Latest news with #UntamedBorders
Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
'I organise holidays in world's most extreme places from volcanoes to war zones'
James Wilcox and his small expert team at Untamed Borders specialise in taking group of tourists to some of the most interesting and hard to reach areas on the Planet If it existed, James Wilcox would win the prize for the most outlandish destination wedding ever organised. "It was a wedding ceremony on the side of a volcano in Congo," he explained to the Mirror. "The groom had wanted to get married somewhere like the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia, so I suggested the Nyiragongo Volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo." The towering 3,470m volcano is one of the tallest in the world, and one of the most active. The main crater is about two kilometres wide and usually contains a lava lake. Every now and again, this is drained of its contents when Nyiragongo decides to erupt, as it has done 34 times in the past 150 years. On those occasions, great rivers of magma rush down its steep sides, scorching through any trees, villages and wedding parties that happen to be in its path. "He didn't have loads of people go," James admitted, hinting at the logistical difficulty of organising a knees-up on the side of an active volcano in an active conflict zone. "We had some dancers, a couple of his friends, the minister and the rangers." While the prospect of wading through the Ryanair website without accidentally booking a hire car is a holiday headache enough for most of us, James and his team at Untamed Borders relish the logistical challenges that come with travel. In fact, they have made a business of organising trips to some of the hardest-to-reach places in the world. Since 2008, the crack team of professional fixers has worked out how to get war reporters, adventurers, intrepid families, and even nearly-nuptial happy couples into some of the world's least trodden corners. It is not, as company founder James points out, 'dark' or 'extreme' tourism. Adventure travel is a better way to put it. "Most of it is curiosity. The privilege of visiting a place that is amazing or a UNESCO site that is hardly ever visited. It is not like visiting pyramids and being surrounded by people selling stuff," he explains. In recent history, that has included smoothing the way for Michael Palin during his Channel 5 travel series Into Iraq, in which the Monty Python star embarked on a 1000-mile odyssey along the Tigris river from its source in eastern Turkey to the Persian Gulf. The company has also helped collect sand from 70 different deserts around the world on behalf of tech firm Apple, who had the particles sculpted into columns for its 'Mirage' artwork which currently sits at Apple Park. Ten years ago, James helped organise the Marathon of Afghanistan, the country's only mixed-gender sporting event. The race takes place in the Bamian province, starting at an altitude of 3000m and weaving through a landscape of dramatic cliffs and bright blue lakes that was known as 'the Hippy Trail' during the 1960s. This race underlines the tension inherent in this kind of travel. Each year, Untamed Borders took a group of intrepid runners out to Afghanistan to run the race. Following the fall of the country to the Taliban, this has been impossible. Runners such as Zainab, who produced a film about her clandestine efforts to take part in the event, have been sidelined in a society that now bans women from almost all aspects of public life. Realising that the race could not be run "in the inclusive spirit it was founded", Untamed Borders decided to "press pause on organising the event for now. We hope one day we will be able to run marathon trips again in Afghanistan and take part in this special race." While continuing the marathon seemed the wrong course of action, James is a firm believer in the positive power of travel as a means of cultural exchange, even when that means visiting and contributing money to societies run by cruel, authoritarian rulers. "Any kind of cultural interaction creates a normalisation. A lot of these assumptions (about countries), generalisations, get broken down," James said. "We don't have photos on our website of tourists with their arms around Taliban guys with guns. That normalisation can be a really negative thing. People want to come, not to fix a country, but because they find it beautiful and intriguing. But of course, (by travelling there) you also normalise the countries. No one thinks twice about going to Egypt or Dubai now, because it is normalised." Untamed Borders specializes in facilitating strange and particularly difficult trips. One customer was helped in taking their globetrotting father's ashes to the few countries he had failed to visit. Another, Michael Zervos, recently visited every country in the world in the shortest amount of time on record- just 499 days. He did so with the aid of Untamed Borders, which made an exception for the Detroit filmmaker. "The idea of fast travel is not really how we view ourselves. But we liked his idea of asking people what the happiest day of their life was. Everywhere in the world, there are way more similarities than differences. For everyone, it is all about families and friends and overcoming adversity," James added. One traveller who loves to find these similarities is Didier, a lawyer originally from Lisbon in Portugal who now works in London. The 59-year-old, who says he is "interested in every country, everywhere", was particularly intrigued by Afghanistan. "It is a country that has been through very difficult times. I wanted to see how the people live, and the landscape there is beautiful," he explained. Didier travelled to Bamyan to take part in an event few would associate with the largely desert-covered country—a ski race. The Bamyan Alpine Ski Club was established in 2023 by a group of experienced local skiers to build the sport in the mountainous region, with support coming from visiting tourists and Untamed Borders. Sadly, the company was stopped from entering participants last year, when women were banned from taking part. While Didier's experiences in Afghanistan have mostly been positive, he is conscious of the growing dangers visitors there face. "There was an attack on a tourist group in May 2024. We knew some of the guys affected. Two Spanish ladies died. A guy showed up and shot at the minivan. One of the drivers had worked for us. He died. He was shot dead," Didier explained. As appalled as Didier is by the current treatment of women in the country, and aware of the risk he is taking to his own safety when travelling there, he is a firm believer in the positive power of travel. "Any policy of isolating or boycotting a country never works. The money we spend (when we travel) goes to local people. We need drivers, we need guides, we come with clothes, skis, and boots, which we give to the local ski club. We buy souvenirs and go to restaurants. "At the moment, the youth have no future. It is really sad to see. They are bright guys who have studied. If we isolate the country more, it will get worse. More Westerners going will help."
