Cambodia: The countdown is on

This is it. I now have less than two weeks until I take off for Cambodia. Thanks to everyone’s kind generosity, I am only $695 from reaching my $6,900 fundraising target for my War Child Cambodia Cycle Challenge.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

I just need a little more help to make it across the line. Fortunately, I still have some great prizes to auction off. They are:

1. $2000 worth of IT services offered by MageData, a Northern Rivers-based IT company run by Noven Purnell-Webb. This equates to two full days of business IT work or a basic CMS driven website with scope for one or two add-ons."MageData the Business IT Wizards- we make technology work like Magic".

2. One year membership to YHA plus vouchers for 10 night's multi-share accommodation valid at any of the more than 100 YHA Australia hostels around Australia valued at $300.

I'll award the prizes to the person who makes me the best offer on each by next Monday 3, May. Simply post a comment below or contact me via email on kim[at]wildwriting.com.au with your offer.

Alternatively you can make a tax-deductable donation to my Everyday Hero website

Please remember this is for charity, so help me support a great cause.

People & Places photo comp: And the winner is...

I knew I lived in a very talented, well-travelled and generous community, but even I was blown away by the sheer number and quality of entries I received in the People & Places travel photography competition I organised to help raise money for my War Child Cambodia Cycle Challenge.

With more than 195 fantastic photographs received from the residents of the Byron Bay/Northern Rivers region of NSW, the three judges (Jeff Dawson from the Byron Bay Echo, local Bangalow-based photographer Lisa Sharpe and head of the Bangalow Chamber of Commerce, Michael Malloy) were certainly faced with a hard decision. In fact, there were so many worthy entrants, the winning photograph had to be decided by a secret ballot.

In the end the overall winner was Darren Pearson of Bangalow for his picture of Samburu women in traditional ceremonial garb taken in Northern Kenya (it's the picture in the top right-hand corner of the photograph above - and, yes, that's me), with second place going to Nharyan Feldman of Coorabell for his photograph titled 'In the moment' taken in Nepal.

Other category winners were: secondary high school students Isabella West (first place) and Kimberley Fuller (second place) of Nimbin and primary school students Colby Grant (first place) and Bingham Thurgate (second place) of Bangalow.

For my part, I'd like to thank everyone who participated in the competition and attended the exhibition for supporting such a worthy cause and making the night a huge success. In particular I'd like to thank Michael Malloy of the Bangalow Chamber of Commerce for all his help organising the event and Darren Pearson for donating his $200 prize back to the charity. Your generosity helped raise $3100.

Having already raised $1000 from donations and a further $900 from a smaller exhibition in Toowoomba, I am now only $1900 from reaching my goal of $6,900. If you are able to support me and help push me over the mark, I’d greatly appreciate it. Tax-deductable donations can be made safely over the internet through my page on the Everyday Hero website.

Picture: Courtesy of Christobel Munson.

Wild Wednesday: Walking on sunshine

I've been so busy with my fundraising efforts for my War Child Cambodia Cycle Challenge that sadly my poor blog has been neglected of late. To help kick things back into gear, I thought I'd highlight one of my favourite travel photographs of the sun setting over Lake Victoria which I took in Tanzania in 2008 while helping Philip Briggs update the Bradt Travel Guide to the country. The following short piece I wrote about the picture below was recently published in the Escape section of the Brisbane Sunday Mail:

"African sunsets are made for gin and tonics. It's a cliche I know, but I enjoy the ritual of sipping the beautifully crisp, clear drink while watching the sunset over the veld. From my box seat sitting on a small strip of sand wrapped around the south-eastern edge of Lake Victoria, I watch with glass in hand, mesmerised as deep oranges, rich reds and powerful pinks dance across the horizon in a silent symphony of colour. Setting my drink down on the sand, I pick up my camera and focus the lens on the play of light as the sun slowly sinks into the lake's far horizon. To my surprise just as I click the shutter a Massai warrior silently walks across the beach and into my viewfinder. Only in Africa I muse. Raising my gin and tonic, I salute the African sunset. Mzuri sana!"

New travel photography contest launched

Calling all shutterbugs. A new travel photography contest has been launched in the Northern Rivers region. Focusing on people and places the competition is being held as part of my efforts to raise money for the War Child Cambodia Cycle Challenge.

