After two flights and the world’s most expensive airport pizza we found ourselves within the Arctic Circle, right on the top edge of Norway in the town of Tromsø, under a blanket of snow. We managed to see the Northern Lights a few times over the next four days however it was more a question of the camera confirming the presence of a green streak of light (which generally looked much like a long cloud to the naked eye) and less of the eruptions of light we had been hoping for. None the less, Tromso was a great place to spend a few days. We went out into the middle of nowhere to have dinner in Sam huts, went dog sledding, snow shoeing, saw seal performances, learnt about the explorers of the North, rode cable cars, snuck into the back of a Norwegian wedding, mastered the art of night photography, and had one of the most wonderful meals at De 4 Roser.
  

I was lucky enough, in January, to visit Nepal with WaterAid, our fundraising partners for Aveda Earth Month each year. We visited two communities in a remote region of Western Nepal called Surkhet Palate is a semi urban community of 304 households and 1637 people. The government water supply is over 20 years old and the two taps in the village very rarely work. The water from these taps is not a safe source of water and leads to many diarrhoeal diseases in the village, the water is dirty and often contains dead worms and insects.
 Most days the women have to walk down to a second water source a 40-60 minute round trip below the village. This water is also not clean. We met Rekha who is 22 with two children, aged 7 and 4, who lives in a family home of 11 people. Unable to use the village tap point, she usually has to go 6-7 times a day to collect water from below the village, a journey of almost an hour. The weight of the jugs of water she brings back were almost too heavy for me to lift, let alone carry back up the hill. Aside from taking up large parts of the day the trip can also be dangerous. Jackals have bitten 25 women in the past year visiting this water point causing one woman to die. If Rekha can’t collect water early enough for cooking, the children either have to go to school without eating or miss part of the school day. They also suffer from diarrhoeal diseases. Last summer Rekha spent 3000 rupees per child on treatment (more than most families in the village earn in a month). Her husband has had to travel to Mumbai in India to work in a hotel to send back money to help the family.

Palate has set up a WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) committee that will work with WaterAid’s local partner NEWAH to implement a clean water project in 2012. They have already been declared ODF (open defecation free) an important part of ensuring both clean water and sanitation. The committee will work with NEWAH to ensure a safe clean water supply for the village as well as training local masons, caretakers and hygiene facilitators to ensure the long term sustainability of the project. Rekha is looking forward to the new, safe water source for the community as she says she will be able to spend more time with her children, ensure they get to school on time and have more time for housework and looking after her domestic animals.

The following day we drove to a village called Lamidamar that started work with NEWAH and WaterAid 18 months ago. We were greeted with flower garlands by the WASH committee headed up by Gauri. She spent a long time appealing to government organisations and regional committees to try to get a clean water source established for her village, before she heard about NEWAH. 18 months ago there was no safe water source, women collected dirty water from the river and there were no toilets so people would defecate anywhere in the open. With money from WaterAid, NEWAH helped to facilitate the building of a safe water source, pipelines, reservoirs, irrigation, 100 toilets and 25 tap stands in the village. They also trained masons, caretakers and health facilitators in the village to maintain the work. Lamidamar is a beautiful rural village and they are hugely proud of their achievements. There is no more open defecation and households have access to clean safe water. This has made a huge difference to the school. There are two taps, a low one for the smallest kids to reach. There are also separate toilets for boys and girls. Having girls toilets is key to ensuring they have the privacy to remain in school into puberty. Ceramic tiles at the tap stand remind the children to wash their hands after using the toilet and before eating. We also met a disabled girl, Babisera who is 12 years old. Unable to use the traditional pit latrines she had nowhere to go but in her bed or her wheelchair. NEWAH helped to construct a special toilet for her use with a seat so she is able to have the dignity of using a toilet like the rest of her family. It was hugely interesting to be able to visit the communities that our Earth Month money is helping in Nepal and talking to the individuals whose lives are benefitting. It was also an experience to learn how much planning goes into every project and how important the village communities are in implementing the projects and ensuring they are sustainable in the long term.

