Just imagine if Mary Kingsley joined us on a dog walk...

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. Here we go for a London walk imagining how the famous explorer Mary Kingsley would experience 2014. Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs). I also publish an interview every week with people who live or work in Islington at islingtonfacesblog.com - there's a prize for the 100th follower.

Mary Kingsley is famous for being a Victorian woman who travelled hugely, from her 30s onwards, around west Africa including Sierra Leone, Angola, Cameroon and South Africa. Here's the link to the wikipedia page. Mary was born in Islington in 1862 - though I recently found a plaque marking one of the homes she'd lived at in Hampstead, north London.

Islington and Hampstead have many lovely places to go, eat, drink etc - but they are also some of the best boroughs for people spotting. So, as Nell, 12, and I walked by with the dog we tried to imagine what Mary - the famous adventurer, ethnographer and travel writer - would see on our walk back to Islington in the rain.

Nell sets off on an explorer's journey.

Mary Kingsley had strong views about polygamy (ok in the context of wives have a lot of work so could do with some help & it ensured no woman was unmarried which meant they were given proper support not treated like outcasts); no killing of twins (a common practice when she was travelling in Africa) and also women having their own independent life (but not to the extent of being called a feminist, that made her very ratty). What would she see now besides more cars and less people walking than in her day? What else would she think curious? We reckon:

• Mini portaloos parked in gardens so the builders can take a loo break
• Garages for cars that look as if the owners park their car in the kitchen
• Joggers
• Fancy dogs in fancy coats
• The choice of recycling or rubbish bins
• Drinks cans thrown down
• Arsenal and Tottenham football fans in jeans
• 2-D statues at Finsbury Park train/tube station
• The lack of kids out (especially unsupervised)

Tree covered in old man's beard (wild clematis) - could it be hiding a medicine man?

We did find a bearded tree though - and wondered if it would remind Mary Kingsley of something she'd seen on her travels?

Over to you
Is there anywhere you go all the time that someone from another century probably just wouldn't believe - either how much it had changed, or how little?

Gifts that tick every box

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This post is about how you can buy items that look lovely and support producers in some of the poorest countries by armchair shopping. Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).  

The hottie cost £6 - part of which goes towards supporting school children in Sierra Leone.

I'm lucky: lots of family give me gifts at Christmas, and some even pick the perfect things for a person trying to keep their carbon footprint down. My brother found a fairly traded recycled aluminium bowl made in India. The bowl he picked out has a gorgeous green enamel interior and is a pleasure to introduce to my kitchen. Anything put into it looks tempting.

Snow purchase
As it is cold this week I decided to make sure everyone in the family has a hot water bottle. In our local chemist I found the Fashy brand which supports a school in Sierra Leone. Fantastic to be able to buy something I need which is also giving support to such a good cause.

Can anyone - even you - do good travelling?

Nell coping without a watch...

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This post asks if travelling does anyone any good? Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).  

Nell, 11, is upset that at the start of the summer holidays her watch stopped. Seemed symbolic to me, but it's easy to replace the battery, especially as the shop owner of Raymonds in nearby Highbury Barn loves fiddling with watches. It's his original trade, the one he learnt in India. Seeing the lifeless watch he seized his magnifying glass, prized off the back and located another battery. "That's £5," he said. "all this money, all the watch money goes to charity. To an Indian charity that feeds blind people. The £1 is so strong that this brings about 80 rupees - that can give four people dinner, a lot of food."


As my own children and relatives get older I seem to see more appeals for help with overseas projects, like this one my cousin Nick sent from his pet project in Sierra Leone. What's agreed is that everyone needs money, the question is, how to give it? Does it involve going to a country, or can the money be sent in more imaginative ways? Offering up a skill - as a friend say helping to install an app or cut a hedge, or as I did 20 plus years ago as a volunteer working in Solomon Islands for VSO - is definitely generous.

Or is it? The early VSOs were unskilled school leavers, often on a gap year before university (although they have been skilled experts willing to pass on knowledge for years now). But I know a 14 year old who is doing wonderful fundraising (odd jobs, babysitting and saving her own birthday money) to travel to an African country and help with building projects. Even so I don't think she is old enough to be able to help. And even if she was I think it would be much better if local people were given that training in their own locale. Keep these UK kids out of it.

I know that what I got back from the experience of working for a NGO (Solomon Islands Development Trust) overseas was surely greater than what I put in. Just a quick calculation includes a new language, friendships that have really lasted, a new way of thinking that's more cooperative (sort of the pacific way, but not quite), a love of having children around, ideas for my novel Coconut Wireless. That's a big list, if I hadn't gone to the Solomons my life would have been considerably less rich in experiences.

My watch-loving newsagent takes this further: "People in India have nothing, and expect nothing," he says. "That's why they sleep. They sleep soundly, anywhere, even in the street. But here in the UK everyone's worried, so worried they can't sleep. They have everything but they need pills to sleep. You can be happy with nothing."

Over to you
I've noticed that people with strong Hindu beliefs often come to a similar conclusion - but for me it's another rich reward for just popping into my local shop for a battery. My question is do you listen more because you've travelled? Or is this an age thing? Of course travelling is a lot of fun, but do you think it does anyone - but the traveller - any good?