The Independent
09-02-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
‘I didn't want to surrender to the extremists': The female tour guide showcasing Afghanistan's beautiful side
As Taliban fighters closed in on Herat, the third largest city in Afghanistan, in 2021, Fatima Haidari was faced with one of the hardest decisions of her life. Recognised as Afghanistan 's first female tour guide, she was used to being challenged about her work – but this was different. It wasn't the first time that the Taliban had been in control, and those who lived through the first government between 1996 and 2001 knew all too well what their return meant. As a prominent figure in Afghanistan, Fatima's life was in immediate danger – not only because she was an independent woman but also because her work showcased Afghanistan's heritage to the world. 'I didn't want to leave at first because my parents, my family, everybody, and everything I had was there in Herat,' the 26-year-old guide says. But her friends begged her to leave while she could, warning Fatima that if she was caught 'they not only would kill you – but also your loved ones'. On 21 August 2021, less than a week after the Taliban reclaimed power, Fatima fled to Italy. It's been almost four years since the Islamic fundamentalist group regained control of Afghanistan after US forces withdrew. Initial hopes that the regime would be less oppressive were dashed when top Taliban officials – who the International Criminal Court (ICC) recently planned to seek arrest warrants for – enforced strict and brutal interpretations of Sharia law almost immediately. The rights of Afghan women and girls have been obliterated this time. First, it came in the form of bans on secondary education and the closure of beauty salons – but it's since become more and more extreme. The female population of Afghanistan, around 15 million women, have been prohibited from parks, banned from healthcare training and restricted from being heard speaking loudly in public. The Taliban continues to erase womanhood from their culture: one of the latest policies banned windows overlooking places where a woman might be seen. 'I'm one of the very, very fortunate women from Afghanistan who was able to leave the country,' Fatima acknowledges, having been able to build a home in Milan after claiming asylum in Italy. Fatima has also found an interesting way to continue advocating for the cultural preservation of her country and its women from exile, even though she's thousands of miles away. Supported by adventure tour company Untamed Borders, Fatima runs remote tours in an attempt to showcase what Herat and c entral Afghanistan have to offer from afar. In the tours, she weaves Afghanistan's rich history with experiences of growing up as a woman painting a unique and deeply personal depiction of the central Asian country. 'I just didn't want to surrender to what the Taliban is doing out there,' Fatima says, the one-hour remote tours serving as an act of rebellion in themselves. During the virtual gathering, guests can learn directly from Fatima about what life is really like in Afghanistan. They may be guided around Herat Citadel, the spectacular Blue Mosque, and the old bazaar while learning about tea culture, traditional music and poetry. On her alternative tour, guests are taken around central Afghanistan, travelling through the highlands between Kabul and Herat and discovering Afghan heritage and the city of Bamiyan, which Fatima describes as 'like a paradise'. Of course, Fatima's work in tourism didn't start in exile, and memories of growing up in Afghanistan also shape the stories she shares during virtual tours. Even before the Taliban returned, life had been challenging, she reveals. Threats regarding her work as a tour guide before 2021 weren't uncommon, and she was forced to dress in long black clothes to detract any unwanted attention. 'There weren't a lot of women in Afghanistan guiding tours, and it was a very challenging job for women to be doing because there are people who still lived with the mindset that Taliban left 20 years ago,' she recalled. 'I felt the pressure and restrictions,' she adds, 'because I was a target for extremists.' However, the benefits she gained from welcoming people to her country before the Taliban returned outweighed the security risks. Working as a tour guide helped her learn about other countries and nationalities, build connections and make friends worldwide, despite being unable to travel herself because of Afghanistan's weak passport. Though Fatima can no longer guide in person, she's also closely watched how tourism is surprisingly evolving under the Taliban. According to AP, foreign visitors to Afghanistan actually rose from 691 in 2021 to 7,000 in 2023, suggesting a small but growing demand for in-person visits to the country. Fatima hopes that one day Afghan women can once again guide travellers from the place they call home, but for now, the remote tours fill a unique space for tourism in more off-beat or dangerous locations. Remote tourism seldom makes up for seeing a place in real life, but virtual tours have become more mainstream since the Covid pandemic. 'We get to use technology to teach people about the countries they dream to travel to but cannot,' she explains, adding it's a nice alternative for elderly visitors or those who can't afford adventurous travel. For Fatima, the remote tours are all the more powerful as they provide a safe space for her to share an unfiltered perspective, allowing people from around the world to hear voices being silenced too often in Afghanistan. 'My guests really love hearing women's stories from someone who's lived the story,' she says. 'And it's a way for me to defy what the Taliban is doing right now to women in Afghanistan.' It also gives her a chance to spread awareness about Afghanistan in a way that's not covered by news headlines. 'Afghanistan is not all about terrorists, it's not all about war – it has a beautiful side,' she notes, acknowledging the juxtaposition of tourism in a country with so few freedoms. 'It has a very rich culture, nice people and everything is so diverse. Afghanistan has been the graveyard for empires, but pieces of their culture and history remain and need to be explored positively.' Not only can Fatima's remote tours help inform global audiences, they're also having an impact closer to home. Part of the proceeds from her tours support a girls' education charity operating in Afghanistan, providing vital funds that provide language classes for Afghan girls. She has also launched an association called Alefba from Italy to further support the girls' education back home. 'One of the biggest reasons Taliban are restricting women is because they're scared of the power that women in the country hold,' she added, explaining that she remains inspired by the women of Afghanistan and their resilience in the face of such oppression. Like many Afghans, Fatima also hopes that her nation's magic and cultural essence will survive long after the oppressive regime. While she loves her adoptive home of Italy, Fatima longs to reunite with her family and, one day, hopes to work on reviving Afghanistan's tourism from within.' 'I definitely would love to go back to join my family, friends,' she said, hopeful about returning to in-person guiding one day. 'My knowledge and insights are more use in Afghanistan.'
