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Adventure Apprentice on Tour: Blog 6

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:40:14 +0000

Hello again everyone

OK so there we were, our bus pulled alongside this bedlamic Indian Road. People, Buses ,Lorries, donkeys, cows ,tuk-tuks,rickshaws you name it they were there. Rafeeq and I looked at each other his words were, ‘ok partner lets go …..’

We asked the group just to stay in their seats for a couple of mins whilst we came up with an instant plan, Rafeeq advised he would do the logistics. This was sense as he had all the numbers and my Hindi comprises of 2 words neither of which would have got us very far !!!, and I was to take care of the group.

I address the group and explained that Rafeeq was calling Delhi, as we weren’t sure if it was a quick fix..we had broken down right ouside a roadside repair workshop which was lucky. This workshop compised of a lot of canvas stretched over wooden poles with a lot of engine parts spreadout on the groud and a couple of upsidedown Tuk-tuks, and tractors. There seemed to be a lot of grease and hammering involved. Meanwhile Suman and Irshard were busy trying to establish what had happened.

All the group were enjoying this temporary delay …people watching and enjoying the interaction of the local folk, who, I dearsay are still talking about the day the bus of tourists came to stop !!! Rafeeq had arranged for alternative transport ..it was now past 1700 and we had to get the group to Agra..the sun would be going down and it would be getting dark very soon. It was arranged for 3 vehicles 1 x for all our luggage ..1 x 12 seater and 1 x 6 but they were in Agra the opposite direction and would be 2hrs in the now rush hour traffic.

I organised the water and made sure that the cold stocks were distributed asap, I sprayed the bus with Mossi repellent and encouraged the group to stretch their legs. The environment outside wasnt hostile we were of much fascination with the beautiful children who by know had finished school and word had spread about the stranded tourists…not to mention the 15 or so Indian Motor repair guy’s who with much head wobbling,loud voices and gesticulation were trying to repair our bus.

Suman stayed with me and we kept an eye on the group, this wasnt hard work as most members were experienced Explore travellers and were thoroughly enjoying the goings on. We had local indian cardamon chai offered by the locals in clay cups the children queued to have their picture taken in raptures that we could show them what they looked like on the digital screens.

The cars arrived we all stood in a line and in a chain emptied the back of the bus and loaded the luggage vehicle (teamwork), at around 1945 all the vehicles were with us, I organised the groups I took the 12 seater the 6 were going to follow us and Rafeeq went with the luggage. Jaded, but still with humour we all finally made our way to Agra.

We arrived at 2200. Rafeeq had already organised the meal for tonight. The group had 10 mins to wash their hands whilst I sorted the check in and gave them their keys, we were all very tired but jubilant that we had made it and the drama all seemed to have become another part of our experience…making it to the restaurant we drank beer and discussed the events ..knowing that we would be getting wake up calls for 0500 the following day to get to the Taj.

Beer has never tasted so good.

The question was would our bus ever get to Agra.. would we ever see the forever smiling Suman and our excellent driver Irshad again ??

TBC

All the best Christine

Leading from the Front

Explore — Fri, 23 May 2008 10:06:22 +0000

We owe a large proportion to our success as a company to our Tour Leaders. They are a fantastic asset, so much so that our current MD, Product Director, Operations Director (amongst others) are all ex-tour leaders (not to mention the founders of the company).

As a little bit of a celebration of Tour Leaders we have a mini blog series from one of our most experienced tour leaders Michele. She has written a few pieces on her recent stint of tours in April – and we also have some interviews with tours leaders coming up too.

Its great to see tour leaders get recognition for the work they do and that’s why we are very pleased for Diego Torres Garzon, who has been nominated for Wanderlust’s Paul Morrison Guide Award.

Gorillas, Africa and Tour leading

Explore — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 11:00:42 +0000

Kate Plummer, one of our wonderful tour leaders, who has also been presenting at our Evenings of Adventure, talks about leading tours in Africa, particularly to Uganda. The trips Kate has been leading have also been to see the Mountain Gorillas and she talks about what an amazing experience meeting the apes actually is, and how emotional it can be.

You can catch Kate at any of our remaining Evenings of Adventure (see our website). Well worth a look, as the presentations are really rather good.

Destinations

Explore — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 16:09:43 +0000

Explore exhibited at the Destinations travel show at Earl’s Court recently, and on the 3rd February Alastair recorded some interviews with customers, some people just visiting the stand and some Explore staff. We’ll try and get a few of these up over the next few weeks. And you can also see us at the Destinations show in Birmingham between 2 and 4 March, apparently we’ll be at stand AA18.

Anyway, to kick off this series of interviews,Â I decided it would be good to hear from some of our most experienced customers. Much more experienced than I at Explore trips!

Stuart and Annette Attfield have travelled 18 times (no that’s not a typo!) with Explore. They give you their views on what its like, what the Explore style is like and out tour leaders (phew!)

Enjoy.