enough to witness a pod of the Moray Firth dolphins swimming close by. scottishholidays.net

Coral Beaches Dunvegan, Isle of Skye

Skye’s coral is composed of fragments of billions of bleached skeletons of red algae that grow at the bottom of the ocean at the north of the island. Cows loll about on the beach sniffing at the seaweed, and you can snorkel among the kelp forest and swim with the friendly seals. walkhighlands.co.uk

Fidden and Fingal’s Cave Mull

Mull has some of the clearest waters in Britain. At low tide you can wade to Erraid, Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”. Or take a boat to Fingal’s sea cave — where Mendelssohn played violin. Inside, the hexagonal balsalt columns rise up like organ pipes to the ceiling — a perfect place to dive and sing. serenityisleofmull.co.uk

Blue Pool Corner Gower

The Blue Pool on the Gower peninsula is a legendary tub about 12ft deep, set in honey-coloured rock with mauve water and various levels from which you can jump. The pool stands at the east end of a long wild beach that bears its name. geograph.org.uk

Daniel Start Wild Swimming Coast by Daniel Start is published by Punk Publishing, £14.95 Daniel Start

Crowd-free beaches

Samson Isles of Scilly

This is an uninhabited island reached via ferry from St Mary’s, the main island of the Scillies. The ferry draws up by the beach and you walk along a wooden plank to the sand. There are two hills with good views across the Scillies; between them the ghostly remains of an old village. spimplyscilly.co.uk

Skaw Unst, Shetland Islands

The settlement at Skaw is the most northerly in the UK; remote and rarely visited. There’s a small, sheltered sandy beach — plus a terrific sense of isolation. Birdlife includes gannets, fulmars, petrels and kittiwakes; and there are more than 25,000 pairs of puffins at the nearby Hermaness National Nature Reserve. You may also see seals and whales. unst.org

Goswick Sands Northumberland

These vast sands were a weapons range during the Second World War, and there are signs warning you that metal objects found there “may explode and kill you”. Nevertheless, it’s a wonderful place for a long bracing walk. It is not far to Lindisfarne and the splendid town of Berwick-upon-Tweed is also close. northumberland-beaches.co.uk

Dungeness Kent

OK, you may think that visiting a beach best known for its nuclear power station is misguided, but Dungeness is lovely: a vast stretch of shingle that seems to go on for ever (it is the largest shingle beach in Europe). The tides are too strong for swimming, but Dungeness is popular with anglers and great for quiet walks. discoverfolkestone.co.uk

Climping West Sussex

Tucked away between Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, Climping is a hamlet with a shingle beach. It is much quieter here than neighbouring resorts. The tides are not usually strong so it is safe to swim. Climping itself has plenty of charm. visitsussex.org

Spurn Head East Yorkshire

This four-mile peninsula of shifting sands curls into the mouth of the Humber and is one of the most otherworldly places in Britain, with the Humber estuary on one side and the North Sea on the other. realyorkshire.co.uk

Harlech North Wales

The dunes at Harlech are a National Nature Reserve and some loom upwards more than 10m, great for children to clamber over on walks. They cover about five miles of coast and run into the Royal St David’s Golf Club at one end, beyond which there is the town of Harlech. harlech.com

Chapman’s Pool Dorset

The steep, long walk down from the village of Worth Matravers makes this beach very difficult to reach, but worth the effort as the shingle here is full of fossils and there is beautiful scenery and a sense of seclusion. Visitors must consult local tide charts to ensure that it is safe to visit the narrow (very secretive) beach — the path means it is not suitable for children. chapmanspool.ukfossils.co.uk

Kynance Cove Cornwall

Lizard Point is Britain’s most southerly point, and most people zoom there going straight past the turning to Kynance Cove. They are missing out on a terrific, rugged, hidden cove with 200ft cliffs, as well as lots of caves and stacks dotted about. kynancecovecafe.co.uk Tom Chesshyre

Fashionable beaches

Penzance Cornwall

Higgledy-piggledy lanes full of quaint pubs, tiny antique shops and seemingly endless art galleries make Penzance a great place to while away a summer day. Long Rock Beach is sandy and good for families as the waters are shallow. There’s also the triangular Art Deco Jubilee Pool lido — the biggest tidal pool still in use in Britain. From the promenade you can walk along the harbourfront to look around the fishing boats in their docks. penzance.co.uk

