The 2004 Travel Photographer of the Year competition opens for entries on February 22.

Following a successful first year in 2003, in which photographers from 34 countries submitted just under 10,000 images, this annual competition for amateur and professional photographers now features: four portfolio categories covering every aspect of travel photography; a Single Image category; a special Young Travel Photographer category; Student Awards and a remarkable £60,000 prize package.

Prizes include some travel and the very latest photographic equipment and software.

The photographer who demonstrates the greatest skill, diversity and creativity in two different portfolio categories will follow in the footsteps of 2003 winner Peter Adams, and earn the prestigious title of Travel Photographer of the Year and the satisfaction of being judged the very best travel photographer in 2004.

The winner and a companion will be able to take the photographic trip of a lifetime with their choice of a pair of round the world air tickets or two Business Class tickets to any one destination served by the Star Alliance network, the global network that brings together 14 of the world’s finest airlines. Added to this a £2,000 spending spree in a Calumet photographic store, plus Adobe CS Collection Premium and Video Collection software, to optimise the images they shoot on their travels.

Photographers aged 16 and under can submit four images on the theme ‘My World, My View’ which show what travel means to them. It’s free to enter and the prizes are fantastic. The winner receives a top of the range HP Pavilion Photosmart PC with integrated camera docking station and 6-1 memory card reader, plus a top-spec HP Photosmart digital camera, photo centric scanner and photo printer, a unique photography masterclass with renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite, courtesy of Light & Land, and Adobe CS Collection Premium software.

The new 2004 competition categories are:

Peoples and Cultures Portfolio

This portfolio celebrates humanity in all its many guises, and the diversity that different cultures bring to the travel experience. Prize: the brand new, state-of-the-art Fujifilm S3 Pro digital camera and lens, a 22-day overland adventure for two through Kenya and Tanzania with Guerba, and Adobe CS Collection Standard software.

Essence of Travel Portfolio

This encompasses places, festivals, leisure, architecture, food, transport, tourism and history. Prize: the highly desirable new Hasselblad XPan II Pro panoramic camera; a 12-day fly/drive adventure for two people to explore Sweden with Discover the World, and Adobe CS Collection Standard software.

Spirit of Adventure Portfolio

This category allows entrants to capture the thrill of adventure – however large or small – that challenges the traveller. Prize: a once in a lifetime expedition for two people with Land Rover’s global conservation partner Biosphere Expeditions to the Tatra mountains in Slovakia; a custom-built website from web wizards Resolutions, and Adobe CS Collection Standard software. To prepare them for their expedition, the winner will also spend a day at one of Land Rover’s off-road driving centres.

Living Planet Portfolio

This encompasses landscape, the environment, and wildlife. Prize: the top-of-the-range Wacom Cintiq 18SX Interactive Pen Display with TFT monitor; a tour for two people around the stunning Galapagos Islands on board a motor yacht with G.A.P Adventures, and Adobe CS Collection Standard software.

‘Celebration’ – The Single Image Category

Entrants can submit one beautiful, uplifting image that captures the theme of ‘Celebration’ within the context of travel. Prize: a 10-day holiday for two to the photogenic Islands of the Bahamas, plus Adobe CS Collection Standard software.

Special Awards

Awards will be presented for the best three portfolio entries by students in full-time education, with the winners receiving leather print books from Plastic Sandwich, made in their choice of size and format and personalised with their names.

In addition, a number of special awards from Avery and Tribes Travel will be given for individual images nominated by the TPOTY panel of expert judges and the general public visiting the 2005 TPOTY exhibitions. Details will be announced later this year.

A chance to give something back

Another new element for TPOTY 2004 is the option to make a £1 charitable donation with the entry fee. The funds raised will be split between Tourism Concern and The Tribes Foundation. Tourism Concern is dedicated to campaigning for change in the world’s biggest industry – working to ensure holidays are as good for the people living in our holiday destinations as they are for us. The Tribes Foundation helps indigenous communities, preserves cultural heritage and ecological biodiversity in areas impacted by tourism outside the UK and encourages education in global cultural diversity within the UK.

Entry fees and closing dates

Photographers can enter as many categories as they like, as many times as they like. To compete for the title of Travel Photographer of the Year 2004 they must enter at least two different portfolio categories. The fee structure has been revised for 2004, making it more cost-effective to enter. Entry costs from just £5 for one portfolio category or up to four entries in the Single Image category, is completely free for under-17s and there is a discounted flat rate fee of £5 for students.

