Last year China’s first person in space disappointed the nation when he said he could not see the Great Wall of China from space. However, photographs taken from space appear to confirm that China’s Great Wall can be spotted by the naked eye after all. So China’s schoolchildren who are taught that the Great Wall is one of the only man-made structures you can see can breathe easy again.

Interested in a £1,000 travel award? A member of Globetrotters Club?

Know someone who is? We have £1,000 to award each year for five years for the best submitted independent travel plan. Interested?

Then see our legacy page on our Website, where you can apply with your plans for a totally independent travel trip and we’ll take a look at it. Get those plans in!!

Whilst we are talking about insects: spotted by webmaster Paul, US Entomologists Quentin Wheeler and Kelly B. Miller recently had the task of naming 65 newly discovered species of slime-mold beetles and named three species after the US president George W Bush, vice president Dick Cheney and defence secretary Donald H Rumsfeld. The newly found beetles are respectively called: Agathidium bushi Miller and Wheeler, Agathidium cheneyi Miller and Wheeler, and Agathidium rumsfeldi Miller and Wheeler. Naming the beetles after Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld was intended to pay homage to them, said Wheeler, who taught at Cornell University for 24 years and now is with the Natural History Museum in London.

We’ve all heard horror stories about the deadly Australian funnel-web spiders. A new report in the Lancet shows that deaths from spider bites are extremely rare. Only 26 deaths from spiders have been recorded in Australia in the past century. In comparison, there were 1,183 motor vehicle deaths in 2001 in Australia.

Funnel webs are only found in eastern Australia and there are at least 40 species. They are medium to large spiders, varying from 1-5 cm body length. They like to burrow in moist, cool, sheltered habitats – under rocks, in and under rotting logs, crevices, rot and borer holes in rough-barked trees. In gardens, they prefer rockeries and dense shrubberies, and are rarely found in more open situations like lawns.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the government had decided to give the go-ahead for two casinos on Marina Bay and on Sentosa resort island. Despite 30,000 people signing a petition against the idea, Mr Lee said the casinos were necessary to help Singapore attract more tourists. The casinos, which will be operational by 2009, are central to Singapore’s goal of doubling the number of tourists to 17 million a year. A casino is believed to help Singapore recover much of the $180m a year it is estimated that Singaporeans spend each year in neighbouring Malaysian casinos.

The villagers of Ngarambe, bordering the Selous game reserve in Tanzanian had been allowed to sell hunting licences and shoot animals for meat so they would no wild animals would not destroy crops or menace the villagers. The area is rich in wildlife of all types – elephants, lions, giraffes, buffaloes and more. The government has said that the community can no longer hunt on this land or sell hunting licences to residents – instead a five-year hunting licence has been sold to a private company. According to BBC news, selling hunting permits is big business – trophy fees in the 2004 season ranged cost $4,000 for an elephant, $2,000 for a lion to $600 for a buffalo.

Two new bus services linking Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir for Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir. The new service has been hailed as a major boost to India and Pakistan’s developing peace process. The inaugural service on 7 April was the first in nearly 60 years. Before you get too excited, it is still dangerous to visit this region and there is heavy security all along the route including decoy buses, escorted by the police and parafamilies forces. The historic bus services has been welcomed by most Kashmiris, many of whom have been divided by the decades-long conflict. Many of them have defied the militants’ call to avoid boarding the bus. “The desire to meet separated relatives is proving stronger than the fear of death,” a trader in Srinagar, Zaffar Ahmed, told the BBC News.

A review in the medical Lancet found the commonest diseases linked to air travel have been spread via contaminated food rather than from the cabin’s recycled air. The US researchers found a total of 41 in-flight outbreaks of food poisoning resulting in 11 deaths had been documented between 1947 and 1999. Salmonella was the most commonly reported infection spread by a commercial airline, with 15 recorded outbreaks between 1947 and 1999, affecting nearly 4,000 passengers and killing seven. The US authors stressed that no food- or water-borne outbreaks had been reported in the past five years probably because of greater use of pre-packaged frozen meals, and improved food handling and inspection.

