In May, we said goodbye to our friend and travel pioneer, Dervla Murphy, who passed away at the age of 90.

 

In her honour, in our July issue of The Travel Club - which is out today - we wanted to reshare the foreword she wrote in 2019 for our anthology, Kidding Around: Tales of Travel With Children - and also give away a free copy of the ebook to all Travel Club subscribers. 

 

Here's a snippet from her piece:

 

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In my family we did things differently – or tried to. In 2005, Rachel and I took her children to Cuba. We shared the blame for neglecting ten-year-old Rose, Clodagh (eight) and Zea (six). While foraging for ice cream not far from our lodgings, the Trio were allowed to find their adult-free ways around the streets of Havana, Santa Clara and Baracoa. We were reproached by a few twitchy gringos – but not by Cubans. Away from cities we were permitted in practice – though not in theory – to ‘camp wild’. We found what, in my view, was an ideal campsite at the foot of the Sierra Maestra’s highest ridge, five miles from the tiny village of Las Cuevas – a low headland overlooking a sandy cove.

 

Although this gratified the grown-ups, it transpired that the adaptability of modern children could fall short of that of their mother (and grandmother). Children of the noughties, it appeared, expected certain levels of comfort. ‘There are lumpy stones under the grass,’ Clodagh reported after an inspection. The Trio also demonstrated a lower risk threshold than their elders. ‘It’s not level,’ Rose objected. ‘We could roll over the edge while we’re asleep.’ Ignoring such concerns, the grown-ups unrolled five fleabags and announced that it was bedtime.

 

Come dawn, however, the others were no longer where their bags had been laid. Rachel had had a testing time overnight, coping with both paranoia about rolling off the cliff and absurd sensitivity to a few pebbles. And this was before the walk back. We followed an austerely beautiful corniche whose cliffs acted as storage heaters. Eight miles later, these threatened exhaustion as far as the Trio were concerned. ‘Let’s have a long rest,’ begged Clodagh. ‘Where?’ demanded Rose. ‘There’s no shade.’ ‘I’m hot enough to die!’ Zea announced. Children, it seems, are no longer built like they used to be.

 

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To read the full July issue of The Travel Club - including stories from Chianti, Patagonia and beyond - and to get your free copy of Kidding Around, click the link below.