Entries are now open, and close on September 17, 2004. Full information and entry forms are available from www.tpoty.com or by sending a stamped addressed envelope to PO Box 2716, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 7ZN, England.

U. S. Soldiers Home, Washington: during a century of travel (well 78 years!) both in and out of service I have travelled to over 150 countries (I count both North and South Dakota as countries) and for some reason have jotted signs and happenings that I thought funny at the time (and now wonder why). So here is the perfect opportunity to share some of my anecdotes.

Sophisticated traveller that I am, I almost panicked here at the Malaysian border coming from Thailand. The night before on the train a man collected our passports for processing and gave us no receipt. Mine was not at the Malaysian border. I ran from Thai border officials to Malaysian and neither had it. Finally one of them found it. Later a Malaysian official came on the train to “visit” with me. I think the many visas in my passport made me suspect.

In Kota Tingu, Malaysia, I asked a seamstress if she could make me a secret designed undershirt with a secret pocket (no secret anymore) to hide valuables. I asked her when it would be finished and when I should pick it up. I thought she said “Today, three o clock”. When I returned at three I discovered she had said. Two days, three O Clock. In two days I was in another country. In India I had a pocket made in my shorts (also a secret pocket and again no secret) I sometimes wear athletic soccer shorts. They have a pocket in them that has a shield to protect your private parts. I put a plastic bag with money in this pocket. I feel that if a robber got down to looking in my shorts that I would be lost anyway. I also carry valuables in many different places so as to not be carrying all my eggs in one pocket.

Johure Bahru: a sign “Wet Market”. Wet market means they hose down the floor in the market where they have fish.

In my travels I have often met individuals that have been travelling for years. Sometimes taking a job teaching English or some part time job for a while and then moving on. I met a Swedish man (these individuals are usually from Australia) that had spent some time in Malaysia. He had brought one hundred video games and was on his way to Kula Lumpur to catch a Russian Airline Aeroflot plane to Sweden (he says is lousy: the airline not Sweden.)

He pointed out to me in the station some transvestites – Malaysian men dressed as women. He said to look at their big adams apples in throat and their big feet. I asked him what he did for a living. He said “I live.” Can you live on reselling video games alone? He was maybe 35 and dressed respectfully.

In a Malaysian paper there was an article about a visitor to the Philippines being drugged, robbed and left in a cemetery. I asked the Swedish man if he had ever had anything stolen. He replied “My wallet and a gold chain I wore around my neck but that his girl friend might have stolen them.”.

Next month, Mac discusses language.

If you would like to contact Mac, he can be e-mailed on: macsan400@yahoo.com

Our first speaker this month was Chris Bradley, whose talk was called “Walking Wadi Hadramat”. Chris made a 550 mile solo trek through this barren area of Arabia. Yemen is another country that is unfortunately on the No-go list just now, so this talk was a fascinating insight. Chris showed us Shibam, also known as “The Manhattan of the desert” thanks to its 500 tower houses, some dating back 500 years. On his travels, Chris took part in local events including a shooting competition and a wedding. His nights spent under the stars, sometimes literally when one hotel had no room he slept on the roof and on another occasion he slept on a garage forecourt in the middle of nowhere, only for his evening meal to be delivered in shifts by a local family. Chris succeeded in his attempt to walk the Wadi, ending up on the beach of the Arabian Sea.

Our second speaker was Rupert Attlee, The Trail to Titicaca – 7000 mile cycle adventure through South America. Chris and companions decided to do this epic trip from the tip of South America following the Andes up to Lake Titicaca in aid of Leukaemia Research. The trip didn’t start well when they were all hospitalised after eating some shellfish. But once recovered they set off up through Chile to Santiago, though they found it hard going, having done very little training before setting out. Before setting off they had assured their sponsors that they would ride the whole way. This meant that on one occasion a road tunnel which would have been too dangerous to cycle through with all the fumes, was closed for them so they could ride through safely, on the other side they were met with cheers from the drivers who had been kept waiting. Rupert’s views of the Andes were superb, culminating in their Bolivian goal at Lake Titicaca.

£82 was collected after the meeting in aid of Leukaemia research, thanks to all those Globies who contributed.

Next month, on Saturday 6^th March, Anthony Lambert will talk about railways on the Wildside – a look at a selection of the world’s railways. After the break our very own Jacqui Trotter will be talking about travelling 8 months overland in South America.

London meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30pm the first Saturday of each month. There is no London meeting in August, but we will be back in September. For more information, you can contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk

The capital Port Moresby has a fairly poor reputation, in part deserved, but then, all large cities have their problems. Having said this, Port Moresby is not a large city, it is hard to really say where the centre is, as it is small-ish but sprawling. There is a down town of a type where there are a few multi storey buildings, including the infamous Deloittes building. Last year when I was there, I read a newspaper account that said that this building had been built three times. The first two times, the construction was awarded to a firm who took the money and went bust. The final time, at hugely escalated costs, it was finally built and houses the few accountancy firms that remain in Port Moresby and other businesses. Shell have offices around the corner.

This starts to highlight the real problem with PNG as a whole: crime, environmental degradation, corruption and cronyism. There is a system called won tok, whereby your won toks do you a favour, such as getting you a job, and this holds you in their debt and you are expected to do favours for them. For example, if someone wrongs you or your family, you can call on your won toks to right the wrong.

And this brings me to discuss law and order. The population of PNG is 4 million, and there are around 400 police officers. The geography of the area is interesting. On the other half of New Guinea that is PNG, as opposed to Indonesian, there is a large mountain range separating the north from the south. There are no roads that connect the two coasts. The interior is very mountainous and remote. There are a collection of outlying islands, including New Britain, New Ireland, Bougainville and many smaller islands. This geographical dispersion and the remote interior has resulted in many different tribes of people and over 700 languages.

Many people from the highlands and islands, unable to make ends meet, or ambitious for a better life migrate to the cities, such as Port Moresby, Lae, Kavieng seeking work. These people are referred to as settlers, and they build their own houses from wood, corrugated iron, palm leaves, plastic bags or sheeting etc and maybe cultivate a little land by growing mangoes or coconuts etc. In Port Moresby, there are many settlements which an outsider cannot and should not go into. The nearest comparison I can think of are the shanty towns in Rio or the townships around Johannesburg. They are self policing or completely lawless, depending on which way you look at it.

Over Christmas 2003, I was in Madang, a very pretty natural harbour town on the “main” land. The government had previously issued several warnings to the settlers there that they should leave and go back to their original home land. Few settlers did leave. Over Christmas it became real, and the police were deployed to forcibly evict the settlers from their homes, by burning down their houses and chopping any cultivated trees down. It was a sad sight. There were reports that the police were stealing possessions from inside people’s homes before they set fire to them. In Madang, many of the settlers had been there for over 20 years, and the mood of the people I spoke to was that the government should have laid on some transport or means of helping people to return to their original homeland. I since read a newspaper report that said that the PNG government had refused to allow the Red Cross to distribute aid to the displaced settlers. It was not a good time and I imagine is still on going. I know this happened in provinces other than Madang.

There is a small ex-pat population in Port Moresby and they live in compounds. I visited the Shell compound, and was quite taken aback by the security: double gates to get into the compound, razor wire all around, watch towers, guards and guard dogs, electric fences and inside each of the 6 homes, huge sturdy rape gates on the top floor to prevent entry into the bedrooms.

The majority of expats are Australian and this is the closest sizeable country. Many companies have pulled out of PNG as they say it is too difficult to do business there – problems with land title, bribery and corruption and high levels of crime.

The Australian High Commission sits on a hill and the houses for their staff are right beside it, and look like Lego buildings. Locals call this compound “Shit Scared Alley”. I spoke to some of the Australian High Commission staff and they said that they barely leave the compound. Car-jacking is common place, rape, sexual abuse and incest are distressingly too common. All men own machetes. There did not seem to be too much of a gun culture, but they certainly exist. AIDS is not a huge problem yet, but it is there. The female expats, mostly wives of ex-pat workers are advised to be extremely careful where they drive and not to fill up at petrol stations alone for fear of being car-jacked. The modus operandi is to rape a woman in front of her husband or son and make them watch. This was every ex-pat woman’s biggest fear and I sensed a huge feeling of vulnerability.

This probably paints a fairly grim picture of Port Moresby, but it is at least realistic. I stayed there a week by myself in Christmas of 2002. I stayed at the Magila Hotel which was cheap, friendly, clean and safe. It was a fairly transient sort of place, and not in a good part of town, being in Six Mile – called Six Mile because it is 6 miles from the centre. The motel is surrounded by razor barbed wire and has a watch tower and 24 hour guards – common for Port Moresby. I did not go outside the motel at night on foot – you really don’t walk anywhere in Port Moresby, but I did go by car with friends I made, into town and had meals there etc.

