Getting the flavour of…

Sailing to St Kilda Far off the coast of Scotland are the Outer Hebrides’ westernmost islands, says Phoebe Smith in Wanderlust. St Kilda is famously hard to get to, but now you can do so by booking a berth on Bessie Ellen, one of Britain’s last wooden trading ketches. Guests get hands-on with the sailing, and if the wind’s too strong or the sea too rough, there’s no guarantee of making it to the islands. But even then, it’s a wonderful experience. With its huge canvas sails, Bessie Ellen “looks like every child’s dream of a pirate ship”. Its cargo hold has been turned into a dining/living area with curtained-off bunk beds built into the walls. There are daytrip boats to the islands the ship passes en route, and at night you’re lulled to sleep by the sound of waves crashing against the side. Bessie Ellen (bessie-ellen.com) sails to St Kilda three times a year, from £1,050pp. A clean-up cruise in Amsterdam Visitors to Amsterdam are being invited to go fishing on the city’s famous canals, but it’s not perch they’re after, says Deborah Nicholls-lee in The Guardian: it’s plastic. Yes, tourists are paying “to collect rubbish”, gliding along the canals in boats, brandishing nets and hauling in the flotsam. A guide points out the passing sights, but it’s the rubbish that remains the focus. An estimated 3,500kg is pulled from Amsterdam’s waterways every day and these tours are “surprisingly popular”. The “rescued” plastic is recycled into boats; the more that’s gathered, “the more boats can be built”. Currently there are ten in the fleet. It’s a neat, “circular solution” to an environmental menace. Plastic Whale (www. plasticwhale.com) has two-hour trips for £24pp, including snacks and drinks.

Ethiopia’s wonderful wildlife It’s a “long slog” to get to Ethiopia’s Sanetti Plateau from Addis Ababa, says Ella Buchan in The Independent. But the eight-hour drive is truly worth it. The landscape, carpeted in blossoming trees and cloud forests, is framed by mountain peaks in “an embarrassment of beauty”. The region is home to some of the country’s “most fascinating wildlife”, including “sage-like” colobus monkeys with “snowy white beards”, black-maned lions and Ethiopian wolves, “the world’s rarest canid”. Fewer than 500 remain in the wild, and most of them live here. During a stay at Bale Mountain Lodge you can see them on guided walks. White-socked, copper-coated and with “bright amber eyes”, they are “strikingly beautiful – like an especially elegant fox”. Despite their scarcity, they are “pretty easy to spot”, since they spend their afternoons dozing in the sun. Bale Mountain Lodge (www.balemountainlodge.com) costs from £140pp per night.