Whitby North Yorkshire

This beautiful port has a sandy beach and a rich history. It was where James Cook came to serve his apprenticeship in 1746. The Endeavour was built here and there’s a Captain Cook Memorial Museum. There’s also the beautiful remains of Whitby Abbey, parts of which dates from the 7th century. The recently renovated YHA hostel on the hill is one of the best in the country. discoveryorkshirecoast.com

Margate Kent

The childhood home of Tracey Emin is turning trendy. Earlier this month Emin unveiled a work in neon lights saying “I never stopped loving you” at Droit House on the town’s seafront. There are lots of quirky cafés, retro clothing shops and old furniture shops — and a bit of a buzz about the town, which has a 200m sandy beach. There’s a new boutique B&B (thereadingroomsmargate.co.uk), with rooms that manage to combine the ornate with the minimalist. The Turner Contemporary Gallery (the artist painted many seascapes here) is due to open here next summer — with works by modern artists including Emin. visitthanet.co.uk

King Edward’s Bay Tyne & Wear

This little sand beach is tucked away not far from the cliffs on which the remains of Tynmouth priory and castle sit. The beach is peaceful and pretty, and farther along the coast you reach Tynemouth Longsands, where there is a café-bar and surfing lessons. North Shields, from where many of the beach’s visitors walk, is known for its superb fish and chips (try Kristian Fish Co) as well as its fish wholesalers down by the waterfront, where you can sometimes see huge sharks being off-loaded from fishing boats. visittyneside.co.uk

Mablethorpe Lincolnshire

Thanks to its annual Bathing Beauties Festival, Mablethorpe’s beach huts have taken on the look of works of art. Each year they are re-designed and decorated into eye-catching and often startling creations (artists turned one into a giant G&T). The beach itself is a long stretch of sand that is perfect for a bucket-and-spade break. Brasher, more famous Skegness is not far away, but Mablethorpe is the rising star of Lincolnshire. visitlincolnshire.com

Fish Sands Co Durham

Not so much a place for a swim, more of a beach for sunbathing or eating fish ‘n’ chips and only accessible via Hartlepool’s medieval town wall. This is a hidden spot and it is also where legend has it that the city’s famous monkey was washed ashore after a French ship was wrecked during the Napoleonic wars. The monkey is said to have been wearing a French military uniform and was sentenced to death for being a spy. The beach is part of a trail of historic sights in Hartlepool that includes the old harbour and Sandwell Gate, the 14th-century gateway to the old town. destinationhartlepool.com Tom Chesshyre

Best beaches for surfers

Watergate Bay Cornwall

The Hotel and Extreme Academy, Watergate Bay, was set up to be “a ski resort on the beach”. Slick, chic and family friendly, its many water sports are complemented by the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant, right on its doorstep. A half-day lesson for beginners can be booked through the hotel and costs £30; private lessons can also be arranged. The surf at Watergate Bay can be unruly, with big winter swells, but from spring to late summer this is one of the best places to learn to surf in the UK. 01637 860543, watergatebay.co.uk

Bournemouth Dorset

The formerly down-at-heel area of Bournemouth known as Boscombe has experienced a huge revival, thanks to the opening of the first artificial surf reef in Europe. It is aimed at proficient surfers, but beginners are catered for by the Sorted Surf Shop, on the boardwalk. Yes — a boardwalk: Boscombe is now more like California than England. bournemouth-surfschool.co.uk

Saunton Sands Devon

Rolling waves and an expanse of gently shelving beach make Saunton Sands ideal for beginners. While the shortboard fraternity is busy around the corner at Croyde Bay, you can enjoy your own waves at Saunton — the beach is so vast that only a short walk will secure an uncrowded peak. There is also a strong and stylish longboard scene here. For tuition by Sarah Whiteley, one of Britian’s top surfers, see walkingonwaves.co.uk

St Ouen’s Jersey

Jersey may by only 9 miles by 5 miles, but it plays host to a vibrant surf scene. The focal point is west-facing St Ouen’s Bay. Its backdrop, a landscape denuded of all but a few straggles of gorse, is wholly unscarred by development, while there are interesting remnants of the Nazi occupation of Jersey dotted along the expansive beach. The hubbub of the local scene is Watersplash, a bar, surf club and restaurant in the middle of bay that is packed with surfing history. watersplashjersey.com