The theme, as stated, is People & Places. You can interpret this theme anyway you like. You need not have people in your photograph, but if you do they need to speak to the location and add depth to the image.

The competition is open to all residents in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales with three categories available for entries: Primary (up to 11 years), Secondary (12-17 years), and Open (18 years and over).

Entry cost is $5 per individual entry. You may enter as many times as you like, but each entry incurs the fee and must be made separately.

Photographs must be submitted in print form. Each photograph should be mounted on black mount board and must not exceed 30cm x 40cm in size (including mount board). No entries will be returned, so make sure you keep a copy of your photographs.

Prizes currently up for grabs include $350 worth of cash prizes offered by the Bangalow Chamber of Commerce, Lonely Planet guidebooks and year subscriptions to some of Australia's best travel magazines including Australian Traveller, Get Lost! and Vacations & Travel. More prizes to be announced soon.

Entries clearly marked with your Name, Age, Address and Telephone Number, should be sent to the attention of Kim Wildman, P.O. Box 611, Bangalow NSW 2479 (or leave at the Bangalow Post Office). Entries can also be dropped off at the A&I Hall between 2pm to 5pm on Wednesday 24 March.

The contest will then culminate in a fundraising exhibition/auction at the A&I Hall in Bangalow on Thursday 25 March where the winners will be announced. Just some of the fantastic auction items to be bid on include: $2000 worth of IT services offered by Magedata, two nights' accommodation at Mantra on Salt Beach at Kingscliff, a weekend for two at Urban Hotel Group in Spring Hill Brisbane and complimentary walking tour of Melbourne for four adults with Melbourne by Foot and much, much more. You can see the full list here.

You don't have to be a pro nor do you need to have travelled the world to enter this contest. You just have to have a keen eye and a great travelling spirit. So get snapping!

Cambodia Cycle Challenge: Sponsor roll call

It never fails to surprise me just how generous people can be. I've not long started fundraising for my War Child Cambodia Cycle Challenge and I’ve already been flooded with bighearted donations of money, gifts and prizes from friends, family, businesses (big and small) and people I don't even know!

As part of my fundraising efforts I will be holding two major fundraising events: a travel photography competition to be held where I live on the Far North Coast of New South Wales which will culminate in an exhibition and silent auction at the A&I Hall in Bangalow; and, a Charity Movie Night to be held in my hometown Toowoomba. Details for both events will be announced shortly. In the meantime, I thought I'd start a sponsor roll call to highlight the people and businesses that have been willing to dig deep and make my challenge a reality. They are:

TRAVEL COMPETION/EXHIBITION:
Prize donors:
Australian Traveller have kicked in with one year's subscription to the magazine.

Bangalow Chamber of Commerce has kindly donated $350 worth of cash prizes.

Get Lost! have also offered a one year subscription to their magazine.



Lonely Planet has kindly offered a few guidebooks as runner up prizes.

Vacations & Travel have donated two one year subscriptions to their quarterly magazine.



Auction/lucky door prize donators:
Rosemarie Toynbee, a consultant for Arbonne International, has offered $133 of Arbonne Body Care products.

Bangalow Chamber of Commerce has donated two 3-day passes to the Bangalow Music Festival and 6 tickets to Thursday night concerts in Bangalow.

Eight Hotels Australia has pitched in with 1 night's accommodation at one of their botique hotels located in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane, valued at $420 depending on the hotel.

Kym Kranen from H.I.P.S (M: 0424 223 754), has offered 5 personal training vouchers. Each voucher includes: 1 x 1/2hr consultation, 2 x 1/2hr one-on-one personal training sessions and 1 x 1hr success coaching session.


Magedata in the Northern Rivers region of NSW has kicked in with $2000 worth of IT services. This equates to two full days of business IT work or a basic CMS driven website with scope for one or two add-ons (shopping cart, blog etc).

Melbourne by Foot has offered a complimentary walking tour of Melbourne for four adults valued at $100. Departing from Federation Square, Melbourne By Foot is the esstenital walking tour of Australia's cultural capital.

Mantra Group have pitched in with two night's accommodation at Mantra on Salt Beach in a one bedroom ocean suite including breakfast daily.

