Judy And Ron clup

* Comfortable accommodation, great food and efficient, friendly service

* Travel by luxury coach from a selection of nationwide boarding points

* Full programme of excursions included in the price—Plymouth, Salcombe, Buckfast Abbey and more, plus a cruise on the River Dart

THIS IS a holiday that’s brimming over with happiness and packed with things we know you’ll enjoy. Best of all is the great opportunity to make lasting friendships—and that’s backed up with . . . LOVELY SURROUNDINGS Set on a terraced hillside overlooking Torbay, the Club has all the facilities of a well-run holiday centre. During our stay the Club will be for the exclusive use of the Woman’s Realm party.

COMFORTABLE ACCOMMODATION The chalet-style accommodation gives you freedom and comfort. Every chalet has its own electric fire and facilities for making tea and coffee. It’s like you rent your own apartment in Paris or Berlin and have all facilities, including bed and breakfast in Paris or Berlin bed and breakfast.

GREAT FOOD, FRIENDLY SERVICE The top-class English food is master­minded by the head chef, Nicky. The service is friendly and efficient, the restaurant pleasant and well-organised. There’s also a poolside café. INTERESTING EXCURSIONS The first of our five different outings is a Sunday afternoon tour of Torquay. Then there’s a full day in the fine city of Plymouth (packed lunch provided). Another full-day tour, again with packed lunch, takes in Salcombe, Slapton Sands and Dartmouth, featuring an afternoon cruise on the Dart. Another afternoon excursion is to Widecombe in the Moor and Buckfast Abbey. And you’ll enjoy the visit to the fishing port of Brixham. GETTING TO KNOW YOU Clare Shepherd is arranging friendly meetings and there will be events organised day by day to suit the general mood. Every evening there’ll be music and dancing in the ballroom.

CLARE, AS YOUR HOST will invite new friends to join her for dinner each evening. There will be a special welcome for people on their own, but couples will enjoy this holiday too and have chance to add weekend in Venice to their trip. Guests chat with Nicky.

THE ARRANGEMENTS: We are running the holiday in association with National Holidays, and travel will be by their luxury coaches. There are special boarding points across the country (see panel next to coupon).

WHAT WE WON In the prestigious Sir Mark Henig awards, presented by the English Tourist Board, this holiday was specially commended because it offers a real opportunity for people to make friends. Mrs Sally Oppenheim, Minister of State for Trade, said: “The awards are a recognition of imagination and endeavour.”

LIKE TO KNOW MORE? RING US NOW FOR YOUR BROCHURE on Dewsbury (0924) 451041 between 9am and 5.30pm, or send off the coupon.

This entry was posted in "Travel" by Jennifer Jordison. Bookmark the permalink.

CAPE DORSET is a small Arctic settlement on Baffin Island, facing onto Hudson Strait. About 350 Eskimos trade there. They are still fairly isolated, generally living the traditional Eskimo life: hunting seal for food and trapping the

Arctic fox for its fur. In summer the men earn money unloading supply ships or on construction work, since Cape Dorset is expanding. There are no roads and the settlement’s only vehicle so far is a wheelbarrow. The Eskimos live in tents; they travel by boat in summer and by dog sled in winter.

During the five weeks that a friend and I spent at Cape Dorset last summer, we saw a lot of the children. Not once did we see a child spanked or spoken to harshly, and we were told that Eskimo parents treat their children very indulgently. The children seem to play when they like, eat when they are hungry, if there is any food (Eskimo families sometimes know hunger), and sleep when they are tired.

This easy-going method of upbringing seems to work well as regards the children we met, who were alert and generally well-mannered. Children become responsible at an early age—the boys emulating their fathers in learning how to hunt, fish, and handle a boat and dog-team. The girls, like their mothers, learn how to sew and cook, scrape and soften a sealskin, tend a seal-oil lamp, soften sealskin boots by chewing them, and care for their younger brothers and sisters.

We camped near the settlement and the children often paid us a call, sometimes with their parents. You cannot knock on the door of a tent, so they would just cough and walk straight in. The adults knew no English, but the children, having been to school, spoke a little.

The Eskimos love social occasions, and when they go to church, or to a film-showing, it is with the whole family. (They are happy to see the same film over and over again.) In church (Anglican in this settlement) the men sit on the left-hand side and the women and children sit on the right. If a baby gets hungry during the service, the mother feeds it. Most of the time there is a busy rustling and whispering in the back of the church; when the children get bored they go outside and play for a bit, a sensible arrangement as the Eskimo services are long.

Everyone goes to a dance; while the parents whirl around to the tune of an accordion, the children and grandparents watch, and the babies slumber in their mothers’ fur-trimmed parkas worn by a sister; their dances combine Eskimo-style dancing with sailors’ hornpipes, learned from the Scottish whalers a century ago. Like the church services, the dances seem endless, though enjoyed with unflagging enthusiasm. Gradually the children sprawl asleep in abandoned attitudes on the floor of the schoolroom where the dances are held.

When an Eskimo meets friends he shakes hands with every member of the family, including the baby on its mother’s back. This family unit with its very close ties is important to the Eskimo. The parents realize that their children will benefit by going to school, but at the same time they want to preserve this strong family feeling, and want to teach their children the things that they them­selves know to be important. On a fine day in summer there will often be empty desks in the small schoolroom at Cape Dorset—the children will have ‘Gone Hunting’, with their parents.

This entry was posted in "Travel" by Jennifer Jordison. Bookmark the permalink.