Gower Peninsula Wales

In 1957, Rhossili Bay, on the Gower Peninsula, was the first to be given an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty title in the UK. Today, the Gower is the centre of the dynamic Welsh surf scene. Lessons can be booked through Gower Surfing Development, all of whose packages include the cost of board and wetsuit hire. The owner, Simon Jayham, is known for his surfing exploits, while near Rhossili is the pretty village of Llangennith, the home of the legendary PJ’s Surf Shop. Its owner is one of the few British surfers to have had an audience with the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace. 01792 360370, gowersurfing.com

Porthleven Cornwall

Tourists love Porthleven’s fish port and its venerable workaday feel, but surfers come for a different reason — the reef just beyond the harbour walls. Winter storms can generate waves that crash over the top of the nearby 30ft sea wall — an elemental power that makes it so compelling and popular. But make no mistake: surfing the immaculate right-hander here can lead to tubular bliss — and broken limbs.

Thurso East Scotland

The rugged town on the north coast of Scotland is one of Europe’s best surfing venues. The reef at Thurso East hosts the Highland Open and never fails to astound professionals from the surf idylls of Hawaii, California and South Africa. They owe a lot to the largesse of Lord Thurso, who technically owns the reef but who enjoys watching people surfing so much that he has never objected to their presence. Thurso is one of the best waves in Europe, but — whisper it quietly — each side of the town there are several other world-class breaks.

Crab Island Wales

Another of the Gower Peninsula’s gems, this notorious right-hand reef break demands respect. Beware: access can be difficult and rips are a problem.

Belhaven Bay Scotland

Close to Edinburgh there is a well-developed surf scene and the excellent Coast to Coast Surf School. Located at beautiful Belhaven Bay, near Dunbar, the surf school’s instructors are all British Surfing Association qualified and will advise intermediates on the best waves along the uncrowded Scottish coastline. c2csurfschool.com

The Cribbar Cornwall

Although some of the focus on big-wave surfing has switched in recent years to the West Coast of Ireland, the Cribbar, which breaks off Newquay’s Towan Headland, remains a formidable proposition. A number of local surfers have tried to master the dangerous right-hand reef break, which was first surfed in the 1960s. Perhaps Tony Plant, editor of the surf magazine Pitpilot and a Cribbar fanatic, best sums up its allure: “When you’re in big surf, water doesn’t behave like water — it becomes something almost beyond our understanding.” If you fancy seeking enlightenment at the Cribbar on a big swell, make sure you happen to be one of the very best surfers in the UK. Alex Wade

Best beaches for caves and rockpools

Porth Dafarch Anglesey, Wales

Crabs and colourful little fish aplenty are to be found in the rockpools at Porth Dafarch on the Isle of Anglesey, close to Holyhead. There’s a sandy, hidden beach (the bay is only about 100m across) and the waters are popular with windsurfers, canoeists, surfers and jet skiers. It’s a great place for rambling over rocks and exploring the rugged coastline. The RSPB reserve at South Stack lighthouse is a short drive away. visitanglesey.co.uk

Hell’s Mouth Lleyn Peninsula, Wales

There are lots of rockpools for crabbing and exploring at this isolated, long sandy beach that gets its name from the huge breakers that come its way when the wind from the Atlantic picks up. During the summer, however, it is mainly calm and popular with families. The rockpools are a bit seaweedy, but are teeming with life. There are plenty of other beaches to explore near by, as well as the popular resort of Abersoch, on the east coast of the peninsula. nwt.co.uk

Botany Bay Kent

When the tide goes out, the receding waters reveal a vast chalk reef of pools containing crabs and starfish. Along the chalky cliff there are caves and stacks standing out in the sea. The beach is sandy and popular with families. The white cliffs make for a dramatic setting. Botany Bay is not far from Broadstairs, with its many caves, pubs and restaurant, as well as the Dickens House Museum (Dickens regularly visited the town). visitkent.co.uk

Broad Ledge Lyme Regis, Dorset

All sorts of creatures, including limpets, dogwhelks, winkles, sea slugs, urchins and several different types of crab, can be found in the rockpools at Broad Ledge, which is part of the Lyme Regis Marine Wildlife Area. There are sandy beaches near by, but the Ledge is all about hunting amid the seaweed to see what lurks in the waters. Lyme Regis is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site that stretches for 95 miles from Exmouth to Swanage. charmouth.org

