Adventure Holiday news

Sally Smythson, our Operations Executive for sister company Explorers Astronomy, has taken on the 3 mile swim challenge at Hellspont, Turkey. Sally is never one to say no to a challenge and today she will swim across the the Dardanelles, the strait that separates Europe from Asia. The annual swim commemorates the final victory for the Turks in the Turkish War of Independence in 1922 against the Greeks.

Our friends at Wildlife SOS India have had a busy few weeks as they were part of a multi-organisational team that apprehended a notorious tiger poacher, Bheema Bawaria. After a chase through the streets of Delhi, Bawaria was caught with a tiger skin, tiger bones (an entire skeleton), two live turtles and ivory. The operation to catch the well known thief was conducted by NGO Wildlife SOS, NTCA, CBI, WCCB and the Haryana Police and Forest departments.

In the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa conservation projects to protect elephant populations have been so successful, the authorities are now working to provide birth control to their elephant population. South Africa, which had just over 100 elephants nearly a century ago, now has more than 20,000, studies have shown. While this is good news, Catherine Hanekom, an ecologist fro Ezemvelo KwaZulu Natal Wildlife, says, "Slowing the growth rate will allow time to be gained to achieve other biodiversity objectives, such as land expansion, without having to cull the elephants." The elephants receive an injection that triggers an imune system response to block sperm reception.

There was an excitement at a zoo in Mexico last month when three white lion cubs were born. While only two have survived, Puebla Zoo are working round the clock to ensure the survival of the two remaining cubs. White lions are indigenous to Tibavati, South Africa but the population of these unique albino lion is now teachnically extinct in the wild.

According to a survey by the travel organization ABTA, only one in ten travelers are leaving London this summer just to avoid the Games. While most of Britain have been looking forward to London hosting the epic event, for some the crowds and chaos caused by millions of foreign visitors is too much.

Researchers and archaeologists from the University of Cincinnati have uncovered the largest Maya dam ever to be built in the pre-colombian city fo Tikal. That dam was constructed from cut stone, rubble and soil, and stretched more than 260 feet in length, stood about 33 feet high. It is reckoned to have held about 20 million gallons of water in a man-made reservoir.

The American news channel CNN recently reported on the Disberger family who have travelled 7.5 million miles in the last 20 years on their family holidays. Since 1990 they have been on 243 trips all over the world, including 30 hours in Australia. That roughly works out to 11 holidays a year! As the Family Adventure Company, we're more than impressed.

The National Acadmey of Sciences have proved that rodents, as big as 50cms long, are now the saviours of the South American rainforest. These furry creatures have taken on a role previously performed by the now extinct, gomphotheres, giant mammals who would unwittingly spread the seeds of large trees. The agoutis rodents have been tracked with radio-tags and the research has shown that one seed alone can be transported up to 8.75m by just one rodent. This dispersal of seeds is now thought to be underpinning the survival of the many different tree species in the rainforest.

The Adventure Company has launched a dedicated Family Facebook page giving their loyal family base a new arena to air their opinions, request information and read top tips on family adventures.