Newsletter 44 - sent on the 12 March 2021

Dreaming of foreign travel!

Dear [Name,fallback=],

The lockdown in the United Kingdom is drawing to a slow, but somewhat inexorable close, and hopefully by the Summer we will be back to what is going to pass as normal in the World! Whether this means that overseas travel to non-European destinations will become possible remains to be seen.

More crucially for me, children are now back at school in the UK, which means that the nightmare of home-schooling is over! With all of this extra time on my hands, I am starting to get out to photograph even more local places, such as the Avalon Marshes just up the road, but also to organise a series of trips for 2022. Hopefully I will be in a position to launch our first two destinations in the next few weeks. A part of the process will be to finalise the new terms and conditions for future tours. This will include our new policy on Covid vaccinations, which you can see below.
 

At the moment we have two trips to Namibia and to Rajasthan already planned for later this year, which have been rescheduled from 2020. Whether these will be able to run will depend on UK, and also on the local restrictions, but at the moment we remain hopeful of being able to hit the road again before the end of the year. There are a couple of places left on each of these two trips, so if you are interested in joining us, pease do checkout the information below.

It is worth remembering that the land arrangements for all of my trips are sub-contracted to Intrepid Travel, who have full travel industry bonding and will only run trips if they are safe. They have teamed up with an insurer, who provides cover for Covid 19 related claims, so you can have full coverage.

If you are interested in travel, but nervous about joining a group tour, then in response to a number of requests, we are also launching a new service offering bespoke tours. This could be a premium way of enjoying personalised photography tuition, or a way of travelling only with friends. Again, more information on this below.
 

Tours in 2021: Namibia and Rajasthan

Most of the people I have spoken to are desperate to get back on the road and start to travel again. We have a couple of trips already planned, that were rescheduled in 2020. We are hopeful that each of these will be able to run, although it will obviously depend on any state restrictions: both in the UK and in the destination countries.

Our Namibia trip is a fantastic itinerary, and takes in all of the wildlife and landscape highlights of this truly fascinating country. From soaring sand dunes to the second largest canyon in the World, Namibia is a dramatic and photogenic place to travel in. You will encounter a vast array of wildlife too, especially in the natural paradise of Etosha National Park - one of the best places for seeing endangered Black Rhinos in the the wild.

In November we plan to explore the desert state of Rajasthan, visiting two of the greatest festivals in the country. The Pushkar Camel Fair happens around the holy Lake Pushkar, which also draws pilgrims to bathe to wash away their sins. The Bikaner Mela is less well known, and will be a great place to immerse yourself in local culture. We also visit some of the more stunning parts of this most iconic of Indian states.

Impressions of Namibia departs from Windhoek in September, and Impressions of Rajasthan, which will take in the twin festivals of Pushkar and Bikaner departs New Delhi in November. There are places available of each of these tours, and you can see more about these tours on the links above.
 

Bespoke tours

If you are nervous about travelling with strangers or would just like a more premium product where you can enjoy personalised and individual photography tuition, then our new bespoke tours service might be just what you are looking for. In discussion with Steve Davey, you can organise just the sort of trip that you want, visiting only the places that you are interested in and focussing on just the photography skills that you want to develop.

Essentially we can organise whatever trip that you are interested in, and one of the great things about our bespoke service is that the lead times can be a lot shorter: quite simply we don't need so much time to sell the trips, so can organise something for just a few months in advance. Trips can be to anywhere in the World, including the UK.

You might think that this sort of bespoke tour will be prohibitively expensive. Of course, if you want to run a trip on your own, then it will be an unashamedly premium service, but if you are a group of twelve people then you might find the trip cheaper than the equivalent organised group tour, as we won't have to include anything for marketing! You can see more about these tours, or contact me on this link.
 

Our new Covid19 policy

In preparation for international tours staring up again, we have been looking at the new terms and conditions that will be necessary for travel in the Covid World! As we formally launch our new tours for 2022 we will outline the new booking conditions, but after some intensive consultations with some of our most regular travellers, the first part of this policy is that for all future bookings we will require travellers to have been vaccinated against Covid19.

Obviously if there is a certified medical reason why anyone cannot be vaccinated, then this policy will not apply, although there might be other restrictions on travel depending on the immigration rules of any country we travel to. There are a number of reasons for this policy, but it is primarily to protect the people we encounter on our trips, but also to protect your fellow travellers - especially anyone who cannot receive a jab for medical reasons. You can read about our full policy, and the reasons behind it on our website on this link. This post will also be on our Facebook page, so if you want to join in the discussion, then you can use this Facebook link.

Better Travel Photography

www.bettertravelphotography.com

If you have any questions at all about anything on this email or would just like to say hello, then please do get in touch. The simplest way is to reply to this email.

Stay safe,

Steve Davey

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