A Thousand Miles

Cardiff in the sunshine

athousandmiles — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:42:00 GMT

Cardiff is a great place to be. Lots of sunshine, friendly faces and areas to generally have a giggle. And giggle we did as 'A Thousand Miles' and fouding organisation Social Chit Chat had a 'get together' party.

Last weekend the beer was flowing and the wine corks were popped open as Social Chit Chat held a party for travellers to 'get together' in style at ZC club in Cardiff.

A 'get together' party sounds a bit seedy - but it was all a bit of harmless fun and 'get together' just meant meeting like minded people who do some volunteering and a bit of travelling. There were no police raids or anything like that. It was all nice and angel-like for most of the night.

The night raised some much needed funds for Social Chit Chat with revellers enjoying discounted drinks. Good times!

Our next party is going to be in London in a few months and is strictly invitation only - if you and your friends would like to go on the list then email: admin@socialchitchat.com. Places usually fill up very quickly so get in now to avoid disappointment.

Home Base: London

athousandmiles — Sun, 1 Apr 2007 00:27:00 GMT

London is a hub of culture, excitement and good times so it seemed like the best place to base 'A Thousand Miles'. If you've ever been to London then you'll know that it is a melting point for lots of cultures, hundreds of languages and millions of people. In the cobbled streets and vibrant atmosphere you can be just about anything you want.

That's why we love it and proud to call it home for the project.

Some of our volunteering plans

athousandmiles — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 19:19:00 GMT

'A Thousand Miles' is in the planning phase right now so things are a little crazy (no thanks to Jessica who was off on holiday this week!) but it seems like a good idea to be a bit more specific about what we're actually doing on our trip.

So here goes -

The whole reason for taking up the challenge of this project is to help out in communities across the globe. That means volunteering everywhere and anywhere!

In some African countries we're going to be helping out in local healthcare institutions. All the members of the team are going to be medically trained as field medics before we go. The training we are going to receive is similar to the training that field medics get in the Australian Army - only we've shortened a little so that we can do the course in just under 6 months.

In some countries in South America we will be helping to teach english to regional communities. Teaching english is popular in bigger cities but regional areas tend to miss out a little. We're hoping to change that.

In Asia, we'll be helping out in orphanages, animal shelters/rescue centres and teaching english to children across 3 different countries.

Europe is all about helping communities through community housing projects. The Europian Union is spending a lot of money on developing countries in Europe so the prospect of hope is creating a bit of a mini-buzz. Can't wait to get stuck in!

When we get to Australia, we're going to be helping out some indigenous communities. We're also going to be launching a great new grant scheme to encourage young indigenous writers across regional Australia to write about their wonderfully fascinating culture.

Sound like an awesome trip? Want to join in?

The good news is that we have a couple of vacancies for people who think they could take on the challenge of 'A Thousand Miles'. The pay will be bad. The conditions nothing like what you could call luxury - but you will have lots of fun, help communities and do something amazing! We are about to start advertising so if you'd like to apply to join The Dows Team - send us an email for some more details on how to apply. Applications close 28th April 2007.

Email: dowsteam@yahoo.com

Why World Nomads?

athousandmiles — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 01:49:00 GMT

When we decided to take up the challenge of 'A Thousand Miles' we knew we wanted to use a blogging platform to follow our travels. That way, people all over the world could follow our travels with a few clicks of the mouse.

Problem is ... there are a lot of websites out there that offer travel blogs. So why did we choose World Nomads?

Like we said, there a lot of great websites out there offering travel blogs. Some have interactive maps, others offer forums and some even link your destinations to guides and information sections. But World Nomads had something a bit different.

We decided to write our blogs on the World Nomads site because as well as a great blogging platform, World Nomads share some of the same values.

- 'A Thousand Miles' is committed to environmentally friendly travel and offsetting any carbon emissions that we contribute to the environment. World Nomads is quite similar - committing to becoming a carbon neutral company.

- The most important reason behind 'A Thousand Miles' is about giving back to the communities that we visit. In every location we're going to be volunteering and helping out as much as possible. That's what 'A Thousand Miles' is all about and World Nomads also helps local communities through their footprints project.

- World Nomads seem like nice professional people. We'd like to think we share a bit of that as well.

'A Thousand Miles' and World Nomads seem to have some important values in common and for that reason we decided to use this great site to host the blog of 'A Thousand Miles'.

Meet the team

athousandmiles — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:56:00 GMT

Whilst it's far from finished, we've started creating a page called 'Meet the Dows Team'. The 'Dows' team will be the people responsible for keeping this blog up-to-date and taking on the challenge of volunteering all over the globe.

We will be updating the list as we go but we've put a few names in there for starters. More to follow.

Welcome!

athousandmiles — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:23:00 GMT

First of all, thanks for stopping by! It's great to see you.

As a fellow traveller I'm sure you understand what it means when we say that we love to travel. Some people travel to get away from it all. Others travel because their boss told them to. We travel because it's part of who we are.

What is 'A Thousand Miles' all about?

'A Thousand Miles' is the journey of a group of twenty-something's who travel the world, volunteering as they go and helping local communities. It's all about giving back to the wonderfully diverse mix of communities and people that make our world so fascinating. The plan is to volunteer on conservation projects, looking after wildlife and volunteering in health clinics and schools.

Each leg of the journey will use the most environmentally friendly method possible. We'd rather get a train for 8 hours then fly for 1 hour because that means approximately 400kg less carbon emissions in the air. Sometimes we will have no choice but to fly however we will invest in carbon offsetting to compensate.

At each leg of the journey we're going to be combining a great blog posting (hosted here - thanks World Nomads!), volunteering and some community research.

You can follow our progress and meet people from local communities here - so please come back and visit us soon. We might get lonely otherwise!

The little bit of community research we'll be doing will be to help raise awareness about the issues different communities face - both popular and the not-so-popular. You can count on us to give you some of the most honest feedback anywhere.

We don't want 'A Thousand Miles' to turn into a travel guide. There are some amazing writers out there putting together loads and loads of travel guides that people can read. There's some good ones here that we'll link to as we go along. We hope you get some inspiration or ideas from our travels on places to visit - that's what sharing is all about.

But most of all, we hope to share a journey with you. A journey that uncovers the human face and talks about the issues all over the world some travellers never really see.

There is a lot of planning to do so there is still some time before we head off so please get in touch at any time. Alternatively, you can follow our progress here as we keep you up to date with our planning and trip once we hit the road.

Till then, stay safe and happy travelling.

'A Thousand Miles' is being sponsored by corporate partners and radio and television organisations. More on these soon.