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 'In The Spotlight' interview with BGTW member Kerry Christiani
What's your earliest memory of travel?
Standing in awe of the model village at Blackgang Chine on the Isle of Wight at the age of three. I was seven the first time I travelled abroad to visit my great-grandparents in Ontario, Canada. I fell in love with a country where lemonade was pink, lakes were the size of oceans and people had waterbeds in their basements. How cool is that? I'm convinced the eerie woods behind their house sparked my fascination with forests
What's your most bizarre?
The day I asked for work on a vegetable farm in Switzerland. The wizened farmer doubted my ability, so I had to prove my worth by wrestling with metre-high weeds for the next eight hours, while he spread manure on the neighbouring field. Such rural bliss! For weeks after my month-long stint on the farm, I had recurring dreams of fumbling for lettuces at dawn and racing behind the tractor to the farmer's cries of schneller!
And your most amusing?
Sledging down the slopes of Wutai Shan, China, together with a Buddhist monk who spoke little English but knew all the lyrics to Ricky Martin's Cup of Life. Go, go, go! An 18-hour journey on a third-class train to Chengdu also comes to mind. I was squashed next to a charming lady who sang to me in Mandarin for half the ride, then indicated that it was my turn. As we chugged through the night, I gave renditions of nursery rhymes like Bah, Bah, Black Sheep to the amusement (or bemusement) of the other passengers.
Everyone gets it wrong sometimes, so what's the biggest travel blunder
you've ever made?
Perhaps the time I ran out of water on Easter Island. I was more than a day's walk away from the nearest village, so I foolishly decided to cook pasta in seawater. Just a bit salty right? Nope, completely inedible. I retired to my tent on an empty stomach. The next day I discovered my inner troglodyte collecting drip water in the caves.
Which is the place you haven't been to yet but would most like to visit?
Just one? Impossible. Lapland this winter, as my Finnish friend is going to show me how to build an igloo. I'd also like to horse ride across Mongolia's Gobi Desert, sail from Tierra del Fuego to Antarctica and hike the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.
Who, outside of your own family, would you most like to go travelling
with and why?
If I could turn back time, I'd hitchhike around Europe with Douglas Adams. Otherwise I'd love to share a beer and a huge belly laugh with Bill Bryson, or scale the Alps with Austrian mountaineer Peter Habeler (Reinhold Messner’s sidekick in the first ascent to Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen).
How did you get involved in travel writing/photography/broadcasting?
After four years of globetrotting, I came back to London to do an MA in specialised translation. I soon realised that I'd rather write than translate and started working part-time for the events guide Whatsonwhen. Over the next couple of years, I wrote online travel guides for clients like BA, Hilton and Eurostar. When I moved to Germany, I decided it was time to make guidebook jump and I now write for publishers including Lonely Planet, Frommer's and Rough Guides.
Where would you never want to go to again?
A squat toilet in a remote corner of Sichuan Province, China. Pigs grunting in the sty below, fried pork on the menu in the adjacent restaurant - say no more.
How has the guild been most helpful?
The guild is fantastic for networking and establishing contacts. Though travel writing is rewarding, it can be lonely in those midnight hours of pounding away at the keyboard to meet a tight deadline. It's a pleasure to meet fellow members who share the same passion for travel and understand the frustrations of author queries and ever-decreasing fees.
Which travel destination has taken you most by surprise and why?
Germany. I've been living in the Black Forest for three years and like to escape to the woods after a busy research trip. I've grown fond of eccentricities like cheesy Schlager music and costumed revelry at Fasnet (carnival), though I still can’t stomach the Weisswurst (white veal sausage) and pointless rules.
Three Desert Island Discs for your Ipod?
Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd); A Forest (The Cure); Gracias a la Vida (Mercedes Sosa).
And three favourite books to pass the journey?
The Physician (Noah Gordon); The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams); Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell).
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