Urban Hotel Group have offered a weekend for two at Urban Spring Hill Hotel in Brisbane. The kind offer was made possible by Sweaty Betty PR.

YHA Australia have donated one year membership to YHA plus vouchers for 10 night's multi-share accommodation valid at any of the more than 100 YHA hostels around Australia.



MOVIE NIGHT
Raffle/lucky door prize donators:
Discount Drug Stores Highfields have offered a $30 foot & bath pamper pack.

Harvey Norman Toowoomba have pitched in with a $300 Jamie Oliver saucepan set and a $50 Omega digital kitchen scale.

Miscellaneous thank yous
I also owe a very big heart-felt thank you to the following people:

My sister Kerri Lange and her husband Craig for generously donating $100 to cause as well as supplying me with some great new cycling threads for the trip (also to Craig for training with me). To Daini and Stephen Ware for loaning me a bike to train on and to my sister-in-law Nadine Wildman for organising the prizes for the Toowoomba movie night.

And, well, to all my family and friends in general for supporting me in yet another wild adventure!

Wild Wednesday: Cambodia Challenge 2010

The New Year has barely begun and I already think I have come up with my wildest plan for the year yet. While doing some research on the web the other weekend I stumbled across a website seeking participants for a charity cycling tour of Cambodia to help raise funds for War Child Australia. Oddly enough, just the night before having a glass of wine with a friend, my friend turned to me and asked me where I would go and what would I choose to do for a holiday if it didn't involve work? I replied that I really wanted to do a cycling tour of either Vietnam or Cambodia, but timing/money made it an impossible dream for now.... What do they say? Be careful what you wish for!

As many of you may be aware, I was meant to travel to Cambodia in December 2007, but was sadly stood up by my travelling partner (an English doctor whom I'd met in Libya who'd asked me to meet him in Cambodia for our first 'date') three weeks before we were due to depart. Ever since that failed 'date', I'd been searching for a way that I could still do the trip. At the same time, if I did indeed get another opportunity to travel Cambodia, I wanted to go under completely different circumstances that weren't quite as self-serving. So here flashing on the screen before my eyes, War Child Australia was presenting me with the perfect answer, opportunity and challenge all in one. And I, of course, couldn't resist.

From 11-22 May this year I'll be taking part in the War Child Cambodia Challenge which is being organised by Inspired Travel, to help the charity provide education and support to Cambodian children who have been affected by war. It's a very long way from the green hinterland hills of Byron Bay and I will need to get very fit to cope with cycling up to 6-8 hours a day. However, having witnessed so much poverty and hardship in many of the countries I have visited while working as a travel writer, I see this challenge as an opportunity to not only do something worthwhile for an organisation for which I have great respect, but to also contribute to a local community in a country through which I am travelling in a positive way.

Together as a team we are hoping to raise over $50,000 from this event. I personally need to raise at least $6900 (half to go as a donation to the charity and half to cover my expenses). So I hope you will all support me in this challenge, even if it is just to wish me luck. Though obviously I need more than just best wishes (does anyone I have a bike I can borrow to train on??)! In the coming weeks I will post details about fund raising events I will be holding. In the meantime, if any of you have any great ideas for events or are able to support me with a tax-deductible donation or raffle/auction prize, please let me know – it would be very much appreciated and will bring me much closer to reaching my goal.

Picture: Monks walking at Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat), a temple at Angkor, Cambodia. Obtained from FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Tales from the road: An introduction to travel writing

Aspiring travel writers take heed. I'm running a new introductory course, Tales from the Road: An Introduction to Travel Writing, in early February. To be held in Mullumbimby on the Far North Coast of New South Wales, the course takes a practical approach to travel writing, giving an overview of the market from writing for newspapers, magazines and on-line, to authoring guidebooks. Students will learn how to write a great article, how to dress up articles with photographs and how to approach an editor with the perfect pitch.

Dates: 13 & 20 February
Time: 9am – 12.30pm
Cost: $63 Full Fee; $57 Concession

If you happen to be in the Byron Bay area around this time, I would love for you to come along!

Picture: Me assumning the pose in White Sands National Monument, New Mexico, USA.