Our final stop before heading north was Aqaba. We woke up before sunrise in the cold desert air of Wadi Rum and that afternoon we were sunning ourselves on the back of a boat on the red sea heading out to a dive site. Tropical fish, coral reef, a birthday night out and a red bull car rally later we were returning to Amman and a final farewell to Jordan.

Our guide took us out for our last night for cocktails and shisha, Jordan style, which also involved an impromptu band playing traditional music, and a spot of Pink Floyd, at our table!

After the ancient city of Petra we exchanged the man made wonders for natural architecture. Wadi Rum is a valley desert of sandstone and granite in the south of Jordan. Towering twisted shapes of rocks and distant misty blue shadows. We sat in the back of jeeps as we travelled across the plains as the evening approached, stopping to watch the sun set over the valley before spending the night in a Bedouin camp with music, firelight and food.

Serene.

Our first view of Petra was lit by scores of small candles within paper lanterns in a forest before the Treasury to the sounds of music. Very atmospheric. We returned at 6am the following day, just as it was getting light. We were the first visitors that day to walk the 45 minutes down between huge boulders and searing rock faces until finally the crack ahead revealed the first glimpses of the incredible Treasury columns.

We spent almost the entire day at Petra, exploring the Nabatean Kingdom and climbing up to the high places for breathtaking views.

Sarah and I began our Jordan japes in the capital Amman, arriving into a quitschly comfortable hotel and an extraordinarily large double room in a rom complete with sofas and equally disappointed hard box like beds. The next day, under the educatingly charming tutorage of our guide we set off with the group to Jerash.

Jerash is a magnificent roman ruin that stil bears the semblance of a grand civilisation past. Apart from admiring the columns, roads, statues and amipitheatre I also learnt how to spot the dickumanus from the Kardo Maximus (and no that is not a euphemism), and where to speak in the amphitheatre to make your voice carry to the highest steps.A few hours later we had gone from roman chariot parks to salty seas and we were all swim suited up and floating amused in the densely salted water covered in rich black mud and taking entertaining photos and trying to swim defying the water’s over buoyancy! Something possessed me to taste just how salty the water was…I do not recommend it.

From the Dead sea we travelled to Mount Nebo with views of Jericho and the West Bank, passing over the magnificent views of the desert from the Kingsway, the route formerly known as silk.

Four girls, one jeep, six youth hostels booked in an initially nonsensical pattern around the south coast of Iceland. Many outdoor hot springs including thorough washing of pits and bits before entering. Incredible waterfalls, a cuddly puffin called Colin, exploding geysers, epic scenery, sweeping cliffs, quizzical sheep, panicking puffins, menacing skua, driving through rivers, scrambling up scree slopes, gazing at views, unpronounceable destinations, grinding glaciers, lava fields, black sands, cloud shrouded islands, stinking seagulls, warm volcanic rocks and lying in the sun in the blue lagoon smothered in white mud and drinking a glass of wine.

We began our trip in the Kex Hostel, formerly an old biscuit factory in Reykavik, and currently very cooly decked out with an excellent breakfast. After the sites and hot pools of town we picked up our Jeep at headed into the wilds.

Otavalo was a riot of colour, market stalls, traditionally dressed people, farm animals and shopping. Probably the only place I’ve ever seen everything from Guinea pigs to
puppy dogs, pigs and cows for sale.

We spent a few relaxing nights enjoying good food at the Hacienda Guachala outside Cayambe. We discovered several equators, the official equator and mini theme park complete with the balance the egg on a pin activity, shrunken heads and pickled penis fish.  Then there is the military equator and finally the wrong equator where they just…erm…got it slightly wrong. We also got up one chilly morning to climb the slopes of the Cayambe volcano and trek over the snowfall to look down under the clouds into the valley.