I’m not a traveller. I can count the countries I’ve been to on two hands, the places I’d wish to revisit on one. That said, I do admire the intrepid wanderers who set off for far-flung destinations, spending a month diving with dolphins / dancing with wolves / yakking with yaks. Hats off, they’re really getting the most out of life (and have the Instagram accounts to prove it). But, they’re really travelling for exactly the same reasons the rest of the world heads to the Maldives / Euro Disney / Bognor Regis each summer: R, R and fun.
However, occasionally, just occasionally, you come across someone with a truly unusual reason behind their vacation. Someone who – while seemingly just like the rest of us – nevertheless has a burning passion which dictates a highly unusual choice of holiday: normal people, with normal lives, travelling for a very unusual purpose…
ISLAND HOPPING
A chance conversation with my pharmacist, Harris Christodoulides, proved the point. This year, Harris is travelling to Chios – not a big deal in the grand scheme of vacation choices. He’ll be staying there for two weeks, “experiencing local life, visiting the mastica plantations and enjoying the medieval history of the island”. But it’s not what he does, but why he goes that’s the real curiosity, because this intrepid pharmacist has been, for the last 15 years, slowly working his way round every Greek island; “my life goal” as he puts it.
“My first was Poros, back in 2005,” he says, revealing that each year for the last decade and a half he and his now fiancée have visited “at least one, sometimes two of the islands each year.” Each of his holidays lasts a week, and there’s no particular order to his chosen destinations. “Other than,” he adds, “that we try to choose a new group of islands each year: the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, the Argo-Saronic islands. I have excellent memories of all of them. Last year we went to Lefkada; both my fiancée and I are nature-lovers and we were astounded by its beauty.”
While Harris has also travelled round Europe and Asia (including Thailand, China, and India) it’s the islands of Greece which hold his heart. “Each one is like a diamond, and they’re all very different,” he smiles, adding that the Cyclades are a firm favourite, Poros in particular. But there’s no chance he’ll be returning in the near future: each island is a one-off for team Harris. “We don’t have the time to go back,” he laughs. “If you add up all the Greek islands that can host visitors, there are 50,” he explains, “so that’s what I’m aiming for! It is,” he says, reiterating the purpose behind his unusual holiday choice, “a life goal.
The last thing we want from a vacation is relaxation; for us, it’s about discovery and adventure.”
AFRICAN ADVENTURE
Fellow adventurer and consultant ENT surgeon Philip Kollitsis is another traveller whose holiday plans involve an unusual purpose. Philip arrived in Uganda half way through April, as part of “a private initiative to provide help to some people in extreme need.” Accompanied by members of the Faith Orphans Care Uganda Children, Philip headed out into the wilderness, there to provide medical care at three orphanages in remote villages.
“I was fascinated to see a completely different world, very much more primitive than I had ever witnessed before,” he reveals of his unusual working vacation. “These were mainly children who are orphans, left behind by patients unfortunate enough to have acquired HIV,” who, like those in the surrounding villages, were often living “without food, water, electricity, health provision, education, or sanitation.”
As well as providing medical care to both children and locals, Philip and his colleagues also fed the 300 or so youngsters “on many occasions”, and “encountered several extreme cases in need of direct attention” during their two-week visit. “I saw a boy in one of my clinics who had a torsion of his testis which required an urgent operation. We rushed him to the nearest city with a hospital, paid for an immediate operation, and then took the child back to his village – three or four hours away – the following day.”
Holidays are something we usually save for, and Philip’s excursions were no different. But in this case, the money he had raised – as well as his own funds – didn’t pay for luxury hotels or slap-up dinners… “We arrived with as many clothes, toys and goods as we could fit in our luggage,” he explains, revealing that a pre-holiday trip to Jumbo had yielded paints and balls: “Until that point, the kids had been using a stone or a plastic cup as a football!” During his stay, Philip also contributed financially towards the rehoming of a family left destitute by the April rains, and each of his team now sponsor 20 children, paying for their education. He’s also pledged to help in the building of a school and a fresh water well, and is sending medicines on a regular basis.
A fortnight’s holiday with a real difference, Philip is raring to repeat the experience. “On the whole I felt very privileged to have had this trip; my impressions of the people in these completely deprived regions was of a very uncomplaining, uncomplicated folk, which is quite amazing when I consider the comparison with the western world. And I’m looking forward to going back very soon to continue our efforts!”
TROPICAL TRIP
Perhaps the best sort of holiday is one that’s totally unexpected. Roberto Sciffo certainly thinks so! A skipper who’s responsible for getting sailing vessels where they need to go, trips from San Diego to New Zealand, voyages around the Mediterranean, and jaunts across the Atlantic are all in a day’s – or month’s – work for this young seafarer. But one place that wasn’t part of his travel plans was Tonga. Until, that is, a broken rudder meant emergency repairs in the nearest possible port, and an entirely unforeseen vacation…
“We’d already lost the steering to our 50-foot sailing yacht and were in the middle of some pretty bad weather en route from Tahiti to New Zealand when the rudder disappeared into the depths, four kilometres down,” says Roberto. “Obviously there was no chance of diving for it, and our creative attempts weren’t working, so we had to radio to the nearest landmass for a tow.”
Limping into Tonga five days later, the three-man crew were “very much relived to be on dry land, and looking forward to quick repairs. But it takes a while for this sort of fix,” Roberto reveals, “plus we’d arrived just before the coronation and that threw a spanner in the works as the whole nation was set to celebrate, and two naval vessels were in the process of being painted for the upcoming festivities.”
In the event, Roberto was stranded in Tonga from June to September – during which time he thoroughly enjoyed the serendipitous layover. “In between taking care of the vessel, I had quite a bit of free time. I’d never been to the South Pacific before,” he recalls, “and I absolutely loved it: the lush, tropical landscapes; the happy, friendly, accepting people. I met some amazing individuals, travelled round neighbouring islands, attended lots of the coronation celebrations, was invited to the dedication of a new church in Vavau, saw two separate pageants, dived with humpback whales and generally had a fantastic – if accidental – holiday; I can’t wait to get back there!”