Everyone I met was friendly, polite, interested in why I was in PNG and I have never encountered any problems myself. The diving in Port Moresby is excellent and there are 2 dive facilities – PNG Dive, where I was, and a resort, the Loloata resort. There are 2 places where ex-pats go: the Yacht Club, with good views, a cheap bar and decent food, but predominantly frequented by ex-pats, and there is another place where ex-pats married to local women tend to go. Rather uncharitably, a friend of mine said you could always tell who would go there because they have a red nose through drinking too much.

There isn’t a huge amount to do in Port Moresby and I would not recommend it to the visitor other than to dive. There is an interesting designed Houses of Parliament, and my favourite place is PNG Arts. It is a large shop that sells handicrafts made by people from all over PNG, from the river Sepik where the work depicts spirits in the form of crocodiles, from the islands and from the highlands. I love it there and have spent many an afternoon browsing around the masks, ceremonial daggers, tables, wooden crocodiles and yes, they do make penis gourd holders – the shop told me that the Japanese are the largest customers of these! The people who work there are great (especially Ken, the Canadian who went to PNG as a bet in the 1960s) and the man who owns it is local. They can tell you who made the artefact you are interested in and can ship direct to your home country. I did this last year and had 2 crates sent back to London – it took 5 months to arrive, but it did arrive!

Infrastructure in Port Moresby is better than it used to be. Many of the roads have been repaired – in December 2002 when I was first there, there were huge craters throughout all of the roads which created small mini roads around them! Taxis are very expensive and you need to make sure that the driver knows exactly where you want to go. Electricity is mostly on although the water is not safe to drink from the tap, bottled water is widely available. If you need to stay over in transit, the Airways hotel is pretty good, and you can get a free transfer from both the domestic and international airport as they meet every flight, even if you don’t stay and just want to have lunch or dinner there or sit by the pool. It has a nice green setting, overlooking the airport, 5 minutes drive away on a hill and they do good food.

Bride price is still paid by many people. One man I met who helped with the dive operation I was at last year told me how much he paid in bride price for his wife. It seemed like an awful lot (won toks are expected to chip in as well as the entire family) and I said jokingly that his wife must be a princess. He solemnly replied that yes, she was a princess.

Once you get outside Port Moresby then you can then appreciate the true beauty of the country and the friendliness of its people.

For details of forthcoming meetings email newyork@globetrotters.co.uk or register for email updates, click here at our website.

New York meetings are held at The Wings Theatre, 154 Christopher Street(btw Greenwich St and Washington St), to the right of Crunch Fitness, in the Archive on the first Saturday of each month at 4 pm.

Where exactly is the Black Sea? It is formed by three rivers: the Danube, the Dnieper and the River Don and is bordered by six countries: Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine. The population of the greater Black Sea basin is more than 160 million.

Nobody really knows why the Black Sea is called such. Some say that it gained its name from sailors and pirates who were struck by its dark appearance when the sky turned black with storm clouds. The Ancient Greeks called the Black Sea the Scythian Sea, after the not so friendly tribes who lived on its shores at the time. Shipwrecked sailors could generally expect no a hard time from the Scythians, who raided the wrecks and were said to have made wine goblets out of sailors’ skulls. The Greeks also called it Pontos Axenos – the inhospitable sea – until they settled in Crimea, after which they changed their minds and called it Pontos Euxenos: the hospitable sea.

The Black Sea is very deep (1,271m at the centre) but it’s less salty than most oceans. It began life as a fresh water lake about 22,000 years ago. About 7,000 – 9,000 years ago, global warming melted glaciers and the polar ice-caps, sea levels rose and eventually the Mediterranean overflowed through the Bosporus, turning the lake into the Black Sea. Many archaeologists think that this catastrophic event was in fact the Noah’s Flood of the Bible.

The sea is unique in having two layers, an oxygenated upper layer, about 200m deep, with fish life, and a `dead’ lower layer, where until recently nothing was thought to be able to survive.

A peculiarity of the Black Sea is the bi-directional current where it flows through the Bosporus straits on its way to the Mediterranean. The surface current flows westwards through the straits into the Sea of Marmaris, but there is a deep current which flows simultaneously in the opposite direction, back into the Black Sea.

There are plenty of beaches in The Crimea, of Florence Nightingale fame – some 517 km of beaches – mostly small pebbles and some black volcanic sand. Many beaches are public, and the private ones owned by hotels and sanatoria are usually open to non-patrons at a price of around 3 Hryvnias (£0.40p or $0.56 cents) per day. There are also naturist beaches near Koktebel in the east.