Portrush Co Antrim

Hunt in the rockpools at Portrush and you will find velvet fiddler crabs, sticklebacks, prawns and shrimp. There are excellent beaches for sunbathing in the summer and views across to the Giant’s Causeway headland. Sand dunes can be explored near the Royal Portrush Golf Club. The rock formations at Giant’s Causeway and a visit to the Bushmills distillery are local musts. visitingportrush.com Tom Chesshyre

Best beaches for twitchers

Britain’s thousands of miles of coastline include some of the most interesting and rewarding places from which to observe birds as well as other forms of wildlife. From the spectacular cliffs of Durlston Head in Dorset, which teem with guillemots and razorbills every summer, to the skuas of Fair Isle in the Shetlands, there is no shortage of opportunities to learn about our natural heritage. The diversity of our coastal wildlife means that you are able to chance upon it in a variety of different situations. At Lizard Point, on the southern tip of mainland Britain, you can sit at a café eating a crab sandwich or a cream tea, while looking out for gannets crossing Mount’s Bay, fulmars gliding by on stiff wings, and seals. If you do not mind a possibly bumpy boat ride, the island of Grassholm, ten miles out from St David’s, is a wonderful place to visit. It is a rock with more than 30,000 pairs of nesting gannets. A continuous growling roar comes from the birds on their nests, and all around there are gannets plunging dramatically into the water. Of course, one of the great resources in Britain is the RSPB reserves that dot the coastline. I particularly recommend Titchwell on the North Norfolk coast, with well-placed hides and plenty of information. Birds nesting among the reeds include such rare sights as marsh harriers, bearded tits and water rails. Spoonbills and little gulls are also often seen. Minsmere on the Suffolk coast has another important RSPB reserve — about 100 pairs of avocets nest here on the shore; booming bitterns and bearded tits nest in the reedbeds; and there is a hide from which marsh harriers can be seen plunging down. Hobbies are quite common overhead, and little terns nest in a guarded place on the beach. Up on Dunwich Heath there may even be Dartford warblers. Derwent May

The coolest beach hotels

Number One South Beach, Blackpool

So close to the Pleasure Beach that you can smell the candyfloss, Number One South Beach is a sophisticated alternative to all those doilies-and-jam guesthouses that clutter up the town’s seafront. The furnishings in its 14 rooms, would elicit murmurs of approval from Terence Conran. The restaurant is fast becoming a destination in its own right — Neil Tennant, Andrew Neill and the Strictly Come Dancing judges have been spotted there enjoying its excellent seafood. 01253 343900; numberone southbeach.com. Doubles from £120, inc breakfast.

Beaches, Deal, Kent

Intimate and exclusive, Beaches has just two guest rooms and is an interior designer’s dream, a masterclass in how to pep up crisp, clean decor and muted colour tones with witty touches such as space-age capsule chairs and beach-inspired artwork. The owner happily provides towels, tables and sunloungers to take down to the beach. The breakfasts are worth the room rate alone. beaches.uk.com, 01304 369692. Doubles from £80, inc breakfast The Big Sleep, Eastbourne, East Sussex This is the latest addition to actor John Malkovich’s boutique-hotel chain. Situated in a gleaming, white, palm-fringed building, it comes with the sort of bold and funky interiors you’d expect in a hotel three times the price. There’s no restaurant, but you can always fire up a barbecue on the beach then retire to a sofa in the hotel bar for a digestif or two. 01323 722676, thebigsleephotel.com. Doubles from £59, including breakfast.

Blanch House, Brighton, East Sussex

Run by the Groucho Club’s former bar manager, this intimate, 12-room townhouse hotel, just a wave-splash from Brighton beach, may look elegant and unassuming from the outside — but indoors, it’s more colourful than a Bajan carnival procession. Its cocktail lounge and tiny restaurant are two of the city’s biggest draws, and the seasonal menu does wonderful things with locally caught fish. 01273 603504, blanchhouse.co.uk. Doubles from £100, inc breakfast.

Llety Bodfor, Aberdyfi, Wales

Behind Aberdyfi’s golden, powder-soft sands sits the intimate boutique hotel Llety Bodfo. It has just eight rooms, featuring such touches as squishy leather sofas, old church pews and roll-top baths. There’s no restaurant, though drinks are available on an honesty basis in the lounge. 0845 0340700, mrandmrssmith.com. Doubles from £125, incl breakfast.

