By Emily Wilkins
Whether it’s riding horses bareback over the open planes, or setting sail on the high seas in a hansom wooden vessel, there’s a romance to green travel that’s hard to ignore. And why would we want to? But for many people the 9-5 routine proves a strict barrier, and wonderful as it would be to make the pilgrimage on foot from Britain’s northern reaches (by that we mean north of say Exeter?!) to Newquay, it’d be about time to turn around and go back again on arrival, leaving little time for bar crawls and even less for hiring the surf board that was left behind along with all the other over-sized luggage.
Bad for the planet as it may be, air travel is becoming cheaper, faster and more convenient. Not only can we now escape Cornwall and feel a part of mainland Britain for as little as a weekend while only loosing a mere forty minutes travel time in the process, but the DFL’s (Down From London’s) we all know and love can spend even more time with us, and we can all go on more trips abroad, and take our surf boards too.
But do we have to side one way or the other? And what are the alternatives?
Simple as it seems, the alternative to air travel is time. There are plenty of different methods of transport as most of us are familiar with from our day to day lives, but the fact is, choosing them over a big jet plane, takes more of our precious time. While driving and ferries are not exactly eco-friendly in themselves, lift sharing, and crewing opportunities are a great way to get about. Inter-railing in Europe is fantastic and we can only live in hope that one day the whole world will have such a fast and reliable train service. And as we climb further down the ‘alternative travel’ ladder we reach the literally more down to earth options of cycling, walking and hitchhiking before taking the road less traveled (by people who have the option of flying) towards horse and camel riding.
‘Tracks’ and ‘Wild’ are inspirational film on the subject, but it doesn’t have to be as hard as those girls made it. Travel light, don’t plan to pack too much in and see where the road takes you. Ever heard that sometimes it’s the journey not the destination? Well when you’re not hanging about the perfumes in a departure lounge, it’s usually true.
Photos from:
https://unsplash.com