Spotted by Mac, a new travel website: http://www.travelpost.com/

The Health Protection Agency say that tourists need more advice about how to protect their health while they are away. They say, while many companies do tell travellers to get health advice about their destination, others do not. But a spokesman for the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said members did offer advice if people were travelling to more exotic destinations. Up to 2,000 Britons die abroad each year, most of them from natural causes, according to figures from the HPA.

Need to convert currency?

Take a look at The Globetrotters Currency Converter – get the exchange rates for 164 currencies The Globetrotters Currency Cheat Sheet – create and print a currency converter table for your next trip.

Google, the search engine can help you access satellite photos of North America’s most significant landmarks and locations, including the Grand Canyon, Alcatraz and Mount Rushmore. You need to enter in a zip code and a photo from space of that location – if available – is then shown. At the moment Google only offers satellite images of locations in the US and Canada but Keyhole Corporation, which Google bought last year has data for the whole globe so the service could be rolled out for other countries. The detail in some of the Google photos is impressive – putting zoom at the highest level lets you pick out individual houses and even cars. The catch? There’s a fee to use the service though a free 7 day trial is available. See:

So You Think You’re Well Travelled?

Here’s a little Beetle quiz based on capital cities. See how many you get right! Go on, have a guess!

What is the capital city of the following countries:

1. Chile
2. Finland
3. Kiribati
4. Israel
5. Comoros

For the answers, see at the end of the eNewsletter.

Unesco has warned Peru that the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu might lose its world heritage status if they do not act to protect it. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people visit Machu Picchu. Experts say unrestricted tourism and landslides have damaged the 15th Century citadel and the nearby Inca trail that leads to it. In response, the Peruvian authorities have submitted a 400-page report $130m plan to the UN’s cultural arm which is believed to include satellite monitoring to measure earth movements and a daily limit of 2,500 tourists, to preserve the site.

Need help? Want a travelling buddy or advice about a place or country – want to share something with us – why not visit our Mutual Aid section of the Website: Mutual Aid

The bodies of 30 British soldiers and sailors and their families, who died during Nelson’s Nile campaign more than 200 years ago were discovered on the small island by an Italian archaeologist looking for Greek and Roman artefacts. The old graves were in danger of being washed away as the sea eroded the island. The remains were reburied at the Military and War Memorial Cemetery at British families cemetery, Al-Shatby in Alexandria with full families honours during a recent ceremony. One of the dead’s descendent Gordon Watson, 87, from Hampshire, and his 83-year-old wife, Joan, travelled to Egypt for the ceremony. After the ceremony, Mr Watson said: “It’s marvellous to be related to this man … It makes you proud to be English.”

I am writing a book about a little known but stunning town in Australia called Airlie Beach. I am desperately seeking globetrotters who have visited this region. I am seeking submissions from them based on their time and experiences in the region.

Did Airlie Beach make an impact on your life? It’s the kind of place that is, ‘Once seen, never forgotten.’ I am looking for submissions from people, of all walks of life, on their favourite Airlie Beach experience. Everybody who has been there has one.

As a long time local, I have countless priceless memories, and nobodies amazing memories should be forgotten. Whether it is a funny anecdote, a poem you were inspired to write, a crazy story you heard, a picture of paradise you just can’t forget.

I am publishing a book and will consider: stories, poems, e-mails, snatches of conversation, diary entries, day in the life of, family history, dreams, artwork, photos, drawings etc.

Please contact me on: airliebeachkatie@yahoo.com.au

Did you know that there are estimated to be around 300 snail farms in former war torn Bosnia? One kilogram of snails is sold for four around euros (£2.70). France is the number one export destination, followed by Italy. The aim is for a snail farmer to produce around 3,000kg of snails in a year. That means an annual income of around 12,000 euros (£8,100) – around four times the national average wage. The British chief international envoy to Bosnia, Lord Ashdown, has made a priority of trying to encourage small businesses. He set up a so-called “Bulldozer” committee to smash through the red tape and old-style communist legislation that hindered the setting up of new companies. “Small and medium-size firms, like snail farms, represent the future of this country rather than the old pre-war industries, which are not coming back,” says Vedran Persic from Lord Ashdown’s office.