Seaham Hall and the Serenity Spa, Co Durham

Set on a clifftop overlooking a long sandy beach, Seaham Hall’s rooms come with the sort of gadgetry that would have Doctor Who scratching his head — luckily, all guests are given a lesson on how to use it . The spa has more pools, hissing steam areas and Zen relaxation zones than your average Dubai seven-star. Add in the superb White Room restaurant and you’re unlikely to bother with the beach. 01915 161400, seaham-hall.co.uk). Doubles from £195, inc breakfast.

St Moritz Hotel, near Padstow, Cornwall

At first glance this gleaming white-and-blue Modernist building looks as though a 1930s ocean liner has docked in a palm grove overlooking the Atlantic. Recently revamped, the hotel offers ultra-stylish rooms along with a clubby bar, buzzing restaurant and the sort of spa that people travel hundreds of miles to be pounded and pummelled in. And there’s even a selection of buckets. spades and surfboards piled up in the lobby. 0845 0340700, mrandmrssmith.com. Doubles from £99, inc breakfast.

The Three Chimneys, Isle of Skye

Though a pebbly lochside strand might not be quite what you had in mind when planning a beach break, it’s worth abandoning the suncream and sandcastles for a stay at The Three Chimneys in Colbost. This restaurant with rooms occupies a group of crofters’ cottages, and has won countless awards for its fresh-out-of-the-water approach to seafood. Each of its six stylish junior suites combines a simple, rustic-inspired design with all the mod cons of a top boutique hotel. 01470 511258, threechimneys.co.uk. Doubles from £285, including breakfast. Rufus Purdy


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postheadericon 20 great chef-owned hotels

ENGLAND

1. Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham

Sat Bains has been dubbed the most inventive British chef since Heston Blumenthal thanks to his extravagant take on French cuisine at this Nottingham restaurant with rooms. The converted farmhouse on the banks of the River Trent may be close to an industrial estate, but the ugliness ends there. The seven rooms are decorated in shades of chocolate and cream with huge wooden four posters, roll-top baths and fireplaces.

Must try Beef cheek with seaweed, oyster cream, sprouts and radish

Details Dinner, B&B from £135 per person (0115-986 6566, www.restaurantsatbains.com)

Dinner Seven-course tasting menu, £69

2. Robert Thompson The Hambrough, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

Tucked away on the Isle of Wight, this gourmet bolt hole comes as a complete surprise. Robert Thompson has worked hard with local producers on the menu — ravioli of lobster with lobster cappuccino and monkfish, and the most delicious chocolate and banana cake with banana ice cream. Considering it has one Michelin star, the food is good value, at £55 for three courses. House wine costs from £20 a bottle.

Must try Anjou squab with oak-smoked gnocchi

Details Two-night B&B breaks from £200pp with return crossings with Wightlink (0871 3760013, wightlink.co.uk). Book direct on 01983 856333, thehambrough.com

3. York & Albany, London

After conquering the French, the Americans, the Japanese and the gastropub, it was only a matter of time before Gordon Ramsay took on the humble hotel. And he’s made a pretty good fist of it too. The York & Albany, with views over Regent’s Park, is all you would expect of a boutique hotel: exposed beams, chunky dark-wooden furniture and big leather sofas; the kitchen is overseen by long-time Ramsay cohort Angela Hartnett, with Colin Buchan in tow as head chef. Nonna’s, in the hotel’s converted stable, is reminiscent of a rustic French or Italian deli.

Must try Braxted Park saddle of lamb, confit belly, Puy lentils with red pepper

Details Room-only doubles from £205 (020-7387 5700, gordonramsay.com)

Dinner Three courses from about £45

4. L’Enclume, Cumbria

Simon Rogan’s restaurant is often called the Fat Duck of the North, but that does a disservice to his magnificent creations, which are in a league of their own. The remoteness of the North’s finest restaurant means that booking one of the 13 available rooms makes perfect sense. Thanks to the age of the buildings (it is in an 800-year-old smithy) they may be a little on the small side, but they are tastefully decorated.

Must try Warm-glazed pig’s cheeks, shallot and sweetcorn with Love parsley squirt

Details B&B doubles from £148 (01539 536362, www.lenclume.co.uk)

Dinner Eight courses, £60

5. Simpsons Restaurant With Rooms, Birmingham

In an era where the phrase “boutique hotel” conjures images of minimalism and neutral tones, it’s lovely to see someone bucking the trend by bathing their chambers in a warm glow. The four rooms at Simpsons have rust, lemon and taupe-coloured walls, soft lighting and huge beds with plump pillows. Downstairs, the food’s not too bad either, thanks to former Dorchester and Ritz head chef Andreas Antona.

Must try Belly of suckling pig, creamed and grilled baby artichoke

Details B&B doubles from £160 (0121-454 3434, simpsonsrestaurant.co.uk)

Dinner Three-course set menu, £32.50

6. Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons, Oxfordshire

Raymond Blanc calls himself a micro-idiot and it shows in the rooms in Le Manoir, which are as carefully crafted as the meals in his gastronomic two-star restaurant. He has saved the best for last though and has just opened four new suites, including the stunning white “Blanc de Blanc” and the sexy “Lace”. It’s worth paying extra to try the ten-course Menu Découverte in the restaurant, which shows Blanc’s masterful use of fresh produce. Don’t opt for breakfast in your room — check out Le Manoir’s impressive buffet table, with its serrano ham, nuts and berries, which Blanc spent a year perfecting.

Must try Pan-fried Cornish line-caught sea bass fillet, with Scottish langoustine, smoked mash potato and star anis jus

Details Rooms from £460 for two, B&B, suites £920. Menu Découverte, £125 (01844 278881, manoir.com)

7. Yorke Arms, Ramsgill

Frances Atkins is a rarity among British female chefs — a holder of a Michelin star (there are only five other British women who share the accolade). Her liking for tradition with a light, modern twist is evident in the 14 rooms as well: these are immaculate — plushy and traditionally decorated without being overdone — in pale neutrals and Regency stripes.

Must try Something from the hotel’s “classics” menu, such as saddle of venison with oxtail sausage, rowan jelly, anchovy, cabbage and pommes purée

Details Doubles on a Saturday night from £300, including dinner for two (01423 755243, yorke-arms.co.uk)

8. Waterside Inn, Bray

The rooms with the river views are the ones to go for at this inn, owned by Michel Roux and his son Alain. The decor is elegant with smart watercolours, colourful bedspreads and neat table lamps. Some rooms have river views. The restaurant has three Michelin stars.

Must try This week’s Menu Exceptionnel, which includes roasted Challandais duck. The full five-course meal costs £112.50

Details B&B doubles from £220 (01628 620691, waterside-inn.co.uk)

WALES

9. The Walnut Tree, Abergavenny

There are two cottages offered for overnight stays at Shaun Hill’s restaurant, The Walnut Tree — the Old Post Office Cottage and Ivy Cottage. Each has two double bedrooms and can sleep four. The style is simple and neat. The restaurant has one Michelin star.

Must try Wild sea trout with sorrel sauce

Details A three-course meal is about £40. Cottage for four people £240 a night, for two £160 (01873 852797, thewalnuttreeinn.com)

10. The Foxhunter, Monmouthshire

Matt Tebutt’s Welsh gastropub has won praise for classy, unpretentious modern British cooking. Tebutt, a regular on TV, produces beautiful, slow-cooked dishes and is devoted to local produce. The Foxhunter has two self-catering cottages — one sleeps three, and the other two.

Must try The meat is famously good. Try the lamb with buttered spinach, peas, broad beans and mint.

Details Two-course set lunches from £17, excluding wine. Doubles from £145 (01873 881101, thefoxhunter.com).

FRANCE

11. Georges Blanc, Vonnas

Legendary chef Georges Blanc has turned a family-run inn into a multi-faceted business that defines the village of Vonnas, in Bourg-en-Bresse, eastern France. Today Blanc presides over a three Michelin-starred restaurant, a hotel and spa, one of the world’s best wine cellars, with about 130,000 bottles, and boutique food and culinary shops.

Must try The crêpe parmentière au salmon et caviar

Details Five-course set menus at the Restaurant Georges Blanc from €120 (£100). Rooms from €180, or £150 (00 33 4 74 50 90 90, georgesblanc.com)

12. Maison Troisgros/ La Colline du Colombier, Roanne

Michel Troisgros comes from a famous dynasty of French chefs, and runs two restaurants with accommodation in and around Roanne. Maison Troisgros has three Michelin stars. La Colline du Colombier, outside Roanne in Iguerande, is a more rustic creation, overlooking the Loire. The accommodation is stunning — such as the striking cadoles, or cabins, designed by Patrick Bouchain. Simple, surprising and glorious, just like the food.

Must try Maison Troisgros’s fried rabbit and king prawn, with a “touch of bitterness”. At La Colline, try the fattened chicken with crayfish and Nantua sauce

Details Maison Troisgros offers a full “spring impressions” food and wine pairing menu at €340. Doubles from €290, excluding breakfast. La Colline du Colombier has three courses from €36, excluding wine, and doubles in the cadoles from €500 for two nights (00 33 4 77 71 66 97, troisgros.com)

13. Maison Pic, Valence

Take a morning train from Paris and arrive in time for lunch prepared by Anne-Sophie Pic, the first French female chef in half a century to receive three Michelin stars. Bedrooms are large and unfussy, with rich brown sycamore panelling and huge downy white sofas.

Must try Frog legs and Lapsang souchong tea, followed by raspberry and red-pepper sorbet with gold leaf

Details Doubles from £242. Weekday lunches from £71 (00 33 4 75 44 15 32, pic-valence.fr)

14. Bras, Aubrac

Built in the rugged and rural Aubrac plateau is this surprisingly modern Japanese-style building. Menus reflect Michel Bras’s love of nature and feature as many locally sourced ingredients as possible. Bedrooms have white walls and are decorated with iron artworks.

Must try Gargouillou — baby vegetables with herbs and flowers from the area cooked in a buttery sauce

Details Doubles from £209. Five-course set menu from £93pp (00 33 5 65 51 18 20, michel-bras.com)

15. La Bastide Saint Antoine, Grasse

This typically Provençal hotel is all flagstone floors and shutters; there is also a contemporary annex, with a stunning apartment for four. Jacques Chibois loves to experiment with aromas in his two Michelin-starred restaurant — specialities include turbot with artichokes in citronelle juice and wild strawberries with a mandarin sorbet with jasmine jam.

Must try Papillon of langoustine on orange pulp with olive oil and basil

Details Rooms from €315, ten-course dinner €160 (00 33 4 9370 9494, jacques-chibois.com)

SPAIN

16. Hacienda Benazuza El Bulli Hotel, Seville

Ferrán Adrià’s less well-known sister property to El Bulli is housed in a 10th-century farmhouse. This 44-room property fulfils every escape-to-Andalusia fantasy. Rooms are full of antiques and there are idyllic grounds and gardens with a pool.

Must try The tasting menu, which features 22 small dishes such as tuna ventresca with tuna mayonnaise (€115, excluding wine)

Details Room-only doubles from £260 (00 34 955 703 344, elbullihotel.com)

ITALY

17. Don Alfonso 1890, Sant Agata sui due Golfi

There are only eight rooms at this hotel in the centre of the village, close to lemon and olive orchards between Sorrento and Positano, which give it an intimate feel. Signore Iaccarino cooks with his son Ernesto, and there is a culinary school.

Must try Deep-fried lobster in a sweet and sour sauce with infusion of citrus fruit and a Julienne of summer vegetables

Details B&B doubles from £242. A three-course meal is €150 (00 39 0818 780026, donalfonso.com)

18. Villa Orsogrigio, Ronzone

Two siblings, Christian Bertol, a chef, and Renzo Bertol, a sommelier, owning a hotel could be a recipe for disaster, but here it’s a recipe for fantastic food complemented by well-chosen wines — 35,000 bottles of them. The villa has ten rooms, with a pool.

Must try Deer with blueberries

Details B&B doubles from £115. Three courses €50 (00 39 0463 880 559, orsogrigio.it)

19. Da Caino, Montemerano

More a restaurant with bedrooms (there are only three), this is one of Tuscany’s finest places to eat. Co-owner Valeria Piccini uses seasonal produce and says she learnt to cook out of sheer passion and was never formally taught, learning from her mother and grandmother.

Must try Onion soup with snails, tortelli and spring vegetables

Details The seven-course tasting menu is €130. B&B doubles from £190 (0039 0564 602817, dacaino.it)

20. L’Andana, Tuscany

Alain Ducasse and wine producer Vittorio Moretti came together to open this hotel in the Maremma region. Decadent rooms are furnished with ruby taffeta silk curtains and kingsized beds. One has a mosaic whirlpool. Help yourself to the cakes in the old kitchen, where the cookery classes are also held.

Must try Herb-crusted veal chop and gnocchi cooked in tarragon

Details Doubles from £460. A three-course dinner from £67 (0039 05 64 944 800